Q: How does Priori compare to traditional talent models?
Under the traditional model, when I hire an attorney from a temp agency, their goal is to come in, make money and roll off a project. They’re not invested in learning about my company or the people that they’re working with. There’s no intent to create a relationship and that impacts the quality of the work.
As someone who manages staffing from a budgeting and headcount perspective, when you can have an external person come in and act like a full-time employee, there’s tremendous value. With Priori attorneys, that’s what you get. It’s like having an employee starting with your company, or a seconded attorney from your outside counsel, who knows your business and is invested in the quality of the work.
“It’s like having an employee starting with your company, or a seconded attorney from your outside counsel, who knows your business and is invested in the quality of the work.”
Q: Where do you see the most value in Priori’s software?
There are a couple of ways that we see value. One is timeliness. We have issues with getting our firms to deliver projects on time. One of the things we’ve built out is a way to show timeliness data coming out of our billing system into our dashboard. To get that same information out of our billing system, our attorneys have to dig for it. We’re encouraging more business-focused approaches to our relationships with law firms, and allowing our attorneys to see that data on their dashboards and address it is really going to help with that.
The other way we see value is in our panel program. We’re in the midst of drawing a new panel and I’m hoping our relationships with our firms will evolve over time—whether in certain practice areas or with processes like RFPs—and Priori will give us the flexibility to manage that. Having all of that data available in one place is a huge value.
Q: What are the advantages of a flexible legal talent model?
Being flexible is terrific, especially in the economy we’re all working in. When you have restructuring or reductions and a new big project comes in, how do you staff that? It’s not a good look to pare down to make a headcount number and then spend that same money in another place by using temps. Having people who can come in and do the work efficiently within a timeframe and a budget is really helpful.
For example, we had someone from Priori that we used who could roll off projects and roll back on. Creating a relationship with someone who has that flexibility is great. That’s something we wouldn’t get from using a traditional temp agency because if we roll someone off for six months and then we need to call them back, the chance is they won’t be available. With Priori, we can have that type of recall relationship and that is valuable both to us and the attorneys we work with.
I’ve had situations where a request has come across my desk to approve 40 hours a week at ‘X’ amount of dollars an hour—usually a ridiculous amount of money—to bring in someone from a law firm. I’ll say, ‘This seems like a lot of money, I think we need to do a comparison.’ And we talk about whether we really need 40 hours a week. The truth is, in a lot of situations, bringing someone in at 20 hours a week for half the cost can get the job done. But we won’t get the option of bringing someone in for less than 40 hours a week if we go to a law firm. With Priori, we have that option.
Q: What brings you back to Priori for multiple engagements?
Usually, I am focused on quality and value. We definitely save money using Priori attorneys, but that’s not what really drives the decision for me. I’m getting more value for my dollar when I’m using Priori attorneys. When you’re engaging a temporary attorney, you have a real need and you don’t come to that decision lightly. You should be getting the most you can for the hourly rate.
“Priori attorneys are able to ramp up quickly and that’s incredibly important.”
Priori attorneys are able to ramp up quickly and that’s incredibly important. Using them in place of some of our larger firms has helped with cost containment. For example, we’ve examined tasks that are repetitive or hour-intensive and determined that we were overpaying for work that somebody equally as capable could be doing for us. In my experience, just because an attorney doesn’t work for a big-name law firm doesn’t mean they’re not a really talented, educated and capable attorney who chose a different path. Priori gives us the opportunity to work with people with unique perspectives.
