A big congratulations to Hive Legal, start-up virtual law firm, crowned the 2014 ALPMA/Telstra Thought Leadership Award winner at last night’s ALPMA Summit Gala dinner in Melbourne.
The award recognised Hive Legal as 2014’s outstanding law firm who is doing things differently and successfully adapting to changes in the legal landscape. It provides recognition for firms and legal departments who have successfully implemented innovative projects and strategic initiatives in response to the many and varied challenges facing the Australasian legal industry.
Will Irving, Group Managing Director of Telstra Business, said, “The new digital era means that the way we do business is rapidly changing. Hive Legal is a fantastic example of a firm that is embracing the opportunities this new era brings and is reaping the rewards. With technology that better empowers staff to work and truly collaborate remotely, professional client service now has a new benchmark.”
The Hive Legal Buzz
Hive Legal was founded in January, 2014 by a group of experienced partners from large law firms who sought to redesign legal services and has grown from three to 11 employees in just eight months. Hive Legal’s corporate and commercial clients include bluechip household names in health, transport and energy that are embracing its technology and innovation forward business model.
[pullquote align=”left” back=”2″ cite=”Jodie Baker – Managing Director, Hive Legal”]“We started with a clean slate and re-imagined the provision of legal services to better connect with the real needs of clients,[/pullquote]” Hive Managing Director Jodie Baker said.
ALPMA President and Financial Controller of the Lantern Legal Group, Andrew Barnes acknowledges “The transformation of the legal sector is well underway, driven by a wave of external forces,”
Hive Legal have been able to leveraged technology to its maximum capability, enabling employees to work collaboratively on client projects from any location at any time and reduce costs. Baker comments of the firms collaborative and client focused approach, “Clients are demanding greater efficiency and turnaround times, and allowing employees to determine the best way to provide this, with an open mind to how that might be achieved, ensures that we can accommodate client needs more effectively,” she said. “Conventional firms push work down to junior lawyers. We put principals and senior associates in an efficient infrastructure for effective client solutions.”
“One of our core values is collaboration and we work very closely as a team to deliver outcomes to clients. If you produce the work at home or in the office it really doesn’t matter where you’re located as long as the quality is there” she said. “Our enormous output has been derived from hard work and, at times, longer hours – but not from a crazy number of hours, day after day in the office and the dissatisfaction that comes from those periods.”
Hive Legal is also one of the few Australasian law firms to adopt value pricing as an alternative to flat-fee billable hours. The scope and value of each project is discussed with clients. A resourcing plan and timeline is developed, fees and billing milestones are agreed upfront with the client and the budget is then locked in.
Hive Legal we’re up against some tough competition, with other award finalists including, AdventBalance, Swaab Attorneys and PD Lawyers. Hear the 2014 ALPMA/Telstra Thought Leadership Awards Finalists talk about innovation at law firms in an interactive on-line panel discussion.
Last year’s winner was Anderssens Lawyers, a Brisbane-based commercial and property law firm with just 16 staff, who created a secure, online operating environment that supports a 100% paperless legal firm and highly automated legal process accessible 24/7 for both staff and clients from anywhere on any device.
