The law firm of the future.

AuthorRubenstein, Norm

If, like me, you prefer your glass at least half-full, it is tempting to look for some hidden benefit in the current downturn--some lesson that will help us plan effectively for the future and, along the way, weather future recessions. Indeed, it's not only death and taxes we now take for granted, it's the inevitability of economic cyclicality. But what is less certain is what the legal profession will look like a decade from now. Can we say with complete confidence which effects of the current downturn will prove transitory and which will prove transformational? No, the Psychic Friends Network is long gone.

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For many law firms, focusing on the exigencies of the last two years has left little time for contemplating the distant future. Those that have risen above the daily challenge of balancing workflow and workforce long enough to plan for the recovery likely have used the same two-to-three-year planning horizon of traditional strategic planning. But rethinking the law firm of 2020? Not so much. So when the editors of Strategies offered the opportunity to prognosticate about what the legal profession might look like in another decade, I jumped at the chance to contemplate a marketplace at greater remove.

There Is Good News Ahead

Why would I agree to play "seer for a day" when the Internet creates a permanent audit trail? One reason is that I've already surfeited on the incessant crepe-hanging that characterizes discussions of the downturn and its long-term effects. About now, we all could use a reminder that there are probable industry futures in which we both improve the law firm business model and realize much of its untapped potential. So, while a fair number of industry pundits predict the imminent death of Big Law, among other tectonic plate shifting, I can't help but feel that the Godzilla-like scenario they forecast--a world in which in-house counsel run amok exacting revenge on law firms for their years of double-digit growth--is nothing more than science fiction disguised as scenario planning.

I was coming to this conclusion on my own when recently I had the opportunity to moderate a panel of law firm chairs presenting to an audience of experienced CMOs. Predictably, I asked all four how the downturn was affecting their firms. A common theme emerged: Following conventional wisdom, all had built countercyclical practices hoping that litigation would save the day when deal flow faltered, and vice versa. But during this recession, litigation has not been performing as reliably as they had hoped, at least not across the board, and all were grappling with how they could maintain their competitive edge in a marketplace where the old rules don't necessarily apply.

Hearing their challenges--from forecasting demand to sustaining a scalable workforce to solidifying key client relationships to maintaining culture and collegiality--their equanimity and their enthusiasm was striking. For them, the issue post-recession is not how to survive, but how to thrive. And what began to take shape was a vision of the legal profession 10 years hence--a vision in which savvy law firms, having embraced dramatic structural and...

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