State Of The Firm Speech: CEO Jeff Hughes
In spring 2020, CEO Jeff Hughes addressed the firm at a company day of training and awards. He told the emotional story of where Sterling Lawyers began and how we were able to get to the point of a healthy and transparent law firm.
In part 1 of this video, CEO Jeff Hughes highlights our focus on building a business to better serve clients. He shares openly and transparently the difficulty of the process and the realization of the effort of those who persevered through the entire story.
In part 2 of this video, CEO Jeff Hughes highlights the focus to build a business to better serve clients. We had to break the long held model of law firm business norms: focus on the firm not the client, billing practices that favor the attorney not the client, and a support staff to allow the attorneys to focus on their service to the clients.
This required extreme ownership, transparency, and complete buy-in by our attorneys and support staff. We were required to look at every way a firm traditionally operated, which usually is a focus on what is right for the attorneys and the firm, and re engineer our firm from the ground up to focus on the client.
What does it mean to focus on the client? Well, it starts with aligning our interests with that of the client. We started with our billing practices. By establishing a fixed fee model versus an hourly billing model our interest like the client’s was to have a swift and effective resolve to the case. We now wanted what the client wanted. Get the right results and get the client back to living their life.
However, this journey was difficult in the beginning. There were many adjustments that had to be made as we were moving in uncharted territory. The team at Sterling, as so emotionally stated by CEO Jeff Hughes in the above videos, had to be willing to make sacrifices and operate on a level of transparency that is often hard to achieve in any company.
In addition to establishing a fixed fee structure, we focused solely on family law. There was going to be nothing to distract us from being the best at serving our clients. This allowed us to obsessively focus on what our clients need and how to get that for them. We also hired attorneys and support staff that wanted to be the best communicators. We knew if we cared about our client’s concerns, we would be able to serve their needs.
Meet Us Monday is a Sterling series where we meet our team, learn about the Sterling culture, and explore the Sterling core values; finish with integrity, lead by serving, compete with a warrior spirit and embrace and drive change.