Best Corporate Services - 2011

Best Corporate Services - 2011
LegalEase wins an award for the 4th year in a row

This is getting to be a habit - a good one. LegalEase has been recognized once again for providing best of class services to its clients. Its just an indication that our clients mean a lot to us. A huge thanks to the clients that made this happen and if you haven't so far, go ahead - get your piece of sweetness!

Tip #3:Spread risk (Don’t let outside counsel intimidate you)

A continuation of our Top 5 Tips, legal departments should (must) follow

Most general counsel of companies have one (fairly unnerving concern) – what if my existing outside counsel don’t pay me enough attention once I start using other law firms or a legal outsourcing firm. After all, most of the work the legal outsourcing firm will be doing is ‘gravy’ for the law firms. i.e. work they make the most profit out of. This concern needs to be effectively dealt with.

1. Don’t let outside counsel intimidate you. The more you think like this the more risky your legal department is going to get. As with any business function, the more you rely on one or a set of vendors, the less inclined you will be to think about… duh.. let me think…factors like efficiency and cost. Any business department (more so legal) will need to spread the risk with multiple vendors and explore new avenues for cost savings and efficiency improvements.
2. You don’t need them. They need you. Remember law firms are much like vendors (professional service vendors nonetheless). The important fact to remember is that you are paying their bills. This does not mean steamroll your way through but more importantly remember you have leverage.
3. Do the right thing. Efficiency and cost should always be the mantra for any legal department and this should never be forgotten. If this means you can’t really cozy up with your law firm buddies forever – sorry.
4. Lean and mean. We’ll end it here with just saying not too mean.

The surefire way to ensure your existing clients continue to use you

At least we now figured out how to get old clients to respond to us.

Steps to get past clients to hear you out:

1. The Invoice. Send old client random invoice (In this step, you should aim for a higher invoice amt - the higher amt, the quicker and stronger response you will elicit)
2. The response. Within 24-48 hours, Old client will respond something to the effect of “got the wrong guy”
3. Instill fear period. You should not reply to customer for at least a day or two. This builds worry and fear in customer, which will in turn increase the relief and happiness customer obtains when receiving next message from you. For those customers who are really tough to get or you just want maximum results because you are an overachiever, it is recommend to consider waiting a week and perhaps even resending the original invoice.
4. Give happiness & bring home business. After 1-2 days following initial customer response (max results – one week), you should respond with something to the effect, “you are right, we are so sorry”. But this is not all, this is the time to move in and go for the jugular. Tell client that it’s been a while they haven’t used you and they should consider taking advantage of your services lest they receive another invoice without having received any services.
5. Start backing up the truck… as soon you use these techniques, you will be sure to bring a whole lot more business through the door. See retirement yet?
6. Pat yourself on the back. Job well done.

Tip #2: Get Tactical (Sun Tzu style)

A continuation of our Top 5 Tips Small Legal Departments should (must) follow series.

Sun Tzu seems to be the perfect guide for small GCs trying to navigate through the growth/ challenge cycles within their companies. Some tips in laying strategums, we thought GCs would be interested in learning from;

• Laying plans/ The calculations: To calculate, even if it is a back of the napkin (maybe a little more than the back of a napkin) for 2 years out, is mandatory. It may be not be accurate but it is the starting point.  This will take into account the company's projections, any new areas of growth, existing liabilities and a risk assessment. Once this simple (yeah sure) exercise is done - put a number to it in terms of hours, outside counsel hours required and a blended rate for cost. You have semblence of control.
• The Challenge: Look at the challenges the company might face. Assess the risk and do the math
• Positioning: What is the cash position of the company to deal with the issues? GCs plan optimally with the cash on hand.
• Directing: Direct your team. Its a chess game. Position you pieces and move them into position as and when required.
• Maneuvering: Some situations will require tact or the lack of it. Do it. Dont hesitate.
• Variation of tactics: Make sure your arsenal is well equipped. Look at the market, educate yourself and know your options. When required you need to change tactics quickly in order to tackle a situation.
• Motivating: Be the cheerleader. Enough said.

The solution to falling billable rates

Well since the US unemployment rate is continuing to fall from the double digit nightmare of last year, we think that its time we all start getting really innovative with the way we conduct business. Law has continued to flag in terms of adding jobs and this can change.

Legal help should become ubiquitous like medical help. How law firms obtain clients, manage clients, find the right cost effective talent to handle their case load and effectively bill clients is going to be critical to increasing accessibility of quality legal advice to a larger consumer base.

This seemingly unrelated relation to law firm efficiency and the growth of the legal industry is an important fact that should not be overlooked.

• Technology tools and support services have led to law firms performing a variety of legal functions a lot more efficiently and cost effectively.
• Rates have been able to be driven down, because quite simply, a lawyer can do more with the tools at hand that he/she could ever have historically.
• This logically means that more consumers are less intimidated from seeking legal advice because of high cost of legal services.
• End consumers need legal advice to run their daily lives. Wills, contracts, estate planning, child support are just some of the instances where end consumers skip on hiring attorneys because they are intimidated by cost.

The business of practicing law is on the precipice of tremendous change. One company we would recommend attorneys look at to make their practices profitable, efficient, and cost effective is Total Attorneys.

Who should be hiring 1st/ 2nd year associates?

GCs are institutionalizing policies that do not pay for work done by 1st and 2d year associates according to an article in the Inside Counsel. So should law firms then stop hiring them? How do young associates gain well rounded experience? Through legal support service providers maybe? We took this question to an associate at LegalEase Solutions and asked him what he thought. Below is a transcript;

Q: So what are you doing at LegalEase? Should you not be trying to get into a law firm to gain 'real' experience?

AA: Well, its been 2 years since I have worked with LegalEase and I have to say the kind of work I have been literally forced to do has varied from document review to complex research, across a variety of practice areas. It has been brutal, but brilliant in terms of experience

Q: So you feel you are better prepped AFTER working at a legal outsourcing firm as opposed to a traditional law firm?

AA: Yup (and the guys I work for are the best thing since sliced bread)

Q: How would this be different if you had worked at a law firm?

AA: Well I have worked with a law firm for a couple of years before my stint at LegalEase. I was doing a lot of low level corporate work (and kept looking outside my window gathering courage to jump). There was limited freedom given for me to exercise my judgement and creativity.

Q: This interview seems rigged.

AA: Possibly, considering LegalEase hired you to write this post.

Q: Moving on, so your final say on the topic is.....?

AA: Legal outsourcing can be a tremendous benefit to small law firms, small GC's and large law departments. I like the work life balance it affords me and I get to do a wide variety of work. I think it can only be good. (manically grinning)

Top 5 Tips Small Legal Departments should (must) follow

Tip # 1: Delegate

Small legal departments need to delegate responsibilities to local counsel or even non legal staff to ensure that valuable time and management is not spent on tasks that dont require corporate counsel's micromanagement. Given the numerous pressures corporate counsel have to deal with - non critical tasks should be identified and delegated. You'll be surprised with how well delegation can work! (not to mention how cost effective it can be).

When delegating responsibility there are 3 things you want to keep in mind;

- Do I have a complete understanding of the process involved?

- Do I have transparency to how the process is completed?

- Do I have a monitoring/ reporting system in place?

Understanding the process: This is critical. When you have no ambiguity over what needs to be done, the process is laid out and just needs adherence.

Transparency: You should be able to step into any part of the process when you think something is amiss, needs correction or calibration.

Monitoring/ Reporting: Before a reporting process is put in place, you need to understand what are the critical data points you need in order to draw patterns and conclusions over time. Is it time spent, tasks completed, type of personnel deployed, etc which can be looked at every quarter and the process tweaked.

Everything in life needs tweaking periodically and so does the process of delegation. Delegation is not to be misunderstood with permanently moving things off your plate but is to enable you to do more without losing your sanity!