Virtual Law Firms are Distributed Law Firms
When we talk about the virtual law firm, what we’re really talking about is a distributed law firm. Practus draws from a deep bench of top tier attorneys across practice areas, jurisdictions, and locations. Without the limitations imposed by a centralized office, Practus attorneys can tap a wide range of lawyers with different specialties and geographic locations for their clients. That means an attorney with a client in Phoenix, Arizona isn’t limited to working only with lawyers in Phoenix. This natant agility offers key advantages to clients. But rather than talk in general terms, let’s hear from Practus partners about how this benefits them and their clients.
Easier to meet clients’ business needs
Patent Attorney and Outsourced General Counsel, Chris Colvin calls it a better mousetrap in part because there is no multi-layered hierarchy, “Our attorneys operate at the partner level so clients are always getting partner-level quality. If I have a client but I know someone else can do a better job on a particular matter, I’m incentivized to hand over the reins and vice versa. Big Law incentivizes maximizing billable hours, including leveraging less experienced junior lawyers, which makes it too easy to lose sight of the clients’ needs. My overall impression is that big firms do a great job with quality and coverage, but don’t do as good of a job meeting clients’ business needs.”
Distribruted law firm = best lawyer for the job
That ability to pick the best expert for the job versus either the politically expedient attorney or just one in the same building is why Molly Aspan, a Labor and Employment attorney in Oklahoma, is regularly pulled in by partners from coast to coast to consult on employment issues.
Aspan says, “Typically, a Practus partner reaches out to me because their client has a personnel issue, and they want advice on how to avoid litigation. I am licensed in Oklahoma but a lot of employment claims arise under federal law. Tiffany Christianson has pulled me in on matters for her clients in Arizona. Adam Sultan, in New York, has pulled me in on four or five clients. Elliot Belilos and Linda Priebe, in Washington, D.C., have called me in. Chris Lange in Virginia, John lively in North Carolina, John Lobitz in Colorado, Timothy Spangler in Los Angeles, Ryan Cuthbertson in Boston, Mark Belongia in Chicago – that’s just off the top of my head.
Clients need multi-jurisdictional mobility
Aspan says Practus’ distributed lawyer model and the multi-jurisdictional mobility it brings is particularly beneficial to clients like hers – employers, “A lot of my Oklahoma clients have employees located in other states already. With the remote workforce – employers are hiring individuals remotely as opposed to in their home state, more multi-jurisdictional employment issues are arising. Companies are now having to look at employment issues in states where their remote employees are based on top of the many federal issues at play.”
While Labor & Employment law is a perfect case study for how well the distributed law model is supposed to work, those benefits play out across practice areas and industries. Clients get the best attorney for the job, regardless of geographical location, and the incentives between attorneys and clients align.
Billing efficiency is the distributed law firm’s middle name
Practus’ Mark Belongia says distributed law benefits clients because billing efficiency is built into its DNA,” Practus is primarily a partner-first model, so you don’t have three associates, two paralegals all billing in the file. You know the partner you work with is the subject matter expert and they don’t need to come in and get trained on the topic. They already know it. You get far more efficient billing.”
Colvin adds that eliminating the layers of big firm bureaucracy, optimizes the client’s experience, “We’re all experienced enough that a lawyer can write a brief, one other lawyer can review it. It’s not going through this like massive approval structure that you sometimes have at other firms where lots of people touch every bit of work product before it goes out the door.”
Steven Young feels like spiderman
Practus’ Head of Litigation, Steven Young concurs, “The first thing I do when a litigation matter comes in is to assess who in the firm is best qualified and interested to work on the matter. Would it make sense for them to do it? Would it make sense for the client? We have a pretty big web that allows us to take on a wide variety of litigation and even quasi– litigation. “
The bottom line with a distributed law firm is the bottom line
For Duane Mathiowetz, an IP litigation attorney, the bottom line about the advantage of a distributed law firm for clients is the bottom line.
“We now have litigation patent capability on the East Coast, West Coast and Midwest. We have it in Seattle, Kansas City, New York and I’m in San Francisco. And the distributive model does much for us. Attorneys at Practus have the autonomy to set their rates. Because I keep up to 80 percent of what I bring to the firm, as opposed to the 30 percent you take in at a big law firm, I can do a case for a lot less money than a partner in a traditional law firm. In Northern California, where I practice, the prices for attorneys with my experience level are out of sight.”
Big firm quality, startup flexibility
Mathiowetz points to the case he and Head Litigator Steve Young just tried and won, Exoto vs. Sunrich Toys & Hobby “We represented Sunrich. If I still worked at my former firm that had an office in Los Angeles, I’d have had to charge upwards of $1400 an hour. Our clients’ legal fees and expenses in litigating the Sunrich case would have cost at least two to three times as much. But I’m not charging California IP rates. I’m charging more like Midwest partner rates. Our model allows me that flexibility. As a distributed law firm, we know how to work from wherever we are. We don’t have to be sitting in whatever city where the litigation happens to be taking place. “
Agility, flexibility, efficiency, and beneficial (to the client.) These are the hallmarks of a modern business model. Practus is made up of top-tier attorneys, spread across the country, across industries, and across jurisdictions. And yet Practus attorneys use the same words when talking about what it means to be a partner in a distributed law firm. Agility, flexibility and efficiency are really just facets of autonomy. Practus’ distributed law model offers attorneys the autonomy to align their goals with those of their clients while being able to tap a deep bench of experience and expertise. It puts attorneys in lockstep with their clients. At Practus, we think that’s the way it should always be.
