Serving Clients: Seeing around corners: Anticipating client needs before they ask

By Brenda Plowman

Responsiveness is a hallmark of most lawyers. Emails are answered quickly with high accuracy, advice is on point, and deadlines are met. Responsiveness is important in client relationships. However, it is rarely what clients remember most.

Lawyers who build strong long-term relationships with clients behave differently. Much of the value they provide comes from anticipating issues before they arise, raising considerations the client may not have identified, and sharing insights that help clients prepare for what comes next.

The ability to anticipate client needs is one of the most powerful ways to differentiate in a crowded legal landscape.

Why anticipation matters

Today’s business environment is more complex than ever. Geopolitical shifts, tariffs, supply chain challenges, regulatory changes, technological disruption, and labor issues all contribute to the uncertainty businesses face.

Business priorities shift quickly, and clients must constantly adapt.

Lawyers add value by using their legal insight and understanding of industry issues to help clients see potential risks and opportunities earlier. This forward-looking guidance helps clients take their next steps with clarity and confidence.

By spending time with clients and developing a deeper understanding of their business, lawyers can help clients anticipate risks and opportunities, reduce surprises, and avoid unnecessary pain points. Anticipation signals that the lawyer is thinking beyond the immediate matter and considering the client’s broader objectives.

Where anticipation comes from

Proactive advice rarely stems from legal analysis alone. It arises from combining legal expertise with a deeper understanding of the client’s world. Understanding industry trends, together with meaningful client insight, often differentiates lawyers in competitive spaces.

Understand the client’s business

Lawyers who understand a client’s industry, strategy, and operational pressures are better positioned to identify emerging risks. This requires ongoing effort. Lawyers must follow industry developments, monitor regulatory trends, and stay aware of broader market forces affecting the client’s sector.

Bringing clients together through specialized conferences, events, and industry gatherings can also deepen understanding of the challenges and opportunities within that sector. These interactions help lawyers better understand the client’s world and strengthen relationships.

When lawyers view the legal landscape through a commercial lens, they are more likely to identify issues before they escalate.

Connect the dots across matters

Lawyers often work on discrete issues, but clients experience those issues as part of a broader business reality. Patterns across matters often reveal emerging risks.

Recurring regulatory concerns, contract structures that repeatedly create disputes, or governance practices that attract scrutiny can signal where proactive guidance would help.

Recognizing these patterns allows lawyers to recommend improvements and preventative strategies rather than waiting for the next problem to arise. This positions the lawyer as a strategic partner rather than simply a service provider.

Share insights early

One of the simplest and most effective ways to anticipate client needs is to share relevant insights before the client asks.

Alerting a client to a regulatory development affecting their sector, highlighting a recent case with potential implications, or flagging an operational issue observed in similar organizations can provide meaningful value.

These insights do not need to be lengthy. A short note saying, “This may be relevant for your team,” can demonstrate attentiveness and strengthen the relationship. Ideally, the lawyer also explains why the information is relevant to the client and their organization.

Small actions that build long-term trust

Anticipation is rarely about dramatic predictions. More often, it appears through small, consistent actions, such as:

• Asking about upcoming strategic initiatives
• Suggesting preventative measures during routine discussions
• Sharing how other organizations are approaching similar issues
• Identifying future implications when delivering current advice

Over time, these moments reinforce a powerful message. The lawyer is invested not only in solving today’s problem, but also in helping the client succeed tomorrow.

Anticipation as a client service mindset

Ultimately, anticipating client needs is less about predicting specific events and more about adopting a particular mindset. Lawyers who regularly ask themselves questions such as:

• What might this mean for the client six months from now?
• How does this matter or deal affect the client decision maker? What is most important to them?
• What related risks could emerge from this issue?
• Is there information the client would benefit from knowing now?

By asking these questions, lawyers begin to shift from legal problem solver to strategic advisor by applying cognitive empathy and putting themselves in the client’s position.

Conclusion

Clients value lawyers who respond quickly and deliver accurate legal advice. Those qualities remain essential.

But the lawyers who become indispensable to their clients go one step further. They help clients see what may be coming next.

By understanding the client’s business, connecting insights across matters, and sharing observations early, lawyers can anticipate needs, reduce risk, build confidence, and deepen trust.

In a profession where technical expertise is assumed, the ability to anticipate can be the difference between being a service provider and becoming a trusted business partner that clients rely on.

 

 

Brenda Plowman spent nearly 20 years at one of Canada’s largest law firms, nine as chief marketing and business development officer, where she built its first-ever client service excellent program. She was president of the International Legal Marketing Association in 2022 and is now a consultant to professional services firms specifically around service excellence and client listening, business development and growth strategies, and brand development and repositioning. She can be reached at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendaplowman/.