Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Those costs and expenses include matching contributions to 20 employees’ 401(k) accounts and providing health coverage, with premiums increasing annually.
“The rates went up again this year, they go up every year, so it’s just getting more expensive,” Mr. Brown said.
“We don’t anticipate cutting back, but as any smart employer knows, if the economy gets bad enough you have to do whatever is necessary to protect the larger interests of the business and any employer who says otherwise is misguided,” said Mr. Brown, the president of the Monroe County Bar Association.
The corporate litigation boutique counts several Fortune 100 companies among its clients and spends significant dollars – around $40,000 annually – on advertising, buying ads in trade journals and radio spots. That is a necessary cost, according to Mr. Brown, as “our target markets are companies that are not based in New York.”
The firm also has numerous sponsorship commitments and donates to various not-for-profit organizations. Mr. Brown said it does not plan to eliminate donations entirely, but “we think that we may well cut back on the level of giving – if we gave $2,500 to an organization each year in the past, we may cut that down to $1,500.”
Scaled-Down Marketing
Katz, Bernstein & Katz, a Syosset tax law boutique, sponsored up to nine golf outings each season in years past to drum up business. It will halve that number this year, according to partner Neil D. Katz.
“To spend three or four or five thousand dollars for a one-day golf charity event is a difficult thing to justify when the economy is the way it is and collections are the way they are and people are losing jobs,” Mr. Katz said.
The firm has turned to other business development methods, such as networking and attending bar events to find new clients. The four-attorney firm is staying busy, as state and federal tax authorities are aggressively pursuing tax collections due to their own budget shortfalls.
But while there is plenty of work, clients are slower to pay their fees, resulting in a cash-flow problem that the firm has had to solve by cutting some costs.
“Collections of our billing are slower, so we have taken significant steps to reduce expenses and overhead,” said Mr. Katz, who chairs the Suffolk bar committee on solos and small firms. This includes cutting back on office supplies and striking a deal with service providers to pay up front for the entire year at a reduced fee, rather than pay monthly installments.
For her part, Ms. McNichol, the family law practitioner, said she has cut back on charitable donations and attending fundraising dinners, relying instead on client referrals and word-of-mouth for business.
Her firm also has a law school student helping with answering phones, sending faxes and taking care of clerical work. And subscriptions to legal publications and periodicals may be on the chopping block.
Theodore Blumberg is a Manhattan entertainment lawyer who counts director/actor Stanley Tucci and actor Ving Rhames among his clients. Since people are drawn to the movies as an escape in hard times, his business remains relatively strong, so strong that he recently hired an associate, he said.
Nevertheless, Mr. Blumberg said he keeps a watchful eye on costs. He has gotten rid of his Westlaw and Lexis accounts and switched to a cheaper service. Lately, he has also worked from home, both out of convenience and to save commuting costs, all in an effort to keep the bottom line from ballooning out of control.
“I try to run the practice efficiently . . . I’m really not able to cut a lot of corners,” said Mr. Blumberg, of Manhattan.
And if the financial bottom drops out completely?
“I’ll be tending bar,” he said.
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