lege classmate whose firm joined about
five years ago. He has attended several
events of the Primerus Defense Institute
and has been hiring Primerus law firms
consistently ever since.
"It saves me a tremendous amount
of time in that I know Jack [Buchanan]
and Ruth [Martin] are probably a lot
tougher in the vetting process than I
am," he said. "I have a certain level of
comfort knowing that if a law firm has
made it through the gauntlet that is Jack
and Ruth, then they will be acceptable
to me." (Ruth Martin is General Counsel
and Senior Vice President of the
Corporate Client Division for Primerus.)
The executive said the Primerus
firms he has worked with have met his
top criteria for quality: first, having
capability and prior experience in the
same area of law that he is hiring them
for and second, what he calls "bench
strength," or using associates and senior
level of skill and experience required
by a case.
He said that when he recommends
a Primerus firm to his general counsel,
he's always pleased. "He is routinely
impressed with the rate that we get for
working with a partner, and when I show
him the partner's bio, he's even more
impressed," he said.
Finally, he likes that Primerus firms
are small or medium-sized firms. "I like
that we're not a number to them," he said.
Since he typically hires law firms for
one case rather than a larger volume of
work, he also likes the advantages that
come from working within the larger
Primerus society. "They know that if I
don't get the service I am accustomed
to receiving from a Primerus law firm,
then they could be totally cut off from
Primerus. Even though I may be a small
client, I think the Primerus brand gives
me bigger weight," he said. "Bad news
travels faster than good news, so they
of my file."
Thanks to the work of the Quality
Assurance Board, and other parts
of Primerus' broader screening and
monitoring process, that assurance of
great client service, excellent work and
reasonable fees will only strengthen in
the future.
"We use the word `society' to refer to
Primerus," Villadolid said. "By signing
on to the Six Pillars, we have all agreed
to certain self-evident truths, to the
principals we all believe in. The Six
Pillars are the measures of quality we
provide to clients and other members.
The Quality Assurance Board will help
communicate and translate what `quality'
means in different cultures so that we all
share the same common understanding."
And that, Buchanan said, will allow
Primerus to continue to serve clients as
a society of the world's finest law firms,
every time and everywhere.