In this article Interlink Recruitment joins Michael Moradzadeh, Founding Partner and CEO of Rimon for a highly informative Q&A. Rimon is an inspiring, global law firm which excels in its use of technology, innovation, and pursuit of excellence. The firm goes above and beyond to ensure its lawyers are happy and working in a supportive and optimal environment, allowing them to provide the best possible service to their clients. In this Q&A we find out more about the firm’s business model, use of technology and what the future holds for Rimon.

Q: You use a streamlined Consultancy structure within your firm to optimise efficiency. Do you believe that operating with a Consultancy model has contributed to your great success, allowing greater efficiency and adaptability?

A: Yes, absolutely. Top tier attorneys feel stifled in traditional law firms. They are looking for an environment where they can work with an excellent team, and with excellent resources, but without the hierarchy and bureaucracy that they found in traditional law firms.  One of our partners, who came out of one of the top 10 AmLaw 100 firms, likes to say that at his former firm they called him a partner but treated him like an employee, whereas at Rimon he’s called an employee and treated like a partner.  Our partners have been extremely successful in gaining clients and making them happy. We trust them to know how to run their practices, and we’ve found that liberating them from unnecessary bureaucracy – coupled with the network effects offered by their colleagues and the other resources that we provide them – unlocks a whole new level of potential for them in their careers.

Q: Rimon stands by its motto: ‘happier attorneys and better served clients’’. What are the main processes put in place to achieve this?

A: First, we focus on bringing in only excellent lawyers. That way, we know our work product will have consistently high quality throughout the firm. Then, we give our attorneys as much autonomy and flexibility as possible so that they can work closely with their clients for a bespoke client experience. We find that giving the attorneys with the client relationships more freedom to customize how they delivery value to their clients leads to a better relationship and experience for our attorneys and clients alike.

Q: How does Rimon differ from the other “Challenger” firms?

A: We are the only “challenger” firm in the world that has truly obsessed over quality and the only one which is global. For us, the model is designed to recruit top talent to create a worldwide team of experts – we’re now in 14 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa – to serve our clients.  Once partners join our team, we make sure they have the technology, data, and support they need to serve their clients as one team across the globe. Other “challenger” firms operate more like a platform with inconsistent quality, very little infrastructure, and in only one or two countries.

Q: Where do you see the traditional Partner Model heading, considering the success of Consultancy at Rimon?

A: We see traditional law firms slowly evolving to become more like us. They are cutting down on office costs, giving partners more autonomy, and trying to become more efficient. However, it will take them a very long time to do this. They will also face a lot of pressure due to their leveraged partnership model, their focus on hourly billing, and their fixation on the profits per partner metric.

Q: Are there any new practice areas or jurisdictions that Rimon has recently expanded into?

A: In the last 18 months, we have expanded into ten new countries on four continents. We have also added practice groups like immigration law to better serve our corporate clients. At the same time, we have strengthened our other forty-five practice groups across the globe. We’ve seen notable growth in both traditional practices and sectors such as M&A, capital markets, intellectual property, tax, asset and project finance, as well as leading-edge areas for which we’re particularly well-positioned to advise, including data security, technology, blockchain, cannabis, SPAC and ESG funds, and others. We are expanding at a rapid pace of 40-50% year-over-year. It is very exciting.

Q: In your opinion, what are the main benefits to a lawyer working as a consultant rather than in a traditional law firm setting?

A: I can speak well to this because we talk with our attorneys constantly about what works and doesn’t work for them. They tell us that having the  freedom to work where and as they see fit coupled with the transparency and control around their income that our model offers represents a huge and welcome improvement from traditional firm life. Furthermore, Rimon is unique amongst “challenger” firms because it offers these things in conjunction with a strong and connected network of colleagues as well as the infrastructure to identify cross-partner synergies and facilitate cooperation.

Q: How has technology changed the way you work and helped to keep things uniform at the firm?

A: We leverage video conferencing, cloud document management tools and research tools, as well as online chat and other technology functions to collaborate across all our offices and practice groups. Thanks to this technology, it really does not matter where our attorneys or clients are physically located. We all operate as if we are in a room together. Since Rimon has been structured in this way from the start, our attorneys quickly become adept at using these tools as the de facto way of doing business. We provide tech support to make sure everyone can easily be on the same page technologically.

Q: How have you utilised technology to optimise your processes within the firm?

A:  Artificial intelligence tools are an important part of the way we run the support side of our business.  While attorney expertise is hard to scale, we’ve found that the strategic use of sophisticated software that supports that expertise can streamline underlying processes and cut overhead immensely. This helps us in marketing, conflicts checks, billing, drafting documents, and filling out forms for our clients.

Q: What are the culture and values that you work to maintain across the firm?

A: Our core values are excellence, agility, and teamwork. We push excellence by hiring attorneys who have all shown the highest level of excellence their entire careers. Our agility comes from a business model that shuns hierarchy and bureaucracy, allowing our attorneys to work with clients as they see fit.  Finally, cultivating a close team that works together across all practice areas and geographies takes a lot of focus and dedication, at all companies, but especially under a distributed model. We have built our firm’s entire model on bringing everyone together using technology and incentives, as well as by hiring only people who are looking to work closely with others.

Q: How do you ensure that the culture at Rimon remains collaborative, if the staff are working from different international locations?

A: First, we make sure to hire only people who have a track record of close collaboration, and whose work requires the expertise of others. Then, we use tools like video conferencing, instant messaging, retreats, and local get togethers to foster closer relationships. We also create a great financial incentive for attorneys to work with others.

Q: How important is your marketing and social media strategy to create a uniform brand for your firm and Partners, across all locations, both domestic and international?

A: Our internal social media strategy brings our attorneys together. Social media for marketing purposes is important as a tool to connect our attorneys with clients and potential clients. However, since our clients are highly sophisticated, social media does not bring in new clients. Rather, it fosters the client relationships we already have.

Q: We are aware that you are rapidly expanding, where would you like to see your firm in 2, 5 and 10 years time? 

A: We envision the firm doubling in size in the next 2-5 years and expanding throughout the globe. It is hard to plan ten years from now, but we believe our model is scalable enough to become one of the largest firms in the world, while maintaining its highest standards of excellence, teamwork, and agility. We will never sacrifice those values for the sake of growth.