Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Six Months from Failure?
An article posted today in the Law Society Gazette suggests that as many as 5,000 small English law firms and solo practices could be forced out of business within the next six months. Most of these firms are retail firms, or "high street" firms, that primarily serve individual clients and small businesses in relatively small matters, such as real estate conveyancing.
The problem is cash flow.
Diversity: An Overlooked Asset in Law Firms
An article in the on-line edition of The Lawyer on 1 April 2014 paints a disappointing picture of the extent to which women have been able to move up into the senior ranks of partners at leading U.S. law firms in London.
Although the reasons for this poor showing vary from firm to firm, the bottom line is that these firms — like so many others in the United States and elsewhere — continue to ignore the importance of diversity to the business success of their organizations, and a few apparent antediluvians in the legal profession continue to dismiss diversity as irrelevant.
Internal Globalization
An article in today's on-line edition of The Lawyer reports that Anglo-Australian firm Herbert Smith Freehills has started a pilot project by which its dispute resolution work in Australia, especially in the area of document review, is supported by its team in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The project is expected to finish in April 2014, at which time the firm will evaluate the results.
This "internal globalization" of support functions is an option that many multi-office law firms overlook or dismiss as too hard.
“…not to name, shame, or embarrass…”
According to an article in today's on-line edition of The Lawyer, a 56-lawyer English law firm, Munday's, has introduced a "mystery shopper" scheme to test their own client service functions.
New Blood for Zombie Law Firms
There is an old saying among law firm managers: "Even the best-managed law firm is only 90 days from bankruptcy."
This is because most law firms traditionally have been woefully under-capitalized. To some extent, some of these firms are already financial zombies. They survive due to good luck, deft financial management, and the persistence of partners — none of which can sustain them indefinitely.
