http://myshingle.com/2006/10/articles/solo-practice-trends/small-firms-drawing-big-attention-from-big-clients/ Great Things Come in Small [Law] Practices! Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:09:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://myshingle.com/2006/10/articles/solo-practice-trends/small-firms-drawing-big-attention-from-big-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-2225 China Law Blog Mon, 16 Oct 2006 08:07:12 +0000 http://174.120.83.8/~sh1ngl3/2006/10/articles/uncategorized/small-firms-drawing-big-attention-from-big-clients/#comment-2225 To quote Seth Godin, "small is the new big." Since I started practicing law in 1984, all of the experts were saying that law firms either needed to be big or small as the medium would die. What I find so interesting now is that what used to be considered large are now considered medium and those "large/medium" firms are now looking to merge. For example, in my city of Seattle, I always looked at Preston Gates and Ellis (law firm to Microsoft and Starbucks) as a large firm. But now that they are merging with Kilpatrick Lockhart, the reasons I am hearing from my friends over at Preston is that they wanted to do this to get bigger to compete better nationally and internationally. Seems that as law becomes more international, the large regional firms are the prime merger bait. 350 lawyers isn't large any more, it's regional. 2,000 is large. As this firms get bigger and bigger, the quality of the bottom feeding (sorry Dan Hull) will only increase. A small firm like mine would be delighted to get even 5% of the work spun off from the Preston-Kilpatrick merger due to conflicts. Not to mention the SMEs who are going to find that they are no longer interested in competing with the huge MNCs for face time with their lawyer. Sorry for getting so off topic on you, but I find this whole thing fascinating. To quote Seth Godin, “small is the new big.”
Since I started practicing law in 1984, all of the experts were saying that law firms either needed to be big or small as the medium would die. What I find so interesting now is that what used to be considered large are now considered medium and those “large/medium” firms are now looking to merge. For example, in my city of Seattle, I always looked at Preston Gates and Ellis (law firm to Microsoft and Starbucks) as a large firm. But now that they are merging with Kilpatrick Lockhart, the reasons I am hearing from my friends over at Preston is that they wanted to do this to get bigger to compete better nationally and internationally.
Seems that as law becomes more international, the large regional firms are the prime merger bait. 350 lawyers isn’t large any more, it’s regional. 2,000 is large.
As this firms get bigger and bigger, the quality of the bottom feeding (sorry Dan Hull) will only increase. A small firm like mine would be delighted to get even 5% of the work spun off from the Preston-Kilpatrick merger due to conflicts. Not to mention the SMEs who are going to find that they are no longer interested in competing with the huge MNCs for face time with their lawyer.
Sorry for getting so off topic on you, but I find this whole thing fascinating.

]]> http://myshingle.com/2006/10/articles/solo-practice-trends/small-firms-drawing-big-attention-from-big-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-2224 Justin Patten Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:11:53 +0000 http://174.120.83.8/~sh1ngl3/2006/10/articles/uncategorized/small-firms-drawing-big-attention-from-big-clients/#comment-2224 Carolyn, As you say what is underpinning this are the new technologies which act as a huge leveller. It is the manifestation of the principles of Thomas Friedman's book "The World Is Flat." Best wishes, Justin Carolyn, As you say what is underpinning this are the new technologies which act as a huge leveller. It is the manifestation of the principles of Thomas Friedman’s book “The World Is Flat.”
Best wishes,
Justin

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