2019 went down as another record year for law firm mergers. But what do the numbers teach us? Did the tendency to merge apply to law firms across the board? Is the merger mania likely to continue in 2020? What was the impetus for record number of mergers? This article breaks down the available data to answer these questions and attempts to give us a glimpse into the future.
The legal industry is on the cusp of transformational change making the "siren song" of a successful outsourcing engagement ever more alluring: increase expertise and flexibility while lowering costs, and significantly mitigating risk.
With the intense competition for new legal work, demands on lawyers' available time and the increasing discounts clients demand, it's getting harder for law firms operating under a billable-hour business model to support the consistent development of new legal work by investing in and maintaining a marketing department alone.
Law Firms Are Following the Lead of Their Corporate Clients In Implementing Legal Operations Methodologies By understanding legal operations approach, law firms can gain a better appreciation of client needs, share the client's vision and contribute to client satisfaction, while creating a competitive advantage for the firm.
Law firms are clearly in important player in the legal services value stream; as the legal operations movement continues to take hold in corporate client organizations, in-house teams are looking to outside law firms to join them in their efforts to reduce operating costs, improve staffing, take greater advantage of technology, and improve project management processes.
Firms routinely report that hiring lateral partners is a difficult process with a low success rate. Why do they struggle with lateral hiring? More importantly, what can they do to improve their results?
Pay for performance is not a new concept in this country. The ideas and concepts underlying a graduated pay scale based on contribution and merit are deeply ingrained in our society. However, in general law firms have been slower to adopt pay for performance systems. What law firms need now, and this article describes, is an approach to partner compensation that closely links a partners pay to their ability to contribute to the achievement of the firm's strategic objectives.
"Data Analytics" have become more than just buzzwords and are an integral part of well informed decision making. The following best practices have the ability to bring your firm's data management up to speed with competitors in the law industry, while turning what might be an underutilized resource into a working asset that drives revenue.
For a large portion of engagements, discounts are not necessary to win the work. In fact, discounts come at a price. Both parties assume a degree of risk when margins are thinned. This article presents several techniques that you can use to re-direct discussions away from discounts and help to minimize their financial impact.
In a survey conducted by Major, Lindsey & Africa, lateral partners put firm culture and practice support ahead of anticipated compensation when considering a new firm.
