Law Firm Partners

Data-Driven Research by ALM Intelligence Suggests Three Reasons Why Gender-Diverse Partnership Fails

It is now common knowledge that female headcount within the ranks of Big Law partnership, both equity and non-equity, has held steady for the past few years at around 20%. The obvious question is, why?

Failure to increase senior billing rates differentially, and thus to rebalance the source of margin from junior to senior lawyer time, will result in a calamitous decline in profitability. It can be avoided if firms start now to gradually change their billing rate structures.

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.

Security first is a holistic approach that views security not as an information technology nuisance in need of tight cost-management controls, but as a competitive advantage to differentiation from traditional business offerings. Here's what you need to know.

It is widely recognized that Big Law has surplus partner capacity. What is less well recognized is just how massive this surplus has become, how unevenly it is spread across firms in different profitability cohorts, and what it portends for when the next downturn hits.

For the most part, law firms continue to structure themselves in a traditional operating and employment models with a dedicated workforce of talent arranged in an organizational hierarchy. In today's Gig Economy, this will unlikely hold.

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.

If you are a partner considering a lateral move, then you are probably focused on the boost a new firm could offer your practice, and on cultural fit. However, the authors' review of the 2,353 partners who moved between Am Law 100 firms in 2010 through 2012 suggests that some more prosaic factors matter too.