Super Idea

Introduction: On November 3, 2018, Small and Medium-Sized Law Firm Development Forum sponsored by Shanxi Lawyer Association was held in Taiyuan, where LIU Guangchao, Director of Beijing Docvit Law Firm delivered the speech themed by “Decode the Mode of Docvit: We only do two things - & Ultimate Mission in the Management of Law Firms”.  In this speech, LIU Guangchao emphatically introduced that DOCVIT only does two things in the management of DOCVIT, namely, how to consider for the lawyers and how to consider for the clients. The editor summarized the speech of LIU Guangchao, Director of DOCVIT and formed a series of articles “Decode the Mode of DOCVIT”, hoping to discuss with the peers. 

Before discussing how to consider for the clients, I want to share with you my analysis on the demand of clients. This analysis has been included in my article, Why We Select Corporatization, and published by the journal, Chinese Lawyer. I hope we can reach a basic consensus in this respect. 

Three Levels of Demand of A Law Firm’s Clients 

First, we also divide the demand of clients into three levels, namely, professional demand, commercial demand and political demand. The professional demand requires that the lawyer has the ability to handle this legal business. In other words, “the lawyer can deal with this business”. This demand highlights the advantage and efficiency provided the lawyer is competent; The commercial demand requires that the lawyer can handle this legal business according to various conditions of clients. In other words, “the lawyer is suitable for this business”. The experience of the client is pursued based on the recognition of the reasonable price by the industry; The political demand requires that the lawyer can handle this legal business without triggering other issues and without any risk and conflict. In other words, “the lawyer can deal with this business safely”. It is required to avoid any defect of procedure and also settle the interest conflict. There is a progressive relation among these three demands. The professional demand is the foundation; the commercial demand is the condition; and the political demand is the guarantee. It is hard for a lawyer or a law firm to avoid these three major demands of its clients. 

Second, we will discuss what a law firm needs to do so as to meet these three major demands of its clients. In order to meet the professional demand of its clients, a law firm must establish a stable and excellent professional team, form the comparative advantage in professional fields, and establish the mechanism and measures for service assurance. In order to meet the commercial demand of its clients, a law firm must implement systematic and effective brand promotion, establish a scientific and reasonable quotation system and achieve sustainable and sound client maintenance. In order to meet the political demand of its clients, a law firm must have a mature client development system, a rigorous system of interest conflict query, and a system of practice risk prevention. We can find out that no matter how strong an individual lawyer is, he or she can not meet all demands of its clients. To serve the client well, it is not only required to do professional work well. The traditional practice idea and departmental setting have been outdated. All these require the proper corporatization of a law firm. 

Finally, we will discuss how these three levels of demands of clients are met through the corporation of law firm. Through the management systematization as emphasized in the corporatization of the law firms, the requirement for the establishment of client development system, quotation system and maintenance system can be met, and the requirement of interest conflict query and practice risk prevention can also be met. Through the operation branding and product standardization as emphasized in the corporatization of law firm, the requirement of branding, professional advantages and service assurance can be met; Through the distribution integration as emphasized in the corporatization of the law firms, the law firms can establish a stable and excellent professional team. Therefore, the corporatization of law firm is designed not only for the lawyers, but also for the clients. 

On this basis, I will discuss it in five aspects: making the clients feel have more sense of security, sense of identity and sense of gain, and making the service of lawyers more valuable and in-depth. First, I will discuss how to make the clients have more sense of security. 

How to make the clients have more sense of security 

Let’s see a case first: 

A central enterprise involves a series of disputes due to financing transaction, leading to many lawsuits. It needs an external law firm to provide a package of solutions. Therefore, it plans to select a law firm through competitive negotiation, which will be solely responsible for these lawsuits. Five law firms participating in this competitive negotiation, three of which are large ones (A, B and C) and two of which are small and medium-sized ones (D and E). Among those large law firms, A has more than 300 persons, which adopts a pure commission law firm; B adopts a pure corporate system management mode, with about 200 persons;  C adopts a management mode between those of A and C, with about 120 persons; Among two small and medium-sized ones, D has about 60 practicing lawyers, and adopts an integrated management mode; E has about 10 persons, focused on the business of its Director. As shown in the results of quotation, E offers the lowest quotation, following by A, D, C and B. In respect of technical proposal, the ranking is A, C, E, D and B from the lowest to the highest. During this period, this central enterprise obtained the following findings through external due diligence: A is a large law firm, but adopts an extensive management mode. Many lawyers in this law firm have been penalized due to violation of regulations; B has an extremely normalized management mode, but it focuses on non-suit business. And most lawsuit cases handled by it are nearly subject to streamlined operation; As for C, its management lawyer is fighting for the control of the law firm, which is in a turbulent state; Although D is not large, it is highly professional. During the service process, it emphasizes on the responsible of the chief partner, Besides, it is equipped with all resources, with good reputation in the industry; As for E, its Director is rather renowned, with a lot of social resources and many classic cases. However, the mobility of its team is high. Finally, upon comprehensive deliberation, this central enterprise selected D. 

This central enterprise chose D at last, not A which has the largest scale, B which has the most normalized management and the highest technical point, C which has a relatively flexible system, nor E which offers the lowest quotation and the smallest scale. D has no absolute advantage in any single item, but won at last. Why? During the communication at some occasion, General Counsel of this central enterprise said that the most important factor to be considered when a client selects a lawyer is “sense of security”. 

This is what I want to share with you. In the decision-making mode of a client, sense of security is very important. From this case, we can obtain the following findings: 

The client may have no sense of security when many lawyers of a law firm are penalized; 

The client may have sense of security when the management is too rigorous and the legal services are simply routinized, especially for lawsuit cases. 

The client may have no sense of security when the management is not stable; 

The client may have no sense of security when the law firm is too small and too dependant on someone. 

There may be the following reasons for which the client has no sense of security: 

The lawyers were claimed due to professional error or gross negligence; 

The lawyers’ comment was too extreme or sensitive; 

The law firm ever lost the archive or the office caught fire; 

The partners in charge of the case suffered from box news or debt disputes; 

The office of the law firm was too remote or too non-independent and irregular; 

The law firm was involved in other economic disputes or other non-business events; 

Speaking of them, we can basically define sense of security of clients, from the opposite direction, we can understand that if the normal service of lawyers is affected because the law firm suffers from one hidden danger of unstable factor, or the clients cannot obtain the sufficient sense of security when the continuous, effective and safe service is ensured because the profession, team, experience, management mechanism, etc. of the law firm cannot meet the core demand of clients. Sense of security is an aggregate concept, as well as comprehensive requirement for the law firm. Therefore, many unsafe factors seem numerous, but they are regular, and they can be basically divided into three types, namely, technology and experience level, organization and management level, and spirit and character level. In order to make the clients have more sense of security, the law firm shall try to: In the technology and experience level, meet the substantial demand of clients, and not excessively pay attention to the procedure and form; In the organization and management level, adapt to the normal dependency of clients on lawyers, and avoid the clients and lawyers from being out of order, out of control even lost; In the spirit and character level, conform to the heart value judgment of clients, and avoid from omitting, beyond the boundary, breaking the pattern, etc. 

In fact, as for this problem, many aspects cannot be accurately expressed by language. It is a profound and endless knowledge. 

Next, we will talk about some practices of DOCVIT, and also take the opportunity to consult you. 

We propose the appropriate scale to make clients have the basic sense of security. Not all law firms must be scaled, and not all lawyers’ businesses are safe by scaling. For some specific client bases and specific business, the basic guarantee for the law firm is to own certain scale indeed. Due to the enough scale, enough partners, enough service field, enough service region, stable team supply and the systematic business bearing capacity can be owned. I think that it forms consensus in this industry. Meanwhile, we also think that the scale of the law firm shall be appropriate, if a specific number or standard must be given, the number of persons in the single office is not more than 200, and the general scale of the law firm is not more than 2,000. 

Our integrated management and team service are the largest responsibility for client security. We always emphasize that our service for the clients must be integrated and team-oriented in each office and the whole law firm. Namely, our all partners and all lawyers must unconditionally form a team if only required by the clients in the specific case and project. Only in this way, the clients can truly have the sense of security. In 2017, one client was our permanent legal advisor unit, and our seven partners and more than thirty lawyers provided service for it for one year, and our system won the recognition of the client. All above middle-level managers of this client secretly marked three law firms with partnership in that year, and our average score was more than 23 points than the second place. 

Our executive partner system is a guarantee for client security. While we emphasize the integration and team-oriented, we always persist that each business must be arranged with an executive partner, and the team of each case or project must consist of executive partner, sponsor lawyer and subsidiary team. We don’t allow the non-partners to face the clients alone, and don’t accept the commission lawyers, but we require the executive partners to assume lifelong responsibility for the business in charge, despite the source of case is owned by them. 

Our mandatory specialized division and cooperation system settles the clients’ demand on professional security and personnel security. Previously I ever mentioned that our partners could only select two professional orientations, and must cooperate beyond the scope. In the cooperative cases, we are divided into source of case partner and executive partner. In this way, the internal management difficulty and cost are increased indeed, but the combination of the professionals and personnel security is truly settled for the clients. DOCVIT always advocates the cooperation concept that “the external market boundary is obscurer and obscurer, and the internal professional boundary is clearer and clearer”, and the largest beneficiary is client. 

Our informatization construction provides the substantial guarantee for client security, especially information security. We spent two years in completing our own GreenCloud VIT system, including instant messaging system, which was self-built by us. It not only facilitates business and management, but also guarantees client security, specially information security. It is self-explanatory. 

Our quality supervision and risk control system truly convoys client security. Our quality supervision and risk control system of the business management department, business department and law firm is not only an internal risk control measure, but also an security protection for the clients. 

Our self-relief system and industry guarantee system are also perfected day by day. We set the risk margin system and industrial mandatory practice liability insurance arrangement in the law firm, and also consider supplementing the practice liability insurance. 

I will not introduce them one by one. 

In fact, our zero complaint for fifteen years is also a good proof for client security.