Because We Aren’t 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. 

At ElevateNext, we don’t think we are special.*  That’s why we don’t want to do your “special” work: the bet-the-company litigation, that major deal, the headline grabber.  We live for the routine work. The portfolios of litigation,  the responses to law enforcement and subpoena requests, the contract advice and review, the routine compliance, the corporate formation and management, the due diligence and privacy work.  Some call it run-the-company matters while others refer to it as business as usual (BAU) work. Whatever you call it, it’s the stuff that is bogging down the law department.  We are experts in the matters that are taking up too much in-house time and too much budget.  The more routine and seemingly never-ending work, the more we want it.

It’s not just because we are good at BAU work (we are).  It’s because we built ElevateNext with these types of matters in mind.  We are, after all, affiliated with a global full-service law company. Our model is simple: we have a small, permanent team of 10-15 lawyers and paralegals. That way we don’t pass along needless overhead to our customers. When we need to expand, we look to the global bench of Elevate of lawyers, paralegals, project managers, data scientists and technology specialists. Together, we develop  processes that root out inefficiencies and assure consistent and lower-cost results for higher volume matters.  Our model includes using data and automation to improve  process and identify useful trends.  We also think it’s imperative to have the right people in the right geographic location using the right tools at the right time to reduce costs, bring down cycle time and delight our customers. We are experts at using AFAs for pricing, because there is nothing worse than a surprise in the form a of a legal invoice.

So please, don’t ask us to handle your Supreme Court argument. Though we know some of us could hit it out of the park,  we’d much rather delve into how to keep your company from drowning from the pre-litigation complaints that are deluging the law department.  Oh, don’t worry – we will happily refer you to other attorneys  — ones who are, 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.  

Business As Usual matters are the ones that most often fall through the cracks. That’s because individually, the dollar value at stake isn’t high (although, in the aggregate, it certainly can be), and if internal staff is handling them, the amount of time and effort they spend often gets overlooked (although that staff could be better utilized on higher value endeavors).

Today, law departments are facing substantially reduced budgets with the same or even more work, but often with reduced headcount.  Simply getting discounted hourly rates from outside counsel is not the answer. Handling BAU matters differently is.  

Enter ElevateNext + Elevate.  We seamlessly combine the legal practice 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. A one stop shop, for you.