Manifesto - Do you have what it takes to be a Legal Rebel?
On July 21 2009, we posted the Legal Rebels Manifesto in the form of a wiki. Over the following month, a community of readers edited the document more than 65 times. The final draft is below.
If you're as committed to innovation in your corner of the legal profession as are the Legal Rebels we're profiling in this project, we invite you to comment on the Manifesto in the Blawg. You can use your real name, a Username or a Psuedonym. Feel free to do what feels right for you.
The Manifesto
I am a proud member of the United Kingdom's essential profession. Without lawyers and the rule of law, a free, fair and open society is not sustainable.
I recognise that the legal profession's traditions - the world's most respected legal education system, most successful law firms and fairest court system - were once radical innovations.
In this time of economic crisis, I am committed to improving those institutions and creating innovation in the practice of law. I will question and, when appropriate, change the status quo. And I will use technology to serve my clients and society.
I'll help remake the profession I hold dear so it can continue to deliver on our promise.
I'm an innovator. A maverick. A pathfinder.
I am a Legal Rebel.
Ray McLennan - Legal Rebel - Future History
Following a lifetime of self-employment in such diverse areas as wine importing, owning restaurants, a nightclub, 3 hairdressing salons, a cafe/wine bar and a Travel Agency, Ray had an argument with his lawyer over the size of a legal bill.
The lawyer tried to explain how complex it was to buy and sell a business.
Ray thought that there had to be an easier way for lawyers to interact with business clients so he started a part-time law degree at Napier University in Edinburgh where he graduated with distinction.
He then attended Edinburgh University Law School to complete a compulsory legal diploma.
As former CEO of the Copyright Protection Agency , Ray pursued a legal degree with the intention of attracting a business clientelle and simplifying the delivery of legal services.
As a former buyer of legal services, Ray thought traditional law firms were more interested in cost accounting using the hourly rate than in any kind of innovation. They lacked the appetite for calculated risks necessary to succeed in the corporate world.
“It’s one thing to say that one law firm gives poor service, but this seemed like an epidemic,” Ray says. “Every person I knew in a large firm was living a miserable existence. They were giving up everything that is important to them. There was no work-life balance. They were trapped on the ‘hamster wheel of hell’ of the hourly rate.”
(This next part is a Future History - Goals and plans for the future)
Today, Ray is CEO and creator the Futurus Group and most specifically RemarkableLaw.co.uk and "FixedPriceLaw.com" which bills itself as the first corporate law firm in the UK to exclusively adopt fixed-price billing. The Futurus Companies also include a firm which provides Locum "Lawyers-on-demand" to cover sudden influxes in business, Angels Den a venture capital organisation and strategy consulting company focused on startups and SME's. He also runs a suite of blawgs,
Determined to do things differently after graduating, Ray spent the next nine to twelve months creating a business plan for his multidimensional firm of the future. He based his model on a startup Limited Liability company rather than a traditional partnership or Limited Liability Practice (LLP).
“This was distinguishable from simply going out on my own because it wasn’t that I didn’t want to work for anyone else; I wanted to change the way the industry operates,” says McLennan, who interviewed lawyers—from Top 100 Law Firms to delegates at 360 Legal's annual conference—and asked what made them unhappy.
Business plan in hand, Ray recruited a team of seasoned management professionals to help found his new company and posted ads in legal trade publications to find solicitors who shared his vision.
“The top executives part was easy because businesses understand why a law firm needs a makeover,” says McLennan. “It was the lawyers that were tougher,” he adds.
“The first group of solicitors knew this was going to be successful and wanted to join the Firm, but they couldn’t make it happen,” Ray says of the decision to part early on with some lawyers who didn’t grasp the corporate model of the firm.
“We are much more than just a law firm,” Ray says of the Futurus Group which also includes business consultants under the name Futurus Law. “We are a professional services company in its early phases of development.”
Today, the 26-lawyer firm that targets national midmarket companies carefully screens the hundreds of CV's it receives each month for lawyer-candidates with business savvy and a commitment to innovation.
“In order to be a market leader in innovation, we will have to stay five to 10 years ahead of everyone else,” McLennan says.
The firm grows business organically from his clients at the Futurus Law companies as opposed to acquiring legal practices with large books of business, and it awards compensation on a merit basis. Though McLennan would not disclose total revenue, he said income is "healthy" and has “doubled every year since we started.” He expects 2022 revenues to show a 70 to 80 percent gain over 2021.
“We absolutely rejected the book-of-business model of building a firm,” says McLennan.
“We’ve turned away a number of lawyers with £250,000-or-more books of business because all they wanted to do was control their own book,” McLennan says. “We didn’t want that. We are a team-building firm.”
Another distinction of the Edinburgh firm: Futurus Lawyers don’t keep time sheets.
“We don’t count time. We are a timeless culture,” McLennan says of the firm’s commitment to abandon hourly rates as well as time-tracking for its employees. “The only way to be profitable in business is to be profitable, not in six-minute increments or only at 30 percent [profit].
“We know how much work our professionals turn around each month; we know what value they provide, and we know what we are charging. We track it at a macro level rather than at a micro level. And they get paid for being effective and efficient.”
Client input and feedback is also a significant part of fee-setting and collection. The firm’s lawyers meet with clients to discuss strategy, budget and an array of options at the onset of each matter, McLennan says. “We give them choices on how to solve the problem. Then we empower the client to choose what is best for them.”
“I’ve had conversations with some lawyers in the past, talked for half an hour and received a huge bill,” says Dilbert Dryberg, the founder of a Leading Software company. Dryberg says he chose Futurus Law because he felt the company had greater Web savoir faire and a modern business approach as opposed to its competitors. “Ray is not an hourly rate lawyer. He’ll talk to me, he’ll e-mail me and I don’t see a bill unless I ask him to do something. That’s very refreshing.”
At the end of each engagement, the firm’s lawyers and clients (whom the firm calls customers) review the service charges together. If clients have reservations about the value they received, the firm adjusts the amount owed to reflect those concerns.
“Customers only pay for the value they received,” McLennan says of the firm’s value-share policy. “There are also several instances where we’ve received value-share three to four times the original fee,” he adds. “This creates incentive to add more value and makes the customers feel more comfortable up front.”
It was at a meeting in London in November 1999 that Ray McLennan met and discussed this kind of firm with Ron Baker.
The lawyer tried to explain how complex it was to buy and sell a business.
Ray thought that there had to be an easier way for lawyers to interact with business clients so he started a part-time law degree at Napier University in Edinburgh where he graduated with distinction.
He then attended Edinburgh University Law School to complete a compulsory legal diploma.
As former CEO of the Copyright Protection Agency , Ray pursued a legal degree with the intention of attracting a business clientelle and simplifying the delivery of legal services.
As a former buyer of legal services, Ray thought traditional law firms were more interested in cost accounting using the hourly rate than in any kind of innovation. They lacked the appetite for calculated risks necessary to succeed in the corporate world.
“It’s one thing to say that one law firm gives poor service, but this seemed like an epidemic,” Ray says. “Every person I knew in a large firm was living a miserable existence. They were giving up everything that is important to them. There was no work-life balance. They were trapped on the ‘hamster wheel of hell’ of the hourly rate.”
(This next part is a Future History - Goals and plans for the future)
Today, Ray is CEO and creator the Futurus Group and most specifically RemarkableLaw.co.uk and "FixedPriceLaw.com" which bills itself as the first corporate law firm in the UK to exclusively adopt fixed-price billing. The Futurus Companies also include a firm which provides Locum "Lawyers-on-demand" to cover sudden influxes in business, Angels Den a venture capital organisation and strategy consulting company focused on startups and SME's. He also runs a suite of blawgs,
Determined to do things differently after graduating, Ray spent the next nine to twelve months creating a business plan for his multidimensional firm of the future. He based his model on a startup Limited Liability company rather than a traditional partnership or Limited Liability Practice (LLP).
“This was distinguishable from simply going out on my own because it wasn’t that I didn’t want to work for anyone else; I wanted to change the way the industry operates,” says McLennan, who interviewed lawyers—from Top 100 Law Firms to delegates at 360 Legal's annual conference—and asked what made them unhappy.
Business plan in hand, Ray recruited a team of seasoned management professionals to help found his new company and posted ads in legal trade publications to find solicitors who shared his vision.
“The top executives part was easy because businesses understand why a law firm needs a makeover,” says McLennan. “It was the lawyers that were tougher,” he adds.
“The first group of solicitors knew this was going to be successful and wanted to join the Firm, but they couldn’t make it happen,” Ray says of the decision to part early on with some lawyers who didn’t grasp the corporate model of the firm.
“We are much more than just a law firm,” Ray says of the Futurus Group which also includes business consultants under the name Futurus Law. “We are a professional services company in its early phases of development.”
Today, the 26-lawyer firm that targets national midmarket companies carefully screens the hundreds of CV's it receives each month for lawyer-candidates with business savvy and a commitment to innovation.
“In order to be a market leader in innovation, we will have to stay five to 10 years ahead of everyone else,” McLennan says.
The firm grows business organically from his clients at the Futurus Law companies as opposed to acquiring legal practices with large books of business, and it awards compensation on a merit basis. Though McLennan would not disclose total revenue, he said income is "healthy" and has “doubled every year since we started.” He expects 2022 revenues to show a 70 to 80 percent gain over 2021.
“We absolutely rejected the book-of-business model of building a firm,” says McLennan.
“We’ve turned away a number of lawyers with £250,000-or-more books of business because all they wanted to do was control their own book,” McLennan says. “We didn’t want that. We are a team-building firm.”
Another distinction of the Edinburgh firm: Futurus Lawyers don’t keep time sheets.
“We don’t count time. We are a timeless culture,” McLennan says of the firm’s commitment to abandon hourly rates as well as time-tracking for its employees. “The only way to be profitable in business is to be profitable, not in six-minute increments or only at 30 percent [profit].
“We know how much work our professionals turn around each month; we know what value they provide, and we know what we are charging. We track it at a macro level rather than at a micro level. And they get paid for being effective and efficient.”
Client input and feedback is also a significant part of fee-setting and collection. The firm’s lawyers meet with clients to discuss strategy, budget and an array of options at the onset of each matter, McLennan says. “We give them choices on how to solve the problem. Then we empower the client to choose what is best for them.”
“I’ve had conversations with some lawyers in the past, talked for half an hour and received a huge bill,” says Dilbert Dryberg, the founder of a Leading Software company. Dryberg says he chose Futurus Law because he felt the company had greater Web savoir faire and a modern business approach as opposed to its competitors. “Ray is not an hourly rate lawyer. He’ll talk to me, he’ll e-mail me and I don’t see a bill unless I ask him to do something. That’s very refreshing.”
At the end of each engagement, the firm’s lawyers and clients (whom the firm calls customers) review the service charges together. If clients have reservations about the value they received, the firm adjusts the amount owed to reflect those concerns.
“Customers only pay for the value they received,” McLennan says of the firm’s value-share policy. “There are also several instances where we’ve received value-share three to four times the original fee,” he adds. “This creates incentive to add more value and makes the customers feel more comfortable up front.”
It was at a meeting in London in November 1999 that Ray McLennan met and discussed this kind of firm with Ron Baker.
