“Son, At This Firm, We Have No Billing Minimum – Just Win Everything You Touch”

At The Markarian Group, our lawyers have no “billing requirement” or “billing minimum.” Instead, we ask our team to simply bring excellence to everything they do and win everything they touch. Instead, we ask our team to simply bring excellence to everything they do and win at everything they touch. This idea and core belief were provided as a gift to me many, many mango seasons ago by my boss, Gil Haddad, when I asked him how many hours I should bill a day… He responded in a manner that I’ll never forget. I can still can hear his gravelly voice saying:

… at this firm son, we have no billing minimum or requirement. We simply ask that you win everything you touch.

And then, he laughed a loud, long, belly laugh (which I can also still hear, so many years later).

And so, it has been ever since. Mr. Haddad’s ethic lives on at The Markarian Group. Unlike nearly every traditional law firm, our team has no “billing minimum,” that is, no daily, monthly or annual “billing requirement” or target. Instead, we ask our team to focus on “winning everything we touch,” to assure excellence in all that we do. In place of a financial target or incentive, we ensure that our team keeps their eye on the real prize – doing good work and creating true value for you, our clients. Instead of viewing the law practice in terms of hours billed, our perspective focuses on creating value.

I’ve also found that this emphasis means something important to our talented team of lawyers. They love – and gain great satisfaction – knowing that they are valued for what they achieve for our clients, not how much they charge for doing it.

We don’t believe in charging for routine phone calls, nor for emails conveying quick updates pertaining to our representation. We want to encourage fluid communication that strengthens the attorney-client relationship and improves the end result; and want our clients to be comfortable that they don’t have to pay money just to get their lawyer on the phone, or to respond to a quick email, get an update or communicate an important nuance.

Finally, we hold ourselves to account, and we always treat you the way we would wish to be treated if we were on the opposite side of the equation. If our work for you doesn’t meet our standards – we won’t charge you. It is a simple guarantee – and we pledge to do our very best representing our clients and if we fall short of our own very high standards, you don’t pay for that work.

Courtroom Experience is Paramount

I recall that the former General Counsel of a major company once confessed to me: …when I was a lawyer in private practice, the idea of attending a deposition made me nauseous, and the idea of appearing in court made me want to throw up.

It was the opposite for me. I always knew that I wanted to make a living in the courtroom from the time that I was in my early teens, and my experiences working my way through law school confirmed it. I was able to get a great deal of courtroom experience, early on. I tried my first case within four months of graduating law school, and argued and won my first appeal within the first six months.

The wide variety of cases that were available to me to try in the early days of my practice helped make me well rounded as an advocate. I learned how important it was to both convince juries and judges to see things “our way”, but also to keep the presentation of cases interesting and informative. My goal in those early days was to get as much experience in the courtroom as possible, and when there was a new matter brought into the firm, I volunteered to try it. In what seemed like a flash, I had tried everything from simple auto accident cases, to complex premises security matters to admiralty cases and to partnership disputes. I defended those accused of medical, legal or accounting malpractice, brought and defended product liability claims, and won countless complex corporate disputes. As my experience grew, I tried intellectual property disputes, energy cases, instances of toxic chemical exposure and a wide variety of matters that lent themselves to resolution in the courtroom.

Of equal value was that our high-level corporate clients routinely engaged in litigation exercises prior to trial that used focus groups (or “mock juries” as they were called) matching the demographics of our likely jury venire to allow us to pitch ideas, explanations, legal theories and arguments before we actually got to trial. This allowed us to experiment and determine what our likely jurors would seize upon and what would move them toward a decision that would favor our clients. Over time, we learned how to provide information to jurors which tended to drive decision-making, in order to influence them as effectively as possible. We learned how to draw upon scientific and mathematical analysis, to use courtroom graphics and state of the art “demonstrative exhibits” to ensure the most favorable outcome for our clients.

Still later in my career, I maintained a national practice, and tried cases of all kinds and varieties across the nation, and provided advocacy in regulatory hearings, permit hearings and before regulatory commissions. We tried cases involving real estate property disputes, NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) matters, nuisance claims and some of the most consequential cases involving renewable energy over the course of the last decade. More recently, we’ve had great success (and landmark rulings) in trust and estate litigation, injunctions, replevin actions, employment and partnership disputes.

What this means for you? Few people have as broad a background in courtroom advocacy, or more nimble experience in such a wide variety of matters. We have more than 35 years of experience trying cases of all kinds, and we consider the courtroom our home. We know how to take nearly any set of facts involved in a dispute and have them come alive in a courtroom or other forum. We ensure compelling presentation of evidence that jurors and other decision-makers can use to decide matters favorably.

By David Markarian

What Sets Us Apart

We Use Our Courtroom Experience To Manage Future Risk and Cost

One key to our success is that our background and expertise was formed in the courtroom, where every mistake and miscue is magnified, and lessons are learned the hard way. Our experience in mounting a courtroom defense for nearly every type of mistake and oversight a business can encounter makes us uniquely qualified to develop sensible protocols and processes to guide our clients to avoid legal risk.

We Think And See The World The Way Our Clients Do

Another key to our success is the knowledge and perspective gained from a decade serving on “the inside” of a successful, well run Fortune 200 company (Next Era Energy, Inc., the nation’s leading clean energy company), including serving as a corporate officer with a seat on the Operating Committee. This experience allows us to view risk and consequences from the perspective of the client, the boardroom and the investor, enabling us to further leverage best-in-class tools to protect you.

We Value Economy

We understand there is no line item for litigation in your budget, and if you end up in court, precious resources are being squandered, instead of being used to grow your business or fund your retirement. Our Managing Partner, Dave Markarian, is one of few seasoned business lawyers and litigators who also has experience managing a complex, multi-million-dollar corporate P & L and we are trained to consider risk, cost, efficiency and economy at every turn.

We Mesh Experience with the Next Generation of Legal Minds and Technology

In addition to our years of dedication to the law, we are smart and laser-focused. Our lawyers are talented both in their legal analysis and advocacy, and as writers, each of them having written for their respective Law School’s Law Review publications. Additionally, we embrace technology and efficiency in everything we do, thus providing our clients with a greater value at a lower cost.

We Create Clear Agreements and Enforce Them In Court

We are the rare firm that both crafts agreements for you, and also has the skill and expertise to ensure their enforcement in court. The legal foundation of any business deal should be set forth in simple, clear language that adequately defines key terms and addresses key business risks. Our insistence on clear and enforceable agreements help our clients stay out of the courtroom, but when it is necessary to prevail in court, those carefully crafted agreements ensure our success.

We Successfully Intersect The Worlds of Law, Government and Business

We understand how businesses make money, how public policy can enhance or hinder an industry or business, and how to pursue enactment of public policy that encourages investment and provides a level playing field for businesses to thrive. Rarely do our clients’ challenges exist strictly within law, government, or business. Our experience across these arenas enables us to bring a diverse perspective to solving your multi-faceted problems and challenges.

We’re Guided by Success, Not Revenue

At The Markarian Group, our lawyers have no “billing requirement” or “billing minimum.” Instead, we ask our team to simply bring excellence to everything they do, and win everything they touch. Instead of viewing the law practice in terms of hours billed, our perspective focuses on creating value for you.

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Our Promise

Our firm was founded on our commitment to find new solutions to the challenges facing the legal profession.* We are trained to consider risk, cost, efficiency and economy at every turn in our representation of you. Our blog There’s No Litigation Line Item on Your P & L provides deeper insight into the principles and realizations that caused us to do things differently, and might be worth your review. Our moniker when we first began the firm was “Business Minded Problem Solving”, believing that even small and medium-sized businesses deserve first class legal work as well as solid and fair legal outcomes, without breaking the bank. Our mission ever since has been to deliver on that pledge.

Throughout our representation, we consider and focus on the most cost-effective way to do our job. We know that working “smart” and working together with our clients effectively can help ensure significant cost savings, as well. For that reason, our clients have around-the-clock shared-access to their client files, allowing us to unlock unlimited potential collaboration and cost savings, and meet the demands of the “endless work day”. On their own individual timetable (we know that a business owner’s work is often done outside traditional work hours), clients can check on the status of anything, make notes to us or to their own file, and even electronically review, and approve documents we intend to file. Documents can be modified by lawyer and client alike, simultaneously.

At The Markarian Group, we also understand the value of really listening to our clients, and we encourage our clients to collaborate with us in discrete and important ways. Our experience is that the best outcomes are achieved when we partner effectively with our clients, and really listen to their concerns and ideas. Being attuned to the granular details is what allows us to achieve outstanding results.

Our team is comprised of a versatile and talented group of the best and the brightest of the next generation of legal minds, able to incorporate and embrace technology and efficiency in everything we do. We went paperless years ago, placing our practice management software and files securely in the cloud, allowing easy access from anywhere at any time. To complement those efforts, we’ve taken the time to design our law firm’s hardware and software technology infrastructure solutions to harness the efficiencies presented by today’s best-in-class technologies. We’ve in turn created our internal processes to work alongside a proprietary web of software solutions and efficiencies – with one fluid goal – to get more done in less time – achieving more value for clients, at a lower price point.

We understand that the cost of litigation, for example, is something that must be managed, and as experienced courtroom advocates, we know where and how to streamline costs in preparation for trial, without increasing risk.

We also offer non-traditional payment models for our clients, including flat fee arrangements, blended contingency arrangements and other creative ways to serve our clients’ needs and encourage efficiency in our service.

In line with that thinking, we have decided to do things differently, rejecting the emphasis of the modern law firm on “how many hours a lawyer bills.” In place of a financial target or incentive, we ensure that our team keeps their eye on the real prize – doing good work. Unlike nearly every traditional law firm our team has no “billing minimum,” that is, no daily, monthly or annual “billing requirement” or target. Instead, we ask our team to focus on “winning everything we touch,” to assure excellence in all that we do. Our primary focus is on creating value for you, our clients.

You might not be surprised to learn that focusing on excellence, and not revenue, not only keeps our clients’ interest’s paramount, it also ensures that team satisfaction is rooted in a job well done. Our blog Son, At This Firm, We Have No Billing Minimum – Just Win Everything You Touch provides a great story as to why we believe so strongly in our approach to things, and provides a greater insight as to what motivates us.

To further underline the focus we place on serving our clients, our corporate and litigation team does not charge for routine phone calls, nor for emails conveying quick updates pertaining to our representation. Our thought process is that fluid communication strengthens the attorney-client relationship and improves the end result; people should be comfortable that they don’t have to pay money just to get their lawyer on the phone, or to respond to a quick email, get an update or communicate an important nuance. Moreover, we are uncomfortable charging separately (.1 = six minutes) for small, discrete tasks which comprise much of what we do when serving our clients. That’s not why we went to law school. In addition, our firm’s ethic not to nickel and dime our clients for every phone call, email, paperclip or photocopy, provides an ongoing reminder that instead of viewing our law practice in terms of hours billed (and dollars made), our perspective focuses on creating value for those who entrust their lives and businesses to us.

Finally, we hold ourselves to account, and we always treat you the way we would wish to be treated if we were on the opposite side of the equation. If our work for you doesn’t meet our standards – we won’t charge you. It is a simple guarantee – and we pledge to do our very best representing our clients and if we fall short of our own very high standards, you don’t pay for that work.

* In 2015, the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Professionalism published The Relevant Lawyer – Reimaging the Future of the Legal Profession, an analysis of the challenges facing the legal profession, in recognition of the transformation of the legal landscape and the need for lawyers and law firms to plan for it and adapt. The study’s authors recognize and express concern regarding a growing justice gap, between those that can – as opposed to those that cannot – afford competent legal counsel. The study cautions that the legal profession was in danger of pricing itself out of relevance, needed to consider alternative financial models and adapt to both the competitive threats from, and the benefits of, evolving technologies. The study continues to serve as our firm’s polestar.