A Legal Week Big Question survey found that "94% of respondents believe commercial lawyers have some level of image problem within the business community,"

[converted from legalese to english* "solicitors make crap businessmen".]

Aparrently Bill Knight, president of the City of London Law Society, told Legal Week that partners’ skills should be recognised outside the law. He said: “If you look at the likes of the managing partners of Linklaters and Freshfields [Bruckhaus Deringer], they are in charge of sizeable international businesses — that makes them astute businessmen, not just lawyers.”,

But

One senior finance partner at a US law firm said: “Lawyers do not make good managers — it is quite unsuitable for lawyers to move into business.”

And someone less subtle stated:

“Most lawyers wouldn’t know ‘commercial’ if it hit them between the eyes. There’s still far too much point-scoring, time wasting and a lack of understanding of the real commercial drivers underlying most commercial transactions. In part the approach is driven by the focus on time recording rather than value-based billing.”

Are you a budding entrepreneur disguised as a lawyer? Should you just forget such lofty aspirations or is this just generalisation?

*solicitr legalese converter

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