Yingke, China’s second-largest firm by lawyer headcount, is continuing its aggressive growth plans with the launch of offices in Poland and Turkey, according to The Lawyer‘s Vanessa Wozniak. Read article
“Einkaufsabteilungen waren vor Kurzem den meisten Unternehmensjuristen noch ein Gräuel. Von der Rechtsberatung verstünden sie nichts, deshalb sollten sie sich heraushalten. Doch viele Syndizi haben nicht länger die Wahl – und erkennen, wie fruchtbar die Zusammenarbeit ist. Kanzleien müssen umdenken, wenn sie im Geschäft bleiben wollen,” sagt Volker Votsmeier. JUVE Artikel “Gemeinsam stark” lesen mit meinem Interview “Wir stehen am Anfang eines Umbruchs”.
“Hill Dickinson and Kennedys have become the latest top 50 law firms to confirm plans to convert to an alternative business structure (ABS), as growing numbers of firms gear up for the ‘Tesco Law’ revolution,” according to Legal Week’s Sofia Lind.
ABSs – a timeline
Nov 2006: Government unveils Legal Services Bill
2010: The Legal Services Board outlines timetable for ABSs to be running by Oct 2011
Feb-Mar 2011: Irwin Mitchell and Co-operative announce ABS conversion plans
Oct 6, 2011: Legal Services Act 2007 is implemented
Dec 23, 2011: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) gains licensing authority status
Jan 3, 2012: SRA begins to accept ABS licence applications
Jan 19, 2012: SRA confirms it has received 65 applications
Late Feb 2012: SRA aims to hand out first ABS licenses
$30 per hour – do you outsource to India or to West Virginia? “Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) firms face the most challenging year in the industry’s short history as the traditional LPO model comes under threat from technology, formidable new competitors and rising wages in emerging markets,” say a Fronterion report on LPOs.
Read report
Are you still focusing on in-house lawyers only? Our research shows that you should put procurement on the top of your priorities list for 2012. Read my article in the January issue of the ABA’s Law Practice Today
Imagine this: “A global business is managed by part-time leaders with minimal business training. The business offers different products to different customers depending on the varying skills and interests of the local service providers, who also serve as the salespeople, project managers and product managers. Pricing is customized to each transaction and rarely follows a cohesive strategy, save for the fiat that prices must increase each year. Marketing consists of promoting the business’s capabilities, which are presented as vast and unparalleled. Customer demand has been a constant for as long as anyone can remember. The challenge: Customer demand shifts overnight from a constant to a variable, with immense competition for declining customer budgets. What should the leaders do first to ensure the survival of the business?” Crazy, isn’t it? And so close to home. Read Tim Corcoran’s article in Law Practice Today
What do lawyers and bankers have in common? They lost jobs in 2011. Different from accountants and computer system designers, law graduates lack technical or quantitative skills to go into faster growing fields, says Jordan Weissmann. And with the legal profession becoming increasingly data-driven, quantitative skills are needed more than ever. Read the Atlantic article
Imagine what law (school) could/should be – innovative legal education & practice. Check out LawWithoutWalls
What is the “real” rate clients pay? Check out the app “Rate Driver” by TyMetrix. The “world’s only data-driven estimator for U.S. lawyer rates” is based on real billing data ($10 billion in legal invoices) and tells you how much clients really pay for legal services. Sort by metro area, practice area, firm size, partner-associate, and years of experience.
In Corporate Counsel’s Law Department Metrics Benchmarking Survey, 60% believe that the current economic crisis and its impact on the legal profession will have fundamental, lasting results on the way legal services are delivered in the U.S. What does your firm do?