Features
Deborah C. Scaringi
How do we go back to conducting productive business without seeming callous to the harsh realities many people are experiencing?
Features
MP McQueen
Recruiters say the demand for contract attorneys in corporate and government legal departments and law firms is rising as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic creates more of certain types of legal work.
Features
Rinky S. Parwani
&
Greg Garman
The billable hour is still profitable from a transactional perspective, but from a strategic perspective, in today's economy, that profitability has begun to erode. That's because our economy has fundamentally transformed into a service economy that is based on leverage and scale.
Features
Frank Ready
Not even the economic downturn imposed by the COVID-19 virus may be able to take credit for eliminating the billable hour. While attorneys could be relying more on legal tech to help defray costs, transitioning to a new pricing infrastructure in the midst of so much uncertainty could prove to be a bridge too far.
Features
David Thomas
After a 5% increase in gross revenue and 3% growth in revenue per lawyer, the Am Law 100 were in a good place at the start of 2020. Then a global pandemic started. Now what?
Features
Patrick Smith
Firms Are Applying Communications Lessons from the Great Recession As They Deliver Bad News During the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Many firms have appeared in recent weeks to be signaling compassion, embracing (relative) transparency and sharing sacrifices across lawyers and staff. That can help make even painful cuts less harmful for a firm's internal morale and outside reputation.
Features
Dylan Jackson
For some firms in the Great Recession, reduced revenues combined with the overwhelming pressure from multimillion-dollar pension liabilities — a holdover from the days when pensions were simply a promise firms made to retiring partners — were too much to bear. But with the Great Recession now a decade in the past and another recession brewing, has the industry learned from its mistakes?
Features
Hugh A. Simons
Compensation systems are typically a strategic afterthought, seen as the means by which to allocate the spoils of a successful strategy. They're viewed as affecting the level of grousing among partners, but not a firm's performance. The data, however, indicates the reverse is true.
Features
Samantha Stokes
Law firms have always counted on bankruptcy as a countercyclical practice in hard times. Now, those that prepared when the economy was booming may be about to get their reward.
Features
Valerie Chan
The ability to adapt, be nimble and pivot as necessary is crucial to surviving and thriving in ever-changing economic climates. Communicating in the age of social distancing requires a new way of thinking and being — not just in the virtual workplace with our peers but also how we communicate and partner with our clients.
