Better, Faster, Cheaper. The Recipe for Law Firm Success!
Law.com’s legal blog watch references a recent article featured in the Canadian Bar Association publication, National.
The article’s author Mitch Kowalski, envisages a hypothetical acceptance speech in 2020, by Canada’s Legal CEO of the year, the fictional Nancy Kwan. Ms. Kwan is CEO of BFC Law Corporation, formerly the law firm of Bowen, Fong & Chandri. She jokes that, “some of our lawyers and staff playfully yet proudly suggest that BFC actually stands for better, faster, cheaper.”
She sums up her company's success as being due to four factors. These include the elimination of the partnership structure, outsourcing, the promotion of knowledge management and fixed fee billing. I want to avoid doing the article any disservice by simply regurgitating what Mitch has so expertly penned, however I will sum up a couple of the main points. I do however highly recommend that you read the entire piece as it is both well written and in my opinion, remarkably on point. To access the full article click here.
Elimination of the partnership structure
BFC eliminated individual ownership rights and created a separate corporate legal entity, with the decision making process in the hands of a board of directors comprised of independent company GCs. These GCs were paid a directors’ fee as well as owning shares in the company itself. Senior lawyers, formerly would be partners, were now Senior Vice Presidents recompensed by an annual salary, bonus, and of course shares in the company.
Outsourcing
BFC identified HR as their biggest expense, and set about minimizing these costs. They unbundled their legal services into separate constituent tasks. Anything routine was outsourced to low-cost legal services providers. Nancy reveals that BFC outsource to India legal research, document preparation and due diligence work. Furthermore, the tasks previously undertaken by the law firm’s night staff, were now outsourced by the company to support staff in the Philippines. In addition to utilizing offshore resources the company also contracts with a pool of “work from home lawyers” domestically.
The article’s author Mitch Kowalski, envisages a hypothetical acceptance speech in 2020, by Canada’s Legal CEO of the year, the fictional Nancy Kwan. Ms. Kwan is CEO of BFC Law Corporation, formerly the law firm of Bowen, Fong & Chandri. She jokes that, “some of our lawyers and staff playfully yet proudly suggest that BFC actually stands for better, faster, cheaper.”
She sums up her company's success as being due to four factors. These include the elimination of the partnership structure, outsourcing, the promotion of knowledge management and fixed fee billing. I want to avoid doing the article any disservice by simply regurgitating what Mitch has so expertly penned, however I will sum up a couple of the main points. I do however highly recommend that you read the entire piece as it is both well written and in my opinion, remarkably on point. To access the full article click here.
Elimination of the partnership structure
BFC eliminated individual ownership rights and created a separate corporate legal entity, with the decision making process in the hands of a board of directors comprised of independent company GCs. These GCs were paid a directors’ fee as well as owning shares in the company itself. Senior lawyers, formerly would be partners, were now Senior Vice Presidents recompensed by an annual salary, bonus, and of course shares in the company.
Outsourcing
BFC identified HR as their biggest expense, and set about minimizing these costs. They unbundled their legal services into separate constituent tasks. Anything routine was outsourced to low-cost legal services providers. Nancy reveals that BFC outsource to India legal research, document preparation and due diligence work. Furthermore, the tasks previously undertaken by the law firm’s night staff, were now outsourced by the company to support staff in the Philippines. In addition to utilizing offshore resources the company also contracts with a pool of “work from home lawyers” domestically.
posted by Mark Ross at
11:52 AM
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