Waitrose Essentials and the Mexican Wave
Things continue to get tougher
RBS have asked law firms to consider Mexican wave arrangements to drive down fees. Others are said to be following suit.
Tenders are no longer won by offering wafer-thin margins, as more and more firms drift towards low price as their key differentiator.
To lower price, most firms have considered off-shoring or outsourcing for routine work to reduce costs, but this is open to all firms, so cannot offer a definitive advantage.
Many firms are stuck in the middle - seen as neither volume producers or high-end practitioners by their clients. One solution being tried by some firms is the "Waitrose essentials" approach. These firms are looking at their standard offerings and finding ways of making them simpler to understand, simpler to buy, and tying the product to a bottom-line saving for the client.
This methodology requires some lateral thinking from the law firm partners, who will typically state "everything we do is bespoke" & "we cannot measure a bottom-line benefit for the client".
We have worked with other firms, in most sectors, and know this isn't true. In the meantime the firms that change will eat the lunch of those who say it isn't possible.