Hi there,
Sometimes we know there’s a problem long before we have our “Aha!” moment.
Like the entire decade of the 1990’s that I spent toiling over billable hours to climb the ladder to the ranks of partner — the only thing I can mostly remember from that decade was that I got married, welcomed my three children into the world, and received two promotions over the course of nearly 10 years: one to senior associate and the other to partner.
By 2013, after a 6-year grind to establish and grow DLA Piper’s Middle East litigation practice to become the most profitable in the global firm, I was acutely aware (but maybe a little in denial) of how broken the system was in legal.
Especially how value was measured between corporate legal departments (my clients at the time) and law firms.
There was (and still is) significant bias in the industry favouring those who could commit the most amount of time to working. Because those in a position to give their time to bill as many hours as possible — the prevailing measure of success — ended up coming out ahead.
Even though I was on the winning side of the equation, the inequities troubled me. As did knowing that the time I spent on billables wasn’t a true measure of value for the problems I helped solve for the firm’s clients.
Still, the concept of change (and even admitting out loud that such change needed to happen in the first place) was a bit overwhelming.
This was just the way things had been done and was absolutely accepted in the industry. As I approached 50 and thought about what the future would look like for my own daughters, what could I really do to help solve a problem that was so pervasive through the industry?
Shortly after that I had my “Aha!” moment.
I stumbled upon a case study in the Harvard Business Review on GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) experimentation with implementing a competitive alternative fee arrangement process for its law firms.
If GSK could build a competitive AFA program for its law firms, why couldn’t I build one on behalf of all clients and their law firms?
I guess you could say, “the rest was history.”
I know that today, many of us in the legal industry want to see positive change occur, but struggle to bring along those who haven’t yet had their “Aha!” moment.
One of my team members recently shared their story of an in-house legal leader who recently had theirs:
“Now I get it! If you’re going to go spend someone else’s money, you should have some idea of what you’re buying. We’re no different to any other function in the business. We need to demonstrate transparency and accountability for the way we spend our company’s money."
Exactly!
The legal industry is inching closer to its “Aha!” moment.
One person, one company, one firm at a time.
Cheers to the “Aha!” moments that are bound to happen.
And to staying steadfast in that PERSUIT!
Jim
P.S. This week’s newsletter contains some “Aha-worthy” nuggets, including:
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