Poor communication is the single biggest driver of complaints against solicitors. The Legal Ombudsman’s annual data year after year shows the same pattern: clients are not upset because their solicitor gave them bad legal advice. They are upset because they could not get their solicitor on the phone, because weeks passed without an update, or because they did not understand what was happening with their case.

The good news is that communication is entirely within a firm’s control. Unlike managing difficult counterparties or navigating complex legal issues, communication systems can be designed, implemented, and improved systematically. This guide sets out practical steps to genuinely improve how your firm communicates with clients — not cosmetic changes, but structural improvements that reduce complaints and build long-term loyalty.

Understanding Why Communication Fails

Before redesigning your communication approach, it helps to understand why solicitors communicate poorly. The answer is almost never indifference or laziness. Fee earners at busy law firms are under significant pressure: billing targets, complex matters, court deadlines. Communication with clients who are asking “how is my case going?” gets deprioritised when a more urgent task sits on the same desk.

The other factor is uncertainty. Fee earners often delay communicating because they have nothing new to report. They think clients only want to hear about progress, so when nothing has happened, they say nothing. Clients interpret silence as neglect.

Research published by the Law Society in its client service reports consistently finds that clients rate responsiveness and proactivity as the most important service attributes — above technical quality, which they often cannot assess. A client who hears from their solicitor regularly feels their matter is being handled well. A client who does not hear for three weeks assumes the worst.

Setting Communication Standards Across the Firm

The most effective communication improvements come from standardisation. Individual fee earners should not be making their own decisions about how often to contact clients. The firm should set clear standards and then measure compliance with them.

Define Response Time Standards

Set explicit maximum response times for different communication channels:

Phone calls: returned within four working hours (or two, if you want to differentiate on service)
Emails: acknowledged within one working day; substantive response within two working days
Client portal messages: responded to within one working day

These standards need to be specific and measurable. “We aim to respond promptly” is not a standard. “All client emails are acknowledged within one working day” is a standard that can be monitored.

Post these commitments publicly — in your client care letters and on your website. Clients who know what to expect are more forgiving of the occasional delay, and the public commitment creates healthy internal accountability.

Implement Proactive Update Schedules

For every active matter, establish a minimum contact frequency — even when there is nothing new to report. Monthly updates are the minimum for most matters; fortnightly for matters that are moving quickly or where the client is particularly anxious.

An update that says “I wanted to let you know that your case is progressing and we are currently waiting for the results of the local authority search, which typically takes around three weeks. I will update you again in a fortnight” costs two minutes to write and prevents three phone calls asking for the same information.

Some firms use a simple traffic light system: each active matter is assigned a colour based on when it last received a client update. A matter that has gone three weeks without a client communication turns red and triggers a prompt to the fee earner.

Agree Communication Preferences at Outset

Different clients have different preferences. Some want detailed written updates; others want a quick call. Some are comfortable receiving bad news by email; others need to discuss it. Some clients are available during the day; others prefer early morning or evening communication.

Ask at the outset — and record the preferences on the file. A simple question in the onboarding process: “How would you prefer us to keep you updated — primarily by email, or do you prefer a call? And are there any times of day that are better for you?” This takes 60 seconds and prevents miscommunication for the entire matter.

Improving Written Communication

Email is the dominant communication channel for most law firms, and most solicitors write their emails in the same register as their court documents — formal, dense, and laden with qualifications. This is a mistake.

Write for Your Audience

Clients are not lawyers. An email explaining that “we have received the vendor’s solicitors’ replies to the enquiries raised, and these are largely satisfactory, though we note that the responses in relation to the boundaries and the right of way will require further consideration” will confuse most clients.

Rewrite for clarity: “Good news — we’ve received the other side’s responses to our questions. Most things look fine. There are two points I want to look into more carefully — one about the garden boundary and one about a right of way that appears to cross the property. I’ll come back to you once I’ve reviewed these in detail, probably within the next two to three days.”

This is not dumbing down. It is respecting your client’s time and intelligence. The second version is clearer, more specific, and more useful.

The Three-Part Update Email

Train fee earners to structure routine updates with three components:

What has happened since the last update (even if nothing has changed, say so)
What happens next, and by when
What, if anything, the client needs to do

This structure is quick to write, covers what clients actually want to know, and prevents the vague “just checking in on progress” calls that consume significant fee earner time.

Avoid Jargon Systematically

Create a firm-wide glossary of plain English replacements for common legal terms used in client communications:

“Completion” → “the day you officially own the property”
“Disbursements” → “third-party costs such as Land Registry fees and search fees”
“Without prejudice” → explain when and why you are using it
“In default of payment” → “if the invoice is not paid”

One large conveyancing firm reported that implementing a plain-English email policy — and training fee earners on it — reduced client telephone enquiries by around 20% within six months.

Managing Difficult Conversations

Good communication includes delivering bad news promptly and clearly. Many solicitors put off difficult conversations — a delay in the case, an unexpected cost increase, a problem with the property or the transaction. The instinct is understandable but counterproductive.

Deliver Bad News Early

Clients who receive bad news early have time to react, adjust their plans, and make informed decisions. Clients who receive bad news late feel ambushed and manipulated. They are also significantly more likely to complain.

If costs are going to exceed your estimate, tell the client before the work is done, not after the invoice is issued. If there is a delay, contact the client before they contact you. The call that feels uncomfortable to make is far better than the complaint that follows if you delay it.

Frame Problems With Solutions

When communicating bad news, always pair it with the available options. “The vendor is threatening to pull out of the sale — here are the three options as I see them” is far more useful than “I regret to inform you that the vendor has indicated they may withdraw from the transaction.” Give clients a clear picture of the situation and a set of options they can engage with.

Confirm Advice in Writing

A cardinal rule: important advice — especially advice the client has chosen not to follow — must be confirmed in writing. If you have advised a client that a particular course of action is inadvisable and they have instructed you to proceed anyway, send an email summarising your advice, their decision, and the implications. This protects you and ensures the client cannot later claim they were not warned.

Phone Communication

For all the emphasis on email, telephone remains the preferred channel for many clients, particularly those dealing with emotionally charged matters such as family law, personal injury, or residential conveyancing.

Personal Answer Where Possible

Clients who call and reach voicemail repeatedly become frustrated clients. Where possible, fee earners should aim to answer calls from active clients personally. For firms where this is not practical, consider a team-based model where a colleague can pick up and provide a brief update or at least take a message and commit to a specific callback time.

“She’s in court this morning but will call you back before 3pm” is a specific commitment. “She’ll call you back” is not.

Call Scheduling

For longer or more complex update calls, consider scheduling them in advance. A 30-minute quarterly update call, calendared in advance, gives the fee earner time to prepare and gives the client a clear touchpoint. Many clients appreciate the structure — it tells them they will definitely hear from their solicitor on a specific date, which eliminates the anxious waiting that drives unnecessary calls in between.

Using Technology to Support Communication

Technology cannot replace good human communication, but it can support and systematise it.

Practice management systems should flag matters that have not had a client communication recorded within the firm’s standard timeframe. This is a basic but powerful prompt that ensures no client falls through the cracks.

Client portals — where clients can see the status of their matter, access documents, and send messages — can reduce inbound phone volume significantly if clients actually use them. The challenge is adoption; see our guide on client portal adoption for practical tips on getting clients to engage.

Automated email updates triggered by case milestones — “your matter has reached exchange of contracts, here is what happens next” — save fee earner time while keeping clients informed. These should be personalised and warm, not mechanical.

Obiter is built around the same principle: it reads incoming client emails, drafts contextually appropriate responses, and flags them for fee earner approval — so every client email gets a fast, accurate reply without the fee earner having to draft from scratch. For firms where communication delays are the biggest source of client friction, this kind of AI-assisted workflow can be transformative.

Improving Client Communication at Your Law Firm