Law And More

Law Firms & Square Footage: Getting serious about document storage

In major metro areas, reports THE WALL STREEET JOURNAL, a law firm could pay between $1 million and $2 million a month for space for 300 attorneys.  To reduce that high fixed expense, some firms have been cutting the space they lease by up to 20 percent.  One way they have been able to do that is by getting serious about off-site document storage. 

For those which haven't adopted that cost-control strategy as yet, Law and More has consulted with document storage expert Sherry Boyd to answer their questions.  She is an account executive with William B. Meyer, a 97-year-old company which added document storage to its menu of services 35 years ago.  Here law firms can learn the details about that specific service.

Today about a third of that business for William B. Meyer is associated with the legal sector in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.  In its three facilities, William B. Meyer provides exactly the fail-safe redundant systems lawyers demand.  Those range from an 8-inch tilt-up concrete construction located 50 inches from the ground to the Early Suppression Fast Reponse (ESFR) fire sprinkler suppression system.  Here are the details Download WilliamB.MeyerFacilities  

Getting back into those files? Law firms can have the documents they need delivered the next day or, on special order, the same day, within hours.  For immediate response, the file will be retrieved from the box, scanned, and electronically transmitted to  the law firm's password-protected account.

I asked Boyd to fill law firms in on the details of document storage, both in boxes and in digital form.

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JG:  What is the cost advantage to a law firm of offsite physical storage?

SB:  Office space in the region we service averages about $35.00 per square foot per year and a standard 1.2 cubic foot record carton can be stored for about $2.50 per cubic foot.  So it makes economic sense to get inactive records out of the office and to a more secure off-site location. 

JG:  Is that less expensive or more expensive than electronic storage? 

SB:  Less expensive, significantly so. 

JG: But we are hearing so much about how technology has brought down the cost of storage. 

SB:  The cost factor is high because the process for digitalization of a legal document is labor intensive. 

JG: Could you describe that.

SB:  First the file has to be stripped of paper clips, sticky notes, and staples. Then each page has to be imaged.  An index might be required which is a page-by-page project.

For each page the cost of the entire process could range from 4-cents to 12-cents. 

JG:  When then would a law firm choose to make the file digital?

SB:  Typically that's done when the litigation is high profile and several parties are sharing the file, back and forth. To send, for example, nine copies out, would be expensive. And that could happen each time changes are made.  Instead the firm can have us put it in digital form and encrypt it for cypersecurity.  Only those with the password could open it.  In addition, the shared file allows for comments, serving as a sort of wiki.

JG:  Is it obvious to the law firm when it's more cost-effective to go digital?

SB:  There are so many variables. Usually each situation is unique.  The law firm could request a company such as William B. Meyer to provide a complimentary consulation for a cost-benefit analysis.

JG:  From what you have said, it seems that the legal sector is a long way from a paperless industry.

SB: With the exception of the healthcare sector, most service organizations still find it more economical to retain documents in their original physical form.  In addition, the recession has encouraged them to stay with the status quo and not experiment with change.

JG:  Thank you for helping law firms with their options for reducing their own square footage.

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Sherry Boyd provides complimentary consultations to law firms in New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.  You can reach her at sboyd@williambmeyer.com, 203-383-6276 (office), 203-613-7702 (cell).

 

 

 

 

Energy: Follow the money

Frustrated organizations, both private sector and nonprofit, frequently call their lawyers. 

"My freezer broke down and the building isn't in compliance with energy codes," they say.  The chief executive officers and executive directors are desperate to find out where they can get the money to remedy these situations without getting into trouble.  Probably they are thinking: I do not want to get into trouble yet I need financial help for the project. 

Here is an informational interview with Elena Cahill, Certified Energy Manager (CEM), lawyer, and head of Globele Energy LLC, a boutique consulting firm which provides energy information, management, brokering of electricity and natural gas, and advice n how and why to create energy.  Elena is also a columnist on Energy for Motley Fool.

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Exclusive Interview with Elena Cahill

JG:  First of all, there is money available for energy efficient improvements, right?

EC:  Yes, so much.  The easiest and fastest way to access those funds is on the state level.  That's the first place to approach for investigating quasi-state funds and those from the federal government as well as looking to the utilities that often administer the local funds collected by each ratepayer. Ironically in Connecticut each ratepayer pays into a fund that each can use yet they have no idea that they are paying into the fund or how to capture the dollars when they need them.

They assume they have to approach the federal government.  Because that seems a formidable experience to them, they will drag their feet or not attempt it.  If they do, by the time they have mustered the resolve to knock on the doors of the federal government, some of the best economics for them might have expired.

JG:  You say "easy."  Did I hear right?

EC:  Yes. The best bet for the initial point of contact is the local utility which adminisers the fund the ratepayer is paying into.  In my experience and that of my clients, the utility is user-friendly. On the state level, everything is simplified and user-friendly.

JG:  How can lawyers and their clients find out more about what's available at the state level?

EC:  There's a wonderful resource: DSIRE. Just go there and click on your specific state. What most of lawyers and their clients need to know is spelled out.

JG:  Thanks, Elena.

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Readers can reach Elena Cahill at Elena@globeleenergy.Com, 203-799-8200.

"There can be so many energy blind spots for inhouse lawyers," Elena Cahill, JD, CEM

Energy for commercial buildings is usually regarded as a cost albatross which must be endured.  Bad attitude. 

In fact, that mindset could be causing many energy blindspots when inhouse lawyers are handling contracts with suppliers.  Also, they could be missing out on opportunities which could increase the value of the real estate.

Elena Cahill, JD, CEM (Certified Energy Manager) and head of Globele Energy addresses these issues in this exclusive interview with Law and More.

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JD:  Why are  inhouse lawyers often not picking up on possible cost efficiencies when it comes to energy contracts for their commercial buildings?

EH:  Let's back up a little, Jane.  In many states  the energy for commercial buildings had and still may be supplied by a monopoly - the utility.  Among the exceptions is Connecticut where's there is deregulation.  Because lawyers have been dealing with a monopoly they may have developed a mindset that assumes no or little room for negotiation of terms and conditions.

JG:  So, energy contracts can be negotiated?

EC:  That's a big piece of my business.  Education = money.  We introduce commercial building energy consumers to what they need to focus on when locking in anything with an alternative supply company as well as teaching the consumer what on the ultility bill they can deal with to save significant money.

JG:  What should inhouse lawyers be looking at that they may not be?

EC:  One is to have their arms around what the business might be doing in the short term.  It might be investigating relocating headquarters from the Northeast to South Carolina.  If it doesn't factor in that possibility and negotiate for a one year instead of four year contract, they could be stuck with a whopper of an early termination fee. 

Another is what will be the price.  If they are aware of trends in pricing and anticipate that electricity will go down in a year, then they shouldn't lock themselves into a long term contract.  Of course there are no guarantees but many energy experts have had a good track record in forecasting price and supply.

A third concerns the fine  print. such as relating to quantity.  It's imperative to read it, think about it, and if it isn't in their financial self interest negotiate it.

JG: You mentioned they could boost the value of real estate.

EC:  All the time now.  There are so many government sustainability initiatives that will fund part or all of energy efficiency measures.  Those in themselves will increase the value of the real estate. 

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Elena will be back t Law and More on other energy matters.  You can reach her at elenacahil@aol.com.

Enviromental Practices, Regulators: Smartphone eco apps

Pro-active consumer green may prevent lawsuits and a maze of regulations.  Popular technology writer Bari Faye Siegel describes some of the eco apps for the smartphone.  Here you can deconstruct the implications for your own line of work.

Kyoto: Canada pulls out

Canada, a major producer of traditional energy, pulled out of the Kyoto protocol, reports David Ljunggren of Reuters.  Kyoto has always been shaky from back when George W. Bush gave it a thumbs-down in 2001.  Now, it looks like it might not be renewed when it expires in 2012.

Its main supporters are nations in Europe.  Since their economies are in such a state of disarray, they don't have a lot of influence or power right now.  The beef of nations like Canada is that they assert the biggest polluters are developing economies like China and those would commit to reduction targets via Kyoto.

Carbon Emissions: Regulations, lawsuits, international treaties will continue

No calling off the dogs when it comes to carbon emissions.  During the height of the global downturn, they dropped 1.4% in 2009, says the Global Carbon Project.  However, the next year, as the recovery was taking shape, they rose 5.9%, reports Justin Gillis in THE NEW YORK TIMES.

This is at a time when some fear the Kyoto agreement will expire and not be renewed.  China could be the nation preventing that from happening. In BLOOMBERG LAW, Ewa Krukowska tells us:

China set out its conditions for adopting a binding post-2020 greenhouse-gas commitment as part of a global deal, demanding an extension of current pledges by industrialized countries under the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012."

China has a solid commercial reason for this stance.  It is a world leader in its manufacture and export of products and services related to solar.

Right now, representatives from 190 nations are discussing at UN talks whether the Kyoto agreement will have a second life.

New Business Models: Legal Sector Can Learn from Green

In its ninth annual survey of BigLaw, the AMERICAN LAWYER found that both uncertainty and external change hammer the legal sector.  During November, only 100 jobs were created.

To navigate all that not only profitably [greater cost control has been doing that] but with increased revenues, BigLaw has to develop new business models.  That's not easy for an industry which tends to move at a glacial pace when it comes to innovation. 

To provide insight into the power of fresh business models, this blog presents an exclusive commentary from Bari Faye Siegel, a technology expert who works with clean energy.    

 

Business Model Innovation & Green - By Bari Faye Siegel

Cost, logistics, ingrained patterns of behavior and even the clout of established brand names – well, new clean energy business models are overcoming those would-be obstacles to consumer adoption.

The payoff is the greening of consumer lifestyles around the world. This is happening in low-cost, convenient ways that make sense to just about everyone, ranging from sophisticated urbanites in the U.S. to rural dwellers in Brazil. 

We know business model innovation (BMI) can jump start progress in industries; that’s nothing new. (Even though we didn’t always have the BMI label for it!) The iconic example is Henry Ford’s mass production system combined with the $5-a-day wage. The commercial car industry became viable and workers could afford the purchase. More recently are these same innovative models are being created and updated by online giants such as Amazon.com.

What is new is that those in clean energy are taking BMI seriously, at last. David Levy, director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise and Regional Competitiveness at the University of Massachusetts, has written that so much focus had and has been on developing technologies.

In fact, many eyes are always focused on the next best thing. 

What but about today? BMI can be leveraged to enable existing technologies to be brought to consumers right now.

 So what are some examples of BMI changing the ways consumers consume? Consider the Zipcar. It rebranded the traditional auto leasing industry as “green car-sharing.” And, it did it in a way that even non-greens found the concept unable to resist. The approach includes leasing by the hour, at prices even college students can afford, and widely available rental locations for easy pick-up and return. Last April, Zipcar had an Initial Public Offering and is in 14 cities and on 230 college campuses.

In Brazil, there are areas with no electricity. Fabio Rosa, founder of the Agroelectric System of Appropriate Technology and featured on the PBS “New Heroes” series, introduced distributed solar energy. The BMI for his project, “"The Sun Shines for All,” was to lease instead of selling the photovoltaic solar home system. That made it affordable and less than the cost of non-renewable kerosene and liquid petroleum gas.

A third example enables consumers in nations such as Israel and Denmark to purchase electric cars without the expensive battery. Better Place provides the battery as a service through local service stations. Because this is obviously such a green initiative, governments subsidize the national battery program.

One reason why there hasn’t been more attention paid to BMI until recently had been the same reason for reduction in clean-energy investment: the global economic downturn.

 In addition, constituencies be they old-line utilities, software startups, or property owners often drag their feet in the face of regulatory uncertainty or downright confusion. In the latter, U.S. commercial landlords in metro areas such as New York and Washington D.C. have to disclose energy consumption. However, as yet, there is no link between this isolated data and the amount and causes of carbon emissions.

The reality about sustainability is that the global effort is just getting back on-track after the financial meltdown -- leaving more questions than answers. Among the answers, it’s now being recognized, is the potential of BMI. It’s out there as a possible strategy.

One thing which isn’t ambiguous is the demand for measuring impacts on the environment.  Noveda Technologies Carbon Footprint Monitor does just that, displaying the real-time impact of any facility on the environment. 

 In addition to being a technology expert, Faye Siegel is a marketing consultant at Noveda Technologies, a leader in real-time, web-based  energy management, solar PV monitoring, and water management.r communities and make the smart grid a reality today. 

Readers can reach Siegel at getitwritetoday@gmail.com. 

 

 

 

Chief Financial Officer: Key player in sustainability

You readers asked for expert input on sustainability.  After all, it's a growing practice in law firms.  Here is an exclusive commentary by Bari Faye Siegel, a technology writer on clean energy.

Sustainability as Bottom Line

 By Bari Faye Siegel

For a long time in corporations, sustainability had been a soft issue – nice to highlight in the annual report but not thought to affect the bottom line. Not any more.

 Now it’s considered, including by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), to have direct impact on what capitalism is all about. And, that’s shareholder value.

During the 2011 proxy season, 40 percent of shareholder resolutions were related to concerns ranging from energy efficiency to carbon footprint. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the traditional role of the corporation’s chief financial officer has taken on key responsibilities for sustainability. Those include integrating and reporting on sustainability initiatives and outcomes in investor relations, external filings, compliance, risk management, and tax incentives.

 Of course, this represents a major paradigm shift for the CFO function. Two recent accounting firm whitepapers – one by Ernst & Young, the other by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu -- document not only that CFOs are embracing these trends, but why. More than 70 percent of CFOs surveyed agreed that sustainability is part of their core duties. The “Why Factors” list is long and growing.

At the top of the list is the cost of energy. It’s become volatile. No one anticipates a downward trajectory in price. Therefore, boosting efficiency for office operations, processing, supply chain management, and distribution has a major impact on profit. Of course, by law, corporations have to maximize shareholder value. That’s what the CFO helps oversee.

 For some forms of traditional energy, such as petroleum, supply is also uncertain. It’s in the corporation’s, as well as the national self-interest to find alternates. The same applies to water in a growing number of regions. Both conservation and technology are part of that solution.

Then there are the risks, ranging from tornados to rising temperatures, associated with climate change. CFOs at companies which take on that kind of liability, be they insurance or utility, better quantify it. So must they at companies which take the hit from unusual weather patterns such as Hurricane Irene.

The possible harm to the environment from raw materials, processes, products and services negatively impacts sales, community relations, global goodwill, and the ability to find partners. Also, they can lead to class-action lawsuits. Too many companies, reported Deloitte, have a blind spot about merging with or acquiring organizations with poor sustainability track records. For so long, it just hasn’t been on the “due diligence” radar screen. However, sooner than later that could saddle them with lawsuits and bad public relations.

How companies are doing in these and other categories are tracked on 3000 Bloomberg terminals. They are also ranked in 100 other official ways such as the Dow Jones Sustainability, Carbon Disclosure, and FTSE4 Good Index Series Indexes. And, you better believe that institutional and individual investors are now paying attention to those metrics.

Given the importance of the CFO’s augmented role, experts have recommendations for what they should be doing. The most common are:

• Be proactive about green initiatives
• Embed ways to report on everything related to sustainability in traditional functions. Those include internal controls, compliance, tax regulations, and performance indicators.
• In the spirit of transparency, CFOs need to brief often shareholders as well as other key constituencies such as the board of directors often about what’s improving and what isn’t, at least not yet. Also, anticipate their concerns.
• Have the sustainability mindset and approaches be linked seamlessly throughout the corporation. Usually organizations operate in silos or separate entities, with their own decision-making and implementation.
• Create teams having the skills to speed-read developments which could become emerging issues and then parachute in with solutions.

All this begins, of course, with the ability to monitor what kinds of energy and water supplies are being used, how much is consumed, and in what ways. Sophisticated but affordable web-based technology is available to do that. And, it should be Job No. 1.

In addition to being a technology expert, Bari Faye Siegel is a marketing consultant at Noveda Technologies, a leader in real-time, web-based  energy management, solar PV monitoring, and water management. 

Readers can reach Siegel at barifsiegel@gmail.com.

Sustainability & Legally Binding Global Warming Treaty: Problems in green

Sustainability initiatives can be expensive, with the ROI longer term.  So, it's no surprise that some nations are balking at putting together Kyoto Protocol 2.0, which would be a game-changer for many nations, including developing economies.  The current agreement puts the lion's share of responsibility for green improvement on the richer nations.

In BLOOMBERG LAW, Alex Morales reports that there is plenty of opposition at the UN climate conference for a second kind of Kyoto legally binding treaty.  At the heart of it is, notes Morales:

"The European Union's demand for a road map ... with others saying they are going to come into the climate fight."

The current agreement ends in 2012.  Japan, Russia, and Canada don't want any more commitments.  Developing nations balk at binding metrics for themselves.  They want a continuation of the status quo.  Supporters for Kyoto 2.0 decry this, contending that it has been a time of record increase in emissions and rising temperatures.

Sustainability = Business Issue: BLOOMBERG NEWS resource for legal sector

Sustainability is a business issue.  BLOOMBERG NEWS is recognizing that by launching a sustainability page, reports Chris Roush on MEDIA BRIEFING.  It will track how business is leveraging sustainability as a competitive advantage, be that in brand equity or supply chain management.

BLOOMBERG NEWS is one more resource for the legal sector to keep up.