Does your firm have its own manifesto? Helix Legal does, and if you’re interested in making law better, their 5 “New Breed Rules” are worth noting.
Helix Legal was founded in 2016 by Janelle Kerrisk. Helix is a multidisciplinary practice, combining the power of the law with commercial insight and industry expertise to help position their clients for success.
Janelle talks us through the New Breed Rules and explains how they infiltrate everything they do at Helix. We also sidetrack into a snapshot look at Janelle’s progression from BigLaw to NewLaw.
On the podcast:
2:08 A manifesto: New Breed Rules
2:23 Rule 1: Do not live and die by the billable hour
4:37 the balance between staying true to your values and adapting to client needs
4:42 Tracking the profitability of work without time billing
8:00 How, when and why Helix use retainers
9:29 Project planning to match the way their clients do business
11:20 Explaining variations to scope of work
13:36 Rule 2: Use technology to drive excellent client solutions
14:40 Using technology to provide a competitive advantage …
15:29 … but technology can also be used to enhance a lawyer’s experience of being a lawyer
16:35 Rule 3: Build business assets that benefit our clients
19:00 How Janelle organises time between business development and legal work
20:38 Lawyers have accepted that a certain amount of misery comes with the job, but it doesn’t have to be that way
26:23 Lawyers be great business people, run a profitable practice and still be happy
27:23 Rule 4: Use the best talent for the client’s Project
30:14 Rule 5: Forget the corner office and embrace real collaboration
31:41 Co-working spaces in the modern age
33:33 Unless you’re clear on your strategy, it is easy to be pushed back into the box of the norm
35:01 Be brave!
Links
- Subscribe to Doing Law Differently on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Find Helix Legal on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn
- Find Janelle on Instagram and LinkedIn
- Want to share how you’re Doing Law Differently? Get in touch here.
