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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Online Extra: Law Firms Doubling Down On Billing Discipline Amid Demand Decline
Andrew Maloney
Some large law firms are doubling down on billing discipline, as Big Law clients take longer to make payments and the legal industry continues to see demand declines.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Hourly Billing in FTX Bankruptcy Already At Historically High Level
Ellen Bardash
Attorneys and consultants involved in the FTX bankruptcy have asked the District of Delaware bankruptcy court to approve billed hours and expenses totaling just under $37 million for the first six weeks of Chapter 11 proceedings.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Despite Aggressive Rate Increases from Law Firms, Clients Have Room to Negotiate
Andrew Maloney
Rate increases across the legal industry haven’t been as big as the conventional wisdom implies, and clients have more room to negotiate than they probably realize.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Copyright Attorney Fees Ruling in Friday the 13th Termination Case
Mason Lawlor
The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut granted Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller partial attorney fees totaling more than $886,564, in his long-running fight against the 1980 horror film’s production outfit Manny Co. over proceeds from the film.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Billing Rates Have Increased, But Not Enough to Beat Inflation
Andrew Maloney
Law firm billing rates have increased across all law positions in 2022, but not necessarily enough to keep pace with inflation. That’s according to news reports that point to some more challenges for law firm profits.
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Marketing The Law Firm
The Four Legal Sales Strategies
Eric Dewey
The ‘best choice’ provider pitch may not be the optimal sales strategy. It's better to adjust to where the prospect is in their buying decision process — whether that means they are looking for providers, they are studying the situation, they already have counsel, or they have decided not to address the issue.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Midlevel Survey Shows What Law Firms Are Getting Right — and Wrong
Dan Roe
Midlevel associates aren’t less willing than their predecessors to do the brain-bending amount of work. It’s that after two years of billing massive hours through an isolating global pandemic, they’re completely disloyal to the status quo. They kept firms going, they made partners rich, and now they plan to reshape the profession in their image.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Are Large Firm Rates Pushing Clients to Seek Other Alternatives?
Andrew Maloney
Firms have been especially deliberate during the pandemic to increase the number of touch points they have with existing business, deepening ties with their roster of current clients by referring matters across practices and rewarding partners for that kind of origination. But with marketing spend surging and clients increasingly willing to move work around, Big Law firms’ incumbent advantage could begin to wane.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Current Economic Climate Likely to Cause Law Firms to Offer Flexible and Creative Fee Arrangements
Nicole R. Rekant and Stevan J. Pardo
The current economic climate will incline lawyers, specifically litigators, to rethink their fee structures. With inflation at a 40-year high, residential and commercial rents rising, and a predicted looming recession, clients are tightening their budgets, but also demanding the same level of service and results from their attorneys.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
While Associate Salaries Rise to Fight Talent War, Counsel Are Asking, ‘Where’s Mine?’
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Uncertainty at most firms has led some Big Law counsel to become unhappy or disgruntled. They may be working the same long hours as their firms’ associates, but, in some cases, they’re now making less than lawyers with less experience. As a result, many counsel have been reaching out to recruiters.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Rate Hikes Threatening Trusted Status with Clients
Dan Packel
After years of clients working to trim their roster of firms to a trusted group that understands the specific challenges of their businesses, rate hikes are threatening to upset these delicate relationships.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Enabling Monetization of Non-Monetary Victories
Russell Yankwitt and Anxhela Mile
This article proposes language to include in retainer agreements to enable the monetization of non-monetary victories and compensate attorneys for all their work on behalf of their contingency clients.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How Many Is Too Many? Billable Hours Can Reach Diminishing Returns
Dylan Jackson
By now, it is well known that this year has been defined, at least in part, by the furious pace at which lawyers have been working. At what point do high billable hours mean diminishing returns for both the lawyer and the firm?
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Update on Business Bankruptcy Legal Fees and Professionalism
Michael L. Cook
A review of recent cases shows that poor billing judgment and unreasonable billing have been with us for decades.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
How to Create a Law Firm Culture That Supports ‘The Hustle’
Randi Rosenblatt
Whether they practice at global firms consisting of thousands of lawyers or decide to hang a shingle and put their name on the door, lawyers chose a path requiring continuous, never-ending hustle. Not only do they need to master the practice of law, they need to master the art of driving revenue.
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Marketing The Law Firm
How to Create a Culture In a Law Firm That Supports ‘The Hustle’
Randi Rosenblatt
Whether they practice at global firms consisting of thousands of lawyers or decide to hang a shingle and put their name on the door, lawyers chose a path requiring continuous, never-ending hustle. Not only do they need to master the practice of law, they need to master the art of driving revenue.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
COUNSEL CONCERNS: Legal Fees Fallout From WWE Litigation
Justin Henry
K&L Gates is being accused by a Massachusetts-based plaintiffs’ attorney — who sued longtime K&L Gates client World Wrestling Entertainment in Connecticut federal court and is now saddled with sanctions — of making exorbitant demands for more than half a million dollars in legal fees.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Shielding Retainer Fees Prior to Client’s Bankruptcy
Milton Williams and Christopher Dioguardi
Which type of retainer agreement gives attorneys the best chance to preemptively shield their retainer fees before a client ends up in bankruptcy or the Department of Justice seizes and forfeits the client’s assets?
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Undercutting the Cost of Underperforming Attorneys
Sharon Meit Abrahams
As a firm leader it is your fiscal responsibility to address underperforming attorneys. With COVID-19 are your underperformers flying under the radar? The cost to a firm is not only to the bottom line, but to your reputation as a leader.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Estate Professionals Can Be Compensated for Services Performed Before Entry of a Retention Order, Even Without Nunc Pro Tunc Orders
Sheryl P. Giugliano
Bankruptcy professionals should be relieved by a recent decision holding that although nunc pro tunc orders approving a professional’s retention are now considered “inappropriate” in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Juan, there is nothing in the Bankruptcy Code, Bankruptcy Rules, or applicable case law preventing an award of compensation before a retention order is entered.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Introducing Pricing Transparency to Legal Services
Nathan Cemenska
The COVID-19 crisis has caused a money crunch across industries, and CLD budgets are tightening. This downturn demands that CLDs stop writing blank checks for services of indeterminate scope and duration. Here are some ideas for law departments looking to do better.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Lateral Partner Survey Casts Doubt on Compensation as King
Dylan Jackson
In a survey conducted by Major, Lindsey & Africa, lateral partners put firm culture and practice support ahead of anticipated compensation when considering a new firm.
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New York Real Estate Law Reporter
Appellate Division Complicates the Rules for Municipalities Charging Consultants’ Fees
Steven M. Silverberg and Katherine Zalantis
In a case addressing what consulting fees (in particular attorneys’ fees) can be charged to an applicant before a Zoning Board of Appeals, the Second Department in Landstein v. Town of LaGrange found that the Town had overreached its statutory authority.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Only 30% of Workday Is Spent on Billable Hours, Report Says
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
U.S. lawyers are still spending too little of their workday on billable hours, a year after an eye-opening report found lawyers devoted only 29% — 2.3 hours — of each eight-hour workday to billable hours.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Cost Recovery in 2018: Predicting Winners and Losers
Rob Mattern
Back in March of this year, we predicted changes and trends the results of the 2018 Mattern Cost Recovery Survey would reveal. At that time, we got our…
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Salary Hikes Not So Impressive After Inflation
Scott Flaherty
Law firms have bumped up starting salaries for associates at top firms over the past few years, prompting Big Law clients to raise a stink about outsized salaries for junior lawyers. But it turns out that this pay falls short of past peaks when inflation is taken into account.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Litigation Funders Face Their Hardest Sell: Big Law
Roy Strom and Ben Hancock
There Is More Money Than Ever In the Hands of Litigation Financiers, But Can They Convince Law Firms to Use It?
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The NLJ 500: Large Firm Growth Slows Amid Consolidation and Contraction
Ryan Lovelace
Lawyer Counts Increased By 1%, But Large Firm Growth Was Slowed Due to Consolidation. Just Three of the Top Five Firms on the NLJ 500 Showed Total Lawyer Headcount Growth
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Lawyers and Accountants: Collaborators and Competitors
Mark A. Cohen
Lawyers and accountants are professional allies, but who controls integration and delivery of their services is another story.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Will Law Firms Be Ready When the Next Recession Hits?
Dan Packel
The Bottom Is Eventually Going to Drop on the U.S. Economy, and Many Law Firms Won't Be Positioned to Handle the Fallout
No economic expansion lasts forever. That’s a hard-and-fast truth of macroeconomics, one that’s on the minds of certain law firm leaders.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Arbitration Impact on Attorney Fees and Film Company Principal
Stan Soocher
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit reversed a district court’s award of attorney fees to Sony Corp. under §505 of the Copyright Act for winning a ruling that a lawsuit over a Sony Music songwriting contest should be sent to arbitration.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Prospering in the ‘New Normal’
J. Mark Santiago
Raising Costs and Declining Demand are Sapping Profits
The “New Normal” of today is one in which raising operating costs, associate salary increases, and reduced realization rates coupled with AFAs and demands from corporate counsel for reduced rates are sapping firm profits and there is no relief on the horizon. Law firm leaders, seeing current conditions, should be asking if there is a better way.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Cash Flow Drought: How to Identify and Deal with It
Bill Sansone
Cash flow management can be particularly challenging. You need to account for the time lag between cash going out and cash coming in. This requires financial and management discipline, strong internal policies and procedures for billing and collection policies, planning and attention to detail.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
The Power of Certifications In the Legal Industry
Jared Coseglia
Part One of a Two-Part Article
The key paths and the corresponding certifications available for lawyers — and nonlawyers — to pursue to help successfully administer a career in the legal industry in the coming decade.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
11 Factors to Collecting Attorney Fees on a Timely Basis
Peter Oliva
Most of the time, delayed payments are a result of actions by the law firms themselves. Let’s take a look at 11 factors impacting the collection of attorney fees on a timely basis and how to avoid these mistakes.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
Counsel Concerns: Ambiguous Offer for Daddy Yankee to Settle Suit Ends in Attorney Fees Denial
Celia Ampel
Attorneys who sued “Despacito” artist Daddy Yankee for defamation should have heeded the song’s title and drafted their settlement offer slowly, a federal appellate court ruled.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The Relationship Between Leadership and Management in More Successful Law Firms
Joel A. Rose
Financial stability within a law firm practice does not guarantee harmony within the partnership itself — far from it. Law firm management that does not acknowledge or reflect the importance of firm leadership and the contributions and needs of its members endangers a firm’s cohesiveness and its very existence, no matter how many clients come through the front door.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Cost Recovery in 2018: An Evolving Internal and External Strategy
Rob Mattern
It’s now been 10 years since the economic crisis of 2008, and just under 10 years since we saw the greatest dip in demand for services experienced by the legal market. The market has stabilized since then, but growth has remained, year-over-year, flat. The Thomson Reuters 2018 Report on the State of the Legal Market shows this trend will continue as we see a market characterized by flat to sluggish growth, a continued decline in productivity, modest rate increases and the continued downward pressure on realization.
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Entertainment Law & Finance
More Developments in NFL Concussion Litigation
Max Mitchell
Several leading law firms in the National Football League concussion settlement litigation are taking issue with an expert report that suggested slashing attorney fee recoveries. More than 10 law firms have filed responses to a December expert report that recommended capping attorney fees.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Litigation Funding Changes Legal Landscape for Boutique and Small Firms
Monika Gonzalez Mesa
The Growth of Third-Party Litigation Funding Has Been a Boon to Small Firms, But Boutique Firms Are Taking a Hit
The growth of litigation funding has widened the pool of law firms that can take on big cases, but their increasing popularity means boutique firms that have traditionally landed multimillion-dollar lawsuits by taking them on contingency or offering alternative fee arrangements are now taking a hit.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Can Millennials Save Your Law Firm?
Lizzy McLellan
After Years of Complacency About Their Business Model and the Pipeline for Talent, There’s a Reason Law Firms Are So Worried About Managing the Millennial Generation
For law firms wringing their hands about how to manage the millennial generation — or asking why they should adapt to this crop of young lawyers in the first place — here's the bad news: If you're still clinging to traditional models for training associates and running the partnership, you've already fallen behind. The millennials are here, they're climbing the ranks, and they've already begun to transform the industry.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
AIM 1-2-3
Lawrence Bell
There is a patented methodology that follows the same path that the introduction of depreciation followed, with the impact being similar in its influence, power and effect: The AIM (Actuarially Initiated Measurements) Program. An employer using this methodology realizes the ability to uncover and maximize missed opportunities to control fluctuations and variations in earnings per share (EPS).
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Read This Before You Set Your 2018 Billing Rates
Hugh A. Simons
Setting the next year's billing rates follows a simple formula at most firms: last year's rate plus a common percentage increase across all lawyer cohorts. A more disaggregated approach is needed -- firms should set higher percentage increases for senior lawyers and lower increases for junior lawyers.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Are Law Firms Charging Less or Just Making Less?
Roy Strom
In a market where clients are struggling to deliver more legal services for less cost (the challenge), RichardSusskind says a law firm may be tempted to undercut its competition on price in hopes of winning more work. But is it actually happening?
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The Corporate Counselor
Alternative Fee Arrangements in Complex Litigation
Overton Thompson III and David Rue
The Case for Value Billing
Alternative fee arrangements (AFAs) are about value, a benefit legal departments are increasingly pressured to bring to their companies. When hiring an outside lawyer, clients are not looking for "hours," and they certainly are not looking for tenths of hours. They seek value.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The Cost of Making Partner
Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
Making partner isn't cheap, and the cost is more than just the years of hard work and stress that associates put in as they reach for the brass ring.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
When Will Disruption Hit the Legal Industry?
Hugh A. Simons and Nicholas Bruch
Economics tells us an industry that experiences a drop in aggregate demand, adds production capacity, and increases the market overlap among competitors will suffer price erosion and profitability decline. Law firms fit this profile. Yet, in talking with law firm partners, you don't get the sense that any such "disruption" is happening. Perhaps economics has bypassed law?
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Smaller Firms' Message To Big Law on Alternative Fees: Join the Club
Miriam Rozen
Microsoft's vow to make its outside lawyers bill nearly all their work under alternative fee arrangements caused a stir, given large law firms' traditional devotion to the billable hour. But for a growing number of mostly smaller firms, those anxieties highlight a Big Law business model they've already left behind.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The Law Firm Value Proposition
Glenn Tannous
How to Successfully Hire Lateral Partners
While a law firm asks for specific education, experience, contacts and portables at certain law firms, what if the candidates were to ask for their own list of must-haves? How would a firm measure up?
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Motivating Attorneys To Accomplish Firm Objectives
Joel A. Rose
Absent the willingness or inability of first tier partners to create an environment in which blossoming attorneys can achieve their personal, professional and economic objectives, the likelihood is that these very attractive partners may leave to join other law firms.
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