Let's 🎥 time travel to the '08 financial crisis. I was a BigLaw securities associate focused on capital markets. (Wrong way to start a legal career, but that's another story.) I worked on a lot of warrants, swaps, ISDAs, derivatives. And I noticed a pattern: we were taking a client's Term Sheet and dropping it into the same templates, with some if/else conditions wrapped around it. I suggested to my Partner that we could automate most of it with Excel Macros and just verify the output. Faster turnarounds. Focus on billing client strategic work and spend more time on judgment. The Partner said: "Interesting." A senior associate pulled me aside: "Are you crazy? Our job is to bill high enough.. without setting off alarm bells for the client. That's the sweet spot." After the crisis dust settled, our largest IB client took all of that work in-house. ⏩ Fast forward to today. Ruli customers are sending our research memos to outside counsel — directing them to focus on specific advice rather than run the meter from scratch. Others are reporting hundreds of thousands saved in OC costs. The in-house / outside counsel relationship is getting a long overdue redesign.
Couldn’t agree more. Outside counsel is no longer my starting point in areas outside my experience and knowledge - Ruli is
How did you manage to take a picture of my office (back in the day)?? The only thing missing is the large laser jet printer on the side of the phone! 😀
Why is securities/capital markets the wrong way to start your legal career?
What I see is a quiet space designed to allow the human to focus on their work without distractions.
GCs and in-house teams essentially want two things — peace of mind and show value to the business. Law firms (+ tech companies that partner with OC) need to tap into that and see the world through the GC’s eyes. That’s a CX issue, more than a work product issue.