Survey findings in Law Firm Inc., Vol. 6, March/April 2008 at 19, include data from 70 chief financial officers of the Am Law 200. One chart reports on practice group profitability. The three practices ranked as most lucrative were “Litigation” (44% picked it as most profitable), “Corporate/Transactions” (33%), and “Intellectual…
An article in Legal Week, Vol. 10, March 6, 2008 at 13, makes the point that general counsel play down how useful legal directories can be. The author ascribes their putdowns not to the weaknesses of directories as much as to large doses of defensiveness. Good directories, the author suggests,…
In-house counsel who select law firms for matters always talk about the importance of chemistry. “We want to like the people we work with,” they inevitably intone. No one can deny that if all things were equal, it is more pleasant to labor with those you like. And those you…
Whenever law firms submit metrics in a competitive bid, you can rank the firms on those metrics. For example, if you ask each firm to tell you how many lawyers they have practicing in a certain area of law, then under the assumption that all things being equal more lawyers…
I have derided notions that there is a conflagration of firings of law firms (See my posts of Feb. 28, 2008: lack of responsiveness; and June 18, 2007: references cited.). I went so far as to publish an article about this urban myth. Click here to see a pdf of…
A thoughtful article in Legal Week, Vol. 9, Dec 6, 2007 at 26, sorts through some of the difficulties of so-called value pricing. One is that the few words of the wise counsel may bring tremendous value, but many general counsel balk if asked to pay for what seems to…
A post by David Hobbie about an International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) session on Aug. 22, 2007, describes some of the initiatives of Liberty Mutual’s law department. That department handles 1,600 law firms that submit electronic bills, yet they it still receives up to 6,000 hard-copy invoices every month. According…
A number of posts on this blog have addressed aspects of convergence, but none of them have explained how best to accomplish it (See my post of Feb. 18, 2008: reprise of convergence and references cited.). Here are seven steps that cover one set of choices. 1. Start with a…
Here are some of the ways to find success with single-matter budgets by law firms. 1. Have a couple of examples of budgets available to send to law firms (See my post of Dec. 15, 2006.). 2. Develop budget requirements differently for litigated matters and for transactional matters (See my…
A profile of the new chairman of ALFA International, published in Law Firm Inc., Vol. 6, March/April 2008 at 19, caught my eye and adds to my collection of law-firm networks and associations (See my post of Feb. 21, 2008: references cited.). The piece states that ALFA has a membership…