The Legal Director

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.

Challenge

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.

“Creating pragmatic value- building outcomes, for a fixed monthly retainer”

“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.”

Why The Legal Director?

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.”

What we did

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.”

Client benefits

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.

Business Background

DX Group originated in the legal sector, with the Document Exchange members’ network (informally “The DX”) supplying most legal firms (as well as some in-house legal departments) and the public sector across the UK and Ireland with physical document courier services.

Now, it is a leading provider of delivery solutions including parcel freight, secure courier, and logistics services to both business and residential addresses across the UK and Ireland
“operating through two divisions – DX Express and DX Freight.

Legal Services Required

Head of Legal at DX, Russell Deards, needed a flexible and experienced lawyer to help him and his team with their increased workload. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, they had seen a growth in the demand for their services (and therefore work for Russell’s team) and had reached
a situation where the legal team did not have the resource in-house to deal with a number of new IT contracts and renegotiations that had arisen.

Russell needed someone with relevant contracts and IT experience who could quickly come into the team to deal with the most urgent work and help plug the capacity shortfall. As his department was already stretched, it was imperative that this person be self-motivated and self-reliant. Equally important was someone who would get to know the business and how it works and be a good fit in the team. Without being able to commit to an increased headcount and recruit a permanent member of staff, this was an additional challenge.

Why The Legal Director?

Russell was aware of their service model of putting senior lawyers into businesses on a flexible or part-time basis.

He knew that this would be a potential solution for DX and so contacted Kirstie Penk, Director at TLD. Kirstie introduced Russell to IT legal expert, Rustam Roy, and from their first meeting he knew that Rustam met the brief: “I was looking for resource expertise and cultural fit and understanding and that’s what Rustam brought straight away.”

Legal Services Provided

Rustam joined Russell’s team in March 2021 to help with some IT and Tech supplier contracts. Originally, it was thought that this additional support would be required for two to three months to deal with a few specific contracts but, as the team has continued to find itself dealing with a high volume of legal work, Rustam has carried on working with DX and is now available on demand, as an outsourced member of Russell’s team.

Rustam has been pivotal in working on the DX Exchange Portal, a digital platform providing a supplementary free addition for existing subscribers of DX’s physical service, setting the commercial parameters and creating the Terms of Use for the customers. Rustam had to work to a challenging timeline, managing the risk for DX, whilst ensuring that the new rules were compatible with existing offline terms. Their specific user base being accustomed to a mature and high-quality service from DX, Rustam also had to ensure that there was no disruption or undue complication for current customers.

Benefits to the Business

Having the ability to amend how much and for how long they get Rustam’s additional support gives DX a flexibility and level of control that is invaluable in helping them manage their workload.

Rustam’s expertise and experience have been of enormous benefit to DX. As the team is exceptionally busy, it cannot devote a lot of time bringing someone up to speed with the work and the priorities, so having a senior lawyer who is a self- starter, who asks the right questions and who is an expert in his field has been very reassuring.

He also appreciates the value for money that the TLD model represents compared to traditional law firms: “It’s more than proved its worth for the knowledge and experience. The comparative rates for the work and the way of charging just all makes much more sense for us.”

And the fact that the relationship is ongoing, and the work continues to come through also testifies to the fact that Rustam is a good fit for the team. Being “supportive” and “enthusiastic” form part of TLD’s Client Charter and we think carefully about which lawyers would best suit each business and help it thrive. Russell says he has received great feedback from the rest of the team about Rustam and admires the way he has “just connected with the business and with the way people work.” And from Rustam’s perspective, he enjoys working somewhere with a “good atmosphere” where he feels “like part of the team.”

The positive working culture that has been established benefits the business and lawyer alike.