Firm Name: Barley Snyder

Firm Leader: Jeff Lobach, managing partner

Head Count: 96

Locations: Lancaster, York, Harrisburg, Reading, Malvern, Hanover and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; Hunt Valley and Columbia, Maryland

Practice Areas: Full-Service

*The responses below were provided by Lobach, and edited lightly for length and clarity.*

Governance structure and compensation model:

Partners elect a managing partner for a term of two years and four additional management committee members on staggered two-year terms to constitute a five-member management committee. The management committee acts as a board of directors. The managing partner is the CEO. Our operations are led by a chief administrative officer to whom all operational department heads report. The position is typically (and currently) held by a nonlawyer with business, administrative and HR skills.

For decades our partner compensation has been determined by a compensation committee comprised of the management committee and other elected partners. Its work is accomplished annually by application of subjective and objective measures in order to give the proper weight to each partner's contributions to the firm. Statistical information is considered, along with two interviews of the partner, practice group leader input and each partner's own written assessment of the progress made on the partner's goals for the prior year.

Significantly, we do not apply any formulas and we do not track “origination” as a statistic. We find that too great an emphasis on statistics, especially origination, can have the effect of diminishing teamwork, may incentivize behaviors that are not firm centric and could lead to results that would be viewed as unfair in our culture.

Do you offer alternative fee arrangements?

Yes. Clients are looking for more transparency and predictability on fees and estimates especially when involving large, discrete projects. We are amenable to these requests.

These might include fixed fee arrangements, especially in litigation, immigration and real estate, percentage fees, blended hourly rates, contingent fees, success fees and any other arrangement which interests a client and is fair to the client and the firm.

What do you view as the two biggest opportunities for your firm, and what are the two biggest threats?

Opportunities:

Our regional model of practice which allows us to offer our central Pennsylvania and northern Maryland footprint the level of sophistication of a 96-lawyer firm while permitting our attorneys to live in and become part of the fabric of the various communities we serve across the region.

Our ability to offer a more favorable rate structure and more attentive service than larger metro firms.

Threats:

Integration and assimilation to our culture of the lawyers we have added in the last four years (41 of our 96 attorneys), while we continue to grow.

Competition for recruitment of the best and brightest.

The legal market is so competitive now—what trends do you see, and has anything, including alternative service providers, altered your approach? Is your chief competition other mid-market firms, or is your firm competing against big firms for the same work?

Our competitors are everywhere, come in all sizes and include nonlawyer businesses in many practice areas. Since our clients range from international businesses, health systems and multi-state financial institutions to individuals in need of a will or purchasing a home, the service providers who compete for the work we do can come from nearly every segment of the legal community. Clients, large and small, are increasingly cognizant of value in their relationships with lawyers and law firms and have become highly sophisticated consumers of legal and related services. Delivering value to these consumers will distinguish those who succeed in the coming years.

There is much debate around how law firms can foster the next generation of legal talent. What advantages and disadvantages do midsize firms have in attracting and retaining young lawyers, particularly millennials?

We are able to offer competitive salaries and the opportunity to work with clients directly and on substantive work early in their careers.

Associates have latitude to try a variety of work in order to learn what areas of specialty appeal to them for the long term. Our attorneys value the ability to create long-term counselor relationships with clients. We offer flexibility on setting hours, working remotely, etc.

We communicate regularly with our associates and share with them firm strategies and much of our financial information. As discussed below, our IT systems were enhanced to support the mobile attorneys, with all attorneys able to use laptops or Surface Pros for immediate access to our systems. While there are compensation differences between our firm and a metro firm but we feel that the lifestyle and client interaction benefits help to close that gap.

Does your firm employ any nonlawyer professionals in high-level positions (e.g. COO, business development officer, chief strategy officer, etc.)? If so, why is it advantageous to have a nonlawyer in that role? If not, have you considered hiring any?

Our administrative operations team are nonlawyers. We chose our team because of their knowledge and skill in non-legal areas (HR, accounting, administrative management, facilities, business development, marketing, etc.). When legal expertise is needed (e.g., tax, employee benefit law and so forth), they can call on our professional team. We are not adverse to hiring lawyers in these operational roles, if they possess the necessary subject matter expertise. We have interviewed lawyers for some of these positions.

What would you say is the most innovative thing your firm has done recently, whether it be technology advancements, internal operations, how you work with clients, etc.?

Our Practice Excellence initiative continues to move us to improve our processes and procedures. Each practice area has a designated Practice Excellence Champion who oversees specific projects in their legal area. Each April, during Practice Excellence Month, we require every new member of the firm (hired in past year) to attend process improvement training.

We have developed technology systems that allow multiple members of a client's organization to directly obtain answers to legal questions in specific areas on an expedited basis through a “portal” system that we designed. The portal allows us to assist these managers quickly and effectively on time-sensitive issues. We can post various help sheets on the portal and the client can search the portal for answers to frequently asked legal issues and questions. New client employees can use this as a resource library to save time and money for the client. In addition, both Barley and the client can evaluate frequently asked questions and issues to identify training and other resources that may be able to reduce legal spend and improve service.

Similarly, we developed a “ticket” system for high volume clients, whereby a matter can be turned over to the firm and triaged to the professional best able to handle it in a timely and cost-effective manner.

As noted above, we recently rolled out major IT improvements called “Next Gen” with the key goal of supporting the mobile attorney. Our systems were substantially improved and each lawyer was offered a laptop or tablet. These devices offer immediate access to our systems. The speed of the systems was significantly improved as well and we have migrated nearly all applications off-site to secure servers. These changes have enabled us to be quick and effective when bringing on groups of new attorneys as we can get them up and running in record time. It also facilitates travel around our footprint which is a necessity for our lawyers. (It also helps during vacations, as I am able to type this response while watching the sun set over Ngorongorno Crater in Tanzania, East Africa, as if I was sitting at my desk in Pennsylvania.)

Does your firm have a succession plan in place? If so, what challenges do you face in trying to execute that plan? If you don't currently have a plan, is it an issue your firm is thinking about?

We are fairly young firm. At 62, I will be the second oldest partner at year end. However, planning for the future and for unplanned events is important to us. The firm has undertaken a formal succession planning process this year which involves interviewing senior partners and key members of the firm to produce a succession plan for the firm. We have developed a matrix for each of our practice groups to manage relationships and preserve intellectual capital and skills inventory. To date, we have received nice support from the involved members of the firm. Next month we will hold the first of a series of leadership training sessions with an outside facilitator, open to up to 25 of our colleagues.