Our Approach - McDermott Will & Emery

Our Approach

Overview


When you work with McDermott, you don’t just get the experience of an individual. You get a purpose-built, tightly woven network of legal thought leaders who marry their passion for business with a deep, focused understanding of the law.

Most importantly, we’re committed to helping you make real progress against your goals—to turning those big ideas into actionable plans—and to making it as easy and enjoyable as possible.


“McDermott has been a true partner.  They have answered every call and email.  They treat me like their only client. I have partnered with them on several projects over several years.  The quality of their people and work is exceptional.  I can always count on them.”
–Best Law Firms, Client Reference

Creative Solutions


Our innovative solutions and technologies include:

  • McDermott Access: It’s all about collaboration. Our online portal enables clients to instantly see the status of their projects, minimizing uncertainty and allowing better matter management.
  • Quantum Tracker: It’s all about transparency. Our proprietary software enables budget management, in real time, to track and evaluate projected spend, minimizing any budgetary surprises.
  • Discovery: It’s all about innovation. We utilize advanced technology and data centers in the United States to review and manage massive amounts of clients’ electronically stored information more affordably, accurately and efficiently than traditional discovery providers.
  • Corporate Services: It’s all about alternatives. We achieve greater efficiency in general corporate work by having certain tasks performed by lower-cost, but McDermott-quality, team members.
  • McDermottPlus: It’s all about leveraging a preeminent health law practice. Offering alternative rate structures, we provide a range of consulting services – including lobbying, data analytics and modeling, and policy advice – to diverse participants in the health care industry.

Client Feedback


Focus on the Client Experience

Listening to our clients gives us tremendous insight into how clients perceive our engagement and client service, which we use to adjust our approach to better serve their needs. Our goal is to better understand our client’s world—from how they approach their business objectives to the internal pressures they manage—and determine how we can partner with them to achieve their goals.

Just as importantly, we seek to understand what our clients most value so we can continue to exceed expectations. Through our robust Client Listening Program, we conduct one-on-one client feedback interviews and an annual electronic satisfaction survey to constantly assess and improve our culture of client service across the Firm.

How We Measure Client Satisfaction

As part of this program, we have developed a proprietary Client Relationship Score (CRS) to measure client satisfaction and relationship health. The CRS factors in Net-Promoter Score (NPS), as well as satisfaction scores across a number of service areas. Since 2017, we have interviewed or surveyed over 1,800 contacts at 1,200+ client companies. Our Firmwide NPS from our annual client survey is an 80 (over 70 is world class) and our overall CRS reflects a similarly positive level of satisfaction from our clients.

Pricing


We understand the challenges our clients face when anticipating and budgeting for legal costs. To address these challenges, we offer project-specific fee arrangements tailored to fit your budget, all designed to reduce legal fee risk and encourage efficiency.

Certainty, Predictability, Risk Reduction – One price

Based on our experience analyzing component work streams from many thousands of matters, we provide our clients with accurate fee structures that enable them to anticipate legal fees with certainty.

We offer a wide range of alternative fee arrangements to align with your strategic objectives for the matter at hand. These include:

  • Fixed fees
  • Phase based fees
  • Fee caps
  • Collars
  • Contingencies
  • Blended rates
  • Risk share arrangements

We have also invested in developing its own technology tools to help its lawyers price matters appropriately and manage work efficiently. Our proprietary technology enables attorneys to find similar matters over the multitudes of matters handled historically to ensure you get the right price for the right work; the tool also generates email alerts to keep teams informed of where their matter stands against any agreed budget. This greatly enhances our ability to manage projects with optimum efficiency in mind.

Our firm-wide pricing function is headed by one of the legal sector’s leading pricing professionals, Steven Manton.

With more than a decade of law firm pricing experience, Steven previously established the pricing function at one of the world’s leading law firms.

Representative Clients

Insurance Litigation & Counseling

Life Sciences

Life Sciences

Private Equity

Health

Life Sciences

Life Sciences

Life Sciences

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Health

Private Equity

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Insurance Litigation & Counseling

Private Equity

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Health

Life Sciences

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Life Sciences

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Energy

Energy

Private Equity

Private Equity

Energy

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Private Equity

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Health

Energy

Life Sciences

Private Equity

Life Sciences

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Private Equity

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Life Sciences

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Energy

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Health

Life Sciences

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Life Sciences

Health

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Health

Food, Beverage & Agribusiness

Life Sciences

Health

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Health

Private Equity

Telecommunications, Media & Technology

Life Sciences