As we can see from search trends, AFAs spiked dramatically in 2008 and have remained high. When Law Technology News Editor-in-Chief Monica Bay took the stage at ILTA to run a Q&A following Tuesday’s key note presentation she made a reference to alternative fee arrangements: She’s been forecasting the rise of AFAs for 15 years and while AFAs are certainly ... Read More »
Large Law
7 Amazing Statistics for Law Firm Business Development
Sizing up the legal market, from a law firm business development perspective. The graphic nearby puts the legal market into one powerful perspective: customer relationships matter. Consider the following statistics: 1. Buyer’s market. 33 percent of clients have dropped at least one law firm in the last year, or the average in-house counsel terminates two long-term firms every year. 2. ... Read More »
Five Quick Takes from the Survey of Law Firm Economics
After a week of stories about “big law is dying” the continuation of that news angle was somewhat blunted today with the announcement of the 2013 Survey of Law Firm Economics, which was first published in 1972. The study, conducted jointly by ALM and The National Law Journal, is a survey of 2012 economic figures and “contains information about nearly 10,000 lawyers from 159 U.S. law firms,” ... Read More »
Second Hundred Lateral Moves is a Wake Up Call for CRM
The Am Law 200 has reportedly increased headcount and at the expense of the top tier law firms. Headcount was up 885 or about a 3% increase, versus a 0.8% increase in top tier firms. There’s a business case for lateral hires: often they come with a book of clients. Under the current economic conditions, law firms have had two broad approaches for ... Read More »
Seven Essential AFA Articles Every Lawyer Should Read
So much of the conversation on alternative fee agreements (AFAs) only serves to stir confusion rather than clear it up. From a business perspective, AFAs are nothing more than a pricing strategy, something both companies that provide products and services experiment with all the time. Think about it in the context of department stores: who is the target market and ... Read More »
5 Timeless Law Firm CRM Lessons from 2008
Although the modern personalization of search results means different people will see different results, there’s a good chance if you search for the phrase “CRM for law firms,” many of us will see the same top organic or natural search results. The top organic result for this term is likely to be a timeless article from the ABA’s Law Practice Magazine titled, Is ... Read More »