Off the Clock (Legal Value Network)

In this episode, LVN Board member Keith Maziarek catches up with Ken Callander from Value Strategies, a consultancy advising law firms, legal departments, and legal operations on pricing, relationship management, and client service delivery, among other areas. Keith and Ken discuss:

In the latest episode of Legal Value Network’s “Off the Clock” podcast, Keith Maziarek sits down with longtime friend and client legal ops veteran Reese Arrowsmith, VP and Head of Legal Operations at Campbell Soup Company to chat about a variety of topics. In particular, they discussed how the client/firm relationship will be impacted by the recent developments in technology. They also talk a bit about misaligned perceptions between law firms and legal departments, and what it takes to overcome those hurdles in decentralized organizations.

In this episode, Keith Maziarek, an LVN board member and Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Katten, has an insightful conversation with Melissa Gyure, Director of Pricing at Paul Hastings. The pair discuss in-house legal operations and relationships with law firms. The duo discuss everything from pricing dynamics and risk mitigation to cost control.

LVN Board Members Justin Ergler (GSK) and Keith Maziarek (Katten), have a conversation with Shawn Gross, Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Constangy, about the evolution of pricing and legal project management roles and how they now intersect with marketing and finance. The trio also examine the importance of making financial and pricing concepts easy to understand and why showing calculations is important for transparency. They also delve into the importance of developing strong relationships with key players in law firms, especially rainmakers.

This is a special episode recorded at the LVNx conference in Chicago and includes a conversation LVN board members Keith Maziarek and Justin Ergler had with LVNx keynote speaker Gina Passarella, SVP of Content from ALM Global, as well as Greg Lambert, one of the three original geeks from the Three Geeks and a Law Blog and host of “The Geek in Review Podcast” as well as being Chief Knowledge Services Officer Jackson Walker LLP. Topics discussed include

Founding LVN Board Member Justin Ergler has a wide-ranging conversation with Matthew Beekhuizen, Chief Pricing and Innovation Officer at Greenberg Traurig. The duo discuss the importance of developing strong relationships with legal clients and the need to “translate” business to legal. They also discuss hiring the right people for the right job, how to best build credibility within an organization and set expectations for partners. Justin and Matthew close out their talk with their take on what they see moving forward in the legal industry.

In this episode, LVN Board Members Keith Maziarek and Justin Ergler are in conversation with Stefanie Marrone, who serves as a fractional and outsourced marketing director for law firms and professional services companies. The trio discuss the importance of a client-centered approach to differentiate law firms in a crowded market. Stefanie also explains the need for law firms to understand their clients' businesses and put the client first in communication and service delivery. She also recommends seeking client feedback, creating resources to help clients, anticipating and emphasizes the importance of fostering relationships with clients and referral sources. She also cautions against relying solely on reputation and price as differentiators, and stresses the importance of likability and personalized attention for clients.

LVN board members Keith Maziarek and Justin Ergler talk to Nathan Cemenska, Director, Legal Operations and Industry Insights at Wolters Kluwer. The trio discuss pricing and negotiation dynamics between law firms and clients, with a focus on the use of data and alternative solutions such as insourcing and utilizing ALSPs. They also also touch on the factors driving legal rate increases.

Founding LVN board members Justin Ergler and Keith Maziarek reunite with Laura Terrell, a long-time lawyer turned executive coach. They discuss the history of their somewhat uncommon relationship and how it underscores the importance of collaboration and communication between legal teams and finance personnel. The trio also shares their experience working together on a fast-moving portfolio of matters and explains how trust and creative problem-solving were essential to their success.

This episode was recorded live at the LVNx Conference in Chicago and is a conversation with LVN Board Members Keith Maziarek and Justin Ergler with multiple guests from across the legal ecosystem including Aaron Boersma, Mikhail Makarovsky and Jae Um. This dynamic conversation touched on a variety of provocative and timely topics such as the untapped potential benefits of client feedback, whether clients hire lawyers or firms and how they respond when a lawyer changes firms, and how to break the foolish discount shopping and annual rate increase cycle that distracts us all from focusing on value and outcomes. It’s a good one!

LVN Board member and Katten’s Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management, Keith Maziarek, has a wide ranging conversation with Angela Floessel, Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Morrison & Foerster Discussion topics include why Angela made the jump to legal from private equity, why law firms need to be disciplined about legal pricing strategies, the importance of project management skills, why not every RFP is created equal and how she implemented a program at her firm to take advantage of litigation funding.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Justin Ergler (LVN board member and Director, Alternative Fee Intelligence and Analytics at GSK) talks to author and attorney Lisa F. Smith about her book Girl Walks Out of a Bar and the importance of being transparent and acknowledging mental health challenges so that others know they are not alone and everyone can help with the healing process.

In this episode, LVN Board Member and Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Katten, Keith Maziarek has a conversation with Professor Richard Jolly of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (also a principal at the Stokes and Jolly consultancy). The conversation is wide ranging touching on how lawyers are now more open to technology adoption, but still reticent because it is in their nature to be risk averse. Richard talks about his theory of hedgehogs and foxes in professional services (hedgehogs do one thing very well, while foxes are flexible and adapt to all sorts of conditions) and how, as a group, lawyers are often narcissists, but that is a good thing.

On this episode LVN Board Member Justin Ergler (Director of Alternative Fee Intelligence Analytics at GlaxoSmithKline) talks to Jason Winmill (founder of management consultancy Argopoint) about how legal departments and law firms can communicate better and tackle fee increase requests.

LVN Board Member Keith Maziarek (Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Katten) and Chad Main (Percipient) talk to Bill Rudnick. Bill is General Counsel at Cresset Capital, a boutique private wealth management firm, and previously the managing partner of DLA Piper’s Chicago office, the firm’s second largest. The conversation focuses on creative and different ways of thinking about legal pricing and the value of legal services with the benefit of Bill’s uniquely well-rounded perspectives as a law firm lawyer and leader, a corporate general counsel, a J.D. and a M.B.A.

In this episode of Legal Value Network’s Off the Clock Podcast, Keith Maziarek, LVN board member and Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management for Katten, talks with Greg Lambert, Chief Knowledge Services Officer for Jackson Walker and co-host of The Geek in Review podcast. The conversation touches on plans for upcoming LVN events and APIs (application programming interface). The discussion focuses on how APIs can be used to share data between legal tech applications to make better decisions about doing legal work and setting budgets.

Justin Erlger (LVN board member and Director of Alternative Fee Intelligence and Analytics at GSK) and Brad Antici (Director of Strategic Pricing and Analysis at Butler Snow) talk about how Brad's trip to a fine clothier reinforced his belief that for both law firms and clients to maximize value in their relationships, law firms must take the time to get to know the client's business and also take the time to explain to the client the type and value of services they are delivering.

Connie Brenton, VP, Law, Technology and Operations at NetApp and LVN Board member Keith Maziarek discuss the emergence of law firm pricing teams, the use of project management, and missed opportunities for communication between in-house legal teams and their law firms.

Hushmand Cott, Chief Strategic Pricing Officer for Covington Burling and LVN Board Member Justin Ergler, of GSK discuss how law firms and clients can open lines of communication and work together to improve diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and solve tough pricing issues.

In the latest episode of LVN's Off the Clock, we talk to Esther Bowers, Director of Practice Management at Honigman. She explains how she and her firm add value their client representations by working closely with them to understand their desired outcomes and augmenting quality legal work with legal project management, fair and competitive pricing, helpful technology, and flexible staffing models.