The common, century-old hourly/fixed-price billing system used by most law firms has many disadvantages; including over billing, and a race-to-the-bottom of employment conditions for lawyers. Is this the ideal way to practice law? Here is a story about a different kind of law firm
Axiom Law Firm (website) with its 1,000+ expert lawyers from the entire spectrum of practice areas, serves large and well-heeled clients (some will be mentioned bellow) via its 11 worldwide branches, in three continents: North America (USA), Europe (Northern Ireland and England) and Asia (Hong-Kong, Singapore and India)
The firm was established in order to fulfill a twofold vision. First – to offer substantially lower fees rates compared to other law firms handling high-end cases, requiring thousands of work hours. Second – to enhance its workers’ quality of life. In other words, the firm charges its clients with lower fees and, simultaneously, allows associates and partners to enjoy sane work hours and have time for their families and themselves.
In order to achieve that, the firm operates on two levels: financial, and HR recruitment
The financial level: As mentioned, the firm offers its clients lower fees. It is worth mentioning that when the firm was first established, $30US million in funds was invested in the firm as financial backup, which allowed the firm to charge these reduced fees
The HR level: In order to offer its client with counsel by the best possible attorneys, the firm makes it a point to recruit graduates from top-notch US law schools; while simultaneously being on the lookout for established lawyer who do not feel a desire to become partners, and that have had it with working round the clock
Axiom Law Firm service concept is based upon three elements
1. First element: In-sourcing
The firms’ lawyers provide the clients with legal counsel in a large number of practice areas – Technology, Commercial Law, Regulation, M&A, Litigation, Bio-Tech, IP, Financial Services and Labor and Employment Law
These lawyers may provide their services in one of many possible schemes: either a full time or part time job at the firm, working at home and even working at the clients’ establishment
2. Second Element: Outsourcing
When clients are interested in a more time-efficient service, with large workload and including multiple disciplines, the firm provides them with outsourced retainer service and project management – which means that the firm takes over various aspects of managing the project: management, legal and organizational consulting
Thus, whenever a client requires the firms’ services on complex commercial and organizational issues, the firm divides the woks into two phases
1) An establishing team, consisting of IT personnel, software engineers, organizational consultants and lawyers
2) The execution of the project by a team of lawyers and legal consultants
For instance, when a specific project requires the client to go through thousands of contracts, engage in negotiations and submit countless counter offers – and the client doesn’t possess the resources to accomplish that – he turns to Axiom.
The firm creates for the client a holistic legal-organizational solution: senior attorneys manage the negotiation and are in charge with the clients’ offers and counter offers. At the same time, the organizational and IT team erects a computerized working interface in order to facilitate the execution of the project.
3. Third element: Projects
The firms’ projects team it in fact a derivative of the outsourcing element. The projects team deals with predictions and assessments of two subjects:
1) Litigation (assessment of the various steps in an upcoming lawsuit)
2) Complex commercial agreements (collecting relevant documents, appraising the chances for successful transaction, choosing management strategy etc…)
From a close examination of the firm, it seems that it intend to offer a middle way between outsourcing of legal services and reliance upon a legal retainer
This is done by means of offering creative and efficient solutions to complex legal and organizational problems, which are offered for competitive fees – thus obviating the dependency on Big Law firms
Axioms’ financial data
The firm offers legal fees that are lower than the ones offered by traditional law firms. The firm employs outstanding legal professional that are interested in enjoying some free time in their lives. Thus, the firm is highly attractive for both clients and attorneys
The associates receive all the basic social benefits, including health insurance; but they are only paid a salary when they are hired by a client to do work. In other words, the associates can choose when to work and for whom, while their salary ranges between $US 125 per hour, and $US 600 per hour – depending upon the lawyers’ experience and position
The unique nature of the services offered by Axiom has attracted many high-profile clients. Among the firms’ clients are IBM, Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard, Hilton, the New York Times and many more – all of them paying the firm hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Clearly, such a reputable clients list is an indication of high quality legal work
Axioms’ distinctive webpage
Axioms’ unique character is immediately noticeable from its webpage. It is a unique, well-designed site which enables you to intuitively explore the firms’ work methods, get to know its employees and truly understand the foundation of the firms’ vision
We especially liked the attorneys’ personal pages, which tend to present the attorneys through their personal details and not their professional background; as well as the unique ‘Contact Us’ page
Axiom gives traditional firms a ‘run’ for their money
Currently, many clients opt for the services of traditional law firms – mainly due to the power of habit. However, with high profits, a sustainable financial strategy (through VC funding), correct management and lower fees; traditional law firms are paying close attention not only to Axiom, but also to other attempt to break the mold of traditional law practice
The high-pressure nature of a traditional law firms’ work environment has caused many a talented lawyer to give up the practice. Axiom offers these excellent professionals an alternative
In conclusion– It seems that the Axiom business model won’t be adopted by the Israeli market any time soon. The Israeli mentality and business culture closely follows USA zeitgeist, and only when there will be a significant change to the US market, we shall see changes in the Israeli one
Nevertheless, frustration over the nature of a lawyers’ work is clearly voiced in Israel, especially by young lawyers, and maybe they will be the agents of change in the upcoming era of Israeli legal practice. Just something to think about
— You are invited to watch “The Big Idea” – a video elaborating on Axiom work: http://vimeo.com/71843217
