What clients want – collaboration, not competition
Jim Delkousis
Founder & CEO, PERSUIT | Recovered BigLaw Partner | Transforming How Enterprise Buys Legal | Host of the Innovative Legal Leadership Podcast | Proud Dad
We’re starting to see an interesting development in the law firm panel arrangement, driven by the purchasing power of the client.
Clients are starting to ask their panel law firms – how are you collaborating with other legal service providers to create better value for us? That’s a pretty scary thought for law firms – collaboration between legal service providers. Gulp.
What to do? One response we’ve seen so far, is for BigLaw to align itself with NewLaw. DLA Piper with LOD/AdventBalance, Gilbert & Tobin with LegalVision, Norton Rose with LawPath and Ashurst with Axiom.
Question - how far will clients go in demanding collaboration between the BigLaw providers themselves? Would clients insist on it?
Here’s a radical thought. A marketplace where clients can pick and choose the best lawyers from separate panel firms and ask them to work together. On a special project, for example. The Panel Dream Team.
Clients would like to see that. And they will.
Author of Soul Toll (2026) | Tech Executive @ vLex | Human-Centered AI & Growth Leader | JD, MBA, RYT-200
7 年Of course. Collaboration is the only way to address and solve increasingly complex business challenges. This is also why law firms are moving towards an industry sectors approach — organizing around the client instead of practice areas. The challenge is not in making the business case, but in having decision-makers value the time spent in collaborating.
Law Company Co-Founder; Law Industry Strategy and Innovation Advisor; Angel Investor
7 年Amen. This (legal) ocean of innovation is too wide and the waves are too big for any one boat to think they can tread these waters alone!
HEMP 4 LIFE - Seeking Start-Up Capital
8 年I am currently in China looking to buy a Plant, but the Chinese talk about working together to benefit them and me and it is not about the price....so I see the point.