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International Edition

Thoughts on 2010 – survival for those who aren't retiring

It was another conference where the divide between law firms and clients was being gently massaged, when the conversation turned harsh and funny. One general counsel was clearly frustrated. He'd lived through a year of deep budget cuts and layoffs. He'd smiled though the 'do more with less' lecture from his boss. He'd brought more work in-house, switched a few of his law firms, begged them for new approaches, and still felt, as he summed it up, screwed. The staffing by the firms was out of kilter, the prices too high, they didn't obey the 'supply chain' rules as other vendors did. He was tired of it, and beginning to eye his company's procurement officers as the solution. Maybe, he said with a twinkle in his eye, it was time "to let those animals at some of our service providers".
4 minute read

International Edition

In depth: Law firm management

Alex Novarese and Alex Aldridge look at how a handful of guys at Harvard Business School helped law firm leaders get back into education, while Charlotte Edmond canvasses a sceptical profession on consultants...
1 minute read

Legal Week

Law firm management: The hard sell

"A consultant is a man who asks you for your watch and then tells you the time with it." Probably one of the more polite descriptions by one managing partner of the band of consultants circling law firms as the recession batters a profession that had grown used to unbroken growth. Though the legal sector has not been a major target for the consultancy industry until very recently, there are an increasing number of widely varying consultants aiming to advise firms on everything from marketing, client relationship management, IT general strategy and everything inbetween.
65 minute read

International Edition

Law firm management: The hard sell

"A consultant is a man who asks you for your watch and then tells you the time with it." Probably one of the more polite descriptions by one managing partner of the band of consultants circling law firms as the recession batters a profession that had grown used to unbroken growth. Though the legal sector has not been a major target for the consultancy industry until very recently, there are an increasing number of widely varying consultants aiming to advise firms on everything from marketing, client relationship management, IT general strategy and everything inbetween.
14 minute read

International Edition

DLA makes new round of layoffs in Middle East as market slumps

DLA Piper has made a new round of job cuts in the Middle East, with the firm set to make another 9% of staff in the region redundant in response to the continued deterioration in the markets. The latest round of cuts, which follow a review of the business, equate to seven lawyers and 10 support staff losing their jobs with effect from Monday (7 December). The firm did not provide a breakdown of the job losses but said the majority of the layoffs were in Dubai and affected the construction, real estate, project finance and development projects teams.
2 minute read

International Edition

CMS Moscow cuts 30 jobs in Russian capital in second round of layoffs

CMS Moscow has laid off 30 members of staff, including 10 fee earners, in a redundancy round which closed last week (27 November). News of the latest cuts comes as it emerges that the Moscow office has cut a total of 29 fee earner positions and 32 support staff roles throughout 2009, combining the current job losses with a previous round which closed in June.
3 minute read

International Edition

CC set to make more City layoffs as capital markets team faces cutbacks

Clifford Chance (CC) has made another round of job cuts in London, with eight fee earners set to be laid off, Legal Week can reveal. The redundancies will affect eight lawyers in the firm's City capital markets practice. The firm has stated that no other offices or practice areas will be affected. The process, which started earlier this week, will see affected fee earners consulted with on an individual basis. All of the redundancies are compulsory.
2 minute read

International Edition

Law firm management: Consulting 2.0

Deloitte's David Hawley assesses how consultants can offer more to lawyers than rising blood pressure and an overdose of PowerPoint
5 minute read

International Edition

Editor's comment: Blue sky shrinking

For a breed supposedly shy of all things management-related, law firms have become rapid converts to the joys of leadership training. Doubtless that has something to do with the fact that the courses are relatively short and usually give partners a chance to get away from the office (as any teacher can tell you, getting students in a receptive mood goes a long way towards successful schooling).
3 minute read

International Edition

Law firm management: The capital question

Nearly every law firm today is organised as a private partnership, or something similar. In most countries this is required by laws that prohibit law firms from having external shareholders on a public or private basis. The fundamental reason for this is, because law is a profession, lawyers have an obligation to put their clients' interests ahead of their economic self-interest. Of course, legal work must be properly compensated to ensure a return to the firm and short-term economic sacrifices in serving a client can have large longer-term benefits in terms of future work because of the client loyalty that is generated. Having external shareholders, the argument goes, creates a potential conflict of interest between clients' needs and shareholders' needs. However, external shareholders can provide capital for growth. Since this has historically not been available in the legal profession, the industry is highly fragmented and comprised of a large number of relatively small firms in every country. And there are only a handful of practices - Clifford Chance, DLA Piper and Linklaters - that come close to being global law firms.
5 minute read

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