hiring certain firms to handle specific
areas of work, for instance one firm for
securities work and another for labor and
employment work. Then clients went
a step further, choosing from a list of
several firms in each of those practice
areas depending on who can provide
the best work with the most efficiency
and cost effectiveness. And now clients
are even spreading out the work on a
single matter, hiring one firm as trial
counsel, someone else for e-discovery or
depositions. "This really breathes new
life into the future of smaller firms,"
he said.
that in 2009, the year immediately
following the economic crisis, Primerus
had one of its most successful years of
growth ever. "The Primerus brand of high
quality legal services for reasonable fees
was and is just what clients are seeking
quality and value," he said.
"The mega and large firms are
outdated, struggling and collapsing as
evidenced by the recent implosion of the
1,400 attorney Dewey & LeBoeuf law
firm in New York City. The unaffiliated
small, independent law firms are also
struggling to stay afloat because they too
are out of date and inefficient, and some
large corporate clients still don't trust the
small unaffiliated firm," Buchanan said.
"Primerus combines the best of both
worlds. Primerus is made up of excellent
small, independent boutique law firms
that provide very high quality legal
services at reasonable fees anywhere
in the world. By joining together
worldwide in a single organization such
as Primerus, where global marketing,
best practices and efficiency in shared
buying power can substantially reduce
overhead, the net result is higher quality
legal service to the public at significantly
less cost."
Buchanan said that Primerus has
done the hard work of finding quality
firms around the world so clients don't
have to. He said to corporate counsel,
the world and need a quality law firm,
call us. We don't charge you for it. We
will help you find an excellent law firm,"
he said.
altering today's legal landscape is
globalization.
"Globalization is not simply
impacting the General Electrics and the
General Motors of the world," Jones said.
"Virtually every company of every size
is engaged in global business. Law firms
must be able to respond to the needs
of clients in a cost efficient manner,
anywhere in the world.
"And this is a good moment for
an organization like Primerus,"
he said. What is critical in an
organization such as Primerus
to truly help clients
in a global economy
is uniform standards
and processes throughout the
organization.
And according to
Buchanan, Primerus meets
that challenge with its strict
admission recruitments
and quality assurance
programs. "We seek out,
screen and audit our firms
to make sure we have only
the finest," he said. "We put our
resources into finding the best law
firms in the world so that our clients
don't have to."
Before joining Primerus in May,
David Rohrbacher, a partner with
Primerus member firm Rohrbachers Cron
Manahan Trimble & Zimmerman Co.,
LPA, in Toledo, Ohio, typically called
upon local offices of large American
law firms when his clients needed
legal representation overseas. With
those firms, he regularly encountered
"stratospheric" rates which were
multiplied by teams of lawyers working
on a given case, he said.
But when he recently needed counsel
in Shanghai, China, to help a client
purchase 53-foot shipping containers,
he called upon Primerus member
Hengtai Law Offices in Shanghai for
help. "We had a contentious negotiation
with the other side, and I don't think
we would have been able to get through
it without Dr. Sun's assistance,"
Rohrbacher said. "We're very
pleased that this was the
outcome."
Their
client
also
the hourly rate they paid
the last time they hired counsel in
China, he said. "And the quality of the
work product was at least equal if not
better," he added.
By joining Primerus, Rohrbacher's
firm no longer had to shy away from