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Firms, Clients Differ on Legal Industry's Forecast

By Robert J. Ambrogi

A survey of private-practice lawyers, corporate counsel and law students found widely divergent views on the state of the legal industry and the future of the law firm business model. Released Thursday during a panel discussion in New York City on the future of the law firm business model, the LexisNexis-commissioned survey (executive summary) found that 71 percent of corporate counsel say that law firms are not doing enough to respond to the current financial pressures on their business model. By contrast, 77 percent of private-practice lawyers believe that their clients are too focused on reducing costs, at the expense of quality and long-term results. Described as the first substantial survey of the legal industry since the beginning of the economic crisis, the survey polled 300 law firm lawyers, 150 in-house counsel and 100 law students. Their responses suggest perspectives on the crisis differ significantly based upon one's vantage point. Nearly half of in-house counsel, for example, say they have requested rate cuts from their outside firms. Yet just 18 percent of private-practice lawyers say their firms have implemented such cuts. Only 38 percent of in-house counsel believe that law firms are hearing their plight and responding by cutting fees...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on December 08, 2009 (boomark / email).