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The recent Ark-group KM conference left me with a new thought on why law firms have rewarded hours to the exclusion of so many other worthwhile metrics. This new thought is a new dimension on the challenge. The old arguments stand, however, taken from another angle:
Partners think like workers, not owners.
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Without exception, whenever I have seen a General Counsel (GC) asked about law firm email newsletters, I have witnessed the exact same response: Immediate Anger. I witnessed this recently at the COLPM Futures Conference. When the email newsletter subject came up with a panel of GCs, the angry responses ran the gamut
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An article on a recent PWC survey of UK law firms caught my eye. So I dug into it. The title “Top 10 UK Firms Use Int’l Growth To Grab Huge Revenue Slice” gave me the impression these firms were doing well by growing in international markets. So the questions for me were:
Leading up to this final installment in our series – we have defined profitability for firms, described the four profit drivers and looked at how the market is pushing on all of this. In this post we take on how Legal KM can re-focus its efforts to help firms respond to all of this pressure.
The Hill
Having defined profitability and categorized the four drivers of profit for firms, in Part 4, we now turn to the market’s impact.
Why Does This All Matter?
Over the past five to ten years, there has been a significant shift in the economics of the legal market. Previously law firms were able to raise rates to increase
In Part 2 of this series we explored the impact of Rates and Realization on law firm profits. In Part 3 we look at the other two drivers: Productivity and Leverage.
The Profit Drivers:
Productivity (a.k.a. Utilization)
Productivity is the number of billed hours per timekeeper Most firms will have a benchmark productivity of 1800 or 1900 billable hours per
In Part 1 of this series, we introduced the concept of tying Legal KM (LKM) closer to a law firm’s bottom line We also introduced the concept of law firm profitability In Part 2 we explore the first 2 (of 4) profit drivers for firms: Rates and Realization
The Profit Drivers:
Rates
Although obvious, the point needs to be made. Billing Rates
For my role in the 2012 Ark-group KM Conference, I am talking about the economics of the practice of law to set the stage for how KM can better align itself with the bottom line. This series is from my materials for that conference. The first part describes the challenge for Legal KM and then moves to the economics – specifically talking
The week of October 22nd has a couple of excellent conference opportunities for the legal community. Both of these will have great content on adapting to change for the legal professions.
KM in the Legal Profession – Runs on the 24th and 25th in NY and is produced by the Ark-group.
Strangely, I will be
Jeff Brandt shared a great video in a recent Pinhawk newsletter. The video was produced by Riverview Law, an innovative provider of legal services.
The video, which I thoroughly enjoyed, is a conversation between lawyer and client about a fixed fee. As Riverview Law is based in the UK, so is the scenario. The