It has been an exciting year for Ken Jagger. After all, this is the year that he has launched his new Western Australian law firm, Balance Legal.

And, unlike his previous role as a partner at Freehills, his new role as the managing director is no longer concerned with the performance of his competitors. The reason for this is simple: Jagger has created Australia's first law firm which provides secondment services only, and therefore, has no competitors to speak of - not yet at least.

"We really don't have any competitors. We're not competing with law firms with any particular expertise, and our lawyers aren't looking for jobs [long term] in-house. We're simply filling the gap that exists between the two," he says.

By all accounts, Balance Legal is seeking to do rather more than simply filling a gap. Instead, the firm is breaking with tradition and entering uncharted waters, something which has not always come easily within a profession often shackled by the dictates of tradition.

"However, this business model isn't a novel idea. This concept has worked well for many years in many other industries, including construction and engineering ... it's just never been tried before in the legal profession, so in that sense it is novel."

Truman Hoyle provides a service which they refer to as general counsel services. This service involves the secondment of selected lawyers to work in-house for some of their clients if or when required. However, the point of difference between them and Balance Legal is that all of Jagger's lawyers work on secondment - this is the service the firm provides.

According to Truman Hoyle's managing director Shane Barker, general counsel services present the firm with an opportunity to better understand their clients' businesses, and to provide specialised expertise on various projects.

"We started to provide general counsel services about 10-15 years ago to our key clients. It was mainly for junior level lawyers to go in and provide support to in-house counsel. We've now seen a larger number of firms starting to change the model slightly, by providing more senior lawyers. We're aiming to get the balance right," he explains.

When considering secondment strategies, one issue which Barker feels is of critical importance is the management of the firm's operating procedures, culture and brand - and, in particular, how this can be achieved if lawyers are constantly working away from the firm's premises.  

 "Some firms have experimented with providing just a collection of lawyers sitting in client offices. This model has proven to be fraught with danger. You lack that collegiate atmosphere. There's no quality control, and, it's very difficult to retain staff," he says.

Jagger agrees that these are some of the challenges that he is being confronted with, but remains confident in the commercial viability of the firm's business model. Especially when it comes to retaining staff because, unlike Truman Hoyle, Balance Legal lawyers are not interested in pursuing in-house roles. The breed of lawyers Jagger has attracted tends to be those motivated by working as part of in-house teams initially, then moving on, which allows for the maintenance of a better work-life balance. 

The firm currently has a team of 10 senior level commercial lawyers who work on an assignment-only basis at various corporations alongside the legal teams within those organisations. 

According to Jagger, his clients are obtaining the services of experienced senior lawyers but at a fraction of the cost of engaging traditional law firms. "We're charging out lawyers on a fixed daily rate of $1,500-2,000 rather than billing by the hour. We can afford to do this because of our lower overheads, and again, we're not trying to extract the same margins."

As a result of having team members working on assignment, the firm has managed to keep operating costs down, and has opted for an open space office floor plan.  The business model not only benefits clients from a cost standpoint, but Jagger believes it helps to pave the way for a more flexible approach to practicing law.

"When I was a partner at Freehills, I found that there were large numbers of lawyers who wanted to be engaged, but in a different way. They were people who generally had family commitments or other commitments outside of work. Balance Legal enables these individuals to engage in interesting legal work as well as being able to meet their other commitments," he says. ALB