Navigating Tech: Start Your Own Firm

For this article about how a small group successfully launched their own firm, we conducted an interview with JAE Law Group attorneys, Jane Smith, Audrey Rauscher, and Emily Jung.

Jane Smith

Audrey Rauscher

Emily Jung

About JAE Law Group

The trio of experts, Jane Smith, Audrey Rauscher, and Emily Jung, moved away from one of the biggest of Big Law law firms to launch their own commercial real estate and business law firm, JAE Law Group.

In this article, the three partners share their experiences and the critical role of information technology (IT) while starting and operating a new firm.

Implementing Tech for Small Firms

The group shares how IT operations and approaches for their three-partner firm differs from a large law firm.

Jane Smith

After many years at a Big Law firm developing an exceptional practice, Jane Smith set out with two of her colleagues to create a new kind of law firm while continuing to serve some of the largest and most sophisticated commercial real estate investors and owners in the industry. JAE Law knew they needed technology that could compete with the biggest firms in the world with the budget and flexibility a smaller firm needs.

Founded by three women, JAE Law Group expressed certainty in continuing to delight their clients with their expertise. “We wanted to offer the same or better service without the infrastructure we had at the big firm while providing easy-to-manage, adaptive services for the best US and global companies,” Smith said.

However, this order was not as tall as you may think. “We realized you don’t need a fancy office and a giant support network. The resources at a big firm are not as missed since they were shared. We are able to contract for exactly the services we need and for when we need them. We also have the freedom to make decisions without a huge committee,” Smith said before describing how their choices and control actually increased, rather than decreased, with the change.

“If you have energy and creativity, you will have a lot more choices. In a large firm, you’re an employee. In a small firm, you get to be a client, whether from IT or marketing. I love being a client to great vendors,” Smith said.

Audrey Rauscher

Audrey has worked at firms both big and small but was pleasantly surprised by how much the right IT service contributed to ease in startup. “I had my own firm before, so I knew I liked the startup environment. However, I did not realize how much having our IT set up correctly would let us fly. It allows us to be extremely efficient right off the bat, and clients can feel it,” Rauscher said.

Emily Jung

Emily enjoys the agility that comes with a smaller firm and the ability to leverage technology to support the firm in meeting the level of performance their clients expect. “Creating new matters at a big firm was very tedious,” Jung said. “Now, it’s streamlined. It does not even take a day to set up a new matter. Eden Minucci, Legal Industry Consultant, at CGP takes care of it very quickly.”

Emily points out that while the expense of investing in technology may seem large, it easily pays for itself. A technology services company walking them through the process of selecting, implementing and training for the various technology a law firm needs allowed them to get a return on their investment immediately. “When we started, the per-user cost seemed unnecessary. Now, we appreciate its value because if a question pops up like dealing with security or iManage, CGP is right there to help,” Jung said.

Transforming Business Operations with Tech

The group also shares how IT affected their work structure and shift to remote work during COVID-19. “COVID’s been a proving ground for who can do a good job; people are noticing who is working well right now,” Smith said. “My advice to all businesses - if you don’t have the answers, know who to call for them. We wanted a setup where we can work from anywhere because our clients are everywhere.”

JAE placed high value on the ability to work from anywhere by setting up hotelling with a shared workspace. For communications, they wanted to have a robust system that provided more than forwarding to their personal cell phones. “Communications like RC and Teams are super flexible; I was able to do a Teams call with a client while driving to an appointment because of the IT systems we have in place,” Smith said.

Audrey also shares the importance of technology for navigating the transition to working from anywhere. “We shined during the pandemic because we did not slow down at all due to technology,” Rauscher said. “It’s helpful to start with just what you need, as you need it.”

Jane summarizes their experience. “I think a big reason people don’t start firms is they don’t know how to do it. That is where CGP helps. It allows us to do our part fast and right. We are trying to learn from companies with the same mindset, such as how CGP treats their clients,” Smith said.

The feeling is mutual, JAE!