New law firm ‘blows up’ old model
The view that small businesses were “scared to phone a lawyer” because it would end up being a costly call was one of the drivers behind the establishment of Adelaide’s latest boutique firm, NDA Law.
Founded by former Finlaysons lawyers Andrea Michaels, John MacPhail and Paul Gordon, NDA will offer clients a fixed price service – a radical departure from the traditional approach of time sheets and hourly rates.
NDA’s web site puts it most succinctly: “Life isn’t divided into 6 minute units. Nor should your legal work be.”
Elaborating in an interview with InDaily, NDA managing director Andrea Michaels said “I was uncomfortable with a model that promotes inefficiency – the longer you spend on something, the more rewarded you are”.
“I didn’t understand that. So we thought ‘let’s change this model and blow it up’,” she said.
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“People are scared to pick up the phone and call a lawyer because they don’t want a $200 bill for what really isn’t any value for them. So we will have a chat to clients beforehand, scope out the costs, and tell them what the job will cost.
“I have a family business background so I know that it’s important to know what a particular service is going cost.
“And that’s where the SME market really fits in and I think we are going to get a lot of work in that area.”
John MacPhail adds that NDA will also offer a retainer to clients in some circumstances.
“We will have a retainer operating for some clients so they can pick up the phone and the meter will not be running,” MacPhail said.
“It’s an approach that leads to a more relaxed relationship than you might otherwise get with a time-driven, charging model,” he said.
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NDA has also broken with tradition in choosing its name, foregoing the heritage of old Adelaide legal family monikers or esteemed partners.
The NDA acronym can mean almost anything with the new firm’s website containing numerous permutations including ‘Nimble Dynamic Agile’, ‘Never Deliver Average’, ‘Noteworthy, Driven and Able’ and ‘New, Down-to-Earth Approach’.
Rather than being established as a partnership, NDA Law had been set up as a company with shareholders and key employees participating in a profit sharing arrangement.
The firm will specialise in such areas as tax and succession planning services, family business services, intellectual property, technology, education and research, and new and digital media.
In regard to new and social media, MacPhail says the law has long struggled with new technologies, and the digital world is no different.
“Since the pianola roll at the start of last century to the internet at the start of this century and before, it is really a question of scratching your head and deciding what sort of old world lockers can we push this new world development into,” MacPhail said.
“The trouble is you have to change the shape of the locker room to accommodate these new developments and that is a very slow process,” he said.
Paul Gordon, who specialises in social media, including offering a ‘social media triage service’ when social media has gone wrong for a client, says the two biggest legal issues in the digital world are copyright infringements and misleading and deceptive conduct which could constitute defamation.
“Copyright infringement of misleading and deceptive conducts- defamation both come up in social media and new media a lot more because, in a couple of cases, companies have been found responsible for what third parties say and do on social media, and that is a marked change,” Gordon said.
“It’s not just what you or your employees have put online but it’s what your customers and even your competitors have put online about you or your product.
“It’s no longer possible to ignore new media and social media, you have to be involved,” he said.
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