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The Curse of the Billable Hour?

on September 29, 2009

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(Thanks to the New Yorker)

fees lawyers

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The Accountants Are Really Coming...this time....

(thanks to giant bomb.com) I'm sure PwC, EY, KPMG, and Deloitte would like to be thought of the same way as these bands, but...dream on. Why are they there? A press release from Karl Chapman popped into my overstuffed mailbox saying Riverview Law has just been acquired by EY . Despite the hype of press releases, this is a significant move in the legal services market. At bottom it shows two things: NewLaw is coming of age and is now attractive to others; the accountants, particularly the Big Four, are serious about conquering the legal services market. Law firms should be worried because I believe they are on borrowed time. A few years ago I sat in a meeting at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) in London discussing how and if accountants should be given regulatory powers in legal services. The accountants said they only wanted powers for probate. They declared they wanted no other regulatory authority. Really? I thought to myself. Surely no one believes that. The...

The Rise of Boutiques?

(Thanks to Coolhunting ) Flexibility and mobility are two necessary attributes to dealing with markets in flux. As we have seen with the struggles of the behemoth law firms over the last year or so, restructuring is painful, slow and very unwelcome. Small firms, however, may have the advantage because they can reconfigure themselves with relatively little effort. Dan Harris of China Law Blog directed my attention to an article in the Los Angeles Times "The Big Opportunities in the Legal Profession Are at Small Firms". Lawyers have been able to reinvent themselves in imaginative ways. Divorce lawyers transform into bankruptcy lawyers. It seems that younger lawyers are finding small firms attractive after Big Law. Niche areas of law are ripe for development and boutiques--whether traditional law firms or alternative business structures--are ideal candidates for delivering services to clients quickly and personally and much cheaper than the large law firms. Even the ABA ...

How Courts Compete with Each Other

(thanks to rechtspraak.nl) It can be a harsh world in the world of courts today. Competition is intensifying. Courts not only have to pay their way, they now have to face challenge from equivalent courts in foreign jurisdictions. What might have been a cosy sinecure in the past is now cold and clinical. International arbitration is the prototypical competitive scene as Stockholm, Paris, New York, and London slug it out for disputes. Countries pass legislation according arbitral communities all kinds of rights in order to help them succeed. Creating competitive courts is a much harder process. Courts are creatures of government who must use tax monies to fund them when there are many other claims on those pounds, dollars and euros. But to consider them mere cost centres would fail on several levels. If the rule of law is central to society and the economy, no country should skimp on its courts and judges. England and Wales have long been in the vanguard of promoting British ...

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