Fee Bargain Law firm mergers may give you more room to negotiate legal fees.
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It's a hard fact of the soft economy: Law firms arestruggling to survive with fewer clients and increasing operationalcosts.
Some are merging to stay competitive. Consulting firmHildebrandt calculated 53 law firm mergers in 2002, compared to 11mergers in 1997. Others are collapsing under the pressure. Brobeck,Phleger & Harrison, a San Francisco firm that soaredrepresenting technology clients during the boom, ceased operationsin January, laying off all 518 attorneys amid staggering debt andstalled merger talks.
But won't fewer law firms mean higher fees and lesspersonalized service for small businesses? Far from being edgedout, the legal profession's woes could be your gain, saysLarraine Segil, a former attorney and co-founder of The Lared Group, aLos Angeles consulting company she founded with Emilio Fontana.Segil predicts attorneys will leave merged and troubled firms overthe next two years to set up their own practices. "It'salready happening," she says.
"It's an opportunity to find a senior person with a lotof experience who's willing to work with you."
But lawyers who once eagerly accepted equity in return for theirservices will now expect cash, says Jay M. Jaffe, president and CEOof JaffeAssociates Inc., a Bethesda, Maryland, company that helps lawfirms with business development, marketing and mergers. The goodnews is, law firms are dealing in a highly competitive marketplacewhere many of their services have become commodities."There's a lot more room to bargain with lawyers thanthere ever was before," Jaffe says. It's a good time tocomparison shop and seek nonlitigation services on a fixed-pricebasis so you can plan for annual expenses. "It'sabsolutely a buyer's market," Jaffe says. "And Idon't see that changing for at least the next threeyears."
