Law Firms and Corporate Law Departments Work Together When Using Contract Attorneys from Providus

 

Managing the Cost of Certain Legal Tasks

The document review process can represent up to 70% of the cost of litigation. Attorneys involved in large scale litigation know that it is sometimes cost prohibitive to pay (or charge) associate rates for every single task associated with a document review. Savings can be in the millions of dollars on extraordinary cases with the use of contract attorneys and paralegals from Providus.

 

Retaining Control over Particular Matters

Billing partners who are not yet using contract attorneys on a contract basis for certain tasks may be under pressure to write down associate time (and partner time) on certain cost-sensitive matters…or risk losing control of those matters to another firm. The use of attorneys on a contract basis mitigates the pricing pressure felt by both sides without compromising quality.

 

Reducing Associate Turnover

Law firms spend a lot of time and money recruiting at top law schools; some estimate that the cost of recruiting, then having to replace an associate can exceed $250,000. This burden of replacement impacts both the firm and its service model for key corporate clients. One way to help reduce associate turnover is to allow associates to work on more substantive matters instead of being used for months on end for entry level document reviews, which causes disenchantment and results in turnover.

• The law firm benefits because the associate becomes a more skilled attorney faster.
• In today's environment, clients do not want to pay associate rates for document review when there are seasoned attorneys available from Providus at rates that are one-fourth the cost of a law firm associate.

 

Promoting Supplier Diversity

When a corporation or its outside counsel is committed to supplier diversity, Providus will work to support this commitment in three ways:

1. Providus is a certified Woman-Owned Business Enterprise and can provide annual or quarterly “Diverse Supplier Spend Reports” to the law firm and/or its corporate client.
2. We strengthen the capability of certain diverse law firms to handle additional work that they otherwise may not have personnel and space to handle.
3. By acting as a "Diverse Supplier Partner," Providus can help any law firm compete more effectively for business where diversity is a criteria for selection.

 

Maintaining Integrity of Work Product

Sometimes a corporation mandates the use of contract attorneys by its outside counsel as a cost-saving measure. When this happens, law firms and corporate law departments partner with Providus to outline their quality control metrics and maintain the integrity of the firm’s work product while also adhering to the corporation’s budgetary guidelines.

 

Addressing Space Limitations

Very few corporations or law firms use "peak" activity periods to determine how much office space and equipment to permanently set aside for document reviews. A more cost-effective approach is to work with Providus to budget for space/equipment resources on an as-needed basis.

 

Working with Headcount Restrictions

It is also rare, and increasingly inefficient, to permanently set associate staffing levels at what is required for "peak" activity periods. Law firms and corporate law departments find it cost-effective to work with Providus to budget for specialized staffing and “peak” activity periods.

 

Specialized Services such as Foreign Language Attorneys

When faced with highly specialized skills (including foreign language capability) or location requirements, Providus clients rely on us to find skill-specific personnel. Sometimes these requests come in the form of native fluency in languages other than English (including Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Chinese, Japanese, Finnish and more).

 

Location Requirements

When the need for teams of attorneys and paralegals arises outside of your home office, our clients rely on us to staff these projects on a nationwide basis. We are able to provide a team of attorneys or paralegals in any city nationwide as well as a team of attorneys and paralegals who are available to travel.

 

Tracking Usage through Customized Billing and Reporting

Providus customizes its periodic billing and productivity reports providing real-time data such as quarterly savings, project productivity, QC performance and other metrics as specified per project.