A few days ago, we saw this Bloomberg story on how top grossing firms in the U.K. are sending under-worked associates out on full-time assignments with corporate clients over a period of six months or more. The use of so-called “secondments” (a made up word if we’ve ever seen one) isn’t new — our colleagues at the National Law Journal wrote about the practice in 2007. But the economic downturn has changed the practice dramatically, according to the Bloomberg story and several law firm higher-ups in New York who spoke with The Am Law Daily this week.
For one, firms are sending more associates out on secondments since there’s so little work to do right now. And, perhaps more interestingly, the corporate clients who adopt the “secondees” are pushing harder to get them on the cheap. In the past, clients reimbursed law firms for some or all of an associate’s salary. Paying even, say, $125,000, for six months of a high-level associate’s work, they figured, would save money by freeing clients from the tyranny of the billable hour. But now corporate clients are pushing to decrease those payments or cut them altogether, according to Bloomberg and a half dozen firm leaders we spoke to.
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