Aderant users Bird & Bird LLP won the 2015 Managing Partner Forum (MPF) Award for Best Use of Systems and Technology. The award honours the firm for successfully harnessing systems and technology in ways that increase efficiency or positively impact the client experience. Aderant nominated Bird & Bird for this award based on their innovative and highly successful pricing and profitability initiative powered by Aderant MatterWorks.
According to industry research from Altman Weil, 92% of law firms use non-hourly billing structures, but only 16% have been able to make them more profitable than hourly fees. Predicting the recent cuts in corporate legal spending and the resulting squeeze on pricing, Bird & Bird began in 2010 a comprehensive program focused on successfully moving the firm away from a sole focus on revenue generation to a more sustainable model of taking into account the costs of service delivery. The MPF award recognises Bird & Bird for providing clients with flexible pricing proposals while ensuring their matters are ultimately delivered at a sustainable cost.
“We are thrilled that Bird & Bird’s innovative approach to pricing and profitability has been acknowledged by the Managing Partner Forum,” commented Chris Cartrett, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Aderant. “It was great to partner with Bird & Bird on this project, and they certainly deserve recognition for their innovative approach and skill at leading change within the firm.”
Bird & Bird based their innovating pricing initiative largely around the firm-wide deployment of Aderant MatterWorks. The firm took a sophisticated approach to the project, directly involving partners in defining the project strategy and outlining the proposed methodology. Partner involvement in examining the costs of both client relationship management and matter deliverability ensured that the focus remained at client level. In addition, it illustrated how a focus on the costs of service provision could drive firm profitability.
Through this initiative, Bird & Bird has been able to respond to client demands for more flexible pricing arrangements, while at the same time delivering greater financial transparency. The methodology involved deploying MatterWorks together with in-house developed client facing tools and reports, accompanied by briefings on the principles behind its calculations and a suite of sophisticated dashboards to help partners control factors such as write offs, gearing and resourcing.
“We are delighted with this recognition,” commented Karen Jacks, IT Director at Bird & Bird. “We realise how important it is to provide the infrastructure that not only increases efficiency but also has a positive impact on clients’ experience. This award reassures us that our continued efforts to use technology to provide smooth, transparent and profitable solutions resonate with the market and help differentiate us from our competitors.”
Our pictures show Karen Jacks on stage being presented with the award – that’s the evening’s compere Marcus Brigstocke on the left (American readers please note: he is good) – and a happy looking Paul Colvin (CFO) and Philippe Dere (Head of Business Transformation) from Bird & Bird. Pix by Jacqui de Gernier.