2021 in Review: Through Solvaire’s LinkedIn Posts

Published January 6, 2022
2021 in Review: Through Solvaire’s LinkedIn Posts

12 months ago, we introduced our “new and improved” website to better reflect how the Solvaire team helps companies with their diligence, discovery, and document challenges … and has been for the past 22-plus years. Along with the site, we vowed to increase our LinkedIn presence and managed to share 50-plus posts in 2021, roughly one post per week, ranging from insightful #ALSP related reports to industry survey results and #inhouse thought leadership.

As we kick off 2022, we wanted to share our Top Five LinkedIn posts based on popularity (most likes, comments/overall reaction):

  1. Association of Corporate Counsel Chief Legal Officer Survey post: 21% of CLOs say significant transactions including M&As, spin-offs, divestitures, and other business combinations will require additional resources. See the full survey here. Assisting corporations with M&As and buy-side diligence specifically is Solvaire Technologies’ core competence and what got us going in the #ALSP business 22+ years ago.
  2. ILTACON ’21 connects with “redefining the delivery of legal services” panel discussion: Among the 90-plus sessions that caught our attention at ILTACON was a #legaltechnology roundtable focused on “redefining the delivery of legal services,” featuring Shearman & Sterling Chief Knowledge & Client Value Officer Meredith Williams-Range and SixFifty CEO Kimball Dean Parker. The two attorneys talked about the accelerated focus of #ALSPs on core and commodity type work, and how their firm is forging partnerships with #ALSPs to deliver client value and compete for new business. Read the full post here.
  3. Legal tech spending trending upward … just ask Gartner: The legal and compliance practice arm of Gartner predicts that 12% of in-house budgets will be devoted to legal tech by 2025, compared with 3.9% in 2020 and 2.6% in 2017. This coincides with trends of legal departments hiring less in the years ahead and looking to better leverage technology and alternative staffing models offered by Solvaire and other ALSPs. Read the full post here.
  4. Smart Business Network chats with Solvaire Technologies President Christian Farmakis on the world of ALSPs and how their use can enhance in-house legal posture. Read the exclusive feature article here.
  5. Pandemic opens digital initiatives flood gates: A recent McKinsey & Company global CEO survey underscores the popularity of technology use in-house. Leaders are more “pro tech” than ever, as evidenced by survey results discovering that technology and digital initiatives have accelerated by an average of three years during the pandemic. Read the complete post here.

Based on our “Year-One” LinkedIn success, we’ll continue to provide industry insights and commentary, hopefully on a weekly basis. Please join us in the conversation if you haven’t already.

Corporate Counsel ALSP Article Features Solvaire Leaders

Published July 22, 2021
Corporate Counsel ALSP Article Features Solvaire Leaders

ALM Media’s Corporate Counsel digital magazine, required reading for both in-house lawyers and law firms, covers business issues, legal affairs, and reports on the latest developments in the corporate world. The June issue features an in-depth article on the challenges faced by Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs) — owned and operated by law firms (so called captive ALSPs) — compared to independent service providers not associated with the law firm. One such challenge centers around pricing and if/how ALSPs run by law firms can be price-competitive with their independent counterparts. Chris Farmakis and Chuck Rile, President and CTO respectively of Pittsburgh-based Solvaire, are prominently featured in the article sharing their experience of running a successful ASLP for the past 21+ years with a keen focus on providing pricing value through something they have coined “price certainty.”

“We offer clients flat fees and other alternative fee arrangements to give them full transparency when it comes to budgets, timelines, and our services,”said Farmakis.

The Law.com article points out that, in many instances, captive ALSPs charge higher fees. According to Farmakis and Rile,  fueling those higher prices is a law firm billing model that hinders a captive ALSP from reaching peak efficiency and truly slashing prices. For firms that are tied to a traditional pricing model, it’s difficult to transfer those hours to the ALSP model because under that model those hours get billed at a significantly lower rate.”

“There’s more value for the client, but less margin for the firm. Being unable to break from this conventional firm billing model and mindset can inhibit a captive ALSP’s ability to match an independent vendor’s pricing,” Farmakis said. “I think the independent ALSPs have performed better than the captive ALSPs because they’re singularly focused on that value proposition and don’t have that inherent conflict.”

Click here to read more of Solvaire’s commentary, as well as hear from other legal leaders on the captive ALSP pricing topic.

How Alternative Legal Service Providers Can Add Efficiencies, Create Value

Published April 7, 2021
Christian Farmakis Smart Business article

With companies consistently scoring law firms an average of just 2 to 3 (on a scale of 10) on the value they receive for legal services, businesses and firms alike are increasingly employing the value-added services of alternative legal service providers (ALSPs). Smart Business spoke with Christian Farmakis, shareholder and chairman of the board at Babst Calland —and president of its affiliated ALSP, Solvaire — about how ALSPs can help businesses get more value from their legal providers.

Click here to read the entire Smart Business article and interview with Christian.

Solvaire President Shares ALSP Market Predictions with Legaltech News

Published February 26, 2021
Solvaire President Shares ALSP Market Predictions with Legaltech News

Many attorneys, technologists, and legal experts think change in the legal ecosystem will only continue to accelerate in 2021. To kick off the new year, ALM’s Legaltech News’ editors reached out to legal influencers about the relevance and prevalence of Alternative Legal Service Providers (ALSPs). Solvaire’s president, Chris Farmakis, whose commentary is included in the Legaltech News article, predicts more upheaval, especially in the “captive” ALSP market.

“Captive ALSPs run by Big Law will begin to lose ground to independent ALSPs and captive ALSPs operated by mid-sized firms. The latter will offer a more compelling value proposition based on price structure, efficient processes, and a more complete understanding and usage of legal technology. In the end, the Big Law financial model and its captive ALSPs financial model are in conflict with one another. This conflict will start to erode Big Law’s captive ALSPs competitiveness and market share.”

Click here to read the entire Legal Tech 2021 ALSP Predictions article.

Solvaire Unveils New Website – Facilitates Access to Diligence, Discovery, and Document Services

Published January 27, 2021
Unlock the Power of Your Documents With Solvaire Technologies

Pittsburgh, PA, January 27, 2021 – For more than 21 years, Solvaire has effectively designed, performed, and implemented complex buy-side diligence projects, discovery projects, and tailored document management solutions. Our track record and satisfied clients speak for themselves.

Today, in order to properly reflect our expansive diligence, discovery, and document capabilities and services within the Alternative Legal Services Provider space, we have unveiled our “new and improved” online presence at www.solvaire.com. The new website provides access to our comprehensive service offerings, the talented and growing Solvaire Team, a timeline and track record of our service delivery and client projects dating back to the late 1990s, and examples of successful diligence, discovery, and document projects within our case studies and testimonials pages. Solvaire Technologies has also enhanced its LinkedIn profile and presence.

Now, more than ever, Solvaire realizes how critical it is for organizations to seek cost efficiencies while making legal, operational, financial and ‘game changing’ business decisions. With our enhanced AI-enabled processes and machine learning capabilities – the Solvaire Team can help to increase efficiencies while lowering project costs.

We invite organizations and law firms alike to take advantage of our free consultation and discover how Solvaire provides superior diligence, discovery, and document management services – on time, with accuracy and consistency, and within a budget that provides price certainty.

To stay informed about Solvaire news, the latest case studies and content, as well as innovative business and technology enhancements, sign up for updates here.

Introducing PIPES Tracker – Pipeline Safety Database Tool

Published October 27, 2020

Solvaire is pleased to announce the availability of PIPES TRACKER™– the most comprehensive and easy-to-use pipeline safety regulatory database search and tracking tool available on the market today.

Now, pipeline operators finally have an easy way to search and track enforcement cases issued by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

With PIPES TRACKER™ you can:

  • Quickly search and identify cases involving a particular citation
  • Evaluate annual reports on developments and enforcement trends
  • Easily search and verify data for counsel, operators and consultants
  • Track PHMSA cases by citation, region, date, operator name and current status

Unlike our competitors, PIPES TRACKER™ is:

  • Fully keyword searchable
  • Updated monthly
  • The most affordable pipeline safety regulatory database tool on the market today
  • The only pipeline safety regulatory database search and tracking tool developed, managed and operated by lawyers

Explore Solvaire and PIPES TRACKER™ – the only tool developed by former PHMSA attorneys who have first-hand knowledge and experience with the PHMSA enforcement process.

Please contact us for a customized demonstration of PIPES TRACKER™.

Smart Business Dealmakers: Managing Through The Uncertainty of COVID-19

Published October 15, 2020
Solvaire News: Smart Business Dealmakers: Managing Through The Uncertainty of COVID-19

Smart Business Podcast, Episode 22
Chris Farmakis, Chairman of Babst Calland, May 18. 2020

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed legal issues that entrepreneurs and business leaders have not had to face before. In his recent podcast, Chris Farmakis, chairman of law firm Babst Calland, explains what c-suite executives should be thinking about, including giving a new level of scrutiny to contracts.

Click here to listen to the 22-minute Smart Business Podcast.

Business Continuity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leveraging AI/Machine Learning Contract Review

Published March 20, 2020
Business Continuity During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Leveraging AI/Machine Learning Contract Review

Babst Calland and Solvaire Client Advisory, March 2020
By Christian Farmakis

With the Coronavirus pandemic having a widespread effect on business continuity, supply chains and revenues, Babst Calland and its alternative legal service provider, Solvaire, are currently advising C-suite executives and managers as they seek to quickly assess their contract provisions, evaluate their exposure and make effective operational and financial risk-based decisions. Of particular concern, key suppliers may desire to invoke “force majeure”, delay or termination provisions during this time of uncertainty. Similarly, our clients may desire to invoke these same provisions to delay or terminate unessential projects.

Click here for the complete article.

 

Babst Calland & Solvaire: An AI Contract Review Use Case

Published January 8, 2020

In today’s business climate, clients demand greater efficiency when it comes to contract review for many complex deals and transactions. We have found that the combination of deep legal expertise, coupled with embracing carefully researched and vetted technology, is the most effective means of delivering high quality and timely review in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Click here to read complete Legaltech News article.

 

The Expected and Unexpected of Working with Artificial Intelligence

Published July 11, 2019

Stories of how AI will change the legal ecosystem forever are endless, yet ‘rubber meets the road’ proof that this is actually happening are few and far between.  Here’s what one firm learned about knowing what AI can do and what they didn’t know it could do.

Click here for the complete Legaltech News article.