Lexpert Magazine

September 2016

Lexpert magazine features articles and columns on developments in legal practice management, deals and lawsuits of interest in Canada, the law and business issues of interest to legal professionals and businesses that purchase legal services.

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42 LEXPERT MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER 2016 FEATURE IF YOU THINK OF TRADITIONAL mid-size firms as sleepy legal backwaters where law- yers are inoculated — whether by size or regional limitations — from the pressures faced by the large na- tional and international firms, you need to talk to James Casey, the managing partner of Field Law LLP. Field is not the biggest of the mid-size, but it's on the larger end, with 66 lawyers in Edmonton, 55 in Calgary and four in Yellowknife. ere's one critical difference between Field and the large national and global firms, says Casey: its hourly rates are about 20 per cent lower, "especially in the Calgary market where hourly rates tend to be higher." As to why, he says that "part of it is lower overhead — lower lease costs, a lack of national and global management structure to finance, and lower overall costs." Part of it is also lower compensation, although he's not about to say so. e A-type, top-of-the-class law school graduates generally tend to head to the marquee firms that are seen as top-tier. And here's the irony: Casey is well aware firms that market themselves as top-tier nationals are, in fact, increasingly making plays for what used to be the business of mid-size firms. ey are his new competition. He says his firm is more than up to that challenge. Field has invested in a high-level chief operating officer; a director of professional recruitment and development to modernize law firm HR practices; and a chief marketing officer who was formerly with a national firm. It also has a director of knowledge management and process improvement who is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. at's right, a mid-size regional firm is using Sigma Six techniques even in the Northwest Territories. "We drank the Kool-Aid on this. We're evolving along with everybody else, so we did a project where we trained every single person in the firm — lawyers and assistants — in process improvement," says Casey, who works out of the firm's Edmonton office. "We're facing the same challenges as the larger firms. A very large percentage of our top clients, for example, are on some sort of alternative fee arrangements, so we're driving structures that are providing BOTH FROM Competition has blurred the lines of our legal market. With pressure from boutiques and national full-service firms, mid-size players are regrouping BY SANDRA RUBIN PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK SIDES

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