All Things Travel: Lawyers Travel Agency Wins Its Case

BOSTON (CBS) – Paul Metselaar had an idea to make travel easier for busy lawyers and it worked. Originally named Lawyers Travel, it is now known as The Ovation Travel Group servicing some of the largest law firms in Boston from its downtown office.

Based in New York City, Ovation is now ranked the fifth largest corporate travel agency in the U.S., serving over 700 law firms and other corporations.

Metselaar was a successful lawyer in New York City in 1984 when his father asked him to help run his struggling travel agency where Paul had helped out during vacations. At that time, the agency had six employees.

"I was the travel guy in my law firm at the time and I saw an opportunity," he said.

To be successful, Lawyers Travel had to offer real-time service as their clients often make their plans at the last moment, change their schedules multiple times and want to travel first class.

Lawyers Travel came to Boston six years ago when it bought a small local travel agency, as it expanded across the country. It now employs 30 people at its downtown office.

The business has grown over 300 percent in that time.

"It's attention to the small details that make the difference," said the CEO. "We bought Commonwealth Travel. John Sullivan, the owner was a great Red Sox fan and I rooted for the Yankees. Arriving at Logan Airport, I bought a Red Sox hat at Logan Airport and wore it to the first meeting. It helped calm any fears of the employees over what was happening."

Airlines and hotels have a great interest in having lawyers use their services. Originally they paid little attention to the president of a small New York travel agency.

One of the first things that Metselaar did was to retain the services of a public relations firm. That person got him a front page mention in The Wall Street Journal. The next day he heard from TWA that they wanted to meet him.

New York financier Carl Icahn was then the chairman of TWA and he invited Metselaar to a meeting. Icahn told his marketing people to do business with his agency for more business travel and dollars on TWA. The rest of the airline industry followed, offering corporate discounts.

Another area where strong travel trade relationships has helped Ovation Travel Group grow is the recruitment system where law firms bring law school graduates as prospective employees to their headquarters for interviews.

Seeing another opportunity, Metselaar and his company are introducing Skylark.com for lawyers and other corporations to book leisure travel with the same high-end travel partners.

The success of Lawyers Travel, which handles travel for over 700 companies can be summed up with their philosophy of GEM: Going The Extra Mile with service.

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