What’s Next in Law?

For law departments :  Law departments have issues — litigation, employment, M&A. Some big and some small, but addressing them using the same old methods doesn’t tackle the bigger issue  — the growing demand for legal services without the commensurate legal budget. Hiring additional in-house staff is not the solution, nor is farming out more to traditional (ahem, more expensive) law firms. Reducing the legal work, and handling it more efficiently is the only way to get ahead of the curve.  The solution is a combination of  enlightened law firm + law company + law department.  The result is substantially reduced legal spend, increased department efficiency, better outcomes, but most importantly – a reduction in the demand for law department services by the business folk.  That’s what we call doing more with less or #dolesslaw. (Not to be mistaken for Doles Slaw).  

For law firms: Competition is getting fierce(r), and clients are turning to law companies or to their own in-house staff to do much of the work you used to do.  (By the way, did your rates increase this year? Thought so.) The reality is, you have to adapt to this new paradigm but most firms don’t know where to begin. Working with a law company and an “elevated” law firm is the answer. From small solutions to enterprise ones, we can help.

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 COVID-19 crisis will also result in hugely reduced legal budgets, with the same or more volume of work, but with reduced staff. Simply discounting your way out of this “next normal” will not be the answer.

Enter the ElevateNext + Elevate Services solution.  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.