Stephen Covey, in his book, First Things First,
describes the concept of "synergizing" as
working with others to achieve a shared vision. He also
points out, as does the Miriam Webster dictionary, that
the concept involves the interaction of discrete agencies
in such a way that the total effect is greater than the
sum of the individual effects.The concept of synergism
is being increasingly applied in the legal field,
including the civil litigation field. It is definitely a
concept that can be very beneficial to the client who has
a multi-faceted legal problem.
With many of the medium to large law firms downsizing
as a result of corporate belt tightening and other market
influences, there are many legal matters that come across
the desk of the smaller practitioner without enough of
the areas of specialization to comprehensively handle the
client's problem. This situation affords the small law
firm an opportunity to collaborate with another group
which can complement the skills of the initial firm,
allow an effective and efficient sharing of problem
solving among competent specialists, and produce an
excellent result for the client.
No longer is it necessary for a large firm to be
assembled with various degrees of specialization waiting
for the "big one" to come in the door.
Increasingly, two or more well-run groups with the
necessary areas of specialization can form an ad hoc
alliance to do a much more efficient and competent job
for the client.
Good examples of this occur in a complicated
probate/tax matter which ends up in litigation. The
probate/tax/estate planning attorney needs a firm with
litigation skills and some knowledge of probate-oriented
litigation. The litigator needs the probate tax
attorney's expertise in dealing with the nuances of the
legal issues involved in the case. The two firms can
collaborate on an ad hoc basis to produce an excellent
result for the client.
Another example is in the area of environmental
litigation. The technical/EPA regulation-oriented
environmental specialist works with the litigation firm
with environmental litigation background on a
collaborative ad hoc basis; a case manager assigns tasks
to the lawyers and an efficient, well-coordinated,
synergistic effort emerges on behalf of the client.
Another advantage of this approach to significant
legal matters is that it does not require the initiating
office to be the "referring firm," which too
many times has involved a shuffling of a file from one
office to another and not a true joint effort on behalf
of the client.
