Legal Blog Watch

A survey of private-practice lawyers, corporate counsel and law students found widely divergent views on the state of the legal industry and the future of the law firm business model. Released Thursday during a panel discussion in New York City on the future of the law firm business model, the LexisNexis-commissioned survey (executive summary) found that 71 percent of corporate counsel say that law firms are not doing enough to respond to the current financial pressures on their business model. By contrast, 77 percent of private-practice lawyers believe that their clients are too focused on reducing costs, at the expense of quality and long-term results.

Described as the first substantial survey of the legal industry since the beginning of the economic crisis, the survey polled 300 law firm lawyers, 150 in-house counsel and 100 law students. Their responses suggest perspectives on the crisis differ significantly based  upon one's vantage point. Nearly half of in-house counsel, for example, say they have requested rate cuts from their outside firms. Yet just 18 percent of private-practice lawyers say their firms have implemented such cuts.

Only 38 percent of in-house counsel believe that law firms are hearing their plight and responding by cutting fees and costs. Maybe as a result, 69 percent of corporate counsel have shifted work in-house and 56 percent have reduced their spending on outside firms. Yet the firms report that they have taken steps to respond to the economic crisis: 43 percent have had layoffs, 41 percent have offered clients alternative fee arrangements, 33 percent have frozen their hiring, 29 percent have deferred start dates and 26 percent have reduced salaries.

[continued] Legal Blog Watch.