Competition among law firms is as brisk as ever. Gaining an advantage requires more than hard work-it requires strategic thinking that causes a firm to be different in a positive and noticeable way. Simply working harder or relying on strategies that performed in the past is not enough.
If business as usual is not sustainable
Law firms seeking to thrive today must stand out from their competition. Of course, that is easier said than done, and identifying specific steps to achieve this goal takes careful thought, planning and execution. Thomson Reuters’ recently released 2020 Dynamic Law Firm Report presents a provocative and instructive glimpse of certain elements found in law
As talk about more states allowing non-lawyer ownership of law firms is heard, concern over more deeply capitalized competition may be on the mind of some law firm leaders. No doubt, opening up law firm capital structures to investors is significant, but it won’t change the fundamentals for surviving in today’s legal services market. Since
For some time, law firms have felt heightened competition from not just other law firms, but also from clients moving needs in-house and alternative service providers picking off peripheral services. As reported by Bloomberg Law in Arizona First State to Allow Nonlawyer Co-Ownership of Law Firms, looming rule or legislative changes in a number
While law firm change is scary, in today’s evolving legal services market the absence of change may be scarier. Law firm leaders don’t need to read expert’s opinions about the quickly moving marketplace, they see it close-up as competitors proliferate and competition intensifies. Simply standing still by relying on tried and true practices is not
The concentration of law firm financial strength narrows as fewer AmLaw 200 law firms can be counted among the fortunate. As Mark A. Cohen argues in his The AmLaw 200 Is Down to 50 – Maybe 20. What does It Mean? a fiscal separation among bigger firms has occurred and continues. Cohen concludes that the
BigLaw leaders have many things to think about when guiding their firms to Top 100 finishes. One major item is the need to respond to client expectations of value. The idea that clients expect value in the legal services they buy is not a radical idea. As long as law firms have had clients, there
It can’t be overstated. The legal services business is experiencing dramatic change. For law firms as institutions, it is obvious because more work than ever before is brought in-house by clients, and alternative service providers are rushing into the competitive landscape. Besides the increase in competition, there are technical and practice advances that have changed the way law firms do business. Legal project management, once a novelty, is altering the focus law firms are expected to bring to a task. Technology in law is evolving so fast that even law firms committed to investing in new tech have a hard time keeping up. And artificial intelligence is finding its place in the ultimate objective of meeting the legal needs of clients.
With all the industry change, most firms know that settling on the status quo is risky. Still, more than a few firms are slow to change. Some are overwhelmed by the idea of innovation itself or are worried about the appropriate time and capital to invest in its execution. Without adequate experience or guidance, a firm can be paralyzed.Continue Reading Sustaining Success in the Changing Law Firm World: Four Fundamentals
Law firm leaders understandably see lucrative client work as an important key to overall firm profitability. Left to their own devices, those leaders would eagerly raise rates or otherwise take steps to ratchet up the yield on work. In contrast, their clients often consider the containment of legal costs as a key component to valuable
To control costs and improve legal service, more client legal work has been brought in-house in recent years. As clients have achieved those twin goals, the proximity of readily available legal services to business decision makers has spawned greater institutional reliance on the captive legal departments. The increased access to legal services for company business
