Mary K Young will moderate a discussion regarding law firm industry team alignment transformations.  The panel will consider the process of realigning practice groups to focus less on “services” and more on industries – including related marketing reorientation

The panel will explore:

• What drives the move to an industry alignment?
• Challenges to getting buy-in from senior partners and practice group leaders.
• Metrics for success. How do you judge that an industry focus is actually working?
• The industry marketing mindset and how it supercharges the concept of cross-marketing.
• Considerations for reorienting and redeveloping marketing materials and focus to speak to target industries.

The session, sponsored by the LMA Mid-Atlantic Region, will be held on Zoom on May 12, 2022, at 12:00 pm EDT.

For more information and to register, visit Industry Team Transformation Insights.

Small and regional law firms are looking to mergers to ward off competition from larger rivals, as a new tie-up in Virginia shows. Woods Rogers and Vandeventer Black are merging to create a regional firm of 130 lawyers in five Virginia offices.

The merger reflects an uptick in interest in combinations after the Covid-19 pandemic slowed the pace of tie-ups. Kent Zimmermann notes that multiple Am Law 50 firms are talking to each other about merging, as are many Am Law 100 and 200 firms. “Our merger practice is busier than it’s been in 20 years by about four times,” Zimmermann said. “As a large group of firms have grown extensively and gotten more profitable, their historic peers don’t want to be left behind and want to hit the accelerator on growth.”

Law firm managing partners should take note: the Big Four are still a big threat. While the Big Four accounting firms seem perpetually mired in allegations of botched, biased or influenced audits, such accusations will do little to stop these firms from offering legal services and taking an increasingly larger slice of the pie from law firms. Law firm managing partners should take note. Mary K Young notes that because the Big Four and other accounting firms have strong, long-term relationships with many of the same clients that law firms are hoping to serve, the Big Four has opportunities to provide legal services simply by virtue of the fact they already have the relationships. She explains that law firms, in a bid to expand their service offerings, aim to deepen their relationships with the client by adding value. But the areas in which law firms are trying to add value often rub up against areas in which accounting and consulting firms excel.

Beard spent 38 years at Gibson Dunn, serving as chair from 1991 to 2001 and managing partner from 1991 to 1997.  He anticipated the current hyper-competitive law firm marketplace and he helped set Gibson Dunn on its trajectory to become one of the largest firms in the world. A corporate lawyer, he was known for his diversified practice and his global outlook. Upon stepping down from Gibson Dunn, he worked at Zeughauser Group as a consultant.  Peter Zeughauser describes him as the inspiration for the practice, noting that Beard was his first client. "He was a pioneer of client-facing activity and one of the first chairs to go out and do client service interviews."

Ronald S. Beard

February 13, 1940 - April 9, 2022

Law firm leaders are keen to compare their results to those of other firms, but that can be a challenge in a segmented market. Mobility-minded lawyers might pay extra attention to the profits per equity partner figures and start to wonder whether they could make more at another. Similarly, some law firm leaders are tempted to compare their metrics with those of other firms. Mary K Young observes that firms that aren’t keeping pace with a growing market will face significant consequences with talent, and the challenge for midsize law firms is to understand the markets and the source of competitive advantage.

Peter Zeughauser joins a panel in Corporate Counsel Business Journal's daily podcast, In House Warrior, to discuss Western investment and expansion in China. In this powerhouse interview, they discuss the state of the Chinese economy and the state of China-U.S. relations; state-owned enterprises; the Chinese government’s increasing investments in strategic industries; “Common Prosperity” to close the wealth gap; the impact of Covid on Chinese capital markets and much more.

Legal industry observers say law firms might be due for layoffs if demand for legal services doesn't keep pace in 2022. Many recruiters have said associate compensation is eclipsing the compensation of nonequity partners.  Sign-on bonuses, a staple of the current bidding war for talent, have begun to wane.  But Mary K Young points out that there really isn’t any reason why demand for legal services would fall off for any considerable amount of time, bringing the talent wars to an end. She noted that over the past few decades, there has been a significant increase in not only lawyer numbers generally, but also demand for legal services. “That’s the way this industry works, and it is a growing industry that is increasing in profitability.”

In a Q&A session, Kent Zimmermann discusses

• how different models of law firm partner compensation work and how each affects an attorney's approach to business development;
• potential issues or concerns with firms trending toward incentivizing business development via partner compensation; and
• how law firm marketing teams can leverage their knowledge about partner compensation models to help drive BD efforts.

With clear priorities for the firm, which lead to clear priorities for marketing and BD, it’s possible to build a high-performing team that knows what is expected and knows how to prioritize their time and money.

In this article, Peter Zeughauser reviews the growth of Big Law and outlines what may be expected in 2022, which looks to be another big year for those firms.  Size matters.  Large firms with high revenue, high margins, and high levels of profitability will likely continue to widen the chasm between themselves and the next tier.