By Jordan Furlong, Canadian Bar Association – September 2010
Excerpt
For decades, the traditional law firm business model has been a masterpiece of profitability, built on time-based billing, open-ended pricing and lawyers regularly reinventing the wheel.
But the model today is showing signs of strain as firms grapple to varying degrees with strategic stagnation, lawyer attrition and pricing pressures from clients. More and more industry watchers are warning that routine or repeatable elements of lawyers’ offerings — not the backbone of all practices, but of many — are about to suffer a steep decline in profitability. What’s more, shared risk, predictable prices, systemic efficiencies, alignment with client interests — these are what clients are asking for.
Read the full article in PDF