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Camberley-based Knight Security Group is a full-service security company specialising in residential and commercial properties, and close personal protection. It is a family run business that delivers tailored security solutions covering every aspect of its clients’ residential, commercial and personal security needs.
In 2014, the business faced a difficult situation. Incoming managing director Tim Knight, succeeding his father as majority shareholder and controlling director of the business, found himself dealing with a complicated dispute.
“Legal costs were spiralling, there was a risk of reputational damage, and I felt our law firm seemed to be more interested in point-scoring than achieving a pragmatic resolution of the issue in question,” recalls Knight.
Relatively new to the company, Knight had left the world of corporate banking to take over the business following his father’s illness. Wanting to focus on running the business rather than dealing with lawyers and disputes, he was keenly aware that his business career to date had not provided much exposure to law firms and their workings.
A friend suggested a conversation with The Legal Director, and Knight quickly established a rapport with lawyer Ed Simpson, a Director of The Legal Director.
“Ed saw the problem the way that I did,” he recalls. “I suggested that he come on board as a retained adviser, to help us resolve the situation.”
One particularly challenging dispute, by then several months old, was resolved within a month, with The Legal Director’s Simpson directing Knight Security’s law firm towards a pragmatic settlement agreement.
For Knight, the speedy resolution was something of an eye-opener.
“Instead of intellectual debate, and legal point-scoring and fees mounting all the time, here was a different way of working—a focus on creating pragmatic value-building outcomes, for a fixed monthly retainer,” he explains. “I realised that it clearly made sense to use Ed and The Legal Director for all our legal business.”
Today, adds Knight, Ed is very much part of the team: a virtual board member, providing advice and legal capabilities right across the business.
“He’s really an internal general counsel, but working for us part-time, on a fixed-fee monthly retainer: a sensible ‘sounding board’, focused on the same goals and objectives that we are. I get the feeling that Ed really cares about the business, and feels himself to be a part of it.”
Having The Legal Director on board, says Knight, delivers value across a number of fronts: better service, better outcomes, and lower costs.
“The clock isn’t ticking, and the fees aren’t constantly ratcheting up. But if something needs doing, it gets done— human resources issues, contract reviews, policies, contract negotiation, dispute resolution, new business opportunities, risk assessments, and internal business issues such as shareholdings or dividends. In each case, it’s not necessary to ‘brief the lawyer’—because Ed is a part of the business, and already knows what the objective is.”
Moreover, he emphasises, whereas external law firms are instinctively adversarial in nature—which coincidentally helps them to generate fees—working with The Legal Director results in a firm focus on pragmatic outcomes.
“It’s a different way of working—and a better way of working,” he enthuses. “I’m a huge convert to The Legal Director’s service model.”
The benefits of that better way of working, emphasises Knight, clearly show up on the bottom line.
“We have hard metrics, showing real costs savings, and financially better outcomes,” he stresses. “We really have saved money in comparison to using a traditional law firm—and sometimes very significantly. I can point to instances where we might have paid a quarter of what we would have paid to an external firm, and achieved a better outcome, and received better service. We pay a monthly retainer, and The Legal Director delivers what we need, when we need it.”
In short, he concludes, moving to The Legal Director has been a ‘win-win-win’ for Knight Security Group: better service, better outcomes and lower costs.
“We’ve got an in-house legal team, but without the costs and overheads of an in-house legal team. What’s not to like?”
The Legal Director is a legal consultancy that provides businesses with high-calibre experienced lawyers on a part-time or flexible basis.
By working smarter as part of the client’s business, and by delivering legal advice from a business perspective, we can demonstrably save our clients significant amounts of money and directors’ time.
The Legal Director is the most transparent, cost-effective way of embedding a senior lawyer within your business — at a fraction of the cost of employing a full-time Legal Director or engaging with a traditional law firm on an ad hoc basis.
We match one of our lawyers to your business needs and he/she then performs as a member of your senior management team, just like an in-house lawyer. Moreover, clients can use our unique 9-point legal framework for business-focused legal advice to systematically address key areas for business growth that require legal expertise and appropriate action.
Call us on 020 3056 8538,
Email us at info@thelegaldirector.co.uk
or send us an enquiry.
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Tel : 020 3056 8538
Email: info@thelegaldirector.co.uk
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