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Bigger is Not Always Better

Feb 14, 2022

In businesses like ours, specialization matters. Competency matters.

But the details are what really matter.

So, when outside money comes in from private equity and elsewhere, there are often things that look great on paper (see “spreadsheet”) but don’t play out so well in reality.

Consolidation can make sense. That is until customers begin to notice major slips in service. Sometimes it gets so bad that they resist.

Then big ones push back. And hard.

This dynamic was predictable, and now it’s coming true. If you become so focused on size and top-line growth that you treat your customers poorly, they will find alternatives. The essence of a free market.

For all the breathless talk about so much money flowing into the legal space (it’s now news if a day goes by without an announcement of an acquisition or new PE money), much of it is ill-conceived.

It’s beginning to be rejected by the people who pay the bills. They don’t want another new logo when it means poor service.

While headlines scream of the hundreds of millions pouring into the legal space pushing disruption and consolidation, at Level Legal we’ve been a bit contrarian. We’re focused on one word: hospitality.

Not in the traditional “hospitality industry” sense, though we can learn from them. Imagine being treated by a legal provider the way you are at the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton.

By “hospitality,” I mean doubling down on treating our customers in the way they would like to be treated. Delighting them. Surprising them. Raising the level of service beyond anything they’ve experienced before in our space.

Is it a high bar? Yes. But we love a challenge. And even more, we are delighted when our customers are delighted.

Sometimes the old ideas are the best ideas: do right by your customers, and they will do right by you.

Bigger is not always better.

Try the Level Legal difference. Contact us today to get started.

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Our Framework

Understand.

During this phase, we work to step away from any assumptions and guesses about what our customers needs, and let our research findings inform our decision-making. We learn more about our customers, their problems, wants, and needs, and the environment or context in which they will use the solution we offer.

Our Framework

Define.

During the Define phase, we analyze our research findings from the Understand phase and determine what is the most important problem to solve — and why. This step defines the goal. Then we can give a clear problem statement, describing what our customers’ needs are that we are trying to solve, making sure that we heard and defined their problem correctly.

Our Framework

Solve.

This phase is an important part of the discipline in our process. People often settle for the first solution, but the most obvious solution is often not the right one. During the Solve phase, we brainstorm collaboratively with multiple stakeholders to generate many unique solutions. We then analyze our potential solutions and make choices about which are the best to pursue based on learnings in the Understand phase.

Our Framework

Build & Test.

This phase is critical in developing the right solution to our customers’ problem. An organized approach to testing can help avoid rework and create exceptional outcomes. Starting small and testing the solution, we iterate quickly, before deploying solutions across the entire project.

Our Framework

Act.

During this phase, the hard work of prior phases comes to life in our customers’ best solution. The research, collaboration, and testing performed prior to project kick-off ensure optimal results.

Our Framework

Feedback.

At the project completion, we convene all stakeholders to discuss what went well, what could have been better, and how we might improve going forward. We call these meetings “Retrospectives,” and we perform them internally as a project team, and with our external customers. The Retrospective is one of the most powerful, meaningful tools in our framework.

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