PARALLAX COUNSEL LLC
Consigliere • Short-Term / Stopgap
Parallax, defined: An apparent change in the position of an object resulting from a change in the position of the observer.
Clients say
On the Consigliere relationship
“I don’t need an answer. I either know it or can find it. What I need is confidence that every relevant factor has been weighed properly – and that the ones challenging my thinking have been resolved.”
“I’ve been in leadership a long time, and my team is strong. Still, some conversations go better once I’ve pressure-tested the analysis on my own.”
“My company has capable people to talk to. Some matters simply aren’t appropriate to share with them, or with competitors. I need somewhere else – entirely confidential – to work them through.”
“What I get from Parallax is a different vantage point: fresh, but informed, and drawn from a wide range of situations and industries.”
“When you’re in the throes of it, it’s easy to miss or misjudge all that affects or may be affected by a decision. Having a dispassionate view and voice is essential.”
“Saying the issue, the analysis and the conclusion out loud – privately – puts a spotlight on what needs shoring up. Objective feedback makes the result better.”
“Coming up through the organization, I found that one-on-one conversations with Parallax sharpened both my thinking and how I present it.”
“Scott takes the ‘complex’ out of ‘complexity’ and finds solutions.”
On Short-Term and Stopgap engagements
“We have all the lawyers and consultants we need. What we don’t always have is time to coordinate their work, make the most of the hours we spend with them, distill their advice and hold their costs down.”
“Unanticipated matters and opportunities hit us with no capacity to absorb them. We didn’t need a hire. We needed someone seasoned in the seat by the following week.”
“Our people were consumed, and other matters couldn’t be ignored. Parallax bridged the gap – taking on the new ones, or the ones no one had time for.”
“A permanent hire made sense eventually, but the problem couldn’t wait for a search. Parallax started on the immediate issues and held the rest of the load while we ran it.”
“The outside consultants and lawyers were running the process and the meter. Parallax sat in the middle – better information, fewer surprises, and someone looking after cost and quality.”
“We got back time on new matters that needed our attention and decisions, and put it into the core business.”
Consigliere
“Back in the day” business owners/leaders often leaned on their senior outside lawyers as private, confidential sounding boards – consiglieri, of sorts. With them they discussed larger, sometimes sensitive, potentially complex issues, challenges and strategy that were, for all sorts of reasons, not things the owners/leaders wanted to discuss with other owners/leaders or board members – or were things they wanted to vet privately before having discussions with the others.
These owners/leaders were wholly capable of making decisions and were willing to make them – and they didn’t look to the consiglieri for that. Rather, they looked to them as a very confidential, experienced resource. Unburdened by the totality of issues facing the leader, the consiglieri were able to provide fresh, but knowledgeable, perspectives.
Although some owners/leaders still have these consiglieri relationships with their lawyers (or have found others to fill that role), a great many do not. Why? The nature of the practice of law has changed: most lawyers specialize early in narrow areas and are not exposed to as broad an array of issues and experiences as was once more common. And the economics of law firms have changed: fees have escalated significantly while the number of more junior lawyers involved in a matter has increased and the time and intimate involvement of senior lawyers has decreased. Said another way, over time, law has become less of a close relationship with one person and more of a commodity delivered by many.
Parallax is uniquely positioned to be a consigliere.
Parallax is not a law firm. It does not offer or provide legal services. Its clients have plenty of lawyers – often in-house as well as outside counsel. Parallax provides business owners/leaders with a personal, entirely confidential and unique resource with which to:
- Strategize
- Stress Test Ideas
- Explore Options
- Identify/Reprioritize Issues
- Identify Needed Additional Resources
A cornerstone of the Parallax relationship is confidentiality. Absolute confidentiality of all things discussed will be strictly maintained; further, Parallax will never disclose even the names of the businesses or persons with which it works.
Some Parallax consigliere engagements require just discussion. Some require advance (and ongoing) material review and preparation. Whatever is necessary.
Valued consiglieri bring a wealth of experience, including notable successes and some failures. Please see the Experience tab to assess the depth and breadth of Parallax’s experience.
Short-Term / Stopgap
Often, circumstances arise when some immediate and short-term – but seasoned – help is needed. These can be the result of surging or unexpected new matters/challenges that tax the bandwidth of existing leadership, or those that require some one-time leadership/expertise.
These may be short-term situations that don’t merit new hiring; these may be longer-term situations where a permanent solution is desired, but it is too significant and immediate to expect that the right person can be found quickly enough to make a timely start. And sometimes these are situations that require the immediate attention of existing leadership but leave ongoing roles insufficiently attended, such that some short-term attention to those is required.
Parallax may be the short-term solution.
Following direction from senior management, it serves in whatever role is desired and necessary to achieve articulated objectives. This role may range from project/personnel management to specifically tailored endeavors; whatever fits best with current leadership objectives and bandwidth.
What types of roles might these be?
- Outside, unencumbered, broad perspective in strategic analyses
- Deep-dive analyses; due diligence
- Conversion of goals/objectives into projects with an integrated segmentation of tasks
- Coordination of project performance metrics
- Coordination of the project’s in-house team members
- Coordination of outside lawyers/consultants and the management of attendant costs
- Conduit between leaders and outside lawyers/consultants to improve efficiency and quality
- Whatever senior leadership would do if they had the full bandwidth
Importantly, these roles are tailored as necessary or desired to meet the objective. They are sometimes leadership roles, but they are quite supportive roles to existing leaders whose bandwidth is stretched.
Whether Parallax is an answer depends in large part on whether its experience is relevant. Please see the Experience tab to assess this.