Page 24 - Minnesota Vol 8 No 3

e Viable Alternative to BigLaw Has Arrived
Virtual Law
I’m miserable. I hate the hours, the politics, the bu- reaucracy and everything
else. But I’m making over $500K here and my clients won’t port to another rm unless it has attorneys with the same pedigree and all the practice areas that I have now. If you can nd me something where they have all that AND I can have more control over my practice, rates and
lifestyle, I’ll move in a minute.”
is was a request I’d heard a thou- sand times during my career as a legal recruiter. e year was 1999 (when $500K was pretty good money) and I was on the phone with an AmLaw 100 partner who was obviously unhappy but didn’t seem to have much in the
way of choices.
e viable alternative to BigLaw has
been the Holy Grail for decades. But where else could a partner work with Fortune 100 clients in a sophisticated practice area, and make the money made at BigLaw? We asked hundreds of BigLaw partners what would be necessary to move their practice to an alternative and eight attributes were identi ed:
1. Less Overhead / More Entrepre- neurial.
2. Superior Credentials & Full-Ser- vice Capability.
3. Command Authority Over Prac- tice.
4. Better Lifestyle.
5. Better Value to Clients.
6. Less Bureaucracy.
7. Real Back O ce, Tech and Mar-
keting Support.
8. Cross-Selling and “Sense of Com-
munity.”
THE NEW BREED OF LAW FIRM
e rst rm we identi ed that met the above criteria was a hybrid brick & mortar / virtual law rm named Rimon Law. ey started in Silicon Valley as a purely virtual rm but have since opened brick & mortar o ces in seven markets. When we examined their attorney bios, we saw an abundance of top law schools and AmLaw experience, as well as full- service capabilities.
Additionally their CEO, Michael Moradzadeh con rmed that in addi- tion to paying partner 70 percent on their work, a whopping 34.7 percent of all gross revenues result from cross-
selling. is merited a campaign to identify other outliers.
Nice Firm! Won’t Work for BigLaw Partners ough
e largest and easiest to nd vir- tual law rms and ASLPs (Alternative Legal Service Providers) looked good and paid up to 80 percent on rev- enues. But our due diligence showed the overwhelming majority of these rms fell into one of two categories: 1.A collection of solo practitioners
who happened to be on the same website. ere was no real back of- ce, tech or marketing support.
2. A tech, temp or other business, that also happened to have virtual attor- neys but who would never scale and compete directly with BigLaw. While both of those models can be
pro table, our data indicated these were not what BigLaw partners were seeking. A er years of interviews and research, we have identi ed only sev- en rms who meet the criteria.
While this may seem to indicate the proliferation of such virtual law rms is unlikely, the opposite is true. Virtual or hybrid rms have captured Fortune 100 clients and are managing
BY FREDERICK SHELTON
ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · MINNESOTA· VOL. 8 NO. 3 24