US News Joins Law Firm Rank-O-Rama
January 29, 2010 | Filed Under Legal Ratings
US News & World Report gave an update yesterday about its plans to rate law firms in the United States. It is partnering with Best Lawyers to rank 5,000+ law firms in 125 legal practice areas across national, state, and metropolitan groups.
They claim over 50,000 references have been gathered from a large swath of the industry:
Lawyers, clients, marketing officers, recruiting officers, associates, and summer associates are being surveyed. In firms without marketing or recruiting officers, lawyers will be asked to provide the information asked of marketing and recruiting officers. The overall national rankings, including the highest ranking firms by practice area nationwide and the highest ranking firms in each state, will appear in U.S. News’s October edition.
Two thoughts:
1. I know US News heard a lot from deans about their law school rankings. I wonder how managing partners will react to this new legal yardstick?
2. With yet another ranking thrown into the mix, does it make it any easier for clients to find the right lawyer at a good firm for a fair price in a timely manner?
The Apple iPad: Six Lessons for Lawyers
January 28, 2010 | Filed Under Law 2.0, Technology, New Services
Apple announced yesterday its new tablet Internet device, the iPad, creating a new category between a laptop and a smartphone.
Since I haven’t touched it, and it won’t be on sale for 60 days, here are a few early lessons for lawyers from 30,000 feet:
1. Fast is the new currency. From those who have used the iPad, its first and most enduring impression is quickly it works for the user. Once people see this, they will never want to go back to old and slow.
====>Lawyers will need speed as alternative billing gains traction.
2. You must control your strategic strengths. Apple designs (and wraps tightly into IP) everything that makes products different and better for the user. They may let others manufacture, but only a few trusted vendors to ensure quality (and competition).
====>Outsourcing and convergence are tactics, not strategies.
3. Focus on a few key things and hit them hard. As Apple’s COO Tim Cook said last year “We believe in the simple, not the complex. We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution.”
====>Does “full service firm” sound distinctive or average?
4. You must present well. Steve Jobs and crew were in great form (full event here; you can get the essence by watching the first 10 mintues and then skipping ahead to the 1:29:00 mark, where there’s about 5 minutes left). One can only imagine how many hours of prep went into 90 minutes of presenting.
====>We are practicing law in a multimedia age.
5. Price matters. Mr. Jobs summed up the iPad: the “Most advanced technology, in a magical and revolutionary device, at an unbelievable price.” He isn’t just driving value from the features, his index also has cost at its core (and an iPad base price of $499).
====>Do you charge less than an iPad?
6. Liberal Arts was worth it. What caught my eye at the end of the presentation was the second-to-last-slide (below), accompanied by these words: “We’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts. To be able to get the best of both, to make extremely advanced products from a technology point of view, but also have them be intuitive, easy to use, fun to use… It’s the combination of these two things…that let us make great products like the iPad.”
====>Lawyers might just be due for a Renaissance.
The Apple Tablet and the Law
January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Content, Law 2.0, Technology
Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs will likely announce a new device in about an hour, something between a MacBook and an iPhone.
What is less clear, but probably more interesting, is what comes with this new tech tool. The press invite was suitably cryptic, with the graphic below and the phrase, “Come see our latest creation…” If iTunes and the App Store was what made the iPod and iPhone unique, what new media platform will accompany the iPad or iSlate (or whatever it’s called…)? You know Apple will deliver a great piece of technology.
If there’s something new on the content creation side, something that makes text, audio and video easier to make, modify and market, it could be worth a second look for lawyers.
But not for just for getting noticed by clients; it might be something very timely for the brave new alternative billing world. More tomorrow…
(Update: It’s the iPad!)
(Photo: NY Times)
Legal Recovery Watch: the Real Unknown
January 22, 2010 | Filed Under Legal Deflation, Law Firm Trends
There are glimmers of hope in the legal industry. And perhaps just a scintilla of wishful thinking.
The WSJ Law Blog story cites a new report from the Citi Private Bank Firm Group. It is their 4Q09 “Managing Partner Confidence Index,” and it shows an uptick in that metric, the strongest move in over 2 years.
The WSJ rightly expresses some skepticism as to whether things are really turning around, noting macroecomic factors, and concludes thusly:
One big looming unknown for managing partners, according to the report, is whether a step-up in demand will lead to a corresponding step-up in revenue. The reason why one might not perfectly track the other, reads the report: “The difference is probably due to continued discounting pressure from clients. For many law firms, the road to recovery looks to be a long one.”
Understanding this point requires a closer look at the report, specifically the Demand indicator (bottom of page 1) of the overall index. It is up, with the explanation that:
“Nearly two in three respondents (64%) expect demand to grow over the next 12 months; 23% think it will stay flat.”
While the managing partners, profit hawks that they are, understandably focus on (hope for?) an end to discounting, I think this view of demand is the key. Two-thirds of managing partners surveyed buy into the assumption that a rebound in the economy will result in a commensurate rebound in a demand for legal services.
I think that this assumption is partially true, but misses the work going on in aggressive legal departments to attack demand (i.e. the ongoing need for legal services), who satisfies that reduced demand, as well as the pricing thereof. This requires a deep dive, a real microeconomic view of corporate legal services.
Over the last 12-18 month the focus has been doing the same things cheaper. That’s called a good start.
The next frontier for legal pioneers involves long-term savings. It may be called doing some things less, others not at all.
I don’t know how you factor this into a “Managing Partner Confidence Index,” but something tells me it’s not an easy fit.
(Update: The Legal Intelligencer has a look at this report as well).
Venezuela: the Return of Expropriation
January 20, 2010 | Filed Under Risk, International
There is news that the government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has taken control of the French-owned Exito chain of supermarkets, allegedly for price gouging after a currency devaluation. The Commerce minister, Eduaro Saman, gave a terse explanation that should have in-house counsel looking closely at their facilities maps through risk-colored glasses:
“Starting today, this company becomes a socialist company,” Saman said while surrounded by Exito employees who support the expropriation.
Some more background from the WSJ is available here; not all the store’s workers are cheering the new owners.
There’s a good overview on expropriation from the OECD; I also found a short paper entitled “Expropriation, Nationalisation and Risk Management” by Scot Anderson of the Davis Graham and Stubbs law firm.
Many years ago while still in private practice, I worked on a small part of the insurance coverage dispute related to expropriation of offshore oil facilities in South America. It would have made a good bar exam question; it was definitely a great piece of work for the law firms involved.
In the meantime, there’s a new face on international business development:
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