Law firms don’t appear to be outperforming other businesses on this metric.
While some law firms have reported strong financial results over the last several years, others have struggled to the point of instability. For many leaders we speak to, the most startling feature of these recent declines is how rapidly they seem to come about.
Back in 2008, we and other industry observers predicted that alternative fee arrangements would accelerate as the legal market dealt with decreased demand and price sensitivity brought on by the recession. We were only half right.
There is a fascinating irony about partnerships. While the notion of partnership is founded on the concept of shared interests, many firms undermine these interests with a laser-like focus on short-term results in the form of maximizing profits per partner.
Partnership, or an equivalent, is the predominant form of organization for law firms large and small. It is a structure that made sense when even the largest firms were under 200 lawyers and were primarily single office operations.