Anticipating Changes and Trends: Future of Law Firm Service Structure

Description

• Harrison's recent Q&A clip discusses the unlikelihood of major changes in the legal industry.
• He highlights the challenges for large law firms in practice areas like patent prosecution and trademarks.
• Complex billing structures can hinder law firms from making money, as hourly rates may exceed flat fees.
• Smaller firms and alternative models may offer different solutions.
• Despite these challenges, top lawyers will continue to be in high demand and maintain high billing rates.

Transcript

Transcript:

I don't see anything changing. I think to the extent that the law firm clients can force changes in the market, but I don't see anything changing. I think it's always going to work the way it does. One of the exciting things is that certain practice areas like patent prosecution, trademark, or some other things are challenging for large law firms because of the commodity.

The nature of the billing structure is complicated for law firms to make money from. For example, filing a trademark may cost a few thousand dollars. But if a law firm has to bill by the hour, that will charge more than that would cost. Sometimes, law firms will go on retainers, outside employment counsel, and things that large firms can't do.

Other people will step in and do it a different way. In terms of how the service structure works, though, the best lawyers will always be in demand, and we will be able to charge high billing rates and so forth the way they've always been doing.