Practice Management

Bravo Pepe & Hazard for demonstrating what "client driven" really means

Pepe & Hazard has had the courage to decide to freeze its rates for existing clients for 2009 and to go public with that information. 

Managing Partner Al Turco

Managing Partner, Al Turco, said [Pepe & Hazard] is in the process of formulating a 2009 budget to manage its own revenues and expenses.  However you can see the firm's concern for clients in this statement:

'Our will was to reach out to our clients first. We can manage our own adjustments later'

Firm co-founder Lou Pepe

Firm co-founder and construction law international superstar Lou Pepe demonstrates his sensitivity to the plight of the firm's many prominent and long standing clients in confirming:

'It's an economic crisis unlike any we've seen before…'

If you are not familiar with Pepe & Hazard, it has national and international prominence that it's four office locations (including Hartford and Boston) may not make obvious.   In addition to its strength and fine reputation serving businesses and financial institutions, Pepe & Hazard has an unexpectedly broad construction practice mainly representing general contractors, construction managers, and EPC (Engineering Procurement Construction) contractors in a variety of power, infrastructure, heavy industrial, and commercial projects in places from New England to New Orleans, the Middle Atlantic to the Middle East, and Argentina to Australia.

PUNCHLINE:  In these unprecedented economic times, no Managing Partner has enough information to make the right decision.  Making a decision is risky because events can make your choices look bad in hindsight.  Going public with a fee decision is an extremely courageous move because it alerts competitors as well as clients.  Pepe & Hazard's Managing Partner Al Turco is therefore an exemplar.  He and his firm are putting the interests of their clients ahead of their own and publicly committing to their bold initiative without undo regard to competitors.  There is no seminar for Managing Partners (even my own) that teaches this lesson better than seeing Al Turco 'just do it'.

Full post as published by Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices on December 01, 2008 (boomark / email).