Photo of Yvonne Nath

Yvonne Nath

Subscribe to Yvonne Nath's Posts
Follow:Read more about Yvonne NathYvonne's Linkedin Profile

For what it’s worth …

My original plan was to go quietly and fade into obscurity from the legal industry at the end of May 2022. Instead, I chose to follow Bill’s advice (he is full of good advice). Bill suggested I write an article about why I’m choosing to retire from legal. Here you have it, along with some parting words of encouragement I’d like to share with you.

I’m following the values of my heart and mind …

If you read my “16 Lessons” post from last summer, you know I’ve been on a journey as a digital nomad.

Last year, I relinquished most of my possessions to travel the world as a single mom, working and schooling remotely as we went. In that article, I promised to end my nomadic lifestyle “whenever I fall in love with a person and/or a place.” Post 247 (under Lesson 15).  In 2021, I experienced life in seven countries. I truly liked every place I explored for different reasons, though I would be hard-pressed to pick any one of those places to put down roots. However, I did fall in love with a man and that love has metaphorically grounded me (we still travel!). He is the partner with whom I believe I can build an interesting, joyful, and successful life.
Continue Reading Announcing my retirement from the legal industry (308)

Even in the US, the neat line between law firms and ALSP is starting to blur.  Nonetheless, the opportunities are only growing.

This post shares some of the most frequently asked questions I receive as a law firm consultant with expertise in ALSPs.  I am sharing this information because I believe that if more people understand how to leverage and/or mimic the most effective aspects of ALSPs, the adoption of ALSPs and new business models will accelerate.

What is an Alternative Legal Service Provider (ALSP)?

“ALSP” is an umbrella term used to describe a wide variety of businesses in the legal industry that are not law firms, but which provide legal or related support services. ALSPs usually leverage low-cost labor, technology, and efficient processes to perform certain types of work more quickly and less expensively than many law firms can perform it.
Continue Reading Your most common questions about ALSPs (307)

“Be engaged, interested in what others have to say. It’s more important to listen than to speak.”

I had the opportunity to discuss legal outsourcing with Colin Levy, who embodies the skills and mindset of the modern T-shaped legal professional.

Colin and I work on opposite ends of the spectrum: he’s an attorney who’s experienced first-hand how outsourcing to an ALSP can impact his career and place of employment. In contrast, I have expertise in helping law firms find and work with ALSPs. When law firms or legal departments choose to outsource to ALSPs, often, no jobs are lost. However, sometimes an ALSP can replace certain functions. I thought it would be interesting to hear one attorney’s perspective on whether ALSPs are a threat to attorney job security in the legal industry.

Below are notes from our discussion.
Continue Reading Legal careers in the age of outsourcing: A conversation with Colin Levy (288)

A law firm with best-in-class ALSP features

I have written before about how the lines between legal service providers are blurring, see, e.g., Lucien Pera & Yvonne Nath, “What If… Chambers Ranks Law Firms Alongside ALSPs?,” Law.com, Aug 20, 2020 (discussing implications of Chambers issuing its first ranking of ALSPs), and I especially enjoy singling out particular NewLaw business models for a closer inspection to show you exactly what I mean, see, e.g., The Post-Pandemic Law Firm (forthcoming Nov 2021).

Today, I feature Radiant Law (with which I have no affiliation).
Continue Reading Radiant Law: a closer look (265)

Yvonne Nath shares what she’s learned (so far!).

Any good strategic planning process takes into consideration how to optimize the existing resources you have and what you will decline to pursue. You must be able to make important decisions without having all the information (i.e., you’ll need to take some risks).

The pandemic gave me some time to rethink and revise the strategic plan I have for my life. Not my entire life, of course, but I did map out how I want to live the next 1-2 years of it. You see, strategic plans need to be flexible because the future is not linear. One can plan and prepare for the future yet still be surprised and unprepared by contingencies in life. Ten years ago, I would have never dreamed I would be where I am today. Likewise, my life looks pretty different today than it looked just one year ago. Could you say the same?
Continue Reading 16 lessons learned from a digital nomad (249)

Diversity is indeed associated with higher law firm profits.  To accept this fact, the profession needs to understand why.

Figure 1 above reports expected changes in average partner compensation at different levels of racial diversity among attorneys in large law firms.  These results come from an “all else equal” model that accounts for differences in a multitude of other relevant factors, such as geography, leverage, and firm prestige.

The key takeaway? Within the large firm market, firms with higher shares of Asian, Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial attorneys (“diverse attorneys”) are paying their partners higher average levels of compensation—at about a $260K premium for the firms with the highest diverse representation.
Continue Reading Nothing not to like: diversity and law firm profitability (238)

Source: Whitney Johnson, “Throw Your Life a Curve,” Harv Bus Rev, Sept 3, 2012

The S-curve is real.  If we’re not growing, we’re dying.

Through client work that admittedly spans a broad swath of the legal industry, I am fortunate to spend a lot of time with law firm leaders and other attorneys at varying stages of their careers.  Through these discussions, I have learned why some attorneys choose to work for law firms while others–with the same stellar pedigrees–prefer to work for alternative legal service providers (ALSPs).
Continue Reading The gig is up and coming (223)