No Law Firm Is An Island: Work With The Right Non-Lawyer Businesses

Lawyers of any kind need to find and cultivate the right relationships with vendors and non-lawyer businesses, as columnist John Balestriere explains.

Last week, I wrote about how litigation requires the right team in a law office. Teamwork goes beyond just the lawyers and professionals who work in one law office. All lawyers of any kind need to find and cultivate the right relationships with vendors and non-lawyer businesses.

Trying a complex case is a colossal endeavor that takes months of intense work, followed by a few weeks of really intense work just before trial, followed by non-stop work when you’re actually on trial (and, as an aside, it’s absolutely fantastic work). Different members of the law firm team have different responsibilities, from the lead counsel, to the next-level lawyer, to other lawyers that jump in, to paralegals, to law student interns. Your law firm team must be in place for you to have a hope to do it well.

But a great law firm team, while essential at the trial stage is not enough. Good trial lawyers know how to use demonstratives — that requires having the right printer who knows how trials work and what can (and cannot) be included. You have to manage the documents you have provided and received from months or maybe years of litigation — that requires a document processing and perhaps storage company (the days of storing documents in your building basement as a good practice are over). Obviously, you need to have a research program to address the legal questions that come up throughout trial (since the days of the large, in-firm law library, filled with paper books, are also a thing of the past). The list goes on, and the need, while less intense when you are not on trial, is there throughout the entire litigation.

Our firm focuses on trials and investigations, so I have a litigator’s perspective on this, but all law offices, private and public, need to work with non-legal professionals to get their jobs done. In government, you may have different divisions of non-lawyers in your office to handle needs, though that depends on the size of the office. I worked in the New York Country District Attorney’s Office, which, when I was there as an assistant district attorney, had 500 lawyers and 700 non-lawyers, and we never hired outside vendors. Many smaller government offices will not have so many non-lawyers on staff.  Few non-profits do. Most law firms have relatively few on staff. If you are a lawyer, you are going to work with non-lawyers, and often they will not work under the same roof as you.

However, these vendors do not simply show up at your door. Well, perhaps that is not completely true. Many do come, literally knocking on your door, frequently unexpected, and sometimes with bizarre gifts: when I mentioned to a document processing vendor who came to our firm for a sales pitch that I had several small children, he provided me with what he called “toys” for the kids — oversized letter openers that resembled gavels (I’ve tried dozens of cases and not once seen a judge actually use a gavel). The already weird (and unprofessional-looking) letter openers were hardly “toys” in that they opened letters by use of straight razors. Clearly this vendor did not have children, or at least not boys.

You do not choose whoever walks in your door, or sends you an email, or calls you. But you must choose someone. How do you choose? The same way people choose lawyers: use word of mouth, ask around, seek referrals, and ask challenging questions during the sales pitches. Avoid working with someone just because they are aggressive (but, as an aside, since lawyers have to seek clients as well, I do respect those who work to get the business). And, obviously, do not feel committed to someone forever just because you signed up with them. We just had the most absolutely abysmal experience with one document processor and are terminating the relationship with them because of that. Be flexible and be ready to move on.

Also, have more than one vendor available. It is important to build good vendor relationships. It is also important to be smart and prepared, so having at least two vendors for any ongoing legal need — document management, deposition stenography, printing, whatever — is a prudent move. We do and try to alternate between different services, which itself helps us see how even those vendors we like a lot may be able to provide better service by comparing services amongst providers.

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And always follow the Golden Rule with vendors: treat them as you would like clients to treat you.


John Balestriere is an entrepreneurial trial lawyer who founded his firm after working as a prosecutor and litigator at a small firm. He is a partner at trial and investigations law firm Balestriere Fariello in New York, where he and his colleagues represent domestic and international clients in litigation, arbitration, appeals, and investigations. You can reach him by email at john.g.balestriere@balestrierefariello.com.

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