by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - March 18, 2009 - Uncategorized
My older son Echo's friend Cole was asked this question the
other day: "Which of your friends has the coolest house?"
The answer surprised some in the room.
Cole and Echo have some friends with some pretty big houses with some pretty
impressive toys. Cole actually identified Jack's house as his
favorite. Jack lives in a late 1800's style downtown home which is
probably 1600 sq. ft. When Cole was challenged on his answer,
"Jack's house is small!" Cole responded this way……..
“Jack’s mom lets us do whatever we
want. His house is the most fun.”
Cole understood the concept of “value.”
Value does not mean size of the house or
the price of the toys. The value was the
house where the most fun could be had.
Law firms are starting to
understand value better than they ever have before. It used to be that they focused on the superficial
metric, such as hourly rate and whether or not law firms passed on phone
charges. Increasingly, the sheer size of
a law firm and opulence of its lobby are losing their places on the value
chain. In some instances, the spoils of
excess are working against firms as clients begin to discuss concepts they used
to only think about, such as whether or not they want to help fund fancy
offices. Lean and mean boutique firms
are sprouting up across the land where investment in technology and training designed
to provide better customer service are garnering attention of growing and large
companies. The discourse between lawyers
and clients continues to be more value-centric.
Return on investment for each legal dollar spent is taking its place as
a top priority.
Lawyers have a tremendous capacity
to provide solutions for clients. Many
aspects of the law firm business model these past two decades have focused on
incentives which have pushed lawyers to cause more problems than they solve. Hourly billing certainly hasn’t helped.
We are entering a new age of
law. The internet and blogosphere have
not only created long overdue discussions concerning individual legal models
but allowed law firms such as ours to find their way onto the computer screens
of clients located around the world. Law
firms which report to the “full service” are giving way to niche practitioners
who can offer true expertise concerning the single, narrow legal problem faced
by a client. The greatest young lawyers
are no longer left with a single choice of big law in order to make the money
they are worth. (Just ask my partner, Brian, who is in his
second year of practice and making more than most of the partners at other law
firms in our medium sized town.)
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
