Navigating the multi-polar legal market

Georgetown Law School and the Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute are ready to call it: the party’s officially over. The 2017 edition of their annual Report on the State of the Legal Market is unequivocal in its assessment of how completely the commercial legal services market has changed over the past decade.

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Posted by on Mar 29, 2018 in BigLaw firms, Business models, Strategy | 0 comments

Law firm strategy in a buyer’s market

 Today’s post is by Jordan Furlong about his new book, ‘Law Firm Strategy in a Buyer’s Market’.

“Strategy” is a widely used and frequently misunderstood term in law firms. Ask most lawyers about their firm’s strategy, and they’ll think back to that time when the firm’s leadership team took several meetings and at least one offsite retreat to come up with a grand vision for the firm, eventually expressed in a handsome bound document that now occupies the rarely accessed top shelf in their office. (Editor: The truth of Jordan’s observation is not limited law firms.)

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Posted by on Jun 23, 2017 in BigLaw firms | 1 comment

The intangible law firm

Remember all those ludicrous predictions you kept hearing about how law firms were someday going to invest heavily in intelligent technology that could do legal work? Funny thing about that: someday is today.

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Posted by on Apr 28, 2017 in BigLaw firms, NewLaw business models | 1 comment

The party is over! Navigating the multi-polar legal market

In The party is over! Jordan Furlong explains why the BigLaw 60+ year run has come to an end. In his lattest post on Dialogue, Jordan draws on the latest Georgetown Law School and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute report and starts “They are ready to call it: the party’s officially over. The 2017 edition of their annual Report on the State of the Legal Market is unequivocal in its assessment of how completely the commercial legal services market has changed over the past decade.”

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Posted by on Feb 28, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Clients, NewLaw business models | 1 comment

You’re not selling what we’re buying

Demand is flat or falling at large law firms, says the newest Wells Fargo survey released yesterday. Revenue is now being driven solely by hourly rate increases, the last remaining income enhancement button that law firms can press and one they will presumably continue to press until it no longer responds. This is not an especially new development: as has been the case every year since 2011, the 2015 Altman Weil survey of Chief Legal Officers found that more law departments decreased their spend on outside law firms than increased it.

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Posted by on Jan 25, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Clients | 0 comments