Nothing You Can Say On Diversity

Nothing You Can Say Can Cause Me To Retain You remains among the most important blog posts for understanding the corporate legal market. Mark Hermann, self-styled curmudgeon and then Chief Counsel – Litigation and Global Chief Compliance Officer at Aon, expertly expounds on why he is loath to add new law firms: He already has really good lawyers.

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Posted by on Sep 19, 2018 in BigLaw firms, Law departments | 0 comments

Law departments and the foundation of law firm marketing bullshit

My friend John Grant made a mistake.

Many moons ago he was consulting on process improvement for a large law department. He surveyed in-house counsel on their biggest complaints about outside counsel. The response was that outside counsel:

  • Don’t understand my business
  • Can’t tell me how long anything will take
  • Overwork a problem/introduce complexity
  • Don’t give me output in a format I can use

Familiar enough. And so far so good.

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Posted by on Feb 27, 2018 in BigLaw firms, Clients, Law departments | 0 comments

tl;dr – a Primer on Managing External Legal Providers

In short, I wrote a primer for the Buying Legal Council on making service delivery reviews a core tenant of an external provider program. I think you should read it. It is probably shorter than the post that follows. For those who are not yet Internet speak aficionados, tl;dr stands for ‘too long; don’t read’ (editor). So read on…
For those who are not yet Internet speak aficionados, tl;dr stands for ‘too long; don’t read’ (editor).
Please read on…
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Posted by on Sep 5, 2017 in Clients, Law departments | 1 comment

Why Now? The Rise of Alternative Legal Service Providers

Before he wrote ‘The Rise of Alternative Legal Service Providers‘ Casey focused on an issue of genuine moment and merit. He cited a study on the surge in spending on alternative legal service providers (ALSPs) in the context of the stagnation in spend on law firms. In The Rise of Alternative Legal Service Providers, first published on 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, Casey explains why ALSPs seem finally to be at an inflection point, given that their value proposition has been obvious for years (I would add, at least to those able and willing to see).

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Posted by on Jun 13, 2017 in Business models, NewLaw business models | 0 comments

Law Firm Partners: If It Ain’t Broke…

Law Firm Partners: If It Ain’t Broke… by D. Casey Flaherty begins “It is rational for someone who has been wildly successful doing something a certain way to keep doing it that way, especially when the odds appear favorable that they will continue to be successful. Most people don’t exit their comfort zone without a compelling reason. This is doubly true of many high-status experts.” These words from D. Casey Flaherty echo those of David Maister, a prescient observer of the legal profession: “How do you tell a room full of people making a million dollars a year that they are wrong?“.  

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Posted by on Oct 19, 2016 in BigLaw firms | 1 comment