It’s 2020. Does the market know your firm’s brand story?
February 28, 2020
Jamie Diaferia and Andrew Longstreth author an article for the New York Law Journal discussing law firm branding and messaging in the legal market.
Revenue growth among this country’s elite law firms may not be as reliable as death and taxes, but it’s pretty close.
Drawing on data from a cross-section of Am Law 100 and 200 firms and boutiques, a recent Citi Private Bank survey found revenues in the legal industry rose once again last year at a healthy 5.3%. That makes 10 straight years of solid revenue growth for most of those firms.
And yet, judging from our conversations with law firm leaders, anxiety pervades the managing class. Their concerns have less to do with the acquisition of new business than the war for talent—at all levels, from first-year associates to senior partners.
Since the Great Recession, law firms have recovered financially, but the ground under them that shapes the talent landscape has shifted. The demographic makeup of a firm’s lawyers is now the subject of a new level of scrutiny from clients, the media, and often within firms’ ranks. On this new terrain, even the most elite firms have endured body blows to their image.
Continue reading on the New York Law Journal.