Innovation goes hand-in-hand with client service Please click here for a pdf version of this article
Many Chicago law firms are taking client service to new levels with interactive websites, networking events, think tanks, and virtual deal rooms.
Gone are the days when law firms were rewarded for simply providing excellent legal service. Clients also want their lawyers to help them network and improve their businesses. They want legal services to be efficient, cost-effective, and technologically advanced.
There are law firms and outside legal companies that get it. They are adopting new internal and external programs, workshops, and technology to meet these demands. Here are a few examples.
Legal outsourcing to India
When George Hefferan and Ganesh Natarajan practiced together at McGuireWoods, they often discussed business ideas on client trips to India.
They discovered the possible benefits of outsourcing basic legal work to lawyers in India. They turned this brainstorm into Mindcrest, a company they started in 2001 with two other people.
Chicago-based Mindcrest now employs 440 Indian lawyers who attended Indian law schools and are licensed in India. And the company's clients are a mix of in-house legal departments of Fortune 500 companies and law firms, Hefferan said.
"The client base on the corporate in-house side has always been strong for us," said Hefferan, Mindcrest's vice president and general counsel. "It's a very logical pitch to them because they are constantly constrained by budgets and often have more work than they have bandwidth to complete."
Law firms didn't initially embrace the idea of outsourcing legal work to India because they wanted their associates kept as busy as possible, he said.
But many firms now recognize that this idea can enhance associate retention because associates no longer need to handle the more routine and least challenging work.
Outsourcing shows clients that their firms value cost-effective solutions, he said.
Tom Baldwin, Reed Smith's chief knowledge officer, addresses the staff on knowledge management issues.
"We knew from the outset that we couldn't sacrifice quality," Hefferan said. "We make our work of the same high quality that a law firm might produce, and we don't take on work we can't do.
"We aren't providing sophisticated legal advice," he said. "U.S. law firms are the ones best suited for that. It's really a way of doing some of the work that really is largely administrative by using offshore resources, and keeping the high-level legal work onshore where the legal expertise is."
Meeting with technology
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione's main conference room used to seat only about 30 people.
But for a firm that has grown to about 323 employees in its Chicago office alone — that setup no longer works, said Rod Sagarsee, Brinks' chief information officer.
The firm cut the ribbon on its new conference center in November, and now has 10 conference rooms and a lunchroom with varying levels of advanced technology.
This technology includes an integrated services digital network (ISDN) and high-speed IP video (people plus content) conferencing, automatic ceiling lift projector systems, automatic projector screen systems, Crestron touch-screen presentation, and room lights and shading systems.
There are high-definition CATV LG flat-panel displays throughout and LCD CATV projector systems, wiring in conference table tops, wireless portable convenience printers and wireless Internet, and more than 80 individual audio microphone connection systems.
Lawyers can now communicate with the firm's other offices through high-speed video conferencing and Avaya VoIP Meet-me Conferencing, which provides audio conferencing. Clients can participate in firm meetings through the web, Sagarsee said.
The firm's electronic conferencing scheduling system allows lawyers to book a conference room without leaving their desks.
And if Brinks hosts a staff-wide Chicago office meeting, it can connect a conference room to the lunchroom through video and audio conferencing.
Sagarsee's team of 12 people helped bring the conference center's technology to fruition, and they also maintain it on a daily basis.
"The bottom line is, it's just better service for your client," he said. "You are able to allow your client to have every option, from a technology standpoint. The client doesn't even need to physically come here. It is just a tremendous advantage."
Providing greater client service
Like corporations, law firms must use technology to enhance the customer experience, said Doug Caddell, chief information officer at Foley & Lardner.
For example, airlines created systems so that a person booking a flight can go online and easily select the exact seat, check-in ahead of time, and book ground transportation at the destination, Caddell said.
"Foley & Lardner is looking at how we can use our technology to have a competitive advantage," Caddell said. "People may say they have an extranet or another piece of technology, but having it and using it effectively are two different things."
The firm created FOLEY ClientSuite, which provides clients with the ability to instantly access information on any matter through a secured extranet website.
Through this site, clients can learn about different laws that they regularly use when making business decisions, Caddell said. General counsel can visit the site to stay informed on how much of the legal budget the firm has spent, or they can stay updated on where their lawyers are on particular matters, he said.
The resource module can be customized to contain the content clients want, including: policies and procedures; privacy guidelines; tax regulations; employee benefits; human resource information; and model documents.
"No longer do they have to play telephone tag with a lawyer to figure out what's up," Caddell said. "They can log on from home, and see what's going on."
Another program the firm uses is Private Equity Matchmaker. Through its automated search function and deal-matching capability, it connects clients who are seeking capital with those who are actively pursuing private equity investment opportunities.
As Foley lawyers populate the Matchmaker program, the tool evaluates and searches for matches based upon such attributes as transaction size, development stage, geographic region, and industry. When a match is identified, the system generates an e-mail notifying the firm's lawyers of a potential compatibility.
Bell, Boyd & Lloyd has become a premier sponsor of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Chicago. Ted Wallhaus, the MIT volunteer who coordinated the event, is speaking to those who attended the monthly forum, which started at Bell Boyd on Feb. 12.
"It used to be that lawyers practiced law with companies who were local to them or at least regional to them," Caddell said. "The advent of [globalization] really identified a need for law firms to address how we serve a client who is no longer in our backyard. Technology was one way to do that."
Think tanks
Gemma Allen and Ronald Ladden began organizing think tanks in 1997, when they worked together as co-heads of the family law division at Pretzel & Stouffer.
They opened their own firm, Ladden & Allen, in 2000 and continue to spearhead think tanks that bring lawyers, mental health experts, and other professionals together to discuss topics associated with marriage and divorce, Allen said.
"Our goal is to make marriage more successful and try to put ourselves out of business," she said.
She said the firm wants to help people develop stronger marriages. And if a marriage must end, it wants to help create a smoother divorce process.
"We have come to the conclusion as a firm that the divorce rate could probably be lowered by about a third if people had better information and better tools," she said.
Allen said lawyers receive wonderful educations, and family law lawyers receive unique exposure to societal problems. By participating in these think tanks, they can help society deal with these issues, she said.
