Any one of these clients could be the next Cisco, a company Brobeck took public in 1990, for which it received a lucrative equity share. In New York, despite our rapid-fire speech and driving habits, the way we inhale a slice of pizza while racing for the subway, commerce moves quite slowly. Large law firms are staffed with multitudes of associates, arranged by year, reporting to a junior partner who reports up the chain to the most senior. Most cases are billed by the hour, encouraging overstaffing and inefficiency.
Young associates are bored by their work and leave in droves.
So far the old system keeps reproducing itself. But all that may change as the West Coast model slowly infiltrates Wall Street. Through its proprietary technology, Clarity can track the usage and success of the incentive program. In the 18 months it took Clarity to navigate the maze of electronic fund regulations, it relied, in part, on the legal expertise of LeBoeuf. LeBoeuf agreed to take equity in Clarity instead of all cash for its work.