We recently reported about predictions that over half of the world’s high-end legal work will be disappearing or losing its profitability. The gist of the story is that companies will still pay law firm rates for: - Advocacy (e.g. high-end litigation) and - Counseling (long term strategic advice), but not for: - Content (providing information about legal issues) and - Process (analyzing contracts, discovery, etc.). At the 13:15 mark of this video, Jennifer Smith of the Wall Street Journal cites a trend that seems to mirror this...
read moreIn The BigLaw Partner Lottery, Stephen Harper describes the BigLaw experience as two-step lottery, with few winners. In the Comments, a LegalAdvice.com says, “Young, newly admitted attorneys need to learn how to market their firm, run the daily operations, administer a support staff and work as a team to accomplish goals. Most new firms I encounter cannot survive beyond 12-18 months.” LegalAdvice’s 12-18-month life It’s not only green lawyers who lack – and desperately need – the skills to get and keep clients. (I won’t...
read moreIf you didn’t think the legal market was undergoing a massive upheaval, try to wrap your head around this idea: In a few years, more than half ($80+ billion) of the world’s high-end legal work will have either lost its profitability or disappeared entirely. In The $60-Per-Hour Lawyer—Why Dewey Isn’t Ab-Normal, Paul Lippe discusses the legal market’s New Normal, as explained by Jeffrey Carr, the General Counsel of FMC Technologies. According to Mr. Carr, lawyers do four things: Advocacy – representing the client’s...
read moreSo asked a young lawyer in the Corporate Lawyer group on LinkedIn. It triggered a predictable spate of suggestions, e.g., “network with law school classmates,” “be active in the state bar,” etc. Here’s my reply: OK, I guess somebody will have to be the contrarian here. Enough about building relationships with other lawyers, whether in-house or private practitioners. Every lawyer is trying to develop relationships with in-house counsel, which is like a trying to catch fish by going to a spot where there are 500...
read moreIt’s time to challenge the widespread belief that you can’t predict future business. Whether tacitly or explicitly, most lawyers probably agree with Tom Wallerstein‘s assertion that “The major disincentive to growth is the inability to predict future business.” Under the title “From BigLaw to Boutique: Scaling Up and Down” in the March 8 edition of Above the Law‘s Small Firm Weekly, Tom presents a cogent analysis of the tensions between “hire now and risk not having enough work”...
read more“Regional schools (such as Chicago Loyola) seem to be making partner at higher rates than the elite schools (such as Chicago).” So observes Indiana University Law Professor William D. Henderson in his March 17 post on The Legal Whiteboard. He continues: “My good friend and provocateur Vivia Chen has posted a stir-the-pot column on the recent NLJ 250 Law School Hiring Survey. The title of the column, ‘Too Good for BigLaw,’ is classic Vivia, speaking to our fragile egos as people and lawyers. Reviewing the data on associates...
read moreWith a huge spike in law firm “mergers” (read: acquisitions), law firms need to stop the madness and start increasing PPP by using existing lawyers to generate new revenue. I bring this to light as a more positive type of madness gets underway: college basketball’s “March Madness” — the road to the Final Four. Reaching the Final Four is a badge of honor that virtually ensures long-lasting success for the four schools’ basketball programs, and comes at the expense of the competition —...
read moreA reader of our blog, from India, contacted me looking for guidance on his legal services business. The company provides assistance to individuals based in the U.S. who are facing legal proceedings in India, and don’t want to travel all the way there. He writes, “The hurdle which I am facing currently is finding customers who want this kind of service. I am sure there are a number of individuals who have legal issues (Property cases, Divorce cases, etc.) back here in India, but I am unable to reach them with my concept, so any...
read moreIf you’re trying to stimulate breakthrough performance and commitment, you’d better have a purpose that’s worth it. If you offer potential team members a bland, vague mission, you’ve already failed. Stop now. You have no chance. As Daniel Pink pointed out in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, humans are hard-wired with three core needs: Autonomy (Pursuit of) Mastery Purpose larger than oneself Incremental improvement (yawn) is what we all have to do every day. It’s not much of a rallying cry to...
read moreClient teams fail to deliver on their promise for many reasons, but I put these two at the top: 1. No meaningful purpose. 2. No role clarity. Client teams became the new bright, shiny object for law firms in the early 2000s, with big firms predictably aping each other in the rush to create teams, then outdoing each other in the team declaration race. ”We have 50 client teams!” “Oh, yeah, well we have 100.” ”That’s nothing, we have 150,” and so on. I have searched the literature and can find no...
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