Last week Heller Ehrman dissolved. Mergers in the law firm world seem to be minimal, large businesses are failing as evidenced by the legislative scramble last week to jump start the commercial paper and credit markets.
I found this AmLaw Daily post quite interesting. It seems to bring to the forefront some practical advise that firms should heed to ensure their longevity. A few things that really captured my attention:
- “Bigger is not always better.” Client service is the meat of law firms. If you make your clients happy, you keep them. Adding more attorneys and increasing your costs to accommodate those additions is not for the client’s benefit, is it?
- “Lack of organizational glue.” In the comments field of this posting someone wrote in that firms attract talent. I think that in the boom times, firms, didn’t work hard enough to retain talent. As the economic strain filters down many levels of firm staffing will suffer including associates who are talented but now have no place due to the need to reduce costs. Easy to downsize groups of talent when a merger has/will occur in order to provide the best bottom-line to your suitor but is it best for your clients? Sometimes the bottom line is actually better served by the talent than the numbers.
The bottom line interpretation of this thought provoking piece is selling customers your value. Do you have experience, talent, added-value service that keeps the customer’s priorities as your ow
