Introduction

• Author: Randall Kiser
• Profession: International authority on attorney and law firm performance
• Pages: 1-12

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Introduction

Law rms fulll privileged, yet vital, roles in American society. ey

simultaneously protect the resources, reputations, and prerogatives

of the nation’s leading corporations, businesses, and families; sup-

ply many of the political leaders serving in state and national gov-

ernments; manage about 500,000 partners and associate attorneys;

and eectuate a massive transfer of assets from clients to law rms

in payment of legal fees.1 Although law rms serve as protectors of

established wealth, status, and power, they also dedicate millions

of attorney hours every year to pro bono representation of indigent

and historically underserved populations. Many law rm attorneys,

moreover, act as another conscience for their clients, and their eth-

ical duty to exercise independent judgment generally has height-

ened the quality of clients’ decision making and the integrity of

commercial conduct. e pivotal role of law rms, however, is now

challenged by a series of economic dislocations and strategic errors

that have disturbed, destabilized, and weakened law rms. ose

dislocations and errors—and methods of recovering from them—

are the subject of this book.

Law rms are remarkably protable but surprisingly fragile. eir

prot margins vastly exceed those of Fortune 100 corporations,

1 e estimate of 500,000 attorneys in law rms is based on the American Bar

Association National Lawyer Population Survey, Historical Trend in Total

National Lawyer Population, 1878–2018, and the American Bar Association

Lawyer Demographics Year 2016 data regarding practice setting and private

practitioners.

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