Can Good Emerge From The Pressure To Generate Revenue?
I received an email from Inside Counsel today announcing the July edition (which I received and wrote about yesterday). I don't know if I missed this when I read the magazine, but the email contained this great quote:
“When I talk to law firms, I have one hand on my wallet,”
says William B. Solomon Jr., general counsel of GMAC. “With the pressure on firms to increase revenues, they don’t care very much about cost effectiveness.”
In my own hometown, Winston, Mayer Brown and Jenner all have announced outright dismissals or de-equitization of scores of partners. Is there anyone who debates that this reflects an extraordinary amount of pressure to increase revenues? But the truth may be wholly irrelevant. So long as clients believe it to be true, they will act as if it is.
We know that great pressure can create things of great value, however. Much has been written of late of the growing opportunities for what my friend Dan Hull refers to as "muscle boutiques." But the fact is that these same difficult times create heroic opportunities for any big firm bold enough to adapt to the changed times. But, alas, there is no evidence yet of any large firm having so bold a vision.