David was a young shepherd boy who confronted the giant Goliath accepting his challenge, when no Israeli army soldier had the courage to do so. Invoking the name of Yahweh and armed with just a slingshot, David defeated the giant sinking a stone in his forehead that toppled him.
A very clever strategy for surely melee confrontation with Goliath, which according to the legend, measured 2.90 meters high, would have cost her life.
This is the scene that came to my mind a few weeks ago, during a round of interviews with several in-house lawyers of Spanish multinationals, we asked them, among other questions, how do they select and evaluate the external law firms they were working with.
These companies hire all types of law firms, large, medium and small, as well as business process management companies, assigning to each of these profiles specific jobs depending on the complexity and importance of the matter, and assuming internally all the work they can in order to reduce costs and control processes, which is fully in line with what multinationals in major international markets are doing, although their selection processes are much more complex and demanding than here, for now.
I find the parallels with the biblical scene when I remember the many discussions with lawyers and small and medium-sized law firms that, far from feeling like David, rather they find themselves in the situation of Israelis armies, intimidated by the size of the giant without dare to step forward to accept his challenge. A challenge that in terms of legal services is no other than to provide a service efficiently in areas where these companies do not have a physical presence or internally, they lack the necessary resources. In these situations, which occur very often, it is when these multinationals require continuing services from firms that can offer them solutions at reasonable costs (and in these cases the price is an important factor to consider) with a technology deployment suitable for monitoring the work done.
Most of these companies have their doors open to receive and consider offerings from law firms that meet their needs and will always be willing to listen to proposals that add value to them. The value in this cases and type of matters will not consist in high expertise. In fact, an adequate technical knowledge will be sufficient. The value will be in the way such services can be provided: an advanced reporting system with technological support, demonstrable commitments to meeting deadlines, solid process improvement, proper document management and security of information and communications.
What these giants are looking for are valid options in the market able to efficiently meet their needs and at reasonable prices. They are willing to listen to those who have options to offer. At the end, it looks like Goliath is not as large, nor as bad as he used to be known if we have the right strategy to ‘beat him’ as David did.