Law firms need to pay closer attention to risk management, says Frank Maher, a partner at Legal Risk
By Frank Maher, Partner, Legal Risk
The recent collapse of top-50 UK firm Halliwells puts risk management firmly at the top of the agenda for law firms. In the past, professionals feared a wipe-out from cataclysmic claims, but that almost never happened in practice.
A long list of US law firm collapses – Altheimer & Gray, Coudert Brothers, Heller Ehrman and Thelen Reid & Priest – arose from business failure. Only Jenkins & Gilchrist’s failure arose from client work – aggressive tax shelter schemes which were challenged by the US tax authorities.
While much comment has focused on Halliwells’ prop...
