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GET EVERYBODY IN THE FIRM TO SERVICE A CLIENT? THAT’S THE WAY TO GO.
Getting your firm’s finance or HR team to chip in on a client’s project may seem counterintuitive, but it can make your final product much more sophisticated, says Pinsent Masons’ Debra Filippin.
"Law firms are moving away from siloed departments to more integrated ones"
Hearing Ms Debra Filippin’s chipper tone, it’s easy to forget that she’s in Melbourne, which has shot to notoriety recently for going into its second lockdown after a surge in COVID-19 cases. Naturally, I ask the head of Pinsent Masons’ business development (BD) team for Asia Pacific what collaboration in the time of coronavirus is like.
“I think lockdown has been great for collaboration,” she says, almost with a pang of guilt. “I’m sure I’m not the first person to say this though! We’re all suddenly very close because we’re seeing each other on a screen every day and interacting with people that we may have been in the same office with, but never actually worked with.”
Such interactions are increasingly common, given Pinsent Masons’ recent push to break down silos and form multidisciplinary teams to serve its clients. This push was largely brought on by the BD team, which is often the loudest and most ardent advocate for the client. “Getting people to start embracing collaboration wasn’t easy at first, because the average law firm is more than happy to work in the traditional way,” explains Ms Filippin, who has been with the firm for three years.
That way features two distinct teams: a client-facing side that services the clients, while an internal team that works on the firm’s day-to-day corporate operations, like communications, finance and human resources. Ms Filippin says the wealth of experience in the second group can help the first team service clients better, but it requires buy-in from the entire organisation.
THE CLIENT COMES FIRST
This may seem daunting at first and isn’t easy to achieve. She says, “You can’t just pick up the phone and say, ‘I need you on this, can you drop everything and join this call?’ You have to explain to them the reason they’re being asked to help; let it be known that the diversity of thought they bring to the table will make the end product much more sophisticated.”
“But once you start couching it in terms of what the client wants and needs, overcoming the inertia to change becomes much easier.” That means switching the focus: from the internal changes needed to the ultimate benefits to the client. “So when you say things like, ‘For the client’, or ‘This what the client needs’, people become a lot more receptive.”
“And we’re not just doing it for the sake of; I truly believe that it’s a false assumption to think that one person or one group can give the client the best product or service they need,” says Ms Filippin. “The client may ask for a set of documents that are to be automated; that’s not something that can be done effectively with just the legal and IT teams. The final product will be stronger if you involve diverse and different opinions from across job functions.”
Providing strong products and services is a must these days because as she observes, clients have become much more sophisticated and nuanced. “That’s possibly because of lawyers going in-house; but whatever the reason, they are asking for more, and law firms have to react [and provide] accordingly.”
At Pinsent Masons, this call for collaboration is often driven by Ms Filippin’s BD team. “We have a vested interest in making sure the client gets what they want,” she says, adding that they sometimes serve as project managers. “It may take some time, but once we get the buy-in from the stakeholders and teams, the process becomes much smoother.”
Ms Filippin moderates a panel discussion on the value of a multidisciplinary legal operations at the upcoming TechLaw.Fest 2020. “I want to draw out examples and practical lessons from panellists about what has worked and hasn’t worked when it comes to multidisciplinary collaborations,” she says. “Anyone who wants to think creatively and differently about their role and their legal business should attend.”
Complimentary registrations for the five-day virtual conference are available now.
A LIFE IN THE LAW
Debra leads the business development activities in the Asia-Pacific region for international law firm Pinsent Masons. She is also a Board Director of the Australasian Legal Practice Management Association (ALPMA). Debra has spent her entire career leading high-performing teams in the Asia-Pacific region for global law firms. She is passionate about delivering true value and ensuring a firm's business development efforts are meaningful and effective for its clients.
