A few weeks ago, I wrote about accountants being jealous of lawyers. Sure, accountants and lawyers share the same clients, but we all know lawyers are number one in clients’ hearts. It goes lawyers, then accountants. The Beatles, then everybody else…
Lawyers belong to an exclusive club — almost as exclusive as a Ted Cruz study group. This club has served clients nobly for eons, solving people’s most pressing problems. Put it this way: When the Ontario Securities Commission drops a subpoena in your lap for insider trading, do you call your dog or your lawyer? That should tell you who man’s best friend really is.
All we ask in return is you pay us for every minute we talk, think, or write about your matter — and don’t begrudge us a “premium” now and then (throw us a bone, so to speak).
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But now the business model that has served clients so well, for so long, is under attack from all sides. There’s gratitude for you. Most recently, accounting giant Deloitte came out with a report recommending lawyers change the way they do business or get left behind. Are you kidding me? Mess with success?
I’m convinced it’s a trick. Accountants want us to give up a good thing, so the beancounters can usurp us with clients; knock us off the mantle. I won’t fall for it. I promise you here and now I will never give up the traditional law practice that has served clients so ably. I will not embrace technology as Deloitte recommends. Alternative billing structures? Bah! Long live the billable hour!
Here’s more evidence that accountants are out to get us. It involves devilish Deloitte again. The Canadian arm of the accounting giant recently purchased a law firm called Conduit Law and renamed it Deloitte Conduit Law LLP.
What’s that old adage? If you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em…
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Conduit Law entered the Canadian market in 2012 with the goal of providing outsourced lawyers to support in-house legal teams. Now Peter Carayiannis, Conduit’s founder, has sold out to the beancounters. Peter, Peter, Peter…
What does Conduit get for the sellout? I guess it gets access to Deloitte’s international platform that has C-suite connections with major companies all over the world. That might help Conduit develop business… perhaps.
As much as I think accountants are jealous of lawyers, some accountants are pretty smart. I would grudgingly admit they run their businesses pretty well. Lawyers are not always that great at running the business side of a law practice. We’re not perfect. Thus, Conduit may really benefit from having accountants do the business-y things, allowing the lawyers to focus on providing terrific legal services to their clients.
That might not be terrible…
And, accountants have always been better at identifying business opportunities and exploiting them. I mean, they had to, right, in order to keep up with lawyers. I will, again, grudgingly admit Conduit may find value in learning from accountants how to plan for the future and seize new opportunities. Peter Carayiannis seems to believe this will happen. He thinks the new Conduit Law will be able to provide a broader range of services to its clients than it currently does thanks to its partnership with the accountants.
Seizing new opportunities. Providing a broader range of services. I guess I can’t find too much fault with that…
Additionally, if you believe all this garbage that the legal profession fundamentally needs to change its business model, you might see some benefit in how the Deloitte/Conduit partnership will help Conduit provide a “unique and more flexible approach to legal services that enhances the capability to provide high quality solutions that reflect the changing realities of the market,” as Deloitte claims will happen as a result of the Conduit sellout.
It’s pretty clear I don’t believe we need to change, but if I did, flexibility to deal with a rapidly changing market might not be a bad thing… maybe.
My biggest problem with the whole thing is this kind of opens the door to our exclusive club and lets outsiders in. How good would the Beatles be if they let Coldplay, for example, get on stage with them every night? If you saw Coldplay during the Super Bowl halftime show, you already know the answer to that.
That’s the View From Up North. Have a traditional week.
Steve Dykstra is a Canadian-trained lawyer and legal recruiter. He is the President of Steven Dykstra Law Professional Corporation, a boutique corporate/commercial law firm located in the greater Toronto area. You can contact Steve at [email protected]. You can also read his blog at stevendykstra.wordpress.com, follow him on Twitter (@Law_Think), or connect on LinkedIn (ca.linkedin.com/in/stevedykstra/).