Law Firms Face New World Order in Communications

The trend of law firms moving away from the mass hiring of fresh law school grads is surely sending a chill through Boston’s law schools. The “why” isn't particularly hard to figure out. As The American Lawyer reports, the recession is dramatically reshaping the legal practice business model.

The outcome is that clients just don't want to pay junior lawyers the rates some now charge for more seasoned litigators. See if this quote in this week’s Boston Business Journal from Walter G.D. Reed, managing partner at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, doesn't get your head nodding: "One thing I hear over and over again (from clients) is that they are not willing to pay the kinds of hourly rates for young associates that they used to."

That is a pattern we are seeing throughout the marketplace and it will mean systemic changes in the way law firms, and many other professional service industries, model themselves.

If clients, and prospective clients, aren't willing to throw millions at the latest batch of Harvard Law grads, firms need to reposition what it is they are showing clients and prospective clients. That means showing them in tangible, qualitative ways the benefit of that experience. Clients are willing to pay for talent, even in this economy. But first they need to see it, and hear what it can do specifically for them.

As The AmDaily Law recently described it, the new normal is all about quality. So what can law firms do in what looks like a “buyer’s market” for years to come?

Show off the big guns more and more. On the big cases, the senior litigators need to be thinking prospects and show future clients the depth and breadth of the work being done at your firm right now.

Own your practice area. If clients aren't willing to pay big bucks for young litigators, you can be sure they won't pay it for generalists too. Stress your differentiators – through thought leadership, op-eds, well-placed stories on those topic areas.

Don't let social media scare you - entirely. It's free; it's not as time-consuming as you think; and, it has infiltrated everything and everyone you consider important. There are ways for firms to convert their tremendous intellectual capital into meaningful, modern communications. That means their in-house or outside communications help has to drive it and convince senior partners, who have good reason to be cautious, that it is the right move. Hundreds of millions are listening.