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Outsourcing: It’s Not Just About the Money

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It’s been a while since we checked in with the coming junior associate apocalypse that is legal outsourcing. Rest assured, LPOs around the globe are working hard to make sure that the Biglaw junior associate becomes extinct — at least as we know it.

There’s a fascinating article on Law21 that discusses the evolution of legal process outsourcing — and what LPOs need to do next:

Still in its relative infancy, legal process outsourcing has already had a huge impact on the legal services marketplace: scoring major deals with the likes of Microsoft and Rio Tinto, garnering the attention of private-equity investors, and helping to expose the degree to which law firms have overcharged for the simplest legal work, among other accomplishments. But this impact has set off two important chains of events.

The first affects LPOs themselves: they now need to move their value proposition beyond cost savings in a market they helped to make more sophisticated. The second affects everyone: the legal profession’s response to LPO is having an unexpected effect on how legal work is distributed and how legal resources are allocated.

Some law firms still seem to be fighting the last war and are committed to fending off outsourcing until the bitter end. But other firms are preparing themselves for the next war: remaining the primary legal advisor to their clients in a world where the clients themselves can go to a number of providers to get the work done…

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Generation Wars!!!!

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The modern workplace plays host to three generations: the baby boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. A panel at the InsideCounsel SuperConference this week called the youngest of the bunch, Gen-Why?. The italics are likely meant to indicate a whiny tone, because this bunch, born from 1981 to 2001, are supposedly entitled and snotty. E.g., “You’re going to defer me for a year with a $60,000 stipend? Wah! I hate you!”

I attended the panel as did another legal blogger, Adrian Dayton. Check out his post on what’s wrong with Gen-Y. Despite their complaints about the young’uns, oldies tend to give in to their wishes, judging from the response one general counsel gave to a Gen-Yer who asked to head off to New Zealand for a year and have his job held until he got back.

A not-especially-snotty-or-entitled Gen-Yer was chosen for the panel: Jack Rossi, staff counsel at JetBlue, who scored an in-house offer directly out of law school. He admitted that some of the myths about his generation are true: he does like feedback and wants mentorship (and he’s gotten it in-house). An older baby boomer lawyer in the audience spoke up to say, “I wanted the same things as Jack, but I was not brave enough to ask for it… It was kind of ‘figure out for yourself.’ I think the fact that younger lawyers ask is actually a good thing.”

Honestly, there wasn’t a lot of tension in the room between Gen Y and Boomers, even when J.D. turned PhD panelist, Arin Reeves of The Athens Group, suggested Boomers were at fault for spoiling young folks given the wining-and-dining summer associate experience they created. “If you want to teach that work is the priority, take the events away,” said Reeves.

I think all of our Biglaw readers will agree with us in deeming that terrible advice.

In the room, greater tension seemed to exist between Gen X and Gen Y. “It sounds like we’re saying, ‘How are we going to accommodate an already spoiled generation?’” observed one Gen Xer.

Since I am Gen Y, and Elie is Gen X, we thought this would be an opportune time for a little ATL debate. I’ll let the old man go first…

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Morning Docket: 05.21.10

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* Hell yeah! U.S. News will start penalizing schools who don’t report their employment statistics. Paul Caron at TaxProf Blog deserves a mighty big shout out. [ABA Journal]

* Andrew Cuomo is trying to pick his replacement as New York Attorney General. [New York Times]

* I’m a PC and naming Microsoft the best in-house legal counsel of the year was not my idea. [Corporate Counsel]

* Obama nominates a Yale lawyer for a Second Circuit vacancy. [National Law Journal]

* Chevron will have to wait a little longer to get their hands on potentially exculpatory documentary footage. [New York Times]

* Financial reform passes the Senate. The Street is reacting like Obama ambushed them with friends and family for a surprise intervention. [Wall Street Journal]

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Last Week in Biglaw: 04.12.10

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Ed. note: Law Shucks focuses on life in, and after, BigLaw, including by tracking layoffs, bonuses, and laterals. Above the Law is pleased to bring you this weekly column, which analyzes news at the world’s top law firms.

Law-firm layoffs have fallen from a peak of 3,682 in March ’09 to 164 in March ’10. Although firms continue to lay people off, firms are increasingly looking for alternative ways to manage their finances. The Law Shucks “This Week in Layoffs” column had evolved to include those alternatives.

Now, we’re taking the next step and expanding the scope further in this new column. We’ll continue with recaps of layoffs and the related economic events (salaries, start dates, PPP, etc), but will also cover a broader range of events in BigLaw.

BigLaw is slow to change, though. After the jump, we kick off the new column with the old stalwart: layoffs.

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ATL March Madness (Round 1): Best City to Practice Law. The West and Midwest Matchups.

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Above the law march madness.jpgThe NCAA March Madness Tournament kicked off officially today. (Since it took Elie a good two hours to write his half of this post, Kash assumes he’s streaming the tournament on his computer.)

Meanwhile, we kicked off round one in our ATL “Best City To Practice Law” tournament on Tuesday, pitting cities in the East and South against one another. Heading into the weekend, D.C., NYC, Dallas, and Atlanta are looking good in their regions.

If you’ve forgotten the match-ups, check out the bracket, also available after the jump.
Today, cities in the PST and flyover country go head to head. The voting and some commentary from your editors, after the jump.

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Total Recall? Not at Winston & Strawn.
Email gaffe sends ‘all partners’ memo to ‘all attorneys.’

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Received last Friday from a tipster at Winston & Strawn (who was unhappy with the firm’s double salary freeze):

winston strawn.gifTo add major insult to injury — especially after Sidley Austin’s announcement [of a raise] this afternoon — the Managing Partner of Winston just accidentally emailed a memo to ALL ATTORNEYS (including all associates) which he meant to send only to ALL PARTNERS, bragging about FY2010 collections. He talks about how work in process and accounts receivable were the same on Jan. 31, 2009 as they were on Jan. 31, 2010, how they accomplished a revenue increase without reducing overall assets, and how work in process added in January 2010 exceeded budget.

A moment later, he tried to recall the message with that Outlook “recall” function that doesn’t really work. Amazing.

Ah yes, Microsoft Outlook’s useless “recall” feature — which just draws attention to the gaffe. If it doesn’t work for federal judges or for DLA Piper partners, why should it work for Winston?
(Misaddressing an email is like passing gas, or making an unwanted advance towards a colleague. Sometimes it’s best to just pretend it didn’t happen.)
Check out the Winston & Strawn memo — intended for “all partners,” but now going out to all the world — after the jump.

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Email gaffe sends ‘all partners’ memo to ‘all attorneys.’“

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Thomson Reuters Attempts to Achieve “Super”iority with Lawyers

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After taking a a shot to the chin on news of Lexis Nexis’ new partnership with Microsoft, Thomson Reuters (the parent company of Westlaw), has announced that they are acquiring SuperLawyers.
This literally just broke tonight, and like most things in my life I am a bit perplexed on this. I would assume this would be a feature of their Westlaw component, but it very well could be it’s own separate entity. Also, there are some potential conflicts. Would a firm that is a heavy subscriber to Westlaw or Thomson services tend to be more “super” than firms that don’t.
More details should come out tomorrow, so I will try to keep you updated.

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Did Lexis Nexis Just ‘Bing’ Westlaw?

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It’s almost as if Westlaw (Thomson Reuters) had a crystal ball before this year’s LegalTech. From the get-go, they brought out the razzle dazzle in announcing their new WestlawNext. Before you could even enter the exhibit hall, they had music, giant television screens, and people running around with MacBook Airs showing off their new product. Hello smoke, meet mirrors.
However, all the fanfare failed to temper LexisNexis’s big announcement: a legal research partnership with Microsoft. From the ABA Journal

The competition for your legal research dollars just got a little more intense today as LexisNexis unveiled at LegalTech in New York its newest offering: a partnership with Microsoft.
Lexis will now be integrated into Microsoft Office products, allowing users to do legal and general research directly while working in Microsoft Word, Outlook and SharePoint. Users, who must have a Lexis subscription, need only click on a Lexis tab in the ribbon of utilities available in Microsoft Office 2007 and the forthcoming 2010 version to start researching, Shepardizing cases or even gathering information from Bing or Google search engines. There is no need to navigate separately to the Web and log on to Lexis or a search engine.

So the salvos here at LegalTech have been launched. Will Westlaw have to “Google-ize” themselves as well, or (dare I say) “Twitterize”? Let’s not forget about Bloomberg’s entry into the fray with BLAW. Who knows, maybe they will attempt legal research on Foursquare. Kidding, kidding.
One thing is for certain, the battle continues…

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Lawyerly Lairs: Boies’s Bargain
The legendary litigator snaps up an $8 million apartment.

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Sherry Netherland hotel condominium.jpgIn between Christmas and New Year’s, while most of us were stuffing our faces, celebrated litigator David Boies was stuffing his own stocking — with a magnificent New York apartment. Last year was a good one for Boies Schiller associates, at least based on their bonuses. And it probably was a good one for their boss, at least based on his latest real estate purchase.

There’s no need for Boies to feel guilty, though, since it seems he got a bargain. From Bloomberg:

David Boies, the antitrust lawyer who took on Microsoft Corp. and represented Al Gore in the contested U.S. presidential election of 2000, bought a seven room apartment overlooking New York’s Central Park for $7.75 million after the price was reduced by more than 20 percent.

Boies, chairman and founder of New York-based law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, purchased a two-bedroom unit at the Sherry-Netherland hotel on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, according to city property records. The original asking price was $9.95 million, according to listing service StreetEasy.com.

More details, plus photos of the fabulous pad, after the jump.

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The legendary litigator snaps up an $8 million apartment.“

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Morning Docket: 12.23.09

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Obama Santa.jpg* It’s beginning to look a lot like … what? We’re still working? The whole team? Oh all right. [ABC News]
* Gatesgate 2: The Prequel. [Courthouse News Service]
* Yes, to your friend, Forbes Magazine, you will listen about the wisdom of applying to law school. [Forbes]
* An exodus from Dickstein Shapiro to Kasowitz. [Am Law Daily]
* Mexico City has legalized same sex marriage. Kind of makes America look like a theocracy. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Microsoft is probably having its worst Christmas ever. [Bloomberg]

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