Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices

As Nicole Nehama Auerbach joins Valorem, she says:

“I saw Valorem as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really make a difference in the way litigation is handled... I was captivated by the firm’s commitment to provide real value to business clients, and, in particular, its emphasis on alternative fees. Alternative fees are more important than ever to clients as the economy fluctuates and rates continue their upward march. Traditional law firms have been slow to recognize the need to satisfy their clients’ economic concerns."

Valorem Law Group represents a head on assault on the billable hour.  Here's an excerpt from thier new web site:

The top ten list…

1. We are all refugees of elite BigLaw firms;
2. We are skilled courtroom lawyers, in practice and at heart;
3. We are revolutionaries and risk-takers, entrepreneurs at heart;
4. We bring a single-mindedness to the notion of client service;
5. We believe you are entitled to budget certainty, to a real and realized commitment to help you deal with the cost pressures you face;
6. We believe that the practice of law is an art, not a science;
7. We believe in collaboration and hold the team rather than the individual sacrosanct;
8. We love technology and efficiency -- the more red tape we hack through, the better;
9. We take our work very seriously -- ourselves, not so much;
10. We are real people, with supportive spouses and wonderful kids (who, at least today, appear to really like us).

We provide value or you adjust the bill.

I recommend a thorough tour of their web site.

At Edge International we are often asked about how lawyers and their firms might be different from place to place around the world.    One of my stock answers is that many people misinterpret the propensity of the Brits to avoid hyperbole to mean that they are not aggressive.  There is a reason why they once ruled the world and their legal profession seems to be bent on repeating the feat.

According to a post today at LAWFUEL, "Lovells, the law firm, is to launch an alliance with nine Chinese counterparts, in the latest sign of the English legal profession’s aggressive efforts to export its services to big economies where foreign lawyers are restricted."  (Note, not one or two or three, but NINE!

As well, "China is one of a number of leading emerging economies being lobbied by the British government and legal industry representatives to scrap restrictions on foreign lawyers."

PUNCHLINE:  The Brits have never stopped thinking globally - many Americans have not started.  (There are notable exceptions of course but if I were placing a bet on world domination, my gold coin goes on the British square.)  Your thoughts?

       Mike Dillon

Would you listen to the General Counsel of Sun Microsystems, if he said:

“I do believe that there may be times when a $1,000/hour fee is warranted”

“…just yesterday, I read of another example of how law firms continue to be primarily focused on maintaining profits through consolidation and growth of headcount. As a GC, what I'd rather see is an article about how law firms are creating new business models that reflect the reality of my organization - providing consistently high quality of service with a constant focus on efficiency.”

“As recently as four years ago, we had several hundred (that's always embarrassing for me to say) law firms that we used for general purpose legal work in the United States. Since then, we have been aggressively reducing this number to the point that this year we announced that we are moving to nine "Preferred Partner" firms.”

“…we are already seeing examples where … firms are proposing creative pricing models and investing in better understanding our business.”

“…we needed to have about 10,000 agreements reviewed and summarized for an on-line database. We send out an RFP to a large number of firms and through this process filtered the number of candidates down to a handful. These were then invited to participate in an on-line competition for the work. During the course of the event, it was fascinating to see firms from around the world compete to win the business. (If you've ever sold anything on eBay, you know the feeling.)”

“…we quietly started a small team several years ago called "GLN" (Global Legal Services). They are focused on efficiently handling the less complex, but higher volume agreements and services we provide.”

The above quotes are from a single blog post called: Context is everything by Mike Dillon
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Sun Legal Department of
Sun Microsystems, Inc.: .

PUNCHLINE:  Managing Partners – do you dare not read his future blog posts?

The despised business of videoconferencing is about to get a new lease on life.

This weeks Economist has an article on Telepresence.  The full title is “Behold, telepresence - Far away yet strangely personal”.  (Requires subscription).  Image above is from the article.

Here are a few excerpts to whet your appetite for the story – the headings are mine:

The Problem:

Videoconferencing was supposed to put an end to corporate travel. But positioning people in front of a camera, fiddling endlessly with controls and then either giving up or proceeding to stare at a tiny picture of a blurry face often seems less satisfactory than the humble telephone.

The Solution:

Designers want people in telepresence meetings to appear life-sized, and the tables and rooms at the two ends to blend together seamlessly. (Rooms, furniture and even wallpaper are often identical, to aid the illusion.) People must also feel that they are making eye contact, which involves multiple cameras and enormous computing power. The delays in sight and sound must be negligible (ie, below 250 milliseconds, the threshold at which the human brain starts to notice), so that people can interrupt each other naturally. Sound must be perceived to come from the direction of the person speaking. And getting things started must be simple—ideally involving a single button or none at all.

Saving Money and Time (law firm example driven by client):

In addition to saving money, Cisco argues that telepresence saves time. The firm recently completed a takeover in eight days (as opposed to the usual weeks or months) by putting the lawyers in telepresence rooms instead of on aeroplanes.

More examples:

Lee Scott, the boss of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, is said to see great scope for improving his supply chain. DreamWorks, a Hollywood studio that helped HP develop its telepresence system, says the technology will help it make movies cheaper and faster, by allowing creative types to collaborate without travelling.

My Punchline:

Managing Partners – don’t think about this opportunity from the law firm’s perspective but rather your client’s.  You may have some clients who will acquire this technology and will want you to participate – I welcome this as I believe that most law firm technology comes because the clients want us to have it (sometimes, “insist”).   If top corporations in your markets populate your client list, perhaps you should become familiar enough with this technology to initiate the discussion with your major clients.  After all, wouldn’t it be refreshing for your client to believe of you that your firm is progressive enough to be at the forefront?

Footnote (Greetings from Uruguay):  Speaking of technology and the world becoming more virtual, I posted this blog entry from my hotel room in Montevideo, Uruguay following an assignment with an MDP (accounting and law) firm here.  The Economist arrived promptly on my desk top this morning and I was able to effortlessly post this story.  Perhaps before too long I will be able to conduct the kind of assignment I traveled here for by video conference.

About The Economist: You can of course buy the hard copy or subscribe on line. This story is marked: Aug 23rd 2007 | SAN FRANCISCO? From The Economist print edition

Greenfield/Belser nails law firm advertising.

Read Larry Bodine's post to see why he liked it so much: A Law Firm Announcement that Clients Will Actually Read

My Opinion:  Refreshing!

(Click on image to see original enlarged version)

I was fascinated by this piece at the Consumerist:   How To Beat The Stock Market: Buy Companies With High Customer Satisfaction Scores

If the same phenomenon occurs in the legal profession, there would be a tremendous return on investment from enhancing client satisfaction.

The story is that a portfolio comprised of “companies at the top 20% of the the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)... greatly outperformed the stock market, generating a 40% return.

“From 1996-2003, the portfolio outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 93%, the S&P 500 by 201%, and NASDAQ by 335%.”

How would you like to out perform the average law firm by somewhere between 93% and 335%?  More importantly, how much should you invest in order to reap a return of that nature?

Don’t bother disseminating this information to your people in order to encourage them to focus on enhancing client satisfaction.  Their consequential improved knowledge on the subject will do little.  It takes results (client satisfaction) to get results (improved profitability).  SKILLS rather than knowledge with be essential to achieve the desired outcome.

PUNCHLINE:  In my opinion, there is an overabundance of information in law firms and a dearth of client-relations training.  If you are a Managing Partner, you may want to balance this disparity.

Note:  I admit that this post is an act of unbridled extrapolation.  I cannot prove that the empirical research referenced would apply to the legal profession per se but my view is that it probably would.

(Thank you to my son, Daniel, for bringing this to my attention.  Daniel (Riskin) is a PhD and a renowned expert on bats - he discovered Vampire bats run - check out his site.)