Business Needs More from Lawyers Than Lawyering

 "Facing competitive pressure from professional services firms and from clients that want to solve more business problems in one stop, law firms—among the most venerable American business institutions—have begun to branch out." - Richard Vanderford, The Wall Street Journal, May 28, 2022.

Essentially that constitutes a disruption from being stand-alone powerhouses which deal with legal issues to providing full-service business solutions. Consequently that requires both changing how cases are managed and parachuting in experts from non-legal disciplines. They range from professionals in data to those in psychology to the front lines of public relations.

This can counteract the invasion of the Big Four (accounting firms) which are using cross-selling to suck away market share from law firms. Their clients trust them with their financial matters so it is easy to pitch allowing the accounting firm to also handle their legal issues. 

As the WSJ article hammers: Lawyers have to accept this new reality. It's not enough to be an excellent lawyer in the traditional sense. Obviously, law schools will have to change. Will the popular degree become a joint JD and MBA or the joint JD and Master's in Information Science? Not unthinkable is a joint JD and Master's in Communications. 

Already Dentons has become well known for forming consulting services. One is the Global Advisors. That offers full-service business solutions for complex global problems. This month Dentons joined that with its Nextlaw Public Affairs Network to help clients contract with top public relations assistance. 

Ropes & Gray launched its Insights Lab, which joins its in-house legal experts with those in analytics and behavioral science. 

As the WSJ points out, even journalists like myself are being brought in full-time to law firms. There is a recognition of the growing demand to tell the clients' stories right - and effectively. Loop into that also positioning and packaging the law firm's own story. If the market for legal services stays at "normal," deflated from the pandemic boom, or actually sours law firms will have to conjure up engaging narratives about themselves. 

In a recent Leaders Magazine interview, Paul Weiss Chairperson Brad Karp made explicit this mandate for providing comprehensive business solutions. He noted:

"To be successful - to have clients turn to us again and again - we need to be not just legal advisors, but true business partners. Excellence in client service remains vitally important, but ... we need to deeply understand our clients' business goals, professional culture, key stakeholders and risk tolerance."

No slouch in implementing this, back in September 2021, Paul Weiss had established the ESG and Law Institute. It provides research, analysis, reporting, and even continuing education credit on how ESG (Environental Social Governance) issues intersect with the purpose of business, law, and education.

The Institute's reach includes partnerships with law schools such as the University of California at Berkeley's Business and Society Institute. ESG issues have overwhelmed not only business (fear of becoming the Next Disney) but also law firms themselves (fear of becoming the Next Davis Polk).

Here's where this seems to be going: The Law Firm will evolve into a kind of management consulting enterprise. Of course, recruiting, retaining, and motivating superior talent in law will be a prerequisite. But Chairpersons will also have to learn how to apply that human-resources skill to stars in other disciplines. The brandname of the firm will depend on having broad-based elite expertise.

The next round of poaching could be at Google, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and The Wall Street Journal. 

Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com. For more than a decade she has been doing communications assignments for both defense and plaintiff law firms as well as their vendors. More recently, she has done freelance work for Paul Weiss. Storytelling has always been embedded in legal. 

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