January 27, 2006
Law Firm Trends and Issues
Bob Denney is President of Robert Denney Associates, Inc., a strategic marketing and management consultancy. Bob’s assessment of tends and Issues as well as the temperature of practice areas and geographic markets was published in the January/February 2006 issue of Law Practice, published by the ABA’s Law Practice Management Section. Here are just a few of the trends that caught my attention:
- Succession planning is up as the number of partners in their 50’s and 60’s is increasing.
- Firms are discontinuing perpetual origination credit and, in some cases, eliminating it all together.
- There is a shift to performance-based compensation plans away from equity-based and “eat what you kill” places—It is a shift toward salary and bonus.
- More firms are requiring partners to prepare a personal business plan including nonbillable activities for use in evaluating performance.
- The book of business that comes with laterals is often much less than expected
- More clients are looking for business advice in addition to legal advice
- Emergency/disaster plans and measures are a high priority again, particularly for electronic storage and backup.
- Spin-off and start-ups are increasing in a cause-and-effect response to mega firm mergers and large firm acquisitions of mid-sized firms.
- Clients are still ambivalent about hourly billing. Why haven’t they bought into alternative billing? Hourly billing is almost the only way they can monitor outside counsels’ invoices.
The Law Practice story included a note that copies of the “What’s Hot and What’s Not” report were available by contacting Robert Denney Asssoicates at 110 W. Lancaster Ave., Wane, PA 19087, or by calling (610) 964-1938. For more information about Robert Denney Associates visit www.robertdenney.com.
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