Of Course Big Law Can Raise Rates 7% to 8% - Remembering Ernestine the Operator


 Bloomberg Law, January 19, 2023

That's how billing looks for Big Law for 2023. 

Sure, some clients might balk a little and shop around for pricing at midsized firms. 

But, face it and Big Law knows this: With a high-stakes problem, powerful people and institutions are totally aware that those large top law firms deliver. That reality is embedded in their networks which refer speicific stars at law firms to them. 

Nonono, they don't pore over the websites for evidence of excellence. Websites are mere window dressing. I learned that the hard way. I had pitched to a major firm how I could make the old-line tone and content more engaging. The marketing guy didn't seem to care. I wonder if he had been smirking. You know the rest. The humiliation continues to give me anxiety attacks.

Let's look at how the law firm game gets played regularly. For instance, it did take Jones Day years to get Sherwin-Williams off the hook for allegedly creating a public nuisance in Rhode Island through manufacturing and marketing lead paint. But that it did. The lead lawyer had been Mickey Pohl. He prevented public nuisance complaints from going to trial in other states. The only time that didn't pan out was in California. But many expected such a non-win. Overall Jones Day did an amazing job. Many predicted lead paint would be the next tobacco. That didn't happen, did it.

So, the joke about Big Law could be that its messaging echoes that Ernestine the Operator skit. She declares The Telephone Company can do anything it wants. You bet, lower your expectations about whatever. 

At the time The Telphone Company was AT&T. It had monopoly power. Then it didn't. The Ernestine ethos gave way to customer service. More recently came the decentralized dynamics of the smartphone.

Admittedly clients ponying up the bucks to Big Law are demanding. Read all about that on Professional Anonymous Networks like Reddit Big Law and Fishbowl Big Law. Not just associates get blasted by irate clients. So do partners. 

Forever there have been predictions that law firms providing lower rates and innovative approaches to billing will eat Big Law's lunch and dinner. That will probably never happen. The institution has too good a thing going for it and it has down cold how to maintain the mystique and the wins. Eventually Jones Day got the whole RI lawsuit tossed. Yes, it went poof. 

I make clear to my coaching clients that some institutions, unlike  AT&T, can't be brought down. Journalist David Enrich tried to do that to Big Law with his September 2022 expose "Servants of the Damned." The Big Law firms are still standing. His main target Jones Day is probably rolling its eyes. 

Smart intuitive career and communications coaching, including using the tarot. Try it, with a five-minute complimentary session. Totally confidential. Then fees customized for your unique budget.

Please make an appointment with janegenova374@gmail.com

 

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