Resolving the prioritisation crisis in BigLaw firms

Resolving the prioritisation crisis in BigLaw firms is a reflection on the approaching first anniversary of the publication of Remaking Law Firms: Why & How. 

In some ways, I wish I had read Zone to Win: Organizing to Compete in an Age of Disruption, Geoffrey Moore’s recent book while researching the content for Remaking Law Firms (1).  On the other hand, it’s pleasing to have come to much the same conclusions as Moore about the urgency in resolving the prioritisation crisis, in my case the crisis faced by BigLaw firms.

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Posted by on Mar 2, 2017 in BigLaw firms | 1 comment

Tomorrowland – another wake-up call to BigLaw

Bruce MacEwen’s (aka Adam Smith Esq) latest book, Tomorrowland, is another wake-up call to BigLaw firms. Subtitled ‘Scenarios for law firms beyond the horizon’, Tomorrowland has clearly caught the attention of some BigLaw leaders, if the early reactions are a gauge.

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Posted by on Mar 1, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Business models | 0 comments

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

BigLaw: How to win more work from an international law firm alliance

In this post on How to win more work from an international law firm alliance, John Grimley uses the alliance between the UK’s Bird & Bird and South Korean firm Hwang Mok Park (HMP) to highlight the potential attractiveness—as well as pitfalls—of international law firm marketing alliances.

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Posted by on Feb 21, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Clients | 0 comments

Pricing efficiency

Pricing efficiency is Hans Schuurman’s first post on Dialogue. His perspective from his base in The Netherlands is a welcome addition to the discourse on BigLaw and fees. Hans reasons a low hourly rate is not always the cheapest solution for BigLaw to offer clients. He argues the core theme in fee discussions between BigLaw firms and clients remains the variable or the hourly rate and then asks whether this helps the client and the firm reach their desired goal? Hans explains ‘on a napkin’ that a low hourly rate is not always the cheapest solution for BigLaw firms to offer and that there are better ways to achieve pricing efficiency.

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Posted by on Feb 21, 2017 in BigLaw firms, Clients, Pricing | 0 comments

LawTech of the future is already here

Alex Hamilton, like the science fiction writer William Gibson, also believes ‘The future is already here – it is just not very evenly distributed’. This pithy post is Alex’s first on Dialogue – welcome Alex. “Yesterday, I came across this article on ‘The Tech-Savvy General Counsel: Notes from a Future GC’, describing a day in the life of a GC in 2020.

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Posted by on Feb 15, 2017 in Law departments, Technology | 0 comments

Top 10 Reasons Law Firms Resist Innovation

Top 10 Reasons Law Firms Resist Innovation was first published by Ron Friedmann in his blog PRISM, more than 10 years ago. Re-reading it prompted me to ask ‘What’s changed?‘ A good deal is one answer that true of some BigLaw firms? I know not what proportion of all firms these represent, but it’s likely to be less than 10%. What do other readers observe? And what conclusions should we draw? I look forward dialogue. And, as always, thank Ron for his generosity in sharing and his perspicacity.    

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Posted by on Feb 15, 2017 in BigLaw firms | 0 comments