Mid-market law firm brouhaha

Mid-market law firm brouhaha is my stream of consciousness arguing the illogicality of the concerns about the thinning ranks of mid-market firms.

Dictionaries define brouhaha as a noisy and overexcited reaction to something. That, in my opinion, is exactly what happens every time a mid-size (aka mid-market) firm ‘merges’ with larger, often international, firm.

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Classic: What I would do if I ran a 20th-century law firm in the 21st-century

John Chisholm returns as agent provocateur with this classic: What I would do if I ran a 20th-century law firm in the 21st-century. Many have commented that remaking a BigLaw business model law firm is like turning the Queen Mary or changing a 747 engine at 12,000 meters. Now – slowly – more and more of these traditional firms are taking remaking steps. John’s polemic post, first published in 2015, is at once humorous and deadly serious. Enjoy.

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Classic: Technology and the future of the law

Technology and the future of the law is published as a Classic on Dialogue on Remaking Law Firms in early March to coincide with our 2018 Client Choice Awards. You may know that Neota Logic is the sponsor of the Law Firms category in the Awards.

I’ve designated Technology and the future of the law a Classic because Michael’s message and argument are so true as the passage of time is proving – and yet the evidence is that the large majority (perhaps as much as 85%, in Bill Henderson’s rendition of the innovation of diffusion curve below) of law firms are not listening.   

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Snapshot of the legal market, missing link, and mystery disconnect

In Snapshot of the legal market, missing link, and mystery disconnect Ron Friedmann draws on two recent US surveys, the Altman Weil 2017 Chief Legal Officer (CLO) Survey and the 2018 Report on the State of the Legal Market by The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute and Peer Monitor®, respectively, to construct a snapshot of the state of the legal market.

Ron builds on his analysis to argue there is a disconnect between anecdotal information that alternative services providers (aka NewLaw firms or law companies) are growing and taking share from BigLaw and the published data.

I have a sneaking explanation but will wait to make the first Comment on this thought-provoking thought. 

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Innovating with technology: Advice from vendor CEOs

With Innovating with technology: Advice from vendor CEOs, Catherine J. Moynihan examines the vendors’ perspective, which is too-often neglected in supply chains. This is all the more reason to listen to Catherine’s outstanding view of law departments and BigLaw firms innovating with technology from the insider-outsiders’ angle

Catherine writes for Dialogue in this re-post from Inside Voice, a new Association of Corporate Counsel column featuring articles authored by the leaders of the ACC’s  legal management services department. The objective of the  Inside Voice column is to reveal insight on the pressing trends affecting in-house legal practice and corporate legal departments across the globe.

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