Past Winners
winners 2005
In 2005 two law firms received the coveted InnovAction awards for their extordinarily innovative efforts in the field of law practice management.
DLA Piper Rudnick, Chicago Office was recognized for creation of its 'Venture Pipeline' initiative. Venture Pipeline is a separate business unit, launched in 2002 and run by experienced entrepreneurs and non-lawyers, designed to help early-stage companies. The unit's representatives screen and scrub business plans, give companies feedback, and then work with the law firm's numerous contacts to find appropriate funding, benefiting both the venture capital organizations and the company.
Entrepreneurs starting businesses say that finding capital is often their first priority; but most law firms play, at best, a limited role in this process. The judges were taken with the fact that in the last two years this group has processed over 900 business plans and provided valuable input to most of these companies, regardless of whether they decided to work with them.
Simpson Grierson, Auckland, New Zealand implemented a series of very deliberately planned actions designed to transform the law firm from a market follower to a market leader. These initiatives involved conducting (before and after) independent market research, obtaining partner support, overcoming past experiences, changing cultural inhibitions, and instituting a bold marketing and communications campaign to counter overly conservative perceptions, and reposition the firm as more dominant, contemporary and dynamic.
There was extensive time and effort invested in packaging the evidentiary materials, but what was most impressive to the judges is that the firm was able to provide independent market research showing the before and after results from their efforts.
