Pricing Matters

Our Guests

Melissa Prince serves as Ballard Spahr’s Chief Client Value and Innovation Officer and sits on the firm's Management Committee and Expanded Board. Melissa focuses on listening to client needs and understanding how each client's business operates in order to make the connection between value and innovation. She oversees the firm's Client Value and Innovation program, which includes more than 20 business professionals focused on creating a customized experience for each client.

Melissa is a frequent speaker, presenter, and author on legal operations topics. She recently launched the Ballard360 Insider blog, which is focused on delivering insights and best practices in legal operations. Under Melissa's leadership, the firm was named to the Financial Times' Most Innovative Law Firms Business of Law, an innovation "Mover and Shaker" by BTI Consulting, and a finalist for the American Lawyer Industry Awards in the best law firm/client team and best business team categories. 

Before coming to Ballard Spahr, Melissa held similar roles at two Am Law 25 firms. She is an attorney who, before leaving private practice, managed complex commercial litigation matters. She is a Six Sigma Green Belt, Certified Legal Project Manager, ALPP and ALPM.

Dan Pope is the Director of Strategic Pricing & Profitability at Ballard Spahr and oversees a team of pricing professionals that focus on using state-of-the-art tools and technology to gather and analyze information and evaluate the variables that drive cost. 

The team partners with firm clients to develop accurate cost-projections, customize pricing and value-based fee arrangements, establish goals and expectations, and identify preferences for cost efficiency, predictability, transparency, and value. 

Dan also leads an ongoing initiative to review the firm’s top clients to ensure firm profitability benchmarks are met. The program focuses on current arrangements, staffing, 

•   KEY TAKEAWAYS
  • Innovation Philosophy: There is no innovation without adoption! When a new approach isn’t working, you need to be able to fail fast and rethink what you are doing. 
  • Competitive Intelligence: It's about giving clients something that they cannot find elsewhere. 
  • Regulating the Legal Industry: Change is coming and Law firms need to think more quickly and innovatively about how they are operating.

Andrew Jewel is the Senior Director, Strategic Pricing & Business Solutions at Seyfarth Shaw. Andrew works closely with Firm Department Chairs, the Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer, and key members of the Finance team and leads the pricing and business side of Seyfarth’s Alternative Fee Arrangement (AFA) program.

Prior to entering the legal solutions industry, Andrew practiced law for nearly five years as a commercial litigation and antitrust associate at two AmLaw firms. He earned a JD, with honors, from The National Law Center at the George Washington University, where he was a member of the Journal of International Law & Economics, and a B.A. from Haverford College in Haverford, PA.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

•  Data & Risk Sharing Deliver  Successful AFAs.  Access to historical matter data and appropriate risk-sharing between law firms and clients are the building blocks for strong partnerships between law firms and their clients. 
• Beyond Revenue.  It’s more important to understand and measure the cost of delivery and profitability drivers of the work your firm is doing.
• Proactivity Matters Clients want firms that are efficient, know their business and deliver value without having to be reminded.

Gregory J. Kaple is the Senior Director, Legal Business Services, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Greg Kaple is a venturer and a strategist known for creating unique business models and solution delivery innovations for complex professional, technology, and services organizations. In his current role, Kaple is transforming the KFHP legal department’s service delivery model to provide affordable access to high-quality legal care.  Comprised of more than 80 attorneys, 170 total staff, and a combined annual budget of more than $150 million, the legal department is responsible for protecting KFHP’s $84 billion nonprofit business from risk in an age of unprecedented healthcare industry business and regulatory change. By focusing on core principles of transparency, collaboration, and infrastructure the department is reducing costs, enhancing the quality, and setting a new standard of value-oriented outcomes for KFPH’s members, community, and industry.

Kaple has lead strategy development for such companies as Time Warner, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Squire Sanders, and WilmerHale. His business ventures have included founding a professional service firm, a media production company, a cloud services provider, and a chain of high-end men’s barber clubs.  He has been a member of several University programs with West Virginia University and Ohio University where he created a breakthrough class on Entrepreneurial Sales. Kaple has a Masters Degree of Science in Telecommunications Management from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Ohio University.

TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

• Data is a Game Changer. Legal departments and their panel firms should work in partnership to improve the quality of their data to drive decision making. 
• Making it Easy. Communication tools like portals, reference guides, and focused training materials, help your panel firms to understand, digest, and comply with your Billing Guidelines. 
• Diversity is a Bigger Priority than Ever. A focus on diverse staffing, work allocation, utilizing the ABA diversity survey data enable, and a commitment to taking action. 

As the US Chief Pricing & Value Officer, Dwight Floyd and his team work with Eversheds Sutherland attorneys and clients to provide superior value by developing and implementing creative pricing and service delivery strategies.

Value is rarely increased through wholesale discounting or telling clients what they need but instead by targeting – actually asking – clients about their specific goals and what they want to achieve. Dwight works closely with attorneys and administrative staff to increase Eversheds Sutherland’s efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and innovation in a dedicated pursuit of delivering its client’s goals.

Dwight is a former litigation partner and a biologist who brings a different approach to some common challenges in the legal world. As in our natural ecosystem, he recognizes that everything in the legal ecosystem is connected to everything else. His challenge and goal is discovering and revealing to attorneys and clients how those connections can benefit and sustain everyone involved while still conserving resources

Dwight is rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell and is an Accredited Legal Pricing Professional (ALPP) by the True Value Partnering Institute.

True Value Partnering Institute

Find out more about the ALLP accreditation and the True Value Partnering Institute, the premier educational network for legal pricing, project management, and innovation professionals. 

TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

• Understand Expectations. It's the intangibles that make a successful pricing arrangement.
• Process Orientation. Technology can help package information in a way that is easily accessible to both the lawyers and clients.
• It's a Relationship Business. We will continue to see the growth of relationships between legal operations professionals in corporate departments and business professionals at law firms. 

Linda Novosel serves as Blank Rome’s Chief Innovation & Value Officer. In this role, Linda is responsible for driving the development of creative approaches to enhancing value and client service. Linda collaborates with Blank Rome’s attorneys and clients on designing customized service solutions that are cost-effective and efficient through a combination of people, process, and technology. In addition, Linda oversees strategic pricing and client value, practice innovation, data analytics, legal project management, and process improvement.

Linda has more than 30 years of experience in the legal industry and has held senior management positions at several other Am Law 100 firms where she was responsible for practice management, strategic pricing, legal project management, e-discovery, attorney and non-attorney staffing, contract attorney programs, and process improvement.

 A former practicing lawyer, Linda received her J.D., cum laude, from Widener University School of Law where she served as an editor of the Widener Journal of Public Law and was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society. She earned her B.A. in International Relations from Bucknell University.

Sharon Scenna serves as Director of Client Value at Blank Rome.  She collaborates with clients, attorneys, and firm leadership on value and innovation efforts that enhance relationships. Sharon develops pricing structures that address mutual needs and strategies to help clients manage their legal budgets. She advises on rate and compensation models, hourly rates, evaluating new business opportunities, and client retention plans. Sharon is a key member of the innovation team that leverages a combination of people, process, and technology to provide cost-effective and efficient solutions. 

Sharon has over 20 years of experience in the legal industry including serving as Director of Practice Management where she advised department heads and practice group leaders on business planning, revenue and expense management, paralegal and attorney staffing needs, and coordinated with various administrative departments. As Director of Business Development, Sharon oversaw the marketing and business development team, launched client team programs, and led the successful implementation of CRM.

Sharon earned an MBA from LaSalle University and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from King’s College.

  TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

• Innovation is better together. Innovation programs that encourage working in teams bring diverse ideas, creativity, and deliver better solutions.
• Help your clients shine. How can you help your legal department show they are not just a cost center but really providing an impact on the company’s bottom line?
• Leverage your data. Data is critically important to managing any pricing arrangement and providing transparency both internally and externally.

Welcome back to Frederick J. Esposito, Jr, MBA, CLM, Chief Operating Officer of the regional law firm Rivkin Radler LLP. Fred has more than 25 years of law and accounting firm experience and has been a Certified Legal Manager (CLM)SM since 2006.  Fred specializes in financial and organizational management and has managed and worked in a consulting capacity with several law firms, both international and domestic. Fred brings considerable “real world” experience to his role as a speaker and educator. Also, he is a senior member of the faculty and a consultant for the Legal Lean Sigma Institute LLC. In May 2018, Fred earned a Yellow Belt Certification in Legal Lean Sigma® and Project Management and is working toward his Green Belt Certification.  

Fred recently published an article for the Legal Executive Institute "Process improvement & project management in the new “new normal” where he shares his views on why firms need to embrace fast-track process improvement methodologies. 

TOP THREE TAKEAWAYS

• The pandemic is shining a light on process improvement. Now is the time to review what is working and what is not working.
• The crisis will bring opportunities. Firms will be reevaluating their business models, including their service delivery and business development processes, and these changes will impact the pricing strategy.
• Fostering client relationships. Efficiency, value, and focus work in equilibrium to strengthen the client relationship. 

Mike Milazzo is Kelley Drye’s Director of Strategic Pricing and is focused on delivering solutions to enhance overall client value and drive bottom-line performance for the firm.

With over 12 years of pricing experience, Mike works with the firm’s Executive Director, Chief Financial Officer, and senior firm management on strategic and operational initiatives related to pricing, project management, and process improvement.  He consults with partners to develop appropriate pricing strategies and collaborates with clients and legal operations professionals to drive the development of creative pricing solutions to meet client needs and business objectives. Mike serves on the firm’s Client Value and Innovation Committee, is an accredited legal pricing professional (ALPP), and an active member of the True Value Partnering Institute organization – Law Firm Pricing Cohort.
 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Start with Empathy: Lawyers should be having human conversations with their clients. To develop genuinely symbiotic relationships means hurting when their clients are hurting.
• Understanding Client Needs: Sometimes you must sift through the weeds to understand your client's true needs. 
• Delivering Value. Clients are going to find value in firms that can help them anticipate what’s going to happen next. 

In this episode, we speak with Diversity Lab’s  Chief Intelligence & Knowledge Sharing Officer, Lisa Kirby, and Lelia Hock, Director, Legal Department Partnerships & Inclusion Initiatives to find out how Pricing, Innovation, Client Value, and Legal Project Management teams can help to prevent the potential negative impact of the current crisis on all the advances that have been made in diversity in the legal industry. 

Lisa Kirby, Chief Intelligence & Knowledge Sharing Officer at Diversity Lab. Lisa brings 20 years of experience in the legal profession to Diversity Lab. She has served as a practicing attorney, talent management professional, and law firm consultant. Lisa began her career as a litigator, practicing at two large law firms. She then spent several years as a professional development manager at Goodwin Procter LLP, where her contributions included helping to launch and lead the firm’s Women’s Initiative and developing a new parent coaching program. As a consultant with Edge International, Lisa advised a wide range of domestic and international law firms on strategic and talent management issues.

 At Diversity Lab, among many other duties, Lisa has led the creation and implementation of the needle-moving Mansfield Rule, now in its second certification year. She is a sought-after speaker who has been featured as a keynote speaker, presenter, and panelist on a variety of topics related to diversity & inclusion in the legal profession. Lisa also is a prolific author, having contributed articles on innovative ideas in diversity and professional development to publications like The American Lawyer, Law Practice, and Professional Development Quarterly.

Leila Hock, Director, Legal Department Partnerships & Inclusion Initiatives, Diversity Lab. Leila joined Diversity Lab with over 10 years of experience in the legal field, as a law firm associate, in-house counsel, and coach and consultant to law firms and associates. Leila began her career in the corporate practice at Mayer Brown’s Chicago office. She then spent three years practicing in the in-house legal department at Kraft Foods, supporting the global contracting needs of Kraft’s procurement and outsourcing teams. When the call of the mountains hit, Leila took a role as the first and only US in-house counsel for a global oil field services company in Denver, supporting all of the company’s US legal needs. Throughout her legal career, Leila supported a diverse legal workforce by creating and managing internship programs for diverse candidates and taking an active role in affinity groups for women and diverse counsel.

In 2015, Leila completed her professional coaching certification with the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching and began a successful private coaching practice. Leila worked with several law firms and legal groups to develop professional development curricula geared toward business development and enhancing the “softer” skills required to advance in today’s professional world.

  KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Clients are doubling down on Diversity. Legal Departments are being more deliberate in the diversity data and metrics that they require from their legal service providers.
• Spotlight on Work Allocation. Ensure that diverse lawyers are doing career-advancing work and that  during this crisis cutting edge work is spread evenly across the firm
• You Can Make a Difference:  From scoping, staffing to matter management you can keep diversity front of mind and play a role in advancing diversity in your firm or legal department.

To find out more about Digitory Legal please visit our website at www.digitorylegal.com.

Sergey Mezhiritskiy is currently a Senior Pricing Strategist with Proskauer Rose LLP in New York. Has been working in the legal industry for about 5 years. Before that, he was a Pricing Manager with Allens in Sydney, Australia and a Pricing Analyst with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York.

During his tenure with law firms, Sergey served as a trusted advisor to partners and firm leaders on pricing related issues such as rate negotiations, profitability optimization, and process improvements.

Sergey is an Accredited Legal Pricing Professional (ALPP) and holds a PRINCE2 Certificate in Project Management. He graduated in 2014 from the College of Staten Island School of Business with a degree in Economics & Finance.

Sergey held positions as a Financial Advisor with one firm and a Business Analyst with a different company before his move into the legal industry.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Its Time to Lead. Legal Pricing Professionals can play a significant role in designing creative pricing solutions that meet the needs of clients during this time of uncertainty without undermining the value that law firms bring to the table. 
• Understand your Key Profit Drivers. Discounting rates doesn’t always lead to more work as your competitors can easily do the same.
• Improving Data Quality. Historical data remains tricky but process management can help to ensure that current data being recorded and collected can be useful in the future. 

Stephanie Corey is a co-founder of UpLevel Ops, a consulting firm specializing in providing services for in-house legal departments and law firms.  UpLevel Ops provides a complete range of Legal Operations support, including IT solutions, Finance and Budget guidance, Talent Management and Development, Benchmarking, Best Practices and Metrics, and Outside Counsel Selection and Management.

Stephanie also founded and is a former executive member of the leading legal operations trade organization CLOC, Corporate Legal Operations Consortium.  She is a widely respected veteran in the Legal Ops field.

Most recently, Stephanie has served as the Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Legal Operations at Flex, the second largest manufacturing company in the world.  She has spent the better part of her career providing value-added services to Legal Departments, including building and deploying critical infrastructure to enable them to meet their business priorities.  Her areas of expertise include Information Technology, System Implementations, Process Analysis and Improvements, Finance, Communications, and Administration.

Stephanie Corey is a co-founder of UpLevel Ops, a consulting firm specializing in providing services for in-house legal departments and law firms.  UpLevel Ops provides a complete range of Legal Operations support, including IT solutions, Finance and Budget guidance, Talent Management and Development, Benchmarking, Best Practices and Metrics, and Outside Counsel Selection and Management.

Stephanie also founded and is a former executive member of the leading legal operations trade organization CLOC, Corporate Legal Operations Consortium.  She is a widely respected veteran in the Legal Ops field.

Most recently, Stephanie has served as the Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Legal Operations at Flex, the second largest manufacturing company in the world.  She has spent the better part of her career providing value-added services to Legal Departments, including building and deploying critical infrastructure to enable them to meet their business priorities.  Her areas of expertise include Information Technology, System Implementations, Process Analysis and Improvements, Finance, Communications, and Administration.

Stephanie began her career at Merrill Lynch in Pennsylvania, and after relocating to California, she worked at Bailard, Biehl and Kaiser, an investment firm in Foster City.  Once she decided to move into Corporate Finance, Stephanie took a position under the CFO, managing the Finance and Accounting Department at Provident Funding Mortgage Bank.

She later moved to Hewlett-Packard, where she was employed for eleven years as the head Legal Operations Manager, running a large IT and Finance Department.  Her most recent role at HP was Chief of Staff to the General Counsel, responsible for managing the daily operations of the Legal Department, working closely with the General Counsel and his reports to develop the strategy for the delivery of technology, finance, and administrative solutions.

 Stephanie holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Lehigh University and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wilkes University.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Get the Data in Place. You need to understand what you are spending to be able to make educated pricing decisions. 
• Adopt a programmatic approach to outside counsel spend. Set your goals upfront and collaborate with your procurement team to help drive the process.
• Billing guidelines are a tool for conversation. Don’t take an adversarial approach rather use the guidelines as an opportunity to partner with your law firms. 

To find out more about Digitory Legal please visit our website at www.digitorylegal.com.