Legal marketing consultant Stacy West Clark recently outlined some of the things a new lawyer needs to do in order to succeed — and they all have to do with networking and business development. Her suggestions, as she puts it, ”require you to physically get out of your office and engage people one-on-one.”
Read the whole article, which was originally published by the Legal Intelligencer (via the New York Lawyer) here.
The New York Lawyer website links to an interesting piece from the Legal Intelligencer that makes some predictions about fundamental changes to BigLaw practice.
Among those are: de-leveraging, salary rollbacks, emphsasizing training of new associates (and de-emphasizing the need for them to be billing all of their time from the minute they start at the firm), and alternative billing arrangements.
In response to the economy, the folks at Thomsen Reuters (who own Westlaw) have launched a new website called “Between Cases.” Its a website that links to Westlaw job search tools, legal education offerings from West LegalEdcenter, and information and resources for setting up a private practice.
It also allows deferred associates or out-of-work attorneys who are doing volunteer work access to some of West’s legal research resources in furtherance of their pro bono efforts.
The American Lawyer reports on Citibank’s Private Banking Flash Report on their law firm clients from the first quarter of 2009. They aggregate the data (without identifying individual firms) of their participating clients, which consist of 71 Am Law 100 firms, 50 Second Hundred firms, and 54 smaller firms.
A few key findings:
Revenues were down 3.7% over 2008 Q-1; demand was down 6%; and headcount up 2.5%. Also, AmLaw 100 firms were more affected than the rest.
Read the whole thing — especially Citibank’s recommendations to its clients.
The National Law Journal recently interviewed the founder of Lawyers Without Borders, an organization that connects attorneys with pro bono projects in Africa and elsewhere. You can find it here.
Leigh Jones published a piece in the National Law Journal today (available via law.com) containing some troubling news for members of the Class of 2009 and 2010. Legal market followers express a great deal of skepticism about whether firms will be able to start graduates from these classes when they say they can. These experts note a “pile-up of talent” and uncertainty among firm leaders about “what their next business model might be” and how exactly new associates will fit into it. Their conclusion is that ”most firms won’t need all of their deferred associates once the deferral date arrives.”
As a public service, NALP and ALI-ABA are offering Managing a Legal Career Transition in Tough Times — a 75-minute presentation by Marcia Pennington Shannon and Susan G. Manch of Shannon & Manch LLP, who generously donated their time and talent to this special project to assist lawyers and 3Ls who are currently seeking employment.
The presentation addresses the current state of the legal employment market, the five basic steps for an effective job search, and such additional considerations as financial assessments, emotional ups and downs, gaining experience while waiting for the next job, and negotiating in a down market.
Watch it here.
The American Lawyer published an interesting read called: “Are Blue Chip NY Firms Losing Their Balance?” available via law.com.
A particularly interesting fact, which helps put the current dismal financials into perspective, is that, in the 4 year run-up to the 2008 melt-down, many of these elite firms saw their profits per partner increase something like 60, and in some cases 80 or 90%!
Some of this increase was the result of leveraging up – several had leverage ratios in excess of 4:1. The least leveraged of the elite 15 had a ratio of 2.9:1.
The Minority Law Journal, an American Legal Media (law.com, AmLaw, etc.) publication, has issued its annual Diversity Scorecard, which is an attempt to measure and rank Biglaw’s diversity efforts.
This posting is not an endorsement of the survey or its methodology. As with any survey, you should review the methodology and make your own critical evaluation as to its value/usefulness to you.
The National Law Journal published a piece entitled “Midsize Midwest Firms Steady In a Storm.” It makes the point that these types of firms [which don’t generally come to OCIP] have, by and large, not felt the impact of the economy anywhere near as badly as large firms in large cities, which tend to be more dependent on M & A and capital markets. As the article notes: ”Less expensive overhead, lawyers with broader skill sets and lower billing rates have also helped . . .” Read the whole thing.