On
the 5th day of Christmas my Managing Partner said to me.....
Is
big law dying?
Why
are my Partners sighing?...And here’s a complex matter with a fixed fee...
As
we near the end of 2013 just like post project review – we should reflect on
what we have done and what has been...
Resilience
and flexibility are words that seem to resound with me. It’s been a bit of a
tough market to play in this year.
However
a great team of people whether it be my direct team, my firm’s management and
legal teams or my ILTA buddies make it that much easier- so thank you to all
the teams I am part of.
So
2014 and as per the Chinese Zodiac Calendar it will be ‘Year of the Horse.’ The Year of the Horse
starts from 31 January, 2014 and ends 18 February, 2015. The spirit
of the horse is said to be reflective of the ethos of China’s people - a
continuous focus on self-improvement. If your Chinese zodiac sign is a horse
you are thought to be energetic, intelligent and able. So able in fact that in
ancient China an able person was called a ‘Qianli Ma’ – a horse that
covered a thousand li a day (with one li equal to 500 metres).
But what do I see in my
crystal ball for the year ahead?
1.
Technology
will continue to shake up traditional legal practices – more apps, more tools,
more data-driven sophistication telling clients what legal work should be
costing them and how their legal providers stack up
2.
Alternative
Business Structures (ABS) will become more popular than our ABC’s
3.
Non-lawyers
will start to become a desired species with the phrase “Even though you
are not a lawyer – you really do know a lot” repeatedly uttered in boardrooms
and lift wells alike
4.
Clients
will continue to want more than Legal Project Management – and where aspects of
law can be seen as a repeatable process then process re-engineering is the next
frontier.
Wishing
you all a wonderful festive season and a great start to 2014.
Thanks
for following
Michelle