Law Firms Fold on Their Royal Flush
John Bowie, LawFuel publisher
When your mid-size firm is dropping 11 percent on office space where associates strategically hide from partner eye contact, but can’t spare 1 percent for legal publishing, perhaps it’s time to reconsider your budget priorities?
That’s the free management advice law firms might need after Clio’s latest Legal Trends Report exposed where those hard-earned billables actually disappear1.
The financial breakdown reads like a predictable legal thriller: 28 percent to staff salaries, a whopping 41 percent to “other expenses” (the budgetary equivalent of redacted discovery), 5 percent to marketing, and a measly 2 percent to software.
Yet mysteriously absent from this fiscal feast is any dedicated line item for legal publishing—you know, that activity that actually advances the law while building your attorneys’ professional reputations.
Remember law school? Those halcyon days when bright-eyed future lawyers believed their writing might someday influence legal discourse before billable requirements transformed promising scholars into time-tracking machines? Your associates certainly do.
While firms obsess over marketing budgets, they’re missing the chance to nurture intellectual growth through publishing platforms that amplify their lawyers’ actual legal thoughts—not just their airbrushed headshots on firm websites.
Firms invest fortunes recruiting talent only to squander it on work that leaves no permanent intellectual legacy.
But allocating less than 1 percent to proper legal publishing could yield returns more satisfying than finding a favorable precedent in opposing counsel’s brief.
For firms looking to punch above their weight class, the message is clear: legal publishing isn’t a miscellaneous expense—it’s the royal flush your firm has been folding on for years.
If you’re interresting in contributing quality thoughts and content about your own legal publishing experiences, then LawFuel is all ears. Send us your thoughts – or your content. We’d love to hear . . and publish.
Interesting to see how even the biggest law firms can face tough times. Was it more about internal management issues, or shifts in the legal market as a whole? Would love to hear others’ thoughts on this.
The article makes a compelling case, but isn’t it too simplistic to attribute law firm failures to a single cause? Market dynamics, regulatory changes, and client demands all play a role.
Totally get your point, Devon. Do you think there’s a way firms can better adapt to these changes? It seems like agility is a key factor they’re missing.
Ah, another day, another law firm collapse. Wonder if they tried turning it off and back on again. Seriously though, how many of these firms actually learn from their past mistakes?
Every time a firm falls, it’s like a mini soap opera. But let’s be real, the only ones who truly suffer are the clients and lower-level employees. The big shots? They just move on to the next.
While the article paints a grim picture, I think it’s a wake-up call for the industry. It’s the perfect time for innovation and for young lawyers to bring in new ideas. Exciting times ahead!