Legal Commentary

Blackholes and e-discovery

By Patrick J. Lamb

One of my partners was telling a story to some people we were visiting with at the Inside Counsel SuperConference.  As he said, it was a "classic Pat Lamb meeting" with an e-discovery vendor.  The meeting starts without me and the vendor's sales people are talking about how great their product is and how much better they are than the bajillion other e-discovery providers.  I walk in, apologize for being late and ask them if they can fix a price for their service.  The response was "yada yada yada."  My follow-up (allegedly) was "we can't fix a price for our service and bring our client a blackhole on e-discovery.  When you can fix a price, we can talk." And then I left.

I honestly don't remember the story.  And if true, I really demonstrated bad manners.  But it sounds like me, so I can't pretend it didn't happen.  And my message in e-discovery meetings has remained remarkably consistent.

So let me try to more politely pass this message along to e-discovery providers:

"Like lawyers, you are a blackhole to clients.  You suck money out like a new Hoover vacuum cleaner.  It is easier to understand the symbols in a Dan Brown novel than it is to understand your pricing.  Really, you fit into a category with airlines and phone companies when it comes to pricing. You are part of the problem.  Here's a winning business strategy for you to consider: provide a solution. Oh, I mean something that the client thinks is a solution.  Thank you."

Full post as published by In Search of Perfect Client Service on May 27, 2010 (boomark / email).