A thought-provoking blog post from law firm management consultant Hildebrandt. Last year, we linked to a couple of articles (here and here) reporting that (at least some) midsize firms (100-300 attorneys) appeared to be weathering the economic downturn better than their Biglaw counterparts. However, according to the Hildebrandt blogger (and we agree!), just as large law firms have had to adapt their business model […]
How Midsize Firms Might Need to Adjust to the Changing Legal Market
1L Job Search Advice From the Lawyerist
A marathon, not a sprint.
Current State of the Economy
A good, if not cheery summary of the current state of the U.S. economy appeared in Wednesday’s NY Times. Read it and next time you get an email from the CDO with a sentence that begins “In this economy . . .” you’ll know exactly what we mean.
Passage of Dodd-Frank Bill Will Increase SEC Enforcement Activities
Today’s Recorder contains an article written by a partner in Covington & Burling’s SF office who predicts that the SEC will ramp up its enforcement activities as a result of new powers conferred by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Unfortunately, the article is password-protected, so you will need to get the print […]
Legal Employer Survey: Some Expect An Increase in Hiring Levels
A brief article appearing in the Recorder and on the Legal Pad blog (via law.com) reports on a survey commissioned by one of the major legal staffing companies, Robert Half International. 100 lawyers (at firms with 20 or more employees) and 100 in-house lawyers (at companies with at least 1000 employees) were surveyed. 59% expect no change […]
New System of Law Firm Rankings
Two commercial enterprises, U.S. News and Best Lawyers, have released a set of rankings of over 8,000 law firms. Rather than assigning a numerical rank to each, they divide specific practice areas of firms into one of 3 tiers. They actually assign each practice area both a local and a national tier ranking. 81 different practice areas are included […]
Networking and Emotional Intelligence More Important Than Ever
There’s some great advice in a recent posting in lawjobs.com by Ari Kaplan, a former BIGLAW attorney who wrote a great book on networking (“The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development.”) The posting stresses the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) to legal employers. In a recovering market, they will be focussing […]
More Data Re: Firm Financial Performance Jan. to June 2010
The American Lawyer (via law.com) has a piece (ominously titled “Law Firms ‘Shrinking Toward Profit Growth’”) reporting on midyear data gathered by Citibank’s Private Banking Group. We’ve blogged about Citibank’s Law Firm Group before (here). The source of their data was: 87 Am Law 100 firms, 50 Second Hundred firms, and 50 other firms. Citibank’s latest findings […]
NLJ’s Midsize “Hot List”
The National Law Journal recently released its 2010 list of 20 midsize firms (i.e., firms with between 50 and 150 lawyers) that “have thrived amid the downturn … [and] experienced a string of successes and that showed innovative ways to run their operations despite the economy.” UPDATE: The article apparently can only be accessed by NLJ “premium subscribers.” We […]
Temporary Downturn or “Fundamental Reordering” Of The Legal Industry
Great article in NALP’s most recent bulletin addressing the ongoing debate as to whether the changes we are experiencing in law firm hiring patterns are merely temporary (and will revert to what they were when the economy improves) or whether they are reflective of a burgeoning fundamental restructuring of the way law firms do business. The author, […]