Allen & Overy does it again and again. Others are following.

Allen & Overy’s senior partner Wim Dejonghe recently said: “It’s clear that lockstep has its limits, but it’s also clear that it is at the heart of Allen & Overy’s success.” Built on lock-step, one of the oldest planks in the BigLaw (business model) platform, Allen & Overy is an innovation pathfinder par excellence in the global legal services supply chain. This post captures some of the highlights the Allen & Overy journey and flags how other firms are taking steps to remake their businesss models. 

The post is intended to inspire others to preserve the best of tradition and embrace the future.

Is Jon Molot right about BigLaw firms’ capital structure?

 The blogosphere and books are replete with the refrain that the BigLaw business model is a (the?) root cause of many of the challenges faced by owners, staff and, most important of all, clients. I only recently came across a scholarly article that makes, in my opinion, a major contribution to this discourse. Here I reproduce the abstract of the article and ask: “Is Jon Molot right about BigLaw firms’ capital structure?“

Large law firms must improve client service delivery

The search for new opportunities in the legal market

Why ‘Blue Ocean’ strategy may work for law firms is the sub-title of Aric Press’ post on Dialogue today: The Search for New Opportunities in the Legal Market. Read why in this most thoughtful of essays.

7 key enablers of smart collaboration

In 7 key enablers of smart collaboration,  Joel Barolsky takes another angle to the topical theme of collaboration in BigLaw firms, following from Pam Woldow’s post on Dialogue a couple of weeks ago. Joel’s post today sets out his views on execution and describes seven key enablers of smart collaboration…

Legal marketing spend is up, so is client dissatisfaction. Now what?

Competition for corporate legal work is keen, writes Mark Cohen in Forbes in April.

Law firms vie with each other for a shrinking segment of outsourced legal work. Corporate legal departments and a growing array of well capitalized, tech and process savvy service providers now account for an almost 50% of legal spend. It’s not surprising, then, that law firms are stepping up investment in marketing and business development activities. Will this narrow the growing delta between rising demand for legal services and declining call for law firms? Short answer: not unless law firms address the myriad of reasons for client dissatisfaction as well as differentiate themselves.