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Get the Right People on the Bus and Save: Notes on Selecting a Law Firm

Jim Collins’ notion of getting the right people “on the bus” is a fitting way to start this post. Whether your “bus” is a litigation or a transaction or a regulatory matter, having the right people on the right parts of your matter will set you up for success.  When it comes to selecting a law firm to do your work, you can position yourself for some savings by being specific about who you think is the right type of person to perform various tasks on your engagement.  So without further fanfare, here are three simple tips that can help save you some money.

  1. The Right People Doing the Right Work – Before your engagement begins, make sure you understand how it will be staffed and which staff members will be performing which tasks.  Understand the experience each staff member assigned to your engagement has relative to their expected tasks.  Then ask if there is a lower-priced alternative within the firm who also has the requisite experience.  Obviously, there are likely certain lawyers who you want leading your engagement.  For other tasks, having a staff member with a lower rate performing the work can often save you money so long as you believe they will perform the work as efficiently as someone who bills at a higher price point.
  2. Train on Someone Else’s Time –This is really a related point to the above point.  Law firms need to train their younger staff members.  But you shouldn’t be billed for younger associates to attend meetings where they will not add value or pay full rates for them to draft documents that will take them twice as long to complete as an associate who bills at just a slightly higher rate.  On the front end of your engagement, be clear about who you are willing to pay to attend meetings and your willingness to pay for new experiences.
  3.  Let’s Try the Fargo Office – For tasks that don’t require particular expertise or experience for which you prefer particular individuals, ask about using lawyers in lower cost locations.  Many law firms have satellite offices with good lawyers who bill at lower price points.  Legal process outsourcing has been common practice for a host of activities for several years now.  And some of the nations largest law firms maintain offices in lower cost locations specifically to provide services such as document review at lower cost points.  Most law firms have not made this large a leap, but many still have lawyers in satellite offices located in smaller regional cities (think Fargo, Jefferson City, Knoxville, etc.) where operating costs and billing rates are lower than those in major financial centers.

About the author – Dave Sampsell is a 20-year lawyer with extensive experience managing large, complex legal engagements and overall corporate legal budgets.  He presently serves as General Counsel of a NASDAQ-listed company and is a Founder and Director of BanyanRFP.  BanyanRFP saves companies time and money through an easy-to-use, private and secure, online legal services RFP application.  For more information, visit www.BanyanRFP.com

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