What’s Next in Law?

All law departments have problems (small p).  Litigation, employment, M&A, etc. But addressing them using the same old methods doesn’t address the big Problem (large P) — the growing demand for legal services. Hiring additional in-house staff is not the solution, nor is farming out more things to traditional outside law firms.  Creating new tools to do the wrong things better is also not the answer. The Solution (big S) is a combination of law firm + law company + law department.  The result – substantially reduced legal spend, increased department efficiency, better outcomes, but most importantly – a reduction in the demand for law department services.  That’s what we call a moonshot.  Learn about Univar, Inc.’s Moonshot Project.

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, law departments sent the vast majority of their work to outside counsel. Then the trend was to bring more work (and staff) in-house. When the recession hit, companies began unbundling legal services by using different outside service providers (law companies) for things like document review, technology, staffing, operations and more. But that model requires law departments to play cruise director to manage multiple outside law firms (none of whom are aligned) with multiple outside providers just to get the needed cost savings. Enter the law firm + law company solution.  ElevateNext handles the work that requires the practice of law. Elevate Services provides all the related non-practice-of-law services. Both companies are entirely aligned — for the benefit of the customer. The result is a one-stop solution that achieves cost savings, efficiencies and better outcomes, with no “cruise directing.”