Being in business, whether as a fortune 500 company or one-man-show, means that at some time or the other, you are going to need legal assistance, if only from a governance and compliance point of view. However, having to consult with a lawyer can be somewhat stressful and intimidating, let alone daunting with the unknown expense it often brings. From individuals to large corporates, legal advice is often imperative and yet frequently simply impossible when considering budget.
Lawyers are often seen as unaccommodating in their service offering, with their frightening billable hours and set legalistic ways of doing things that really mean the client has to adapt to their way of doing business rather than having legal assistance that fits neatly into how they do business and, importantly, stays within their budget.
Which is why CEO and founder of Whipping the Cat, Graeme Wilson, says they offer fixed-fee commercial legal services based on an innovative business model that focuses on accessibility and ease of use. “We are driven by customer satisfaction and not hours worked”, says Wilson. “Unlike other firms where you might have a relative idea of what your final invoice will be because they will tell you their hourly rate and estimate the time they will spend on a matter, with us it is all transparent and our clients know upfront exactly what each matter will cost them.” Most importantly, adds Wilson, “there must be price and value correlation between what we deliver and its benefit and usefulness to our clients”.
This makes using a lawyer much more comforting. “We are mindful that few companies can afford an open-ended budget for legal services. Some of our clients choose to cap their annual legal spend by entering into a monthly fixed fee contract which allows them to “eat as much as they like” for the fixed fee and no hour clock running“.
In addition, governance and compliance is an ongoing concern for anyone in business and Whipping the Cat eliminates the stress of this by offering services like document management, web access to templates and information and weekly legal updates. The document management system, normally reserved for big business at high costs, helps smaller businesses by providing an easily accessible safe and orderly online document storage system, complete with email alerts and notifications of key dates like price increases or renewals. But, Wilson is quick to add, “our use of technology does not mean that we are an online legal service provider, we offer our clients direct access to a team of legal professionals that they can chat to on the phone or, better still, we love to visit our clients at their offices so that we can get a “feel” for their business.”
By focusing on the clients’ needs and working within their parameters, Whipping the Cat’s innovative way of doing business is changing the way legal services have always been done and makes needing a lawyer, a far more positive necessity.
