Structure — Consortium Law

The MSO doctrine

A management services organization that is not a law firm.

The management services organization model has served medicine, dentistry, and veterinary care for decades. Consortium Law adapts it for the legal profession — with the rules of professional conduct as the design constraint, not the workaround.

01 · Ownership
The law firm is owned by attorneys. Full stop.

Every affiliated law firm is a separate legal entity, wholly owned by one or more attorneys licensed in the firm's jurisdiction. Consortium Law MSO has no ownership interest in any affiliated law firm and no right to direct the practice of law.
02 · Fee structure
Consortium is paid fixed fees, not a share of legal revenue.

Management services are compensated on a fixed, objectively calculated basis — per seat, per matter volume tier, or per infrastructure unit consumed. Consortium is not paid a percentage of legal fees, a contingent-fee split, or a case-outcome bonus.
03 · Professional independence
Attorneys direct the practice of law. Without exception.

Every legal decision — case acceptance, strategy, settlement authority, ethical screening — is made by the attorney of record at the affiliated firm. Consortium provides infrastructure, not legal judgment. The line is documented in the coalition agreement.
04 · Client relationship
The attorney-client relationship is with the law firm. Only the law firm.

Every client engagement letter names the affiliated law firm as counsel of record. Legal fees are earned by and paid to the law firm. Trust accounting is maintained by the law firm. Consortium does not touch client funds.
05 · Governance
Independent oversight. Documented. Audited.

The coalition agreement is reviewed annually by outside ethics counsel. A firm-owned attorney sits on the coalition operating committee. Any conflict between Consortium's business objectives and a firm's professional-responsibility obligations is resolved in favor of the profession.

Why the structure matters

Compliance by design is operationally powerful.

A managing partner asks two questions before joining a platform: Is this legal? And is this going to constrain how I practice law?

The MSO structure answers both. Legal, because it is engineered to the rules of professional conduct as a design constraint. Non-constraining, because Consortium is contractually excluded from the practice of law and has no incentive to interfere with it.

The separation is not a legal formality — it is the operating premise that makes an institution-grade platform possible without compromising the profession.

Consortium principals in coalition governance meeting

Coalition governance — documented, audited, reviewed annually.

Rule 5.4 is structure, not a policy PDF.

A management services organization that is not a law firm.

The law firm is owned by attorneys. Full stop.

Consortium is paid fixed fees, not a share of legal revenue.

Attorneys direct the practice of law. Without exception.

The attorney-client relationship is with the law firm. Only the law firm.

Independent oversight. Documented. Audited.

Compliance by design is operationally powerful.

Review the coalition agreement. Under NDA.