In past years, the legal community has seen a steady trend of law firms forwarding certain cases to more capable colleagues, making an essentially symbiotic relationship among legal practitioners. Indeed, there is an established customary benefit for everyone involved in referring work to colleagues: Lawyers ensure their client’s case is in good hands, and they prevent overloading themselves with cases that are out of their comfort zones.
However, these referrals could bear potential negative consequences for the referring law firms, as potential lucrative legal work might be diverted elsewhere. A case in point from my career serves to illustrate this. A certain client with diverse legal needs was usually handled by our firm, but a specific case that was a bit outside our speciality led us to refer the matter to another lawyer.
The decision, seemingly rational at the time, ended up proving detrimental. Eventually, we discovered that the client kept in touch with the lawyer to whom we had forwarded the case, eventually giving them other projects that our firm might have handled had we not referred the initial case.
This scenario was an eye-opener, making me more cautious about referring work, and raises the question as to whether the attorney who receives the referral has any responsibility towards the referring attorney. Should they ensure that the referring attorney still gets other matters involving the client? Guidance from colleagues on this matter would indeed be invaluable.
However, one approach that has worked for me is ensuring that respect and gratitude for referrals are shown. For instance, during the early days of my career, I made sure that a certain client who was referred to me kept sending work back to my referrer.
That said, it becomes vital to think about the negative consequences before referring work to different counsel. Certainly, conflicts must be avoided and cases that a lawyer is completely incapable of handling should be referred. But if a lawyer can handle a matter, considering whether or not to refer is essential to the long-term benefit of the firm.
In conclusion, the referral system needs to be navigated with meticulous care to avoid undesired implications for law firms. Indeed, it can be perplexing to decide when to refer and when not to, but strategic thinking and collegial generosity could potentially form a guideline to ease these decisions.
Further insights can be gleaned from the full article by Jordan Rothman, a partner at The Rothman Law Firm, posted on Above the Law.