Welcome to the Summer edition of Mattern Matters, the newsletter of Mattern. My name is Rob Mattern, President of Mattern, unbiased support services analysts and cost recovery experts.
2020 continues to keep us on our toes. We are now entering into the 5th month of the pandemic, and we remain hopeful as we also put in the work to ensure we move
into a better and more intelligent place when we emerge fully on the other side. Here are some things we have been working on and discussing with other thought leaders.
Back and Middle Office “Grounds”: Our LIVE! Coffee Break with Brian Schare, COO of Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
Our inaugural LIVE! Coffee Break featured special guest Brian Schare and was attended by over 50 guests. The topic, “What’s next for the legal back and middle office?” highlighted middle and back office concerns and, as always, Brian did a great job sharing his thoughts on what’s going to happen to these functions in the foreseeable future. Our attendees received a Starbucks gift card so they could enjoy a real cup of coffee during our live Zoom session. Overall, it was a great event, and we wanted to invite our readers to the conversation by including it here.
For our next virtual talk, we look forward to talking to Donnie Walden, Director of Facilities Management and Services for Holland & Knight. The focus will be on records and off-site records storage contracts. More information on the date and time to follow.
Team Member Spotlight – Jodi Carroll, Director of Client Services
In this issue, we put the spotlight on Jodi Carroll, our Director of Operations. Much of Mattern’s success can be attributed to the qualities Jodi possesses. The one trait not listed is her excellent sense of humor which makes her a pleasure to work with.
Recently, Jodi implemented Mattern’s Plan B Cost Recovery™ method at an Am Law 100 firm to reduce overhead expenses by 28%. Mattern Plan B is a proprietary process that enables firms to maximize billable cost recovery revenue by increasing net realizations through restructuring your on-site support services as hard cost disbursements. The full case study is in this edition of Mattern Matters.
Thank you, Jodi, for all your hard work over the years and your stellar attitude.
Aligning Operations to Meet New Business Mandates
Business leaders are looking ahead now to understand how to manage an indeterminate period of increased operational complexity combined with increased pressure on margins as revenues may decrease. We are continuously helping firms in this with their back and middle office strategies. We invite you to read, “How Mattern Can Help Align Operations to New Business Mandates,” to learn more and to access our resources to help you with your COVID-19 back and middle office strategies.
What are Firms Doing with Outsourcing?
To add some flavor, we are highlighting three different outsourcing case studies.
The first success story comes from the New York office of an Am Law 25 firm where Mattern’s expertise helped guide the firm from an insourced operation to outsourced, achieving a firm-friendly contract that guaranteed the firm and the on-site staff would receive the attention required while bringing the operations into the future with the new Hudson Yards location.
The next success story comes from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. In this instance, the firm remained with their outsourcing partner but substantially improved their resource center and document processing agreements by leveraging Mattern insights.
Lastly, we look at another New York-based, Am Law 200 firm with over 300 attorneys who was looking at their in-house operations to implement changes in production workflow to maximize efficiencies and reduce consumption and reliance on paper. Mattern helped the firm save $1.4m in costs over 5 years.
Strategic Expense Reduction is a Must
Expense reduction is a key strategy in response to current market pressures - but we also must be smart and have long term business objectives in mind. We include an excerpt from a recent Mattern Talks podcast: “The Time is Now – What Firms Need to Do to Reduce Expenses Strategically.” This is a must-listen.
The Mattern Talks podcast series has been focusing on back and middle office challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. You can check out all the episodes here.
Until the next issue, please stay safe and smart.
Rob Mattern
