Law Office Management & Administration Report

This article summarizes what Smock Sterling Strategic Management Consultants have heard over the past eight weeks from law firm leaders during meetings focused on the legal marketplace and the economic environment.

Two data points from two recent, though separate, IOMA law firm surveys have produced an unanticipated result concerning the hiring of lateral partners. Laterals are a hot property, especially in the face of the difficult economy.

The almost daily bad news from AmLaw 100 law firms seems inconsistent with IOMA’s latest research on the impact of the economic crisis on smaller firms. The newly completed 2009 Small Law Firm Economic Impacts Survey, conducted by IOMA researchers in April and May of this year, shows that small firms are cautious during the current depressed economy but are not experiencing the challenges of their big-law counterparts.

A newly released Altman Weil flash survey on law firms in transition reports that law firms are adjusting to the economic downturn but are not currently contemplating any radical shifts in strategy or operations. Principal Tom Clay explained the rationale for the latest AW survey: "We wanted to know if all the noise in the marketplace about a new law firm business model was translating into real change."

New research by Watson Wyatt indicates that layoffs and hiring and salary freezes finally may have peaked. A series of surveys by the consulting firm found that most organizations are not planning additional hiring freezes (67 percent), organizational restructuring changes (65 percent), or layoffs (53 percent). Although the majority of surveyed employers do not plan any further salary reductions (89 percent) or salary freezes (76 percent) in the next 12 months, the number that already has…

The Real Legal Market 2009, Webinar, June 11. Contact: Altman Weil Inc., 2 Campus Blvd., Newtown Square, PA 19072. 866-886-3600; www.altmanweil.com

Litigation Funding Services Enter United States Usually in a recession, litigation fills the void left by depressed transactional business. This recession has been different. Growth in litigation practice has not provided the safety net that many firms expected. Blane Prescott of Hildebrandt explains this unanticipated event as caused by a new awareness on the part of potential plaintiffs of the high cost of pursuing litigation and less emphasis on the risk of winning or losing.

Each month LOMAR updates its Law Office Cost Index for major cities nationwide. This exclusive LOMAR monthly feature is aimed at helping law firm managing partners and administrators monitor relevant office cost changes within their area and compare them with those of other regions.