No surprise to this big firm refugee, but a new study by a legal recruiter confirms that the recession has helped drive Fortune 500 clients tosmall, midsize and boutique law firms. “Because of their lower overhead and operating costs, small firms can offer the same legal services for significantly less than large firms. This makes [...]
Here is a great little story about a car mechanic going the extra mile (pun intended). Treat your clients well, because what goes around comes around.
It seems British lawyers are jumping on the “virtual law firm” bandwagon. They seek to develop “a fresh way of working,” using technology ”to give a streamlined service without the traditional law firm infrastructure” and offering ” greater value for money and certainty on fees.”
Sounds familiar!
I just stumbled across an interesting article called “Building a Virtual Law Firm” by Joseph Kashi, an attorney in Alaska. His article was written six years ago, but it highlights some trends that have only gained speed since then.
Kashi first points out that there is nothing new about “virtual” law relationships; most attorneys regularly associate with, [...]
Seth Leventhal, in his excellent blog Minnesota Litigator, points out what many of us have known for a long time: Minnesota lawyers are a “bargain” compared to their brethern from Chicago and the coasts. While the blended hourly rate charged by Minnesota lawyers representing one of the Petters defendants was $309, their Chicago counterparts were [...]
For my in-house counsel friends, here is a great article from Law360 on ways to demonstrate and quantify your value to the company and resist the drive to outsource legal services.
Four key elements: there are some tasks that you can do more cost effectively; you know and understand the business better; you are more accessible; [...]
here. Money quote:
“All the momentum in the legal services marketplace today favours small, adaptable, innovative, client-focused, value-oriented, business-savvy providers. Most large law firms answer to immobile, traditional, self-centered, profit-oriented, and business-challenged. It’s not hard to pick the winner here.”
As many of you know, there is much hand-wringing going on in big law firms about whether their current economic model is viable. (I for one don’t think it is). Here is a good article about potential changes to law firm structures. A couple of quotes from a law firm consultant jumped out at me:
“Clients [...]
