Generally, it’s completely essential for shoppers to make use of a number of regulation companies for a single matter. For example, if a shopper needs their ordinary counsel to look in a lawsuit in a jurisdiction the place their typical counsel will not be licensed to apply, they might additionally want to have interaction native counsel. As well as, generally a matter may require litigation and ancillary proceedings that can not be dealt with by a single agency. Nonetheless, when shoppers use a number of regulation companies for a similar matter, sure inefficiencies could come up that may be averted if the shopper makes use of only one regulation agency to deal with the authorized work.
Once I was a Biglaw affiliate, I labored on a big litigation matter on behalf of one among our shoppers. I used to be perplexed to find that the shopper had employed each our agency and one other massive regulation agency to symbolize them on this matter. I nonetheless am undecided why the shopper determined to go along with two regulation companies to deal with this lawsuit. Maybe the shopper believed the lawsuit was too massive for only one regulation agency? This didn’t appear cheap since each companies had a whole bunch of attorneys every. I believe that some type of inside politics compelled the hiring of two regulation companies — maybe to please totally different factions of the shopper’s authorized division.
In any case, engaged on a matter with a distinct regulation agency created administrative challenges. Firstly, the opposite regulation agency and our regulation agency wanted to spend important time deciding who would deal with numerous duties associated to the lawsuit and conveying info that was found by one regulation agency that may not have been discovered by the opposite. As well as, for the reason that shopper needed each companies to log off on important components of the illustration, we might evaluation the opposite agency’s work, and they might evaluation our work, which possible added to the charges billed. This may need enhanced the work product, however it’s unclear if this was well worth the elevated authorized charges.
Different inefficiencies have been created since our agency tried at each step of the method to point out that we have been doing a greater job than the opposite agency or that the opposite agency had made errors within the duties it was assigned to deal with. Companions at our agency possible needed to place themselves in a greater place to obtain extra work from this shopper, so that they tried to undermine the opposite store at each flip. I keep in mind I as soon as drafted a memo particularly outlining errors that the opposite agency had made on a selected venture in order that the accomplice might use this as ammunition when speaking concerning the deficiencies of the opposite store. I can’t be fully positive, however I’ve to imagine that attorneys on the different agency have been doing every thing they might to undermine our agency in order that they too might higher place themselves to obtain extra work from the shopper.
In lots of cases, two heads are higher than one, and shoppers are inclined to get higher work product if extra attorneys are reviewing papers and conducting analysis on behalf of the shopper. Nonetheless, shoppers mustn’t create inefficiencies in a illustration by offering incentives that give legal professionals a purpose to expend time and sources on the rest than greatest serving a shopper. Accordingly, it hardly ever is sensible to rent two regulation companies to deal with the identical matter on behalf of a shopper. In most conditions, a shopper might be greatest served by hiring one regulation agency to deal with a whole authorized matter in order that shoppers don’t must cope with the executive points related to a number of regulation companies dealing with one matter.
Jordan Rothman is a accomplice of The Rothman Regulation Agency, a full-service New York and New Jersey regulation agency. He’s additionally the founding father of Scholar Debt Diaries, a web site discussing how he paid off his pupil loans. You may attain Jordan via e mail at jordan@rothman.regulation.
