Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?

I attended the Georgetown University Law Center Conference on “Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?” this week. It was tremendous. The presentations, the discussions, the ideas and the overall energy made this one of the best conferences I have ever attended in my career, and a powerful reminder of why I do what I do. Sound over the top? Read these articles, blog posts, papers, and other commentaries on the conference, and then tell me what you think.

Conference Papers and Related Documents

• “Abandoning Homogeneity in Legal Education,” Thomas D. Morgan
• “Business Models in Legal Practice: Toward Definition and Assessment,” Stephen Mayson
• “Chinese Law Firms After the Financial Crisis: The Case of Shanghai,” Sida Liu and Xueyao Li
• “Coase, Schumpeter, and the Future of the (Law) Firm,” David McGowan and Bernard A. Burk
• “The Consolidation of the Global Advertising Industry: Lessons for Law Firms?,” Andrew von Nordenflycht
• “The Death of BigLaw,” Larry Ribstein
• “Evolution and Revolution in the Governance of Law Firms,” Laura Empson
• “Hiring Teams from Rivals: Theory and Evidence on the Evolving Relationships in the Corporate Legal Market,” Michele DeStefano Beardslee, David Wilkins, John Coates and Ashish Nanda)
• “Law firm of the 21st century: The clients’ revolution,” Eversheds
• “Layoffs, Lawyers, and Learning,” Paul Oyer and Scott Schaefer)
• “Make or Buy Decisions: Theory and Evidence in Legal Services,” Mari Sako
• “The New Normal,” Paul Lippe
• “The Return of the Apprentice: New Lawyer Training Models for the 21st Century,” Jordan Furlong
• “Supply Chains and Porous Boundaries: The Disaggregation of Legal Services,” Milton C. Regan, Jr., in 78 Fordham L. Rev. 101 (2010) (forthcoming).
• “Third-Party Litigation Funding,” Anthony Sebok
• “Will There Be a Changing of the Guard? Law Firm Lessons from the Great Depression,” Peter Sherer

Session Recaps from Ron Friedmann at Prism Legal

• “Emerging Relationships Between Law Firms and Clients (Tweeted Conference Report)”
• “Creative Destruction and Innovation (session report, Georgetown Law)”
• “Business Models: Strategy and Governance (Session Report, Georgetown Law Conf)”
• “David Wilkins on Mega Trends for Legal Profession (Session Report, Georgetown Law Conf)”
• "KM in Action (After Action Review at a Conference)"

Articles and Commentary

• “The Change Agenda: Are We There Yet?” from Aric Press at AmLaw Daily
• “The Change Agenda: Is Mega Law a Dead Man Walking?” from Aric Press at AmLaw Daily
• “Calls for New Model of Law Firm-Client Relations at Georgetown Conference” from Law.com's Small Firm Business
• "Extreme Makeover: Law Firm Edition" from Vault's Law Blog
• “From Georgetown Law: ‘Law Firm Evolution-Brave New World or Business as Usual?’” from The Posse List
• “From Georgetown Law: ‘Law Firm Evolution’ – a video interview with Richard Susskind, author of ‘The End of Lawyers?’” from The Posse List (see also video interviews below)
• "From Georgetown Law: 'Law Firm Evolution-Brave New World or Business as Usual?' -- our review of the conference" from The Posse List
• "Georgetown Law School evokes Punk rock" from Joshua Kubicki on Legal on Ramp (registration required)
• “Is the Law-Firm Model Dying? Not Yet, But It Might Be On The Clock” from WSJ Law Blog
• "Law firm evolution at Georgetown" from Larry Ribstein's Ideoblog
• “Law Firm Evolution Conference at Georgetown in the US: my take” from Robert Sawhney’s Marketing Asia blog
• "Law Firm (R)Evolution & Gaps" from Joshua Kubicki's Legal Transformation: The Changing Legal Profession
• “Law Firm Time Bomb: You Have 18 Months To Try And Keep Your Clients”, from Business Insider Law Review
• “Lawyer Layoff Patterns: Young Go 1st, and Top 10 JD Is No Shield” from the ABA Journal
• "Layoff Patterns: was there a method to the madness?" from Above the Law
• "Murmurs of Change, but Where's the Proof?" from ABA Journal
• "New Model Evolving: Law Firms Have 18 Months Maximum to Adapt" from Law and More.
• “Panelists Explore New Business Models for Big Law” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Panelists Predict Changes to, Not Death of, Big Law” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Patterns Emerge from Lawyer Layoffs” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Paul Lippe, Lewis and Clark, and Google Maps” from In Search of Perfect Client Service
• "Report Finds Power Shift and Declining Support for Law Firm 'Up or Out' Model" from the ABA Journal
• "Secondments will rise if more firms decide they are a prerequisite to become a partner" from Rees Morrison's Law Department Management
• “So Long, Blank Checks: Clients Saying Get with the Program, or Get Out of the Way” from Shatterbox
• "Total median compensation of a group of general counsel was five times salary" from Rees Morrison's Law Department Management
• “Warnings Toll for BigLaw Firms Resistant to Change” from the ABA Journal

What the Hashtag?! Twitterstream

Video Interviews from Gregory Bufithis of The Posse List and Lisa DiMonte of MyLegal.com

Leah Cooper

Anthony Davis



Jose M. de Areilza

Michele DeStefano Beardslee

Deborah Epstein Harry

Ron Friedmann



Cynthia Fuchs Epstein



Jordan Furlong



David Galbenski



Susan Hackett

Joshua Kubicki

Bruce MacEwen

Stephen Mayson



David McGowan



Marisa Mendez



Thomas Morgan

Mitt Regan



Larry Ribstein



Timothy Scrantom

Reena SenGupta

Paul Smith

Richard Susskind

Laurel S. Terry

What I learned from two days at the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting

It was the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting last week in Denver. Two days of informative seminars, of making connections, of strengthening relationships, of exploring new ideas and learning the latest intelligence and understanding the challenges facing our clients, our firms, our industry. But don’t take my word for it. Read these:

Session recaps from Lindsay Griffiths on Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance and Gina Furia Rubel on The Legal Intelligencer Blog.

• "Keynote Event - Insights into the Future" (Lindsay Griffith)
  
  
• "Social Media Strategies for Small to Mid-sized Law Firms" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Leveraging Social Networking - Real World Applications of Web 2.0 That Have Led to New Business" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Examining the Current Use of Alternative Fee Arrangements" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Recovery: Refocusing the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership to Maximize Profitability" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Creating and Implementing a Sales and Business Development Culture in your Firm" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "General Session: What We Love Most about Our Lawyers - A Client Panel" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "The Digital Firm 2015 - The Changing Face of Professional Services Marketing Communications" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 1 Biz Dev" (Gina Furia Rubel)
  
  
• "Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 2 Competitive Advantage" (Gina Furia Rubel)

General Observations

• "Migrating from Marketing to Business Development" from Karen Lorimer in Canadian Lawyer
  
  
• "Paramjit Mahli reports on the Legal Marketing Association conference in Denver" (video) from Legal Broadcast Network News Blog
  
  
• "The Social Web Revolution and Law Firm Marketing Professionals" from Jayne Navarre's Virtual Marketing Officer
  
  
• “Your People Are Your Brand” from Alli Gerkman’s Beyond Credits
  
  
• “Here’s a story about Social Media” from John Bryne’s The Byrne Blog
  
  
• “LMA 2010 Takeaways” from Jon Holden (video)
  
  
• “Me, Twitter, LMA and Laura Gutierrez” from Heather Milligan’s The Legal Water Cooler
  
  
• “LMA10 Conference part 1: my message to marketers” from Nancy Myrland’s Myrland Marketing blog
  
  
• “The Great Legal Marketing Tweetup of 2010” from Nancy Myrland’s Myrland Marketing blog
  
  
• “Confessions from a Social Networker: How Twitter Shaped My #LMA10 Experience” from Gina Furia Rubel on The PR Lawyer
  
  
• “High on Hashtags” from Russell Lawson on Progressive Marketing
  
  
• “It’s About Relationships” from Lindsay Griffiths’ Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance

#LMA10 Twitter stream

• Twitter Search
  
  
• Twapperkeeper
  
  
• What the hashtag?!

3 Geeks and a Law Blog: Is BigLaw Devoid of Humanity, Culture and Sense of Humor?

"Is BigLaw Devoid of Humanity, Culture and Sense of Humor?" from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Prompted by comments made during a Twitter discussion this week on the Virtual Law Office (organized by Martindale-Hubbell Connected and led by Larry Bodine), this post provides an eloquent response to those who would proclaim the end--or at least the end of an era--of BigLaw. I suspect that the real answer lies somewhere in the middle. Read this post and draw your own conclusions.

Build a Solo Practice @ SPU: 12 Social Media Ethics Issues for Lawyers

"12 Social Media Ethics Issues for Lawyers" from Build a Solo Practice @ SPU. This post is a must read for all lawyers who engage in social media and social networking, from the ones who tweet 20 times a day to those who are just beginning to explore how they can use Web 2.0 tools to raise their profile. It's full of valuable advice on how to navigate the ethics-risks-of-social-media minefield, and while it's far from the final word on ethics and social networking, it does provide a useful perspective on potential dangers and how to avoid them.

Cameron’s Profits for Partners: Strategic Planning for Law Firms

“Strategic Planning for Law Firms – Key Steps in the Process,” from Cameron’s Profits for Partners. Whether or not you're actively engaged in a strategic planning process you should read this post. Why? Because answering the questions Colin Cameron sets forth will provide you with a better understanding of what you want to achieve, how you think you should go about it, and how you will define and measure success.

It's your future, after all. You might as well be the one who defines it.

The Blawg 100 Edition

The ABA Journal just published its third annual list of the top 100 legal blogs, the Blawg 100, and my lawyer interviews on Twitter blog, 22 Tweets, made the list. What a great honor to have my blog listed alongside blogs that teach, inform and inspire me almost every single day, blogs that I've followed for years, blogs that I've recommended here.

If you haven't visited Blawg 100, you should. Today. It's chock full o' good. I've listed some favorites below, but they're just appetizers. Go to the site. Read why these blogs were chosen. Explore the ones you don't already follow. Add them to your RSS feed. You be glad you did.

The bonus? You get to vote on your favorites. Of course I hope you'll vote for 22 Tweets (do that here). But more importantly I hope you'll use your votes to tell the blawgers who teach, inform and inspire you that they're doing a great job, that you value their perspective, and that they should keep up the good work.

Of Particular Note

22 Tweets Yeah, you knew it would be on my short list. Why? Because you can learn a lot from what these practicing lawyers have to say. I certainly do.

Above the Law If it happens in the world of law, it happens here first. Several new posts each day are enough to feed the habits of even the most hard-core law gossip junkies.

Adam Smith, Esq.. When I want to get smarter about the business of law firms, I read Bruce MacEwen's blog. You will too.

The Am Law Daily A perfect companion blog to Above the Law, the AmLaw Daily offers BigLaw news and analysis of the key issues facing the profession.

China Law Blog In my former life I was responsible for Asia BD and marketing at an AmLaw 10 global firm. This blog was a vital part of staying on top of the China market and legal environment. Now I read it because I like to, not because I have to.

The Client Revolution I said it before and will say it again: Jay Shepherd envisions a world where the focus is on the value, not the cost, of legal services. You’ll find his blog insightful, inspiring, and a worthy addition to your daily read.

Empirical Legal Studies When these law professors study the business and practice of law, they bring a perspective to “how-it-works-best” that no practicing lawyer can provide.

Law21 I’ve recommended Law21 posts here more times that I can remember. For a reason. Jordan Furlong always provides great insight into the core issues facing the profession today, the ones that will define it in the future.

Legal Ease Blog Allison Shields’ blog is full of practical advice for lawyers and legal professionals about the ways they can be more productive and profitable.

Simple Justice Day in and day out (and often several times a day), Scott Greenfield posts about justice and injustice. Sometimes controversial, sometimes curmudgeonly, his posts are always interesting and valuable.

Honorees Featured in 22 Tweets

Kelly Phillips Erb, for TaxGirl

Leanna Hamill, for Massachusetts Estate Planning and Elder Law

Bill Marler, for Marler Blog

David Harlow, for HealthBlawg

Dan Harris, for China Law Blog

Jay Shepherd, for The Client Revolution

Have you read these?

A selection of interesting and valuable posts from the blawgosphere and beyond

• “Excuse Me, Sir. May I Interest You In Things You Don’t Need?” from Corcoran’s Business of Law Blog. Written for legal technology vendors who attended last week’s International Legal Technology Association annual meeting, this post -– and its companion piece, “10 Sales Tips for Legal Vendors” –- are chock full of valuable advice. Read them and read them again, because you don’t often get insight like this from someone who has been both client and vendor, and you’re sure to learn from Corcoran’s experience. And don’t be fooled by the context: these comments are as useful for lawyers as they are for legal vendors. You’ll see.
  
  
• “Why Should My Organization Care About Social Media?” from Where Great Workplaces Start. This is a short; to-the-point post on why social media is important. Lawyers should read it to remind themselves of why they need to add Web 2.0 tools to their suite of traditional marketing and business development activities. I like it because it drives home my favorite point: social media is communication.
  
  
• “10 ways PR and marketing are every bit as powerful as trusted peers” from a shel of my former self. This post will be very useful for lawyers and legal professionals, if only because it reminds us that funneling your communication through a single channel, or even a select set of channels, can limit your opportunities to communicate your message. Even if you’re not caught up in the “old v new” debate that provides the background for this post, you’re sure to find value in the ten communications activities outlined in the post.
  
  
• “Seize the moment lawyers” from Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs. Like O’Keefe, I encourage just about every lawyer who asks me about blogging to step up to the plate and swing. That’s probably because my introduction to Web 2.0 for lawyers came from Kevin himself, whose passion for helping lawyers understand and generate value from the communications tools of social media is legendary. This post provides what may the best articulation I’ve read of why lawyers should blog, and why they should do it now. Read it and you'll agree.
  
  
• “Challenging convention” from Seth Godin’s Blog. Are you challenging convention? Identifying and acting on solutions that create ways to get things done? Would you like to? If so, read this post for useful advice on making the new convention stick. Because it isn’t easy to change the way things are done, the way people are used to doing things, the way that is easy and tried and true, even if you have a great new way to do it better or easier or cheaper.

Have you read these?

A smattering of interesting and relevant posts from the blawgosphere and beyond

• “Why In the World Would You Give Away Your Expertise For Free?” from The Greatest American Lawyer. Why would lawyers want to blog, and give away their work? This post explains why one lawyer does it. And it makes a pretty good argument for all lawyers blogging. You’ve probably been doing it all along, in other contexts (speeches, articles, conversations, etc.). This post reminds you that demonstrating your expertise and your understanding of the complex legal issues that affect the business decisions of your clients is a pretty good way to market your practice.
  
  
• “Bar exam advice from a simple minded lawyer” from Real Lawyers Have Blogs. When you’re faced with a test, perhaps the hardest, most significant, biggest stakes test of your life, step back, breathe, and remember that you are ready, that you’ve prepared, that nothing you will do at the last minute will change your preparedness. This post is about taking the bar exam, but it applies to every trial and tribulation of life (thesis defense, job interview, sales pitch, etc.). Read it before every test in your life.
  
  
• “Overcome Insecurity and Bring In More Business” from lawjobs.com Career Center. For most lawyers, business development and marketing – selling their services – is difficult. But you can make it less so. This post addresses two of the hurdles that are most likely holding back your business development efforts: the negative internal dialogue, and the lack of experience. You’ll need to read the post to see their solutions, but you’ll be glad you did.
  
  
• “Ask Good Questions” from Leader Talk. Why do you need to ask good questions? Because good questions lead to engaged conversations, which lead to stronger relationships, which lead to increased influence. Not the “force your ideas on others” kind, but the “have a positive impact on others” kind of influence. And influence is a key component of leadership. So asking good questions can improve your leadership skills. But don’t just take my word for it. Read this post too.
  
  
• “The ABC's of Public Speaking - S is for Stage Time” from Some Assembly Required. You get better at doing by doing. There’s no other way. Want to be a better public speaker? Speak in public. But this logic extends far beyond public speaking, doesn’t it? Want to be a better runner? Run every day. Want to be a better lawyer? Make providing greater value to your clients your goal, not just a good contract or a great argument, but legal work that helps them be more successful in their businesses and life. And do it again and again, every day. You’ll get better at it. And your clients will be happier. What’s not to like?

Have you read these?

A smattering of interesting and relevant posts from the blawgosphere and beyond

• “Scitable – Velvet Rope and a Stethoscope” from Chris Brogan’s Community and Social Media blog. Our last post featured a piece by Kevin O’Keefe on gated online legal communitites, so when I saw this post from Chris Brogan, a review of what he calls a “velvet rope social network,” I had to include it. Read it to find out Brogan’s take these communities. The bonus? Scitable – check it out.
  
  
• “Change or Die: Reflections on Richard Susskind's ‘The End of Lawyers?’” from The AmLaw Daily. Yes, Richard Susskind’s vision of the future, The End of Lawyers? has been written about more times over the past few months than just about any other subject involving the legal profession (save, of course, layoffs and related news). That doesn’t mean you should skip this post from Michael Stern, newspaper reporter turned BigLaw partner. Why? Precisely because Stern is a BigLaw partner, who sees the world changing around him as he searches for new paths to success. But don’t take my word for it. Take Bill Henderson’s (yes, that Bill Henderson): “Michael… your review and additional insights are excellent.”
  
  
• “Who are you looking at?” from Enlightened Tradition. “Why do law firms find it so hard to ignore their competitors?” asks Mark Gould, who has put together a thoughtful analysis of how this attitude (obsession?) influences the decisions and decision-making process of lawyers and law firms. Virtually every lawyer will have similar stories to those Gould cites, but few will have drawn the same conclusions (and even fewer will have acted on those conclusions). Read it. You’ll be glad you did.
  
  
• “Spend wisely” from Law21.ca. Another great post from Jordan Furlong (are there any other kinds?), which looks at the current state of the legal profession from the perspective of the consumers of legal services, both corporations and individuals. How do the wants and needs and fears and misconceptions of the buyers influence the menus of the sellers? And what does that mean for the profession and its future?
  
  
• “Breakdown: The Five Ways Companies Let Employees Participate in the Social Web” from Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang. Companies need social media policies. More importantly, they need to be aware of what their employees are doing / could do / might do on Web 2.0 sites, and develop some guidelines for that activity that may help avoid unpleasant surprises in the future. Law firms are no different. If you haven’t given a lot of thought to your policy, you’ll find this post useful. (PS: you’ll find it useful even if you already have social media guidelines for your employees. Really.)