What billable hours?

By Jennifer Poff Cooper

Is your New River Valley business looking for outside legal help that is both highly specialized and client service oriented? Perhaps a boutique law firm—like CowanPerry—is the answer.

CowanPerry PC opened in April of 2013 as such a firm. Jim Cowan, Chairman, had worked at a national law firm before he and David Perry decided there was a need for a new service model in southwest Virginia. Growth in the area brought about the need for more sophisticated legal services. Cowan said that people generally think first of technology firms as their clients, but CowanPerry serves a “diverse range” of companies: manufacturing businesses making everything from furniture to high tech or biotech products, non-profits, economic development entities (Onward New River Valley and the Wythe County Joint Industrial Development Authority), community banks, and commercial real estate and developers.

The firm decided to situate its NRV office (there is also one in Roanoke) in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research

Center, where many of its clients have easy access to it. Part of its location appeal, Cowan said, is casual seating, break areas, and cubicles for clients to use, as lawyers are often working on the go.

The business model is that if a company is not big enough to have in-house legal counsel, CowanPerry can act as the outside general counsel, helping in all areas of its practice. Instead of “billable hours” that lay persons hear so much about with lawyers, CowanPerry works mostly on monthly retainers (while still maintaining impeccable records).

“People can pick up the phone [to us] and the meter is not automatically running,” Cowan said.

CowanPerry helps new companies get established, and assists with compliance work, hiring and benefit plans, and taxes. These services are especially needed if the company is coming in from out of state or out of the country.

The mix of seven core practice areas with fairly sophisticated legal services has proven popular enough that Cowan said their firm is busy and looking for attorneys who would be a good fit –having both deep subject matter expertise plus interpersonal skills for teamwork and maintaining long-term relationships with clients. It can be a challenge to draw people with experience in one specialty to our geographic area, said Cowan. They either tend to have a connection with Virginia Tech or local family or are “culturally compatible.”

Changes in the legal landscape have precipitated the advent of boutique law firms. Cowan said that practices are becoming more specialized as the business environment has become increasingly intricate. Complexities such as software licensing entered the picture, making it “more complicated to stay compliant.”

CowanPerry is defined as much by what it doesn’t do as what it does do, said Cowan. It focuses on business services, not general legal matters. It uses new technology, such as a cloud-based platform off-site, to be more efficient. In fact, efficiency is one of the main advantages of a boutique law firm. Cowan said that if there is a legal change needing to go into an employment handbook, every client will need the same change made and CowanPerry can “share the value of the efficiency with the client.”

Another advantage of boutique firms is responsiveness. Cowan said clients have his cell number – in fact, it is listed on the firm website. A smaller firm can be more agile and flexible; he pointed to learning about a new business “on our nickel, not theirs.”

Said Katie Boswell, Executive Director of Onward New River Valley, “CowanPerry PC serves as the general counsel for our organization. We continue to retain their services after many years because their team is knowledgeable, approachable, and easily accessible to our staff.”

Employment law is one area of the firm’s specialty. Cowan said that a big issue in that arena now is, post-pandemic, having employees working either remotely or hybrid. This means complying with differing state laws, including hourly wages, mandated paid time off, and noncompete clauses; registering as a business and tax issues also need attention.

If CowanPerry cannot help or if an issue is outside its wheelhouse, it can identify a firm that can assist the client and manage that relationship as its lawyers are well-connected through the bar. Said Cowan, “Clients are very appreciative of that.” CowanPerry doesn’t advertise, with most of its clients coming through word of mouth. “Referral is the biggest compliment you can get as a lawyer,” Cowan said.

He also said a source of pride is that every company the firm started out working with, it is still working with. “The idea was to have the expertise of a larger firm with the service of a smaller firm.” Mission accomplished.