What’s Next in Law?

For law departments – all law departments have problems (small p).  Litigation, employment, M&A, etc. But addressing them using the same old methods doesn’t tackle 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 to traditional law firms.  After all, creating new tools to do the wrong things better solves nothing.  The Solution (big S) is a combination of  new model 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 by the business folk.  That’s what we call a moonshot.  

For law firms – competition is getting fierce, and clients are turning to law companies or to their own in-house staff to do much of the work you used to do.  The reality is, you have to adapt to this new paradigm (or merge your way into a few more years), but most firms don’t know where to begin. Working with a law company and “elevated” law firm is the answer.

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. Then, when the recession hit, companies began unbundling legal services and using different service providers for things like document review, technology, staffing, operations, consulting and more. But that model made law departments cruise directors having to manage multiple outside law firms (none of whom are aligned with one another) with multiple outside providers just to get the needed cost savings. Enter the law firm + law company solution.  ElevateNext handles any work the law department needs that requires the practice of law. Elevate Services provides all the related non-practice-of-law services. ElevateNext  and Elevate 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.”