“Time is the only truly non-renewable resource”, says Andrew Foti, Co-founder, and Principal at Avōkka.
Andrew invested his time learning as much as he could throughout his career. That investment paid back (with interest) in providing the foundation for Avōkka. Not only has the firm’s approach saved clients time and money, it also has freed up Andrew’s time to do the things he loves.
Before creating his dream job at Avōkka, Andrew worked in Toronto doing corporate securities law and M&A. When the technology industry emerged, Andrew moved to Ottawa to become general counsel for a company ultimately acquired by Adobe. His experience in tech law ultimately led him back to national firms, first to help build a national technology practice within Ogilvy Renault (now Norton Rose), and subsequently Gowlings. And then back again to being chief legal officer for a large NYSE-listed public company.
Similar to other less traditional lawyers, Andrew gained valuable experience in Big Law and as a general counsel with larger companies. He knew even then that his time at those firms was an investment. Although Big Law practice was demanding and “not always fun”, Andrew always viewed it as an opportunity to learn as much as he could.
In 2013, Andrew established Avōkka to focus on the type of client relationships about which he was most passionate. He thoughtfully designed and built Avōkka to serve unmet client needs, while also creating more time for himself.
Andrew works as a fractional chief legal officer serving mid-market companies large enough to need an internal general counsel but small enough not to need one full-time.
Avōkka’s primary client contacts are CEOs or CFOs who do not have a legal background but want an experienced public-company grade general counsel on hand as needed.
Essentially, Andrew is an in-house lawyer that becomes part of his clients’ business. He gets to know their team and is involved in business strategy and providing solutions to help meet their goals. His work with clients involves problem-solving, building internal legal capacity, and proactively anticipating strategic legal issues. He also acts as a resource to newer and less experienced general counsel as a part of his practice.
Andrew set up his practice intentionally to leverage his knowledge and experience as a leading practitioner and general counsel in the technology industry. He chooses consciously to have a small number of clients and team because he prefers to do client work counselling the C-suite rather than sourcing work or managing administration often required with larger practices and teams of lawyers. This also gives him more freedom and flexibility. “Bigger is not necessarily better. It can be a trap,” says Foti. “It’s really important to be clear about how you define success, and what feels satisfying professionally.” Although he didn’t stop working on the types of matters, he was doing in Big Law, Andrew is now able to focus on the work he loves without being subject to billing targets and non-billable demands of a being a Big Law partner.
When forming Avōkka, Andrew did not take a blind leap of faith. He assessed the financial risk and made sure he had a couple of anchor clients to begin with. Knowing that overhead in law firms can be as high as 40% to 60% of billing rates, he also took steps to virtualize the practice to reduce unnecessary costs. “It turned out to be a pretty prescient move when Covid hit,” said Foti. Although it was uncomfortable to take the risk of creating something new, once there appeared to be sufficient initial client traction, Andrew took the jump to create a more satisfying value proposition for clients and a new and different six-figure job for himself.
When explaining to his daughter why he loves his job, Andrew emphasizes that not only does he get to help clients achieve their business goals, but he is also never bored of his work since he chooses the work that interests him.
Another plus in having low overhead and working for himself is that he has a flexible workload and schedule. “If the work coming in is not something I generally do or want to do, or I don’t have the time, I make sure I get the client to the right place where I know they will be well-served.”
Outside of Andrew’s work as a fractional chief legal officer, he can be found road biking in the summer and downhill and cross-country skiing in the winter. With the virtual work environment offered by Avōkka, you might not be surprised to find him on the road or the ski hill for a couple hours in the morning before cracking open his laptop to start the workday.