Zeughauser Group's 2021 Pocket Guide to the American Lawyer Rankings of the Am Law 200 by Profits Per Equity Partner and by Value Per Lawyer; The A-List; The Global 100; The Global 200; The China 50; The Asia 50; and The Corporate Scorecard.

If you would like a hard copy of the 2021 ZGuide, please send an email to zgadmin@consultzg.com with "2021 ZGuide Request" in the subject line and provide your mailing address.

Many firms are requiring their personnel to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but they can't ask the same of clients. Meeting with unvaccinated clients is especially a concern for lawyers with young children. Reduced travel is likely to mitigate the need for a firm policy on travel to client sites. Mary K Young comments that in many parts of the country, it likely won’t be an issue. In most major cities, like New York, Chicago and San Francisco, law firms are requiring vaccinations and in those places, their clients probably will be doing the same.  There are certain cities in the southern United States where they never really closed down and pretended the virus doesn’t exist. Those could be problematic.  Young says the likely outcome is a continuation of low travel policies most firms now have in place.

Some law firms are now hesitant  to even impose a definite office return date, while more vaccine mandates are appearing among Sunbelt-based law firms.  Mary K Young observes that these firms are national firms and global firms. They have to be thinking not only about their Southern offices but all their offices.

After the once-in-a-century inflection point of a global pandemic, the legal industry – and all of corporate America – faces another major transition as COVID-19 fades and the “new normal” sets in.  With offices reopening across the country, what lessons will the legal industry retain from the pandemic and what trends from the last 15 months will remain? Just as significantly, what will be the lasting legacy of a national racial reckoning that largely coincided with the worst global health crisis in generations?

These questions were the focus of a distinguished panel of current and former general counsel held on June 8, 2021. The remote gathering was moderated by John Corey, president & founding partner of Greentarget, and Mary K. Young.  And Alex Dimitrief participated as one of the panelists.  This article highlights some of the conversation.

Digital client communications soared during the pandemic. Building on a recent survey by Greentarget, Right Hat and Zeughauser Group, moderators John Corey and Mary K Young will ask a panel of three former and current in-house leaders, including Zeughauser Group partner Alex Dimitrief, to discuss the pros and cons of different approaches. They will tell us what breaks through the clutter and what they ignore, what they look for in law firm content and how they prefer it to be presented.

June 8 at 11:00 AM Eastern time

Register for the panel discussion at LMA In-House Counsel Program

In contrast to the yearslong trend of law firm mergers, Ohio-based Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff has chosen to pursue a growth strategy focused on aggressively recruiting laterals, making more than 70 such hires since the start of 2019 in an approach observers call both impressive and risky.  Benesch has every intention to continue growing — and to do so without mergers. Industry experts said the firm's results so far are impressive and promising, but that the strategy is not without potential downsides. Peter Zeughauser observes that for a firm of Benesch's size, it's striking to see 70 laterals in two years.

Not all litigators are trusted boardroom advisors. By all accounts, Sidley Austin’s incoming management committee chair, Yvette Ostolaza, is both. Kent Zimmermann describes Ostolaza as a crossover success who is an excellent trial lawyer, but is also respected by business people and partners across practices. He defines the current best practice in law firm leadership succession planning as a two-step process: (1) depersonalize the process so that you’re looking at the attributes that a candidate would need to be successful in the role, and (2) determine to what extent partners in the firm who might be willing to take on the role have those necessary attributes.

Staff roles, and perhaps some underproductive partners, will be scrutinized as firms consider their new normal.   Even as many firms found themselves busy with legal work amid the pandemic, several acknowledged significant layoffs, driven by outsourcing and other changes within the foundation of the law firm business model.  Mary K Young observes that people are getting by without a legal assistant, or what used to be called secretaries, outside their door. They don’t need them as much, and they don’t need receptionists.

Complacency and the assumption that what is working now will always work can put a darker tint on a successful financial year for law firms.  What worked last year isn’t guaranteed to work this year, and relying on that principle could in fact have a detrimental effect on success down the road.  Mary K. Young observes that a small number of firms tend to move forward in a halting fashion, taking two steps forward and then one step back. But she believes that most firms recognize that being static after success isn’t the way to replicate it moving forward.  It isn’t so much that firms have a great year and then rest on their laurels. The firm could have had a major litigation matter settle and have comparatively lower numbers the next year.