From USC
Hold the schadenfreude but look at what the economic meltdown's doing to a much derided industry sector: lawyers, particularly those who work in big law firms, are seeing huge changes in their business model and operations, says an expert on legal economics. He says it's unsustainable for the big firms to hire many associates, churn through them and make them bill big sums to clients -- and expect to keep collecting big sums in doing so. Clients are balking big time at the practice of the billable hour and they won't support the big firm approach of winning cases by tonnage -- attempting to swamp an opponent by throwing associates, time and money at litigation. In talent terms, he says to look for firms to hire fewer associates, to ask lots of them and to see them train them more and to seek to negotiate and settle rather than to litigate.
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