We Are Not Special. 

Most lawyers like to think they are special, snowflakes of sorts. Their work, they feel, is so incredibly unique, nobody else can do it. Nobody.

At ElevateNext, we don’t think we are special.*  As a result, we don’t seek to do your “special” work: the bet-the-company litigation, that major deal, the headline grabbers or the need-to-brief-the-Board-every-week issue. We don’t use the words “bespoke” or “customized” on our website.  That’s because the true measure of whether our work is going well is that you and your staff no longer have to devote time or attention to it. Out of sight, out of mind. With us, your two most valuable assets, your time and attention, can be focused on the special matters and the places where you make a difference.

We live for the routine work. Some call it run the company matters, while others refer to it business as usual (or BAU) work. Whatever you call it, we add the most value to the volume of stuff that is bogging down the law department.  We handle the matters that are taking up way too much in-house time, and that eats up way too much of your budget because your traditional outside firms simply aren’t handling it well.  The more routine, the more mundane and seemingly never-ending work, the more we love it.

It’s not just because we are good at BAU work.  It’s because we built ElevateNext to handle these types of matters by developing processes that root out inefficiency and assure consistent, predictable results. Processes for matters that benefit from being handled the right way, every time, over and over again. Our partnership with Elevate allows us to use data and automation and the right people in the right geographic location to radically reduce costs, bring down cycle time and delight our customers. Every. Single. Time.

So please, don’t ask us to handle your Supreme Court argument. We know we could hit it out of the park, but we’d much rather delve into how to handle responding to all of the third-party subpoenas or government inquiries the company is getting.  Oh, don’t worry – we will happily refer you to another attorney – one who is, well, very, very special.

(*don’t tell our mothers, please.)

Industry Rebels

ElevateNext was founded by Patrick Lamb and Nicole Auerbach two legal industry rebels with a track record of seeing around corners and identifying where the legal industry is (or will be) going. They founded Valorem Law Group in 2008 to bring alternative fee arrangements to the mainstream. By 2016, they were one of the 22 firms named “best at AFAs” in the country. Described as “punching above their weight,” Pat and Nicole decided to throw another right hook at the legal industry by joining forces with Elevate Services, a globally acclaimed, full-service law company, to form a new model for the delivery of legal services. Pow. A knockout!

One Stop Solution

Once upon a time, in a galaxy close, close at hand, law departments sent the vast majority of their work to outside counsel. Then things changed and the trend was to bring more work (and staff) in-house. But when the Great Recession hit, companies began unbundling legal services and using outside service providers for things like document review, technology, staffing, operations, consulting and more. But that diffused outsourcing model required the law departments to play the role of cruise directors who had to manage multiple outside law firms (none of whom were aligned with one another) with multiple outside providers, which led to inefficiency and not always the greatest results.  

The Business As Usual matters are the ones that most often fall through the cracks. Individually, they are not the highest dollar value, but in the aggregate, they certainly can be. And if internal staff is handling them, the amount of time and effort being devoted gets overlooked, even if that staff could be better utilized on higher value endeavors.

The COVID-19 crisis that has now beset us has resulted in substantially  reduced legal budgets, with the same or even more work, but with reduced headcount.  Simply getting discounted hourly rates from outside counsel will not be the answer. Handling your BAU matters differently makes sense.  

Enter ElevateNext + Elevate Services.  We seamlessly combine the practice of law with technology, process and lower cost alternatives across the globe so we can achieve substantial cost savings, efficiencies and better outcomes, faster, with no “cruise directing” needed. One stop.