The final Client Revolution post

That's it. I'm shutting it down. The party's over. After a year and three days, the Revolution is complete. Turns out, it was easier than I thought.

How do I know? Well, I read it in The Wall Street Journal. Tuesday's paper reported that large-firm lawyers had figured out how to deliver value to their clients. The secret? You'll never guess.

Web 2.0.

I know. Ironic, isn't it. Lawyers, who have been so reluctant to put down their buggy whips and typewriters and powdered wigs, have now connected to the Interwebs to help their clients get more value for their legal spend. (Brief aside: when did spend become a noun? Answer: it didn't.)

Nathan Koppel, who's one of the Journal's excellent legal-beat writers and whose work I've mentioned here before, penned the article. The title and subtitle say it all: "Using web tools to control legal bills: Big law firms turn to technology to provide clients with real-time expenses, automate tasks." (The link appears to get you to the article despite the usual WSJ subscription firewall.) (Update: Naah, it appears that Rupert has strengthened the pay wall. You apparently need a subscription.) The premise is that law firms are "turning to technology" to help their clients see how freakin' expensive they are. In real time. On the Interwebs. Two-dot-oh, baby! Woo!

Woo, indeed. Koppel describes how one huge firm has made their costs transparent:

Foley & Lardner LLP, a firm with 1,000 lawyers and offices throughout the U.S., has developed a Web-based system designed to provide its attorneys and clients with a real-time and comprehensive picture of legal costs.

From their desktops, lawyers at the firm enter and continuously track the amount of attorney time and costs that have been incurred on a particular matter. Foley clients have direct access to the data through a secure Web site, which also provides access to court filings and correspondence.

Now don't get me wrong. Foley's a fine firm with some world-class lawyers. And I respect that they, like some other firms, are trying. I don't mean to pick on them, but they're the star of the article. And I'm sorry to say that they're missing the point. Cue the boldface message:

Clients don't care one whit about attorney time and costs. They care about the value the services have to them.

Koppel goes on to describe how this system lets the lawyers or the clients "crunch data" to see if the firm is using the right mix of associates and partners. Two points here: computers may be, as they say here in Boston, wickit smaht, but they can't possibly tell anyone what the proper mix of associates and partners on a given matter at a given time is. And second: again, clients don't give a rolling donut about that, as long as the job gets done on time, done well, and for a price that's less than or equal to the value the client places on it.

The system also "pings" lawyers with automatic email alerts when a case reaches certain budget levels. Whoa. Paging George Jetson: your flying car is double-parked. Guys, I've been getting "automatic email alerts" from bookstores and coffeehouses for years. This isn't exactly groundbreaking.

Here's the money quote, showing how law firms just don't get it:

Recently the firm could see a certain lawyer was spending more time than had been projected to complete one aspect of a business transaction. Foley alerted the client, a global manufacturer, and asked the company whether it had anyone in-house who could do the work.

Instead, an agreement was reached to have a law student then clerking at Foley handle the task at a "very favorable billing rate," Mr. Kalyvas says.

ZOMFG! All right, where do I start? First: a lawyer was spending too much time. Uh, dudes. Lawyers at big firms don't qualify for bonuses unless they bill a certain number of hours, usually in the 1,800–2,000 range for a year. So you're giving lawyers a financial incentive to bill more hours, then having the Interwebs ping them when they're billing too many. Hmmmm.

Next: asking the client, "Uh, you guys got anyone who can do this?" Imagine if you went to a hospital and the doctor's Web 2.0 system pinged her saying it was costing too much and so she asked you, "Uh, can you just take care of this at home?" Uncool, guys, uncool.

Finally: "We'll hand it off to Billy the 2L. And we'll give you a good rate. He doesn't know anything, but he's feisty!" Uh, no.

This fancy system, like similar systems at other firms, doesn't do jack for the problem of making sure that clients get value. Having a computer tell you that a case is getting expensive doesn't give the client the power to do anything about it, other than moving their work elsewhere, doing it themselves, or putting their trust in Billy the 2L. Do you think for a minute that if a firm asked the client about these alternatives before they signed on that the client would say that that was fine? Not a chance.

Clients want to know the price beforehand — not when it's too late. Koppel writes:

Now when Foley attorneys turn on their computers, messages occasionally pop up on their screens reminding them that clients do not want to be surprised about their legal costs.

"That has helped focus our attorneys," [partner James] Kalyvas says, "and has created the willingness to change."

Sorry, guys. This isn't change. This is bells and whistles. This is a coat of paint on a busted old horse buggy. Change is open prices, where the client can decide if the cost matches the value before agreeing to the assignment. Pinging emails and Billy the 2L are not solutions to the problem of high legal costs or surprised clients.

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All right, never mind. Despite what the Journal says, the Client Revolution isn't over after all. See you next time.