James Donovan: Client Relationships

James Donovan, professor and Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, has often emphasized the importance of building strong relationships with clients. He says the skills needed to build such relationships are “critical,” but are “not an innate skill.” He explains that it is a talent that businessmen must work to develop, and that this can be done by avoiding the two issues clients generally have with practitioners.
The first is the inability to think strategically. Donovan advises not to “confine analysis to the four corners of the legal problem,” and to be sure to open real dialogue with the client that reveals intelligence, interest and genuine understanding. A businessman must be aware of the client’s ultimate objectives, competition, and the market, as well as take these issues seriously.