As prominent strategists in the legal services sector have outlined, the “NewLaw” business model is in increasing ascendance globally. And it is in use in greater frequency among legal services companies (including — but not limited to — law firms in Asia) seeking to provide lower overhead, highly-efficient legal services at flat-rate prices to increasingly cost-conscious general counsel purchasers.
Jordan Furlong, (Jordan_Law21) a Partner with Edge International and a Senior Consultant with Stem Legal in Canada– describes NewLaw as “any model, process, or tool that represents a significantly different approach to the creation or provision of legal services than what the legal profession traditionally has employed.”
And George Beaton (@grbeaton_law), Partner at Australia-based Beaton Capital, has chronicled the rise of the NewLaw business model in a series of articles and in a recent book. His colleague, Eric Chin (@EricJYChin), also of Beaton Capital, predicted that in 2018, NewLaw legal services provider Axiom Law would become one of the world’s largest law firms in Asia.
And as Larry Bridgesmith (@lbridgesmith), founder of ERM Legal Solutions in the United States, wrote in February of 2014 about a series of NewLaw-oriented gatherings in New York City that month: “If you were in New York City this past week, you would have been blind to miss it. LegalTech, Lex Redux and ReinventLaw all gave testimony of the passing of the torch of legal services delivery to a new and irrepressible generation of “doers”.” The doers Bridgesmith is referring to are the leaders and thinkers around the NewLaw movement Jordan Furlong has inventoried.
AdventBalance in Asia
Sydney-based AdventBalance, according to a recent article by Felicity Nelson (@frogsandstars) in Lawyers Weekly, is a NewLaw legal services provider and regional Asia-Pacific competitive threat to traditional large law firms (Also known as BigLaw). Ken Jagger, co-founder and CEO of AdventBalance and John Knox, co-founder and Managing Director, Asia — provide an exclusive glimpse into the unique strategic outlook AdventBalance was founded on – and takes into the future in Asia – in a new book by this author entitled A Comprehensive Guide to the Asia-Pacific Legal Markets. Here’s a preview of that AdventBalance analysis:
“While working at Freehills and A&O respectively, [Ken] Jagger and [John] Knox [founders of AdventBalance] noticed the same thing – both the firm’s lawyers and clients, loved secondments. The lawyers enjoyed the deeper engagement with their clients – seeing the impact of their advice in the business. The clients extracted real value from having quality lawyers available to them all day and gaining a better understanding of their business.”
“While there appeared to be a gap in the market, a business dedicated to the area could only succeed if there was a pool of talented lawyers keen to practice in a new way.”
“To take advantage of the market gap, Jagger and Knox had to create a business that would attract top tier lawyers but enable the firm to provide those lawyers to clients at a significantly lower cost than traditional law firms in Asia.”
Vitally: “The value proposition for clients was the flexibility to access quality in-house resources. It was as and when required, at a lower cost, and more importantly, with complete budget certainty. No fee surprises.”
“AdventBalance now has offices in Singapore, Hong Kong and throughout Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. In addition to its office locations, Advent Balance lawyers have provided their services throughout the region. It includes Tokyo, Jakarta, Beijing, and Bangkok and currently has over 100 lawyers on assignment throughout the region. The lawyers work on straight secondment as well as helping clients with major projects and transactions.”
“In addition to the structural changes in the legal sector, AdventBalance operates in the region where economic growth is tipped to be strongest. As Knox observes “the challenge and opportunity for AdventBalance is to stay at the forefront of the law firms in Asia and alternative legal services market. But it will also expand our business to cater to the increasing demand in some of the region’s fastest-growing economies.”
- Ken Jagger’s LinkedIn profile is located here.
- John Knox’s LinkedIn profile is located here.
- AdventBalance’s website is located here
- The report’s full text from Ken Jagger and John Knox appears in the new book: A Comprehensive Guide to the Asia-Pacific Legal Markets
- For purchase inquiries, please follow this link to the Ark Group website.
[…] #Newlaw entities I read about is the old Advent Balance, including this wonderful 2014 post by another good friend – John […]