The case file keeps the filings.The partner keeps the playbook.
A partner leaving takes more than billable hours with them: the reason a client always wants a call before any filing, the exact tone that works with a particular opposing counsel. None of that lives in the case file. It builds up over years, and it leaves with whoever built it.
What walks out the door
The cost shows up later, quietly.
OakHive interviews them before they go. This is what comes back.
The client who wants a call before any filing
It isn't in the engagement letter. It's a preference learned the hard way, and the first the new lead hears of it is the client's reaction.
From the handover guide, written to whoever takes the role next.
The tone that works with one opposing counsel
Years of the same negotiations taught one lawyer exactly how to approach one counterpart. The next negotiation goes worse than it would have with that playbook still in someone's head.
From the guided session that walks the role chapter by chapter.
The deadline handled differently than the client expected
The client had an understanding with the old partner. Nobody else knew, so nobody honoured it.
From the chat, answering after they have gone.
The reasoning, or a guess
What the firm keeps should be the reasoning itself, recorded by the person who carried the relationship, not a guess written by someone filling in after the fact.
From the manager's summary, ready before the last day.
Who to interview
The departing partner. The associate who carried a client's day-to-day for years. Anyone whose clients would notice the difference on the next call.
The case file keeps the filings. The firm keeps the playbook.
Questions law firms ask
Access is closed by default and opened per person, and sensitive material stays with the manager and HR. Data is stored in Microsoft Azure's EU region, logically isolated per customer, with export and deletion on request and a data processing agreement in every contract.
No. Those questions belong to HR's own exit interview. OakHive asks about the role: clients, matters, decisions, contacts. Frustrations, opinions about colleagues and anything personal are not asked and don't appear in any document.
A handover guide written to them, a guided session that walks the clients and matters chapter by chapter, and a chat that answers from what the partner said. If the question touches something the interview never covered, the chat says so.
Bring us the questionyour company keepsanswering twice.
Thirty minutes, no deck. You describe something your team has explained more than once, and we show you what OakHive does with it.
We are taking on a small number of companies at a time, so this is a conversation rather than a signup.