Dispatches from a legal profession on the brink
Filed under: Solo & Small Firm
Conventional wisdom has it that when the meteor struck the earth millions of years ago, the small early mammals survived because they could slip into underground holes and caves, while the larger dinosaurs, with nowhere to go, were struck down. Not to do overdo the analogy, but a series of innovations in solo and small-firm… Read more »
Filed under: Big Firms, Competition
From the incumbent’s point of view, the only thing worse than a revolution that topples you is one that renders you irrelevant. You can mount a comeback from exile; you can’t mount a comeback from Nobody Cares. Law firms, pay close attention. We’re now less than six months away from the implementation of the Alternative… Read more »
Filed under: Law21
Time for another roundup of articles I’ve recently published elsewhere — a bit more extensive than usual — with the thought that you might find some of them interesting. I’d like to start with a link to the newest edition of the Edge International Review, a semi-annual collection of articles from my partners in Edge…. Read more »
Filed under: Big Firms, Clients, Innovation
An extraordinary conversation has emerged among multiple authors in the blawgosphere over the past few days. It revolves around a pressing question: in light of the huge changes in the marketplace, what will become of law firms? More specifically, given the increasing segmentation and stratification of the universe of legal work, how can law firms… Read more »
Filed under: Big Firms
When Ogilvy Renault announced last fall that it was joining the Norton Rose Group, I went on record as saying I thought this was a watershed moment for the legal profession in Canada — that the world had finally arrived on our doorstep, more global firms were surely coming, and the law firm marketplace would… Read more »
Filed under: Innovation, Solo & Small Firm
(Author’s note: Read to the end to learn about a scholarship contest for sole practitioners.) During my recent webinar on legal marketplace trends with Susan Cartier Liebel of Solo Practice University, I raised a point about solo law practice that’s been bothering me for a while. Almost every lawyers’ association in North America, I noted,… Read more »
Filed under: Big Firms, Marketing, Solo & Small Firm, Talent
From England and Wales, the newest hotbed of innovation in the current legal marketplace, comes word that the first nationwide solicitor franchise is on its way. Legal Futures reports that Face2Face Solicitors “is initially aimed at small private client law firms and will provide franchisee solicitors with centralized back-office systems – including accounts, IT and… Read more »
Filed under: Publishing
I’ve been on Twitter for nearly two and a half years now, but I’ve yet to take advantage of one of its better features, Follow Friday. If you’re not familiar with it, #FF is an opportunity to recommend one (preferably) Twitter stream to your followers, along with a brief explanation why. The main reason I… Read more »
Filed under: Billing, Clients, Innovation
Their World Series victory last fall wasn’t the only surprise the San Francisco Giants sprang on the baseball establishment. Throughout the 2010 season, the team engaged in “dynamic pricing,” changing the price of single-game tickets according to demand. The same seat for a Monday night yawnfest in May against the Washington Nationals, for example, would… Read more »
Filed under: Talent
Thomson’s acquisition of Pangea3 last November capped off what I think we can fairly call the year of law firm outsourcing. Among 2010′s LPO highlights, in chronological order, were: the departure of Rio Tinto’s GC to take a top position with CPA Global, Microsoft’s move to send general legal work to India, WilmerHale’s outsourcing of… Read more »
