Interview with: William B. “Ben” Westcott, Co-Managing Shareholder

My name is Ben Westcott, and I joined Andrews Myers in 2008 as a partner. Shortly after this I became a section chair, and then Co-managing partner in 2014, alongside my colleague Patrick Hayes.  During this time, we have split the responsibilities between the litigation and the corporate side of the business between us. All other matters have been jointly managed.

I am board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and I am rolling into 25 years of practicing as a construction lawyer. I also maintain an active alternative dispute resolution practice mediating and arbitrating construction disputes and I am a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association.

 

What do you see as the main points that differentiate Andrews Myers from your competitors?

1. We are industry experts in Texas construction and real estate.
2. We are well positioned with big firm lawyers at midsize firm rates; we’ve made significant inroads in attracting publicly traded and large scale, Texas-based companies who are experiencing Big Law rate fatigue.
3. We embrace change including adapting to new regulations, technologies and business sectors to stay ahead of the competition.

Our industry expertise is what separates us from our competitors. We’re not generalists, we’re specialists and so when you come to us with a problem in real estate or construction, we’re going to be asking you advanced questions that will allow us to jump in midstream and efficiently help you solve your problem.

You are not going to have to educate us on terminology, local custom nor who your opponent is because we’re dealing in that market every single day. This gives us a huge competitive advantage and gives our clients an efficiency advantage as well.

There’s a continuous influx of Fortune 500 companies looking to improve on the average rate per lawyer that they pay for in their legal service, and Andrews Myers are very well positioned in terms of rates both locally and nationally to provide a significant cost savings over some of the national and international firms that we compete against.

We also have a good mix of young up and coming lawyers who are willing to embrace change and technology whether it be in EV, Solar, Wind or battery storage environments.

We recognize the impact of new regulations and new business sectors that are developing to address these new regulatory environments, and we are constantly educating ourselves and our clients to make sure that we’re on the leading edge of those types of situations.

 

Which practices do you see growing in the next 12 months? What are the drivers behind that?

If you’re monitoring the national news there is a major push to upgrade and improve our infrastructure in the United States, both in terms of water delivery and power delivery because we really have fallen behind in the resources we have dedicated to those services.

We cannot transition or make the move towards alternative energy sources without improved energy transmission.  We also cannot expect our population growth to be satisfied with our existing water resources and so both of those things are huge in terms of federal investment as well as private adaptation. There are construction companies that specialize in that business, but there aren’t enough of them.  This leads to an increasing rate of businesses looking to expand their client base by learning how to perform that work and by acquiring talent in those locations and industries where that work is available. We help those clients both learn regulations, understand what the market drivers and are and help them adapt their systems and programmes to be successful in those industries.

 

What are the main changes you’ve made in the firm that will benefit clients

We have advanced our cybersecurity, online project management and document management expertise, both in terms of training ourselves to run our own business, and then also at the same time training our clients on the risks involved in those systems. For an example, we are often asked to evaluate cybersecurity requirements and agreements between governments and banks and their trade partners. You cannot effectively educate your client on the risks associated with those agreements unless you understand the terminology and the requirements of those agreements in the first place.  So, we really have to understand what those technical terms are, what those risks are, and then we also have to partner with consultants and other industry experts to make sure that we’re learning as fast as the rules are changing. Every company is facing growing cyber security risks and as a result we must ask ourselves how we can adapt to meet the required standards of care.

 

Is technology changing the way you interact with your clients, and the services you can provide them?

Lawyers have always been challenged by the volume of information and data that is generated in connection with the litigation or arbitration matter and how do you efficiently and effectively manage that data? At Andrews Myers we have been partnering with an online document management company to create a direct client interface where they do not have to hire a third party, they only must hire us, and we handle all the data management as a single source. We have 3 full time employees whose roles centre on this, and we have standardised rates that apply to all our customers which is now included in our engagement agreement. This empowers our clients to have peace of mind so that they don’t have to hit the free market every single time they get into a dispute with an opposing party. This historically has been a very challenging and unpredictable scenario and by reducing this risk we are improving our interactions with clients and the services we provide them.

 

Can you give us a practical example of how you have helped a client to add value to their business?

We had a large-scale general contractor who was building power plants, nuclear facilities, refineries, bridges that found themselves in bankruptcy earlier this year.

It provided an opportunity for us to both leverage our existing relationships with that client, but also to educate our customer base on how to be prepared for those situations when they arise in the future. Even the largest and strongest companies that you’re aware of can be pushed into bankruptcy and that was really the shocking lesson that all of us had to realize. Understanding that contract terms, lien rights, alternative forms of performance security and other things that we often forget about or minimize are just so important in connection with any risk assessment of a large-scale construction project.

 

Are clients looking for stability and strategic direction from their law firms – where do you see the firm in three years’ time?

I think your primary goal as an attorney is to think about your clients’ strategic direction. If the conversation doesn’t start with that then then then you haven’t really begun the process where you should have. In my opinion, our clients are looking to us for strategic direction and in fact I feel like we’re not giving them the services we should be giving them if we don’t. Given our history in this market, one of the strategic directions we are often asked to contemplate is a merger or a joint venture or a partnership or something that will allow two great companies to join forces to pursue an area of work that, by themselves, they might not be able to pursue. This is one of the areas where we are called upon frequently to drive strategic thinking and therefore reaffirms that clients have and are still seeking advice relating to stability and strategic direction from law firms.

In three years’ time we would like to build some of our core practise areas out so that we have the same bench and strength as our construction practice. We have great leaders in all our other practice areas whether it is employment, real estate, business litigation or bankruptcy. We can do a better job of filling out all the positions in those groups and at same time, inspiring and supporting new business generators from within our existing attorneys. Quite simply, I would like to see us get better at the things that we’re already doing.

With the number of companies moving to Texas, particularly in Houston, Dallas and Austin, there is going to be plenty of opportunity for us.