How to Thrive in the Diminishing World of the Legal Business

Opportunity is the word the keeps popping into my head as I read more and more discouraging pieces about the state of the legal field. (Some samples: Tom Huddleston Jr., Survey: Firm Leaders Admit Downturn’sPermanent Impact, AmLaw Daily, May 21, 2013 and Thomas S. Clay, 2013 LawFirms in Transition: An Altman Weil Flash Survey (2013).) Big clients don’t want to keep paying big dollars to big firms during a big recession/apocalypse/long-term decline. That makes sense. 

Some big firms can’t/won’t make the changes they need to remain competitive. That also makes sense. Try getting a speedy and good decision out of any large organization. It’s hard. No one wants to earn less than they previously did, or have fewer perqs, or diminish in stature. No one wants to make the unpopular decision, or be the ultimate fall-guy for a bad business choice. Cover-your-ass seems to be the modus operandi of far too many.

If big firms won’t make that change, someone else will. The solution seems quite simple: cut back and offer value. Clients aren’t buying the tasteful if bland art, the hushed hallways and soothingly lit corridors, the top-tier real estate and high-floor views. Big firms can rationalize these all they want. They can desperately cling to their turf even as it washes away beneath them. Charge clients less, pay lawyers and everyone else less, work fewer hours, and have a good life. How hard is this, really, to figure out?

—Lori Tripoli