MPF WHITE PAPER - AW 2014 Law Firms in Transition - 10-21-14

2014 LAW FIRMS IN TRANSITIONOutlook: Law Firms in 2024If you believe that the legal profession is in transition, in what significant ways doQ: you expect your law firm will be different ten years from now?Sample Comments (continued)EFFICIENCY OF LEGAL SERVICE DELIVERYMuch different service delivery models, including lower cost offices focusing on back officeand commoditized practices, better internal data management to improve efficiency ofAFAs, more part time and flex positions that allow for specialized practices that can't bejustified on a full time basis.We will have better data related to our experience and costs. We will be good atmanaging to budgets. We will be more sophisticated on pricing. Our workforce will bebetter optimized to client needs.Much greater reliance on alternative fee, as opposed to hourly, billing arrangements.Higher attorney-to-legal assistant ratio. More efficient use of office space (one size officefor all attorneys). Greater reliance on technology-based improvements in efficiency.Better use of technologies, internal data and metrics, non-lawyer professionals to createmore efficient and better delivery of services, legal and non-legal, to drive revenues andprofits per partner.PROFESSION BECOMES MORE LIKE A BUSINESSMuch more business-like. The cost will involve some sacrifice of "the old ways" and thecollegiality that the profession still enjoys to some degree, but the market is mandatingserious change.We will be structured more like a business with a corporate model with divisions. Thechanges in our firm and in the industry will come slower than the pundits suggest, but theywill come nonetheless.An Altman Weil Flash Survey 85