Law departments need to appreciate that law firm partners often look at potential work in terms of its degree of leveragability. To wit, if the matter is likely to be partner intensive – it is sophisticated, fast-moving and requires much judgment – some partners feel they need to charge higher…
A senior partner of a law firm I have consulted to mentioned that sometimes his partners sense that the references they give to prospective clients give a report on the firm that is not as favorable as they thought was deserved. Maybe those partners have delusions of grandeur. But maybe…
From my consulting projects, I observe, and advocate, allocations of the following percentages of importance to the key factors. • 50 percent to the experience of the firm in whatever area of law is covered by the RFP. Experience depends on how much work of a similar kind the firm…
One barrier to entry for a law firm that tries to crack into the work of a new client is that the client’s lawyers know, and probably like or at least get along with, the lawyers of the incumbent firm. How can a newcomer demonstrate the likeability of its lawyers?…
If a law department were adamant about maintaining a core team at a law firm that works on its matters (See my post of Dec. 6, 2006 about this technique.), the department might experiment with a variation on this tough decree. If any core-team timekeeper spends less than 50 percent…
A law firm consultant, Patrick McKenna, reasonably pushes law firms “to communicate to your client what’s being achieved as a direct result of retaining you.” But he recommends a bridge too far, in Law Practice, Vol. 33, Jan./Feb. 2007 at 14, with his conclusion: “At the end of every matter…
Commenting on my recent article in Legal Times on how to analyze invoices Tom Collins morepartnerincome.com reviews some of the things a savvy client could interpret from a law firm’s bills. One of them was “More than 30 percent partner time means I’m paying partner rates for associate and paralegal…
A few readers might have missed this news. Outsourcing a legal department – like Continental Bank did to Mayer Brown back in 1991 – thrives globally. In admiration of its lapidary prose, in part because my command of Czech isn’t what it never used to be, but mostly because I…
From a survey, Maguire Consulting reports in Legal Mgt., Vol. 26, Jan./Feb. 2007 at 8, that “30.4 percent of the respondents have been partners at two law firms, 5.9 percent have been partners at three law firms, and 2.9 percent have attained that status at four or more firms.” Hence,…
The era of specialization is upon us, so it should surprise no one that a laser-focus firm such as Medical Research Consultants (MRC) flourishes. MRC, according to Met. Corp. Counsel, Dec. 2006 at 18, provides nurses who are trained to support defendants in mass tort and personal injury litigation. MRC’s…