Clients look for law firms that are committed to understanding their business and how legal services fit into and add to it. This is particularly true when the relationship evolves into an ongoing partnership. One way legal service providers can emphasize that commitment is to employ interdisciplinary teams to tailor their service offerings.
In law, an interdisciplinary team is organized with lawyers and professionals from diverse fields collaborating to address client needs. This approach has the advantage of allowing clients to access more efficient, comprehensive, and affordable work. Interdisciplinary legal practices also provide flexible and adaptable services that are often better equipped to handle specific legal issues.
Take Conor Chell, a leading ESG service provider in Canada, who distinguishes his legal practice by assembling a team of specialized lawyers and engineers to offer interdisciplinary legal services. Primarily an environmental and regulatory lawyer, he serves as a partner and the national leader of ESG legal risk and disclosure at KPMG in Calgary.
Chell caters to a broad range of mid-market and larger clients across Canada in the energy, agriculture, Indigenous, financial services, governmental and mining sectors. In doing so, he has four primary service offerings: Identification and mitigation of ESG legal risk (e.g., greenwashing); development and design of ESG programs, strategies and reporting; integration of Indigenous perspectives and knowledge across ESG topics; and supply chain due diligence (e.g., modern slavery assessment)
He conducted thorough market research before building his team. He spoke to clients about their needs and expectations and learned that they were looking for services that offer comprehensive and holistic solutions to ESG issues that go beyond addressing narrow legal questions. Clients, he says, want a “one-stop shop” for advisory, technical, and legal services.
Chell designed his practice based on the feedback he received and selected team members who
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