Year: 2019

Bodhala works out of a WeWork, owned by the We Company. We get along just fine; it’s a good office space. In our early days, we even worked alongside founder and now-former CEO Adam Neumann in his company’s early flagship space.

Over at the Wall Street Journal, Jean Eaglesham and Eliot Brown dig into the story behind We’s failed IPO. Their story centered around Neumann, once seen as the darling disruptor of the stodgy world of corporate real estate. The 40-year-old billionaire was forced to leave We on Sept. 22.

“We canceled its initial public offering last month after concerns grew among potential investors about its finances and Mr. Neumann’s behavior—leading existing investors to force him out as CEO.”

In addition to Neumann’s outlandish public behavior, the Journal reports he had strong control over what was an incomplete, bungled investor prospectus, rattling potential buyers.

“Numerous current and former We employees believe the IPO prospectus was poorly written and delivered a muddled message about their business. They cite the document’s dedication, “to the energy of we—greater than any one of us but inside each of us.”

Among those burned by the document were white-shoe law firms Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, who were cited as having helped prepare the prospectus. The story goes on to say, however, “Neumann often rejected the recommendations” of experts – even legal matter experts.

The prospectus “leaves unanswered some basic questions,” with unclear revenue reports, failure to disclose major purchases (like a brand new Gulfstream jet), and no mention of Neumann’s sale of hundreds of millions of We stock. Read the rest here.

This is, of course, a cautionary tale. It’s a bummer to see WeWork paid Big Law prices and the premium advice was ignored. Now we can’t guarantee your CEO will follow good legal advice but we can guarantee that our clients pay a market price for IPO legal advice. In fact, our clients have saved millions when they used Bodhala to select IPO counsel.

Bodhala is a groundbreaking legal technology platform created by lawyers to transform the half-a-trillion dollar global legal industry. Our platform refines organizational processes by empowering your legal team with deeper insights that allow you to better analyze, interpret and optimize outside counsel spend, trailblazing a new era of legal market intelligence.

Our clients, corporate legal departments, come to us to solve four core problems: a lack of clarity in legal billing and rates, billing reporting miscommunications, the lack of a true apples-to-apples rate comparison for law firms, and the lack of a legal talent marketplace. Bodhala’s product addresses and creates workflows for are the following:

• Legal spend transparency through data cleansing and rate card discount normalization to allow comparison
• Reporting granularity, based on information from your own data
• Rate benchmarking, creating a true price market
• Guided counsel identification, selection, and fit

Bodhala works with your legal department to highlight the right partner at the right firm at the right rate for all of your matters. This means serious savings in time and money for your in-house team and your budget.

Shoot us an email at [email protected], and let’s talk about how to get started.

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It’s an eye-popping figure: since 2000, the headline reads, more than $105 billion in fines have been paid by corporations under judgment after successful cases litigated by attorneys general across the states.

Over at Law.com, writer Sue Reisinger highlights a report by the DC-based Good Jobs First, a DC-based nonprofit dedicated to government and corporate accountability. She cites a recent report, Bipartisan Corporate Crime Fighting by the States, more than $105 billion wherein the successes of state AGs are cited.

According to GJF’s intro of the document, “the report focuses on 644 cases in which AGs from multiple states took on companies over issues ranging from mortgage abuses to illicit marketing of prescription drugs and collected more than $100 billion in settlements over the past two decades.”

Among the biggest targets? Bank of America, which has paid requisite penalties to states totaling $26 billion.

For his part, the BofA spox demurred, saying “[t]here’s nothing new in the report, which simply highlights the well-known fact that we made substantial payments to resolve mortgage-related issues largely stemming from Countrywide and other acquisitions.”

That’s an interesting way to talk about $26,000,000,000.00 in fines.

One interesting observation was the bipartisan note the report rings. While many may observe the partisan rancor over suits filed over Obamacare or President Trump’s immigration policies, co-author Phil Mattera said the report “shows quite a significant history of states working together, especially in a bipartisan way.”

Mattera went on to say he expected suits and assessments like those described to grow.

What does this mean for corporate leaders? Well, if you’re GJF, probably nothing, if you play by the rules.

Every company and individual in America is entitled to a vigorous defense, with the presumption of innocence. But we all know the law and the priorities of attorneys general can change with every election year. With 2020 approaching, it’s smart for every savvy general counsel to take a look at their legal spend, and make sure they’re taking steps to maximize the value of their spend while matching matter of the highest need to talent of the highest caliber.

Bodhala is a groundbreaking legal technology platform created by lawyers to transform the half-a-trillion dollar global legal industry. Our platform refines organizational processes by empowering your legal team with deeper insights that allow you to better analyze, interpret and optimize outside counsel spend, trailblazing a new era of legal market intelligence.

We’re built on data – and how we develop it, how we utilize it and how we analyze it for the benefit of our customers sets us apart. Our proprietary benchmarking metrics and rate review algorithms generate detailed insights into every aspect of legal spend. An intuitive dashboard puts the information you need to make more cost-effective decisions about legal service providers at your fingertips, effectively boosting efficiency and reducing your bottom line.

Get in touch [email protected].

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