Law Firms: From Small to Nuts

Score one for the little guy: Clients and mainstream media are noticing that mega firms might not just be the cure-all for the legal industry. E.g., Basha Rubin, Big Law, Big Problems: The Bright Future For Small Firms, Forbes.com (July 7, 2014 12:59 pm). Sure, there’s money, prestige, and comfort associated with hiring one: we can afford this, we mean business, I’m toast if we went with the smaller firm and it lost.  But there’s also a benefit to a client for choosing a smaller firm: probably lower fees, possibly more attentive service, fewer headache-inducing conflicts-of-interest issues.

There’s also benefit to the lawyer or support staff who opts for the small firm. Yes, there may well be less money, less prestige, and possibly less glamorous workspace.  But there may well be greater opportunity, more responsibility early on, exciting challenges on a daily basis, and a real sense of contribution to something being built. Is big firm v. small firm really such a tough decision?

—Lori Tripoli

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A Few Good Things about that “Churn, Baby, Churn” Firm

If I were queen at megafirm DLA Piper, I’m not sure I would boast about a film about fraudulent conduct made in-house on my home page, especially if it were titled At What Cost? But I don’t work at DLA Piper, let alone run the place, so I can’t really account for the firm’s tin ear here. Pundits are already wondering why the firm would ever pursue $700 grand in unpaid legal bills from a bankrupt client when there were damning emails in its own ether stating—explicitly—that the firm was in “standard ‘churn that bill,’ baby!” mode.  

Observers can’t help but be curious about why the firm would move forward in that pursuit even after the firm had been disqualified from representing the corporate client in its bankruptcy action thanks to a conflict of interest. That the firm would think that now’s a super-great time to mention that it won an award for making a training video about corruption involving management called At What Cost? is just beyond the beyond.

But let’s not pile on DLA Piper’s very bad week. A few good things about what is no doubt a basically very capable firm have emerged from the mess:

• Maybe no one really noticed that bit about the firm churning bills since it’s spring break/Easter week/Passover.
• The oft-boasted-about “firm collegiality” actually seems to exist at DLA Piper as evidenced by the string of emails from various lawyers supporting the churning guy (Hence, “Yeah Team Tim!”) and email rounds planning an outing after the firm ‘withdrew’ because of its conflict of interest (“Well,the Judge just fired us . . . . Drinks anyone?”).
• The training video looks like it might be pretty good. The teaser is on Youtube. Take a look! You might even leave a comment. Maybe DLA Piper will just dismiss it as another “inexcusable effort at humor.”

Even if DLA Piper recovers its fees, ya just gotta wonder, at what cost?

—Lori Tripoli