Rob Millard discusses the economic trends in the UK and US legal services markets and how law firms can build resilience to future recessions
It is now more than six years since that fateful Monday in September 2008
on which Lehman Brothers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. For
many, that day marks the commencement
of the global financial crisis and, with it,
the most brutal recession since the 1930s.
For law firms across most developed markets, there has been an unprecedented level of change over the past six years. Deep cuts in the early days combined with systemic changes in the ways in which clients buy legal services have spawned
a new set of business models.
Law firms have become far more corporate. The laissez-faire approach that characterised many partnerships in the halcyon mid to la...
