Hi! My company is trying to diversify our vendor pool by working with more small law firms, especially law firms owned by women and people of color. I have to do a presentation on best practices that could move us toward our goal. What would you want Fortune 500 in-house lawyers to know about working with you? Are there any big company practices that make relationships with us difficult to maintain? Any suggested best practices? Thank you!

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We don’t bill for BS, so best to offer a slightly higher rate than you do for big firms, but we will still come in more under budget than them

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Great tip. I wouldn’t have thought of that. Thank you!

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I am a woman of color with my own small corporate practice based in DC and NY. I have never worked with a Fortune 500 company, but if I did, it would be a big deal. How do we get in the loop with Fortune 500 companies? I just assume they won’t work with small firms.

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This is helpful, but I don’t meet NAMWOLF’s criteria, unfortunately, because I don’t have 3 full time attorneys working at my firm. Are there other ways to make contact or learn about RFPs?

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I do not have experience working with a Fortune 500 company, but I wanted to second the billing thing! I'm a solo, and there is no flimsy billing. We barely have time to keep track of actual work, so there's no time to worry about little stuff. Hourly rates: I can't speak for everyone, but it has been my experience that every single dollar is earned. My clients get a lot for the rates they pay.

Getting work with a big company could be a game changer for some firms, but it will likely come at the expense of taking on new cases (unless they hire another attorney). So being mindful of that and keeping the decision timeline as short as possible would be helpful.

Sounds cool! If you need someone in Alabama, pick me 😆

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Thanks very much for the second opinion and raising the points about new cases and (preferably) short timelines. Very helpful.

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At my smaller firm we have actual women managing clients and doing a great job 😊 our billing rates are lower than biglaw so we can give more attention to your matters and more training/supervision to our associates. Second the comments about no fluff. We’re a pretty lean operation.

I would also add that we are capable of handling sophisticated and strategic work as well as the routine matters. And because we’re smaller and focused on transactional, we may have fewer potential conflicts issues to navigate.

Thanks for asking!

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Happy to connect outside of fishbowl! 😀

I love this. I do flat rate internal employment investigations for a few large companies and went on my own as a solo and continue to do them. I’m more affordable on my own and honestly more available to do them. I really care about the companies I work with because if I’m getting paid, it means its benefiting my family so I will learn more about your big company and how it works then I would have while I was at a big firm.

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