For many years we have been committed to borderless collaboration within our firm. We work hard to eliminate any tendencies towards siloing. We believe that the best things happen in the interaction between smart and ambitious individuals. But increasingly we find ourselves inviting our clients to the same kind of collaboration that we apply internally. And we find that it works.
Few of our clients’ challenges can be allocated to a specific area of the law. Most issues that our clients encounter fail to relate exclusively to e.g. company law. A matter typically involves a number of legal areas, such as company law, employment, tax, competition and securities law. No individual lawyer will be able to provide insightful advice within all of the relevant areas. Lawyers with different expertise will have to collaborate and coordinate to find the best solution for the client. We work hard to render comprehensive advice, presented to the client with one voice, covering the insights of all our experts. We call this way of working our powerhouse model.
In a similar way, few of our clients’ challenges can be treated as pure legal matters. In order to find the best solutions to multifaceted challenges involving commercial, technical, public relations and legal aspects, a wide range of expertise and insight will have to be engaged. The relevant experts will have to collaborate and coordinate in order to identify and implement the best solutions for the client and its business. But it is usually not possible for a group of external experts, consultants or lawyers to provide comprehensive and insightful advice without the input of the client. On the contrary, the client’s input in the collaboration for identifying and implementing the best solutions is often crucial.
As a General Counsel for instance, it is simply not possible to fully outsource the handling of your most complex challenges. You will have to be engaged yourself, to ensure that your specific circumstances and objectives will be taken into account and that the solutions will be in line with your company’s strategy and values. There is significant value in developing an open and constructive relationship with your law firm and your team of external lawyers. When you and your team are used to active and open communication and cooperation, it will come naturally when it is really needed to find solutions in urgent and complex situations. That is why the best client relationships could also be characterised as powerhouses, integrated groups where solutions are developed in close cooperation by continuously and efficiently sharing information and collaborating to identify and implement solutions that are sustainable and work in practice.
Think of this in a larger context. How can the world solve the challenges posed by climate change and loss of biodiversity? By calling an expert? By giving an assignment to a group of experts? I’m afraid that will not be enough. All relevant parties will have to engage in a process of collaboration to identify issues and solutions that we can all implement.
There is a lot of room for collaboration in this world – let’s get to it and do it together!
