[M]iddle law’s [defined as firms ranked about 40 to 120 by profits per equity partner (PPP)] incipient salary move is radically different. It’s not just that it’s avoidable or that it’s entirely self-inflicted. What makes it harrowing to watch is that it comes on the heels of middle law having done a stunning job of adjusting to the realities of the post-2007 world. Shifting the business model to lower cost and higher leverage made great strategic sense; these were hard-won gains.
The analogy with lemmings is unfair. Unfair, that is, to lemmings. Lemmings are herd migrators. They can swim. Occasionally when they migrate they dive into, and swim across, rivers. Their jumping off cliffs is apocryphal. Not even lemmings are a model for middle-law’s incipient plunge.
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—- Hugh A. Simons, former Biglaw senior partner and executive committee member at The Boston Consulting Group, writing for American Lawyer that he believes firms following the leader in the salary wars of 2018 are headed toward destruction. Clients are taking more work in-house and increasing the use of alternate service providers — those trends mean most of the firms aren’t able to keep up with the Cravaths of the Biglaw world.