Practice Management

Big Law that is.

The law firm of Wolf Block to be exact.

The partners voted to dissolve the 106-year-old law firm.  They claimed it was a combination of the recession on the firm?s core real estate practice, the constriction of credit and the anticipated departures of significant partners and practices.

I am sure all of that is true in a specific sense, but the truth of the matter, at least in my opinion, is that Big Law is dead.  Well, at least Big Law in the sense of grandiose salaries, overhead, physical structures and snobby self-righteousness.

It probably does not help much that Big Law is now turning to fixed fee arrangements to compete with clients.  The industry refers to them as decapitation fees and that is an apt description.  The risk of loss is transferred from the client to the law firm over many contingencies the law firm has no control.  This is especially true in single shot litigation.

But, these are competition issues.  The market is demanding it.  The problem are not so much what the market is demanding, it is the fixed cost of the infrastructure and appearances that these firm employ.  They do not mix because the market trend is really a reduction in cost.