7.2. Story Epilogue

Story

Epilogue

Up to new horizons of the case.

As it is very common in complex projects, further factfinding revealed that, albeit professional people worked at Horizontal Builders and their subcontractors, project management is never perfect and certain issues were indeed not Eric’s fault. The counterclaims partially had a basis, but Eric’s company also did not perform as expected and the counterclaims were much smaller than the claims. After thorough discussions, Eric accepted that there was a valid basis for about 75% of the claim after discounting for the valid counterclaims. In the end, they settled for a payment of 55%, to be paid in instalments. It was overall the commercially better option than pursuing a claim one could not execute upon.

In the last review meeting with Bob and Caleb their client pointed out the high professionality due to their Agile setup. They were satisfied with the outcome and would likely do the next litigation with Alice’s team again.

Same but different—how Lawyering & Co. looks after months of Agile transformation

Rather unsurprisingly, deciding on weekly Agile meetings was not where our heroes stopped. They pushed for both a methodological improvement as well as a commercially better out- come for their client, Horizontal Builders Ltd, as well as quality control. About a year after they started, the little team we’ve accompanied works in a fully Agile setup, and together with the law firm’s IT department, are currently testing software tools to support the law firm’s Agile work. They are primarily focusing on how to digitize Kanban, as they have found that is one of the most powerful tools for them.

The team’s normal team meeting also took on the form of Reviews and Plannings as these methods were becoming second nature to them.

Further teams followed suit and turned to Agile work, which is starting to be an argument to attract good talent as well as a selling point to prospective clients. Oliver and Igor are probably the only non-attorneys to know every single person in the firm as they are happy to share their experience and help others establish good working practices. The same goes for Gabriel as junior associate.

To make their endeavours more effective, Alice hired an Agile coach whom Sara recommended. The coach is answering questions and helps them in improving their methodology by regularly questioning their approaches.

On Oliver’s suggestion, Lawyering & Co.’s Newcity office introduced monthly Agile lunches, which all interested staff can join to discuss how the work in the firm can be improved, to ask questions and hear insights from colleagues and to share best practices. The attendance is growing so quickly, that he is already considering holding them every other week.

As a side effect, the everyday exchange across teams of the firm has considerably improved. Invitations to speak at conferences about the firm’s organisational transformation started trickling in and became subject of intense discussion at one of the Agile lunches, both regarding whether these engagements were worth the effort and as to who could be good speaker. Several options were considered and the one that raised least opposition was that it was worth trying out such engagements for a year and then evaluate. There was quick consensus that the firm should only accept engagements that allowed for two speakers to co-present and that these should be of diverse background, i.e. one person with legal background and one from a different function as that itself was a strong management of a good team culture which Agile needs.

A key observation at one of the regular visitors to the Agile lunches was that Lawyering & Co. was radically different from how it used to be a year ago, still yet the same law firm. It was their pre-existing culture that allowed Agile to be embraced so quickly as it was already open and positive. This culture is still at the very heart of the firm. The focus on quality and on client needs was only helped by the new methods. What has changed is the way they implemented their work.

They would describe this change as an evolution because such changes are rarely radical. The firm has found the right pace to adapt.