Managing Partner Model Assailed

Big law firms get bigger, but they cling to an outmoded business model in which managing partners effectively work two full-time jobs, running a practice and managing a law firm. No other industry allows the CEO to divide his attention this way, writes Joe Patrice in Above the Law. He wonders if law firms are so unique that no one who isn’t a lawyer can understand them, or if they really aren’t much different than any other service industry. He thinks it all boils down to the risk-averse nature of Biglaw lawyers. The firm’s lawyers know each other, but an outsider brings an element of uncertainty that they aren’t willing to entertain. As some firms grow to the status of global behemoths the model becomes more and more untenable.