Meet the officer: Rolandas Valiunas, Co-Chair of the Law Firm Management Committee

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Rolandas Valiunas is the Managing Partner of Ellex Valiunas, which is a member of Ellex, a circle of leading Baltic law firms and the largest specialised legal team in Lithuania. He has more than 25 years of experience in advising multiple-market, leading international and local companies on sophisticated corporate, M&A and capital markets transactions. Through participating in the activities of the boards of most Lithuania-based associations and organisations, and as a member of the working groups formed by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, Rolandas actively contributes to attracting foreign investments in and improving the legal framework and business environment of Lithuania. Rolandas is a respected attorney abroad too – he was the European Forum Liaison Officer of the IBA. He currently holds the office of Co-Chair of the IBA Law Firm Management Committee (LFMC).

Would you like to share your IBA story? Why and when did you join IBA and what has been your experience so far? In particular, can you describe your climb to the position of Co-Chair of the Law Firm Management Committee been? 

I received the IBA scholarship to attend the IBA Annual Conference in New Orleans in 1993. I could not afford to attend the conferences in 1994 and 1995 but received the scholarship again for Berlin in 1996. I have never missed an IBA Annual Conference since. I believe this is a very good example how investment by the IBA rewards the organisation itself, both financially and in terms of member commitment. I built my career as the Co-Chair of the European Forum back in 2005. Afterwards, I became interested in the Law Firm Management Committee and have been active here for the past ten years.

Those who know you know that you are constantly working and are one of the highest-billing partners within your firm. How do you do it all? What are the tricks of a practising managing partner? Is there anything to be avoided?

I’ll be frank: my working day is long. Sometimes it lasts twelve hours or more. I have to work on weekends often enough too, which I don’t like.

As we know, in the legal services sector billing essentially depends on the value that is created. Legal insights do not offer the greatest value for a business: the greatest value lies in the solutions that help businesses achieve their ambitious goals. For that value to be exceptional in practice, understanding of the legal environment is only the first step. Knowledge of sector specifics, business experience, synergies from combining companies that are pursuing similar goals and so on are far more important. In fact, it is the accumulation of experience and networking that are competitive, because there is no alternative or same-weight experience in the market. All this expertise has been developed for many years, so it is appropriate that it comes at a price.

I try to delegate as much of my administrative and management work as possible to professionals in this field as the firm has a modern management model – that is, management functions are shared by partners and professionals in different areas: CFO, HR, marketing manager, quality manager etc.

My main goal is to be a professional providing direct legal services to clients. I make every effort to be as dedicated as possible to my clients in dealing with M&A, integrated business management solutions, risk and crisis management issues.

Your firm is based in Lithuania which, in terms of size, is a comparatively small legal market. Can you share with us your thoughts on the struggles and benefits of working in a small sized legal market?

International markets see the Baltic states as a single market. The small size of the market was one of the main strategic reasons that we formed the Baltic partnership, in order to expand the market boundaries, create more value for the clients of the region and become more attractive to foreign markets. Thirty per cent of our clients today use the services of more than one office and more than half of our clients are international companies that have business interests in Lithuania and other Baltic states.

Another significant strategic step taken approximately 25 years ago was the establishment of an international partner network, which triggered the need to join other networks such as the IBA, Lex Mundi, WSG and so on. Working in a small market inevitably encourages one to always think beyond the boundaries of that market, if business ambition is leadership.

The specifics and uniqueness of a small-sized market see, in particular, intense competition, which prompts significant investment in modern management solutions, technological solutions and so on. Ellex was the first to adopt artificial intelligence in the Baltics – many of Europe's largest networks do not have AI yet – as well as other modern IT systems.

In summary, competition in a small-sized market sometimes leads to much greater effort and investment. In the long run such investment and effort may become visible in a global context. We have been in the Innovative Lawyers Top 50 in Europe for three consecutive years now. Thus, in a small-sized market, intense competition and the firm’s well-directed investments can not only help it cross national borders; it can also help that firm reach another level of quality/service advancement, even globally. We believe that this is exactly what we have done.

Your legal experience spans more than 25 years. What has been your motto so far? Also, what do you think are the five biggest challenges the legal fraternity will face over the next five years and how do you recommend lawyers/law firms prepare for them?

The biggest challenge is that the new generation wants more freedom, working as freelancers or on a contractor basis, while law firms have a lot of obligations related to confidentiality and conflict of interest management. If they want to attract talent, they need to look for alternative solutions to meet the needs of the new generation of employees and, at the same time, maintain their commitments to their clients. Indeed, we are already deal with this situation today: we have an option of working from home, one-year leave and many more initiatives for the new generation of lawyers.

In terms of technology, law firms are assimilating AI into their work. You need to consider some essential questions: the role AI will take in developing legal products in the firm, how we will ensure the quality of solutions and so on.

One challenge is to identify where the firm will stand out, that is, its uniqueness, which must also be relevant to the client. You must consider how the firm might be strengthened through the acquisition of new skills (eg, in client service, process management and other spheres). It is therefore important to rethink your business model, rediscover your distinctiveness and make serious investment decisions.

Lastly, you have been instrumental in organising the flagship conferences of the LFMC (ie, the London conference). Why do you think this conference has been so successful? Are there any particular take-aways/experiences from these conferences that you would like to share? 

I believe that changes should never be expected to end. On a given day, you might believe you have achieved something, but the next day you will realise that you need to continue to work hard, as numerous new challenges are on your desk. If you cannot accept that, you are in the wrong profession.

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