It seems that the global economic downturn and the squeeze in its domestic market is taking its toll on the practices of America’s big law firms.

In THE AMERICAN LAWYER today, Paul Lippe identified six of the factors which are ushering a new era in the US legal business:

• C-level compensation is taking a hit.  That always correlates with compensation patterns in BigLaw.
• Fewer deals.
• Fewer M&As.
• The Recession, global and national.
• BigFinancial Services are cutting 20 to 25% of everything.  That will include money for legal expenses.
• Reduced risk tolerance.  That means clients’s getting into less trouble.

So, what’s a law firm to do?  Plenty according to Law and More which is describing this as ‘BigLaw’s 9/11′…

The key apparently lies in a willingness to change. The thrust of the argument is this (for the full article click ):

"In 2006, which seems light years ago, Manfred Bruhn observed in "Leitfaden Integrierte Kommunikation," that competition between companies has become less a matter of the nature of the services or products and more about competition between marketing communications pushing and pulling for prospects’s attention.

The trick is to hit upon the right formula for those marketing communications."

All in the marketing?

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