A lot of people know names of big law firms. These are law offices that have national and international reach, often with dozens of lawyers in each city mostly doing corporate legal work. That’s great for them. We’re sure they’re working hard in those offices. That’s not where we fit in and that suits us just fine.
From our perspective, bigger isn’t always better. When you’re a big law firm, or a big company, in order to make a decision you need to run it up the ladder, present it to the committee and wait for a response. You can understand why it works this way. In big organizations top-down management is essential. A series of steps faces every decision and as a consequence, many good and innovative decisions don’t see the light of day.
A New Hope
A small, well-equipped super-skilled team took down the Death Star. Twice. The Empire, on the other hand, could only pass the messages to management and wait for instructions.
Top-heavy management in our experience does not create an environment of innovation. We’ve been on the cutting edge for well over a decade. Most of the significant court challenges to the Immediate Roadside Prohibition scheme were spearheaded by Kyla who, along with our bright associates, continues to move the wall in favour of drivers.
This was a pattern we established early on in our firm.
Big Law Firm does not mean better
When Paul first started obtaining police manuals and equipment, often lawyers would ask us why we bothered. It took some time to demonstrate the value of our collection to detractors, but for us and our clients the advantage of actually having the police enforcement manuals and equipment in our office was clear from the start.
Imagine that you’re a lawyer conducting a trial and a police officer gives evidence about a technical aspect of their enforcement that is simply wrong or mistaken. As a lawyer, the first hurdle is to know it’s wrong. Without having used the particular police equipment, studied the training manual and actually conducted a trial involving that equipment, the officer’s mistake may be completely missed.
If you get to the point as a lawyer that you can recognize that the police officer was wrong, the next issue is knowing how to establish that on the fly in court. Again, without that training and specialized knowledge, the opportunity goes right by.
Making the difference
The difference between a conviction at trial or finding of innocent is often decided on whether the lawyer spotted the police officer’s error and knew how to deal with it.
Our decisions on a day to day basis to challenge aspects of the driving prohibition laws and to obtain the newest police equipment are not decisions that require a feasibility study or approval from a committee in a board room on the upper floor. We make our decisions in the office kitchen as we all eat pizza together.
Right now we have 10 lawyers, 5 articling students and 8 support staff running every day to the best job possible for our clients. We’re big enough that we can flex some muscle when necessary. We have the resources that allow us to take on big adversaries. We take on the government, after all.
Lawyers in our office have the authority to make decisions, to innovate and to find creative solutions for our clients because we work together closely, we’re busy and we’re good at what we do.
If you want something done right, ask a busy person.
We will never be a big law firm because that’s not the type of lawyers we want to be. As lawyers what we want is to enjoy our work as an outlet for our creativity. We like helping people and we don’t want a bureaucracy to stand in our way.
Bigger does not always mean better. If you are looking for a lawyer who will go the extra distance. Call Acumen Law Corporation on 604-685-8889.
Acumen Law Corporation is in a word Awesome.