THE VERDICT
FOUNDING PARTNER
TAYLOR ENGLISH DUMA SEES IMMENSE SUCCESS THROUGH ITS REMOTE LAWYERS By Nicole Ortiz
English Duma is breaking the mold Tto beaylor of what most people imagine a law firm by having lawyers work remotely from
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their homes. Remote work has increased in almost all job settings within recent years and concepts of what makes a “traditional” workplace have changed drastically. In fact, according to a Gallup study conducted in 2016, 43 percent of people (out of 15,000 polled) reported that they worked remotely in the course of their work year. However, it feels as if a law firm can’t have lawyers working remotely. Surely the attorneys need to be present at all times, ready to field any of their clients’ questions at a moment’s notice. Right? Ta y l o r E n g l i s h D u m a s a y s n o. Headquartered in Atlanta, the firm now has remote lawyers servicing clients across the nation. “Our concept is that [remote lawyers] are not disconnected,” says Partner Chris Wilson. “They are full and active participants in our 150-lawyer ecosystem that we built in Atlanta.” And Taylor English Duma holds true to making their remote lawyers feel like part of the team. Similarly to other virtual firms, the remote lawyers keep 80 percent of the revenue from dealings that they maintain.
These lawyers are also When it comes able to become equity t o Ta y l o r E n g l i s h “ W E A R E IN par tners similar to Duma’s decision to their Atlanta-based hire remote workers, T H E P R ES E N coworkers. Ta y l o r d e s c r i b e s O F P RO BA B C E “The fact is,” says it as a pretty LY T H E G R E AT f ound i ng p a r t ne r straightforward Marc Taylor, “we are conclusion. “From T R A N S F O R ES T in the presence of Ta y l o r E n g l i s h’s P E R IO D O F M AT IO N A L probably the greatest standpoint, our T IM E IN T H E H IS TO transformational partners have always period of time in the been tasked with the L E GA L B U S RY O F T H E IN ES S .” history of the legal idea of ‘how do I drive business, whether va l ue t o ou r c l ie n t s , it’s the advent of and how we do we find t e c h no l o g y, t h e a way to meet their focusing of buyers of commercial legal needs?’ services on value, the willingness to explore “The idea of being able to get geographic alternatives from the traditional large law reach plus the idea of tapping into an firm, or the millennial generation coming enormous network of highly-qualified, onboard who have completely different highly-trained lawyers that simply no ideas on how they want to practice, why longer want to be part of the large law firm they want to practice, and what they expect paradigm, obviously you’re limited if only out of their career.” you draw from the city of Atlanta.” With this in mind, it’s unsurprising that Both within and outside of the firm, Taylor law firms have been accommodating English Duma has seen a resoundingly virtual lawyers more and more. According positive response to their remote lawyers to Wilson, formerly of virtual law firm and intends to continue to hone their unique FisherBroyles, they’ve observed many firms process. It’s a refreshing example of a firm that have over 100 virtual lawyers, with that’s eagerly willing to adapt and grow as some coming close to having 200. workplace habits continue to change.
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