Case Study: A Talk with Hunter Litigation

Com Pro:

We’re on a call with Leslie Green, Director of Administration at Hunter Litigation, to talk about how Com Pro works with and supports their organization by providing Managed IT services and support.

Let’s begin. I had a look at your LinkedIn profile, and you’ve got a pretty interesting background. You’ve been at several law firms during your career. Could you give a synopsis of your personal background and then the organization?

Leslie:

Well, I’ve been in the industry since 1980. I’ve been doing the management side of things since 1997, in varying roles and depending on the firm I’m with, the level of responsibilities is different and the amount of support I’m given is different. The last three firms I’ve been at I’ve had a fair bit of IT that I’ve had to do in conjunction with an outside consultant such as Com Pro. This is the first firm I’ve been at that I’ve worked with Com Pro.

Com Pro:

The organization obviously focuses on litigation and are one of the top 10 firms in Canada. Anything else that you’d like people to know about Hunter Litigation Chambers?

Leslie:

Hunter Litigation is a boutique firm. It is one of the best-known litigation firms in Vancouver, if not THE best. Maybe up there in the top 3 and we have employees here who although they have some specialized software, they need to use I would not consider them to be high end users. They need a lot of help and IT support.

Com Pro:

What specific problem were you trying to solve from an organization perspective before working with Com Pro.

Leslie:

This firm had not had much in the way of professional IT management from the time that they formed as a firm. Obviously, they had to increase that over the years. I think I’m the first person who has come in who had a comfort level with IT. When they were small, they had a solo guy and he brought in someone else to help them but really relying on two people was definitely not an efficient solution for a firm this size with the amount of software they had going. It managed but it was certainly not to the professional level that I would want it to be at. My concern was that we needed to get on a more professional level with the IT support we had, so that’s the problem that I was trying to solve.

Com Pro:

What possible solutions did you consider?

Leslie:

I did not consider any solution other than finding a provider of Managed IT Services in Vancouver. This firm is not large enough to have in-house IT support. Because I’ve been at a number of firms similar in size, I knew there would be challenges. If you get someone who is good enough to help you with help desk stuff, that person is going to be hopeless when it comes to network administration. So, you’re still going to need somebody from outside anyways. And what do you do for vacations and sick days and weekends and all of that kind of stuff? So, with a firm this size, you would only really be able to afford to have one person and in my view it’s better to go with an outside Managed IT solutions provider.

Com Pro:

What size is your firm? How many people?

Leslie:

We have about 40 users.

Com Pro:

Why did you end up choosing Com Pro? How did you determine Com Pro was the right choice?

Leslie:

I had three Managed IT Service providers I was looking at. I had fairly in-depth meetings with all of them. I went through our needs and what they could offer us and there was not a huge amount of difference between them but there was variation of pricing. I have to say we eliminated the most expensive one because they were quite a bit more expensive than the other two. Then it came down to a gut check. Honestly, they had very similar offerings and similar number of people and expertise. Maybe one of the things that I found attractive was that Com Pro was closer to our office here in Vancouver so that if we needed to get people in, it wouldn’t be such an ask as it would to have someone come from the other side of the city.

Another motivating factor was the reference checks that I did. Com Pro dealt with two other law firms (I don’t know if you know about lawyers and law firms, but they put a great deal of stock in references from other law firms) and the other law firms that dealt with them were very happy with the Managed IT services they were getting. That obviously did play into consideration as well.

Com Pro:

Is there any specific software that your firm uses that we have an expertise in, or industry knowledge that is beneficial to your firm?

Leslie:

As far as specialized software, Com Pro had a good understanding of this due to their experience dealing with these other 2 law firms. Our accounting system is a program called PC Law, which is fairly widely used by firms of our size. So, they did have some experience with it.

Com Pro:

What challenges might other law firms find along the way that they should be mindful of? So, if they are thinking of switching Managed IT Services providers, or maybe don’t have one and are thinking of retaining one, what challenges might they find along the way that you could say, “Hey, watch out for this!”

Leslie:

If they don’t have competent IT staff already, the biggest thing in law right now is security. There are a few things right now that I feel law firms are concerned about. One of them, is better integration of systems so that you don’t have these standalone pieces of software that don’t communicate with one another; but the other one is security. Lawyers tend not to pay enough attention to it and yet we are told repeatedly by almost everybody that law firms are targets because we hold a lot of private information for our clients. In this particular case, a firm like ours (and we’re not alone in this), do big Merger & Acquisition deals or securitization to raise money for companies. This involves really sensitive data and could very well make us a target because it would be lucrative. So, security is an issue for all law firms.

Com Pro:

So, keep an eye out for that law firms out there! Since retaining Com Pro for some help with Managed IT what have been the positive results? Were there any big wins that you would attribute to attaining Com Pro for your Managed IT?

Leslie:

The big wins: well, they have brought a level of professionalism to our network security management that was completely lacking before. It literally was micky-moused before. No piece on its own was wrong. It’s just that it didn’t work together. The people we were using previously weren’t motivated to do the big fixes they had to do. Com Pro has taken on that work and some of it has been quite complicated – they have really helped solve that for us. There are still a few things that we are working on but for the most part they’ve got us to where we need to be.

Com Pro:

Were there any cost savings or process changes or efficiencies that improved your bottom line.

Leslie:

No, I don’t think so. That was the problem here at the law firm; they were doing things on the cheap, so it’s taken a proper investment in order to make it work. That’s what we’ve done.

Com Pro:

Any last comments you’d want to add about Com Pro?

Leslie:

Our account rep is always willing to lend an ear. He and I talk quite a bit. Our network administrator person’s knowledge is fabulous; he’s just great. The help desk is good to deal with. Although there has been some turnover in the two years we’ve been with Com Pro, it’s not an uphill battle to keep good help desk staff like another provider I worked with at my last two firms. With our previous Managed IT provider, there were always new people and I always felt like I was having to train their help desk people on how our system worked. Com Pro seems to be able to keep their people which is fabulous! I only hope it continues that way. There is something to be said about people actually knowing how your systems work.

Com Pro:

Yes, that is a BIG advantage! We have a great people process at Com Pro and we’ve had a number of comments from other customers regarding that.

Leslie, thanks very much for your time.

Leslie:

Thank you.