Don't Let Your Firm Get Caught In The Rain During Biglaw's 'Era Of The Storm'

It's time to prepare for the unknown, where anything can happen.

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Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day.

The market is out of control, and it feels like all firms, no matter how strong or profitable, are at risk of other elite firms willing to offer lavish, extravagant, irrational amounts of money to lift partners in strategic practice groups. No one is immune. The world has just become this lateral playpen.

— A managing partner at a Top 25 law firm, in conversation with Roy Strom of Bloomberg Law, discussing a time of upheaval in Biglaw, where a disruption in demand has caused firms to lash out, be it through large layoffs, lateral binges, partner poaching, and even megamergers. Jim Jones, senior fellow at the Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center, has referred to this time period as Biglaw’s “era of the storm.”


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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