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…

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Posted by on May 24, 2017 in BigLaw firms | 2 comments

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.

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Posted by on May 17, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Clients, Law departments | 0 comments

Classic: Growth is not a solution to your firm’s problems

Today’s post from Ed Reeser introduces the first in Dialogue’s occasionakl ‘Classics’. A ‘classic’ is a timeless message about BigLaw business model firms and their clients.

The idea for the message that growth is not a solution to the problems a law firm faces stems from  Growth won’t solve your firm’s problems, a powerful article in The Am Law Daily in 2015. Ed’s interpretation of the message has strengthened with time, hence the designation ‘classic’.

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Posted by on May 11, 2017 in BigLaw firms | 0 comments

PwC makes another big NewLaw move

With the headline “Firm hires partners to build out its ‘new law’ capability” the New Law Journal reports that PwC, UK has just recruited two partners with the mandate to create a major NewLaw capability.

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Posted by on May 9, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Legal services ecosystem | 2 comments

When it comes to pricing BigLaw’s services, play off the front foot or perish

When it comes to pricing BigLaw’s services, play off the front foot or perish is contributed by Richard Burcher, the intrepid Kiwi based in London and a world leader in pricing BigLaw’s services. Richard’s post has three core messages.

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Posted by on May 4, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Clients, Pricing | 0 comments

How to fail at collaboration

With collaboration in professional services firms very much in the news as a result of the work and publications of Heidi K. Gardner of Harvard Business School, it’s a good time for Dialogue to publish How to fail at collaboration, an iconic post by Pam Woldow and Doug Richardson. We all know that many law firms send mixed messages to their lawyers (and often to their clients, too). They talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk, particularly when it comes to the informal norms and values that define “the way we do things around here.” This opens them up to charges of hypocrisy – or at least insensitivity to the human factors that define law firm success in today’s market.

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Posted by on May 2, 2017 in BigLaw firms | 0 comments

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