Law firms are failing to understand their clients’ needs, creating a significant expectations gap, a study has found.

DLA Piper joint chief executive Sir Nigel Knowles said the findings should serve as a ‘call to arms’ to practices to improve in this regard.

The report, from the Financial Times and Managing Partners Forum, was based on a survey of partners from 100 firms and senior executives at 333 of their clients.

The results showed that chief executives and chairs are far more influential in selecting legal advisers than most firms appreciate.

Indeed, just five per cent of law firm managing partners saw building personal links with top-level executives at their key clients as important, despite their key role in picking a legal team to work with.

Sir Nigel Knowles, MPF chair and joint CEO of law firm DLA Piper, said the survey was a ‘clear call to arms’ to management across all firms to get to know the leaders of clients.

The report, Lessons for Law Firm Management, found clients were looking for an understanding of the industry, transparency in pricing and international expertise when picking a law firm.

By contrast, most law firms believed clients were more interested in narrower terms, focusing too much on legal expertise.

Clients also place a much greater emphasis than law firms on the ability to solve problems quickly.

Law firms are yet to fully embrace a digital world, with half of the clients surveyed considering them to be ineffective in their use of social media.

Many were unimpressed with firms’ use of intranets, extranets and digital media, with a third of clients rating law firms as ineffective in this category.