Above the Law takes a look at a new trend:  law firms are demoting — if not firing — partners at a healthy clip over profitability fears.

The article quotes a Wall Street Journal report:

“Faced with client pressure to keep down costs and industry competition to achieve the highest profits, law firms now frequently assess which lawyers are worthy enough for the top rungs of partnership. Those who don’t bill enough hours or bring in enough business are quietly asked to leave or demoted from the so-called equity tier.”

Perhaps this marks the first, furtive steps into a new Biglaw model, writes Above the Law’s Joe Patrice, where the 8-year track gives way to a more corporate structure featuring a well-compensated middle management tier spending 5-10 additional years in a non-equity role.

Read the article.

Attorneys can now take a “walk down the hall” anytime to obtain legal know-how from experts who are part of Practical Law’s team of over 200 attorney editors. Thomson Reuters Practical Law today launched a new podcast called “Down the Hall with Practical Law.”

The podcast is hosted by Renee Karibi-Whyte, marketing director of Practical Law.

“The value that Practical Law brings to our customers really starts with the expertise and experience of our people, and we want to make our people more accessible, placing them just ‘down the hall’ to share timely views on significant legal trends and topics,” said Karibi-Whyte. “’Down the Hall with Practical Law’ offers another convenient vehicle through which attorneys can obtain the most up-to-date legal know-how that can save them time and increase their efficiency. We are looking forward to extending our mission of sharing valuable resources to make attorneys’ lives easier through our new podcast.”

Some of the initial topics to be covered on “Down the Hall with Practical Law” include: understanding the legal landscape of privacy and data security, featuring Mel Gates, senior legal editor, Privacy and Data Security at Practical Law; avoiding frequent mistakes startups make, featuring Joe Green, senior legal editor and principal member of the Practical Law Startup Resource Group; and employment handbook hot topics, featuring Kate Bally, director of Practical Law’s Labor & Employment Service. Special guests from outside of Practical Law will also be featured in upcoming episodes.

Podcast episodes will be released monthly. The podcast can also be found on iTunes.

Listen to the podcast.

Board certified commercial litigation attorney Bruce W. Bowman Jr. has been named president and managing shareholder of the Dallas-based trial and appellate law firm Godwin Bowman & Martinez PC, effective Oct. 1, 2016.

“We are pleased that Bruce has agreed to assume the positions of President and Managing Shareholder,” says Godwin Bowman & Martinez Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Donald E. Godwin. “Our firm has always had a reputation for strong leadership, and that reputation has been strengthened in recent years by Bruce’s involvement in our leadership group as Executive Vice President and General Counsel.”

Godwin will continue as chairman and CEO of the firm, while Jenny L. Martinez will remain in the role of executive vice president, while maintaining her duties as secretary/treasurer of the firm. In addition to his responsibilities as president and managing shareholder, Bowman will continue to serve as general counsel of Godwin Bowman & Martinez as well as co-chair of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Section.

The firm’s release continues:

Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Mr. Bowman is a highly respected litigator who has successfully handled litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants for many years, primarily in business disputes. His work has included the recovery of assets from trusts in prolonged trust and bankruptcy litigation and defending against trade secret allegations involving oil field technology in state and federal courts. He also has successfully defended directors, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, and other professionals in many areas of business. In addition to trying hundreds of cases to verdict, he has handled numerous arbitrations, mediations and appeals before the Texas Supreme Court, federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reflecting the excellence of his practice, Mr. Bowman is an 11-time recipient of Texas Super Lawyers honors from Thomson Reuters, and he has been rated AV-Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer rating for legal skills and ethics. He also has achieved a 10.0 rating from AVVO, the company’s highest attorney rating.

BTI Consulting Group has published the results of its 2017 “Fearsome Foursome” survey, in which 300 general counsel named which law firms they would least like to see as opposing counsel.

Michael Rynowecer, CEO of BTI Consulting Group, described what it takes to make the list:

General counsels who responded to the survey pointed to a few things that the four firms named most-feared in the courtroom have in common, the first of which is an unrelenting approach, Rynowecer said.

“They have several strategies in place at once and keep coming at the issue,” he said. “Not only do they overturn every rock, but they find new rocks to overturn and keep coming up with new ways to act in their clients’ interests.”

The firms on the list are Dentons, Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, and Skadden.

The survey also includes 11 firms that made the “Awesome Opponents” list and 55 firms named to the honor roll of most-feared law firms.

Read the list.

Bloomberg Law will hold the Big Law Business Summit – West, convening the future leaders of Big Law, chief legal officers, outside counsel, and those serving legal departments around the world to discuss challenges and share ideas about the legal industry.

The event will be Oct. 27, 2016, from 1:30 to 6 p.m. Pacific time, with a networking reception to follow. The location will be The Standard Hotel, 550 S. Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071.

Featured panelists will be:

• Elizabeth Baker, General Counsel, Twitch Interactive
• Brad Butwin, Chair, O’Melveny & Myers LLP
• Sharon Tomkins, Vice President & General Counsel, Southern California Gas Company

Register for the event.

The ABC affiliate in San Antonio reports that in the last six years, lawyers working in the Greater San Antonio area have tripled the number of commercials they run on TV from about 50,000 to more than 180,000 a year, according to data from Nielsen AdIntel.

The flashy commercials have given some South Texas personal-injury lawyers a unique reputationm writes Josh Skurnik, citing the example of Jim Adler, who bills himself as the “Texas Hammer.” Adler can be seen in TV spots standing on semitrucks telling viewers he “will hammer the big trucking companies down to size.”

Adler told KSAT 12 how his script writers and directors helped him come up with the character:

“He agreed with them that he needed a more memorable character than his predecessor ‘Jim Adler, the smart tough lawyer.’ Through acting lessons, an eye for production and bilingual showmanship Adler said he became the grandfather of the unique style of personal injury advertising found in South Texas.”

And it worked.

Read the article.

Practical Law and competitive intelligence platform Peer Monitor will present a free webinar titled “Dollars and Sense: A Real-Time Look at the Financial Performance of the Legal Industry in 2016.”

The 60-minute webinar will be Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 1 p.m. Eastern time. A brief question-and answer session will follow.

Peer Monitor will discuss key performance indicators including:

• Demand
• Practice performance
• Rates
• Realization
• Staffing
• Expenses

Presenters will be Cory Branden, Account Executive, Peer Monitor, Thomson Reuters.

Register for the webinar.

London-based venture firm Invoke Capital is betting that a startup using artificial intelligence to process legal documents and automate due diligence in mergers and acquisitions can replace the armies of lawyers needed to close billion-dollar deals, reports Bloomberg Law.

On its website, Luminance says its product “pairs the computing power of artificial intelligence with human training and experience. Luminance can process large, complex and fragmented data sets within an hour, and presents the entirety of the data room in an intuitive visualiser.”

Reporter Jeremy Kahn writes that CEO Emily Foges said in a statement that “the software can highlight important information without needing to be told what specifically to look for, according to Foges. Rather than employing attorneys to scan through thousands of documents to identify possible issues, these lawyers can now devote their time to analyzing the software’s findings and negotiating deal terms, Foges said.”

“Luminance has been trained to think like a lawyer,” Foges said in a statement.

Read the article.

George Dunn, president of CRE8 Independent Consultants, writes in a white paper posted on his company’s website, “One clear message from general legal counsel is, ‘law firms must lower fees and follow increasingly restrictive guidelines.’ In addition, law firms are now being asked what type of process improvement framework the firm is deploying.”

In the paper, he starts by posing the question: “What are the signs that your firm needs process improvement?”

He discusses the external signs, such as clients consolidating the roster of firms they engage,  client guidelines becoming increasingly restrictive as to who and what can be billed, and  clients asking for holdbacks, discounts, write-offs, alternative fee arrangements, or fixed fees.

Internal signs can include the firm writing off fees or costs billed to clients,  processes not fully mapped out and measured, and  processes not being not fully automated with up-to-date templates.

Answering “yes” to those question indicates the need for the firm to look into process improvement, Dunn writes.

He then poses questions and offers questions and offers approaches to follow. Those questions include: What type of process improvement methodologies exist for law firms? Where can process improvement be deployed in a law firm, such as transactional, litigation and operations? and What is the next step?

Dunn is an independent consultant, speaker, instructor, and author on process improvement (Total Quality Improvement, Continuous Process Improvement, Business Process Management, Re-engineering, LEAN and Six Sigma); Paperless technology planning (electronic forms, electronic content management, digital signatures, workflow, and electronic records management), and Computer System planning.

Download the white paper.

David I. Spector and Andrew M. Smulian

Akerman LLP, a top-100 U.S. law firm, announced the firm’s succession plan for its top leadership post. David I. Spector, a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and co-chair of Akerman’s Fraud & Recovery Practice Group, was elected by a partnership vote on Sept. 9 to succeed Andrew M. Smulian as the firm’s ninth chairman and CEO. Spector will serve a 3-year term that begins Feb. 1, 2018 when Smulian concludes a decade-long tenure as chairman and CEO.

Akerman’s Executive Committee issued the following statement: “Andrew is one of the great law firm leaders of our time. He has guided Akerman through transformative growth while strengthening our commitment to be a client-driven, entrepreneurial and forward-thinking enterprise. His bold leadership has placed Akerman at the vanguard of our industry and positioned our firm to address the important challenges impacting our clients and our profession today and in the future.”

“The vision and growth strategy articulated nearly a decade ago are being realized,” said Smulian. “This is the right time to plan for succession and David is the right leader for Akerman’s future. He is an exceptional trial lawyer and has practiced at the leading edge of innovation and business transformation. He has changed the legal landscape for his clients and I am confident that he will be just as successful as our next chairman and CEO.”

Spector is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and one of seven members of the Executive Committee. He also is the founding co-chair of one of the largest legal teams in the United States dedicated to the eradication of fraud. He previously served on Akerman’s Strategic Planning Committee and is a leader in many of the firm’s client-driven initiatives.

“I am honored by the confidence of my partners and Andrew to serve as Akerman’s next chairman and CEO,” said Spector. “Andrew is a visionary and his dynamic, forward-thinking leadership continues to guide our firm in a rapidly changing industry. I look forward to collaborating with him throughout the transition and in the years ahead.”

A news release from the firm continues:

Smulian has guided the strategic growth and management of Akerman since 2008. He is the second longest serving chairman in the firm’s 96-year history. Smulian has led Akerman’s unprecedented expansion and record financial performance through a strong commitment to client-driven growth. During his tenure, the firm has expanded from 12 to 24 offices, serving clients across the United States and Latin America, and in more than 35 countries. Headcount has reached an all-time high of more than 650 lawyers and business professionals, attracting 200 lawyers since 2008 and bolstering its core strengths in middle market M&A and complex disputes, and its many areas of practice in the financial services, real estate and other dynamic client sectors.

A commitment to collaborative innovation and transformative business practices are hallmarks of Smulian’s ongoing leadership. He has overseen the creation of the legal industry’s first law firm R&D co-venture with clients, which earned Akerman distinction as one of the top forward-thinking law firms in North America by the Financial Times. Smulian also has led the creation of one of the most diverse and inclusive law firms, ranked no. 3 among the top U.S. law firms for Hispanic lawyers by Law360; no. 19 among the top U.S. law firms for female partners by The American Lawyer; and distinguished as a leader in LGBT workplace equality with a 100 percent rating on the Corporate Equality Index. In addition, Smulian has advanced one of the most ambitious philanthropic and pro bono efforts for abused and neglected children in the family court system, which placed Akerman among the Financial Times‘ eight most innovative law firms in social responsibility. Following his tenure, Smulian will continue to play a leadership role in many of the firm’s initiatives.

Spector joined Akerman in 2009 and has built a national trial practice devoted to the investigation and litigation of complex fraud schemes, and unfair and deceptive practices, on behalf of the largest U.S. insurance companies and self-insured retailers. His work has carved a groundbreaking path in plaintiff-side fraud investigation and litigation, and developed case law that helps corporations recover financial losses caused by fraudulent acts. Spector has handled a series of cases involving issues of first impression that have had a significant implication in the eradication of fraud. Among them, Spector was lead counsel in matters resulting in trial verdicts or summary judgments relating to unlawful ownership structure of healthcare providers, medical legal referral services and statutory obligations of medical directors.

He also has significant experience in defending law firms from claims of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duties — one of which resulted in the successful striking of his opponents’ pleadings in a case valued at more than $1 billion. Outside the courtroom, Spector regularly acts as a trusted advisor to some of the nation’s largest insurers and retailers in their efforts to identify fraud and establish pre-suit strategies.

The partnership vote last Friday paved the way to an orderly transition process beginning in 2017. Spector will assume his new responsibilities on February 1, 2018.

Exterro is offering its new “2016 Law Firm Benchmarking Report – Staying Competitive in Today’s Crowded Legal Market” for free downloading.

This benchmarking report discusses why changing legal business circumstances will force firms to find ways to increase productivity or risk revenue loss.

The download includes:

• 24-page comprehensive report, which surveyed 112 law firm professionals
• Key topics include how law firms are billing their clients, approaches used for managing legal operations and more…
• Example of one interesting stat: 79% of law firm respondents stated that client expectations have elevated (i.e. clients expect more for less)

Download the report.

Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016
New York

Bloomberg BNA and Bentham IMF will hold an executive briefing and reception that explores how firms are integrating financing into their litigation practices.

The event will be Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016, at Bloomberg LP, 120 Park Ave., New York, from 4:30 p.m. until 6:30 p.m., with a networking reception to follow.

Law firms face increasing pressure to help clients gain affordable access to the courts as skyrocketing legal costs and other factors make litigation more expensive. Financing provided by litigation funders is helping firms meet this demand while also accomplishing strategic objectives, Bloomberg says on its website.

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of University of California Irvine School of Law and author of the forthcoming book,Closing the Courthouse Doors, will deliver a keynote speech on how the upcoming election can change the course of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions and create a new era of wider access to civil justice.

Following Dean Chemerinsky, a panel of top legal and funding professionals will discuss the impact of funding on the U.S. legal system, and how law firms are taking measured risk to increase profits and accomplish growth objectives. Finally, the panel will look at the benefits to corporate clients, as well as plaintiffs.

Register for the event.

The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP announced that American Lawyer has included the firm in this year’s rankings of the National Report.

The report consists of 94 law firms ranked by third, fourth, and fifth-year associates, who rated their workplace on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score. The associates rated their firms based on the following criteria:

• Compensation and benefits
• Training and guidance
• Relations with partners and other associates
• The interest and satisfaction level of the work
• The firm’s policy on billable hours and management’s openness about firm strategies
• Partnership chances

Last year, the firm was ranked No. 48th, but this year the firm jumped 20 spots to No. 28.

“We are proud to see our associate program ranked so highly in this national report,” said Firm Chair Kimberly Leach Johnson. “We take seriously our goal of helping these very promising associates become great lawyers, and work to do that through mentorship, open communication and meaningful opportunities.”

The ABA Journal‘s eighth year of naming the profession’s legal rebels came up with a list that represents all parts of the profession: “From a law firm managing partner who overhauled her firm’s customer service process to a law professor who took a bad experience with a traffic ticket and turned it into an online adjudication project. Not surprising: A computer scientist helps develop the biggest artificial-intelligence effort in law. Surprising: A staff attorney for a state public defender’s office is also a data scientist.”

One of the rebels is Jimoh Ovbiagele, with Ross Intelligence, a digital legal assistance program that’s partially funded by an independent subsidiary of the legal giant Dentons. The system is licensed to such firms as Baker & Hostetler, Latham & Watkins and Wisconsin’s von Briesen & Roper.

Another is Google’s Mary Shen O’Carroll, who updated the company’s legal department to include such innovations as Google’s Outside Counsel Dashboard, which allows Google lawyers to see real-time information relating to their outside counsel spending, and includes an e-billing system.

Read the article.

A Texas-based legal recruiter is seeking up to $1 million in damages from a Holland & Knight partner, saying the lawyer broke his promise and used another headhunter to place him at the firm after the recruiter discussed the opportunity with him.

Legal recruiter Sean Cassidy’s suit against Dean Schaner alleges breach of contract, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

“The [law firm] that we contacted you about… I would just ask that… since we contacted you about it, I always ask two things Dean,” said Cassidy, according to a recording played for Bloomberg Law. “One, I ask that if it’s something you ultimately decide to pursue, I just ask that you work through me on it.”

The Bloomberg article by Casey Sullivan reports:

“When contacted about Cassidy’s recording and overall litigation, Schaner wrote in an email Tuesday that the sound clip was a ‘misleading partial conversation,’ that he ‘never agreed to pursue the opportunity through Cassidy’ and furthermore, ‘never disclosed [Holland & Knight] to anyone.’ ”

Read the article.

Image by NY Photographic

Some big law firms have increased salaries of first-year associates to $180,000 in an effort to lure the best recruits, but now some of those firms are raising the bar by offering benefit packages that include flexible schedules, child care and elderly care assistance, student loan assistance programs, paid parental leave, unlimited paid vacation, private banking, subsidized gym membership and career and family coaching services, reports Bloomberg Law.

Reporter Carmen Castro-Pagan quotes Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s chief talent officer as saying :the war for talent is intensifying,” as she explains that declining law school enrollment and low LSAT scores result in fewer of the most talented students are entering the profession.

Orrick now offers primary caregivers 22 weeks of paid parental leave and up to nine months of job protection.

White & Case LLP has an adoption assistance program that allows employees to set aside pretax dollars of up to $13,460 to help offset adoption expenses, and Goodwin has a program to help lawyers and professional staff refinance and consolidate their student loans. Other benefits can include on-site fitness centers, career counseling, flexible vacations, and travel and living expenses, the Bloomberg article reports.

Read the article.

An increase in revenue for law firms in the first half of this year came largely from higher lawyer billing rates rather than greater demand for services, The New York Times reports, citing Citi Private Bank’s quarterly report on the legal industry.

Reporter Elizabeth Olson wrote that “the 4.1 percent average revenue increase was surprisingly strong, considering the continuing consolidation among law firms and the sharper scrutiny that corporations are giving the customary high levels of legal billing. It compares with the 3.3 percent growth for the first half of 2015, according to the report by Dan DiPietro, the chairman of Citi Private Bank’s law firm group, and Lauren Harsha, an analyst with the group.”

The Citi report attributed much of the growth to an average billing rate increase of 3.2 percent. “The results so far are similar to four out of the last five years, when law firms experienced modest growth in demand, revenues and single-digit profit growth,” DiPietro said.

Read the article.

Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP has received the highest composite score of all reporting firms in the 2015 Law Firm Diversity Report Card, issued by the Austin Minority Bar Associations and the Travis County Women Lawyers Association, the firm has announced. For the third consecutive year, the firm also earned an “A” grade for its exceptional diversity recruitment, hiring and retention efforts.

“Diversity in the workplace, generally, results in a stronger organization,” says firm Chair Holland N. O’Neil. “A stronger organization just makes good business sense. We applaud all the firms who received high marks on the report card. This is an important barometer to Gardere, and we intend to strive to do even better in future years.”

The firm’s release continues:

The report card is issued annually by the Hispanic Bar Association of Austin, the Austin Black Lawyers Association, the Austin Asian American Bar Association, the South Asian Bar Association of Austin and the Austin LGBT Bar Association. For the first time, the bar associations have partnered with the Travis County Women Lawyers Association to include data on the hiring, retention and promotion of women at major law firms in the Austin area.

This year, the Diversity Report Card Committee requested information from 28 of the largest law firms in Austin, of which 24 submitted responses. These 24 firms were then evaluated and provided a grade based on their percentage of minority attorneys and partners. The committee also factored in data on attorneys who are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. In addition, grading is weighted in favor of law firms that have larger numbers of minority partners to reflect the importance in developing, promoting and retaining those attorneys. Only 11 of the 24 firms that responded received an “A” grade on the report card. The committee issued a separate report on the number of women associates, non-equity partners and partners at each of the 24 firms.

Gardere was proud to sponsor the DRCC’s 2015 Law Firm Report Card Reception on Tuesday, Aug. 9 in the firm’s Austin office. More information about the Austin Law Firm Diversity Report Card and access to the full results can be viewed at: http://www.hispanicbaraustin.com/hbaa-committees/law-firm-diversity.html.

Form left: Jenny L. Martinez, Donald E. Godwin and Bruce W. Bowman Jr.

Texas trial lawyer Donald E. Godwin has announced that Bruce W. Bowman Jr. and Jenny L. Martinez have become name shareholders in the newly rebranded trial law firm, Godwin Bowman & Martinez, which has offices in Dallas and Houston.

“Bruce and Jenny have distinguished themselves as outstanding trial lawyers, and are highly regarded for their tireless efforts and dedication to excellence on behalf of our clients,” says Chairman and CEO Donald E. Godwin, a founding member of the firm in 1980. “We are proud to recognize Bruce and Jenny in the rebranding of our firm as we continue our unwavering commitment to the success of our clients.”

Bowman serves as the firm’s Executive vice president and general counsel. Martinez is executive vice president and secretary/treasurer. Together they co-chair the firm’s commercial litigation section.

Bowman represents plaintiffs and defendants in many areas of commercial litigation, including securities, trade secret litigation, trust and estate litigation and professional liability. In a news release, the firm said he played a significant role in the firm’s successful defense of Halliburton during the historic Deepwater Horizon/BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill litigation as a member of the firm’s trial team.  Having been board certified in civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1978, he has been recognized for many years among the ranks of Texas Super Lawyers.  In addition, he is a longtime member of the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).

Martinez is a trial lawyer whose practice includes banking, trust and estate litigation, contracts, business torts, energy, and real estate.  A key member of the firm’s trial team in the successful defense of Halliburton in the landmark Deepwater Horizon/BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill litigation, she has been named multiple times to the list of Texas Super Lawyers, and to D Magazine’s list of the Best Lawyers in Dallas.

Lowenstein Sandler has been recognized for a fifth year by Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers as one of 50 Best Law Firms for Women as a leader in the industry for its best practices in retaining and promoting women lawyers.

In a news release, the firm said its support of flexible schedules and time away from the office, telecommuting privileges, generous leave policies and parenting perks, along with full-time work demands that take into account work-life balance are just a few of the perks that make Lowenstein Sandler a prominent place for women to work. “We are proud to be recognized for our continued commitment to the professional advancement of women in the legal industry” says Donatella Verrico, Chief Human Resources Officer.

Adds Chairman and Managing Partner Gary M. Wingens, “Lowenstein Sandler has long been committed to supporting women in the legal workplace dating back to our founder Alan Lowenstein, a social justice pioneer, who was deeply devoted to creating a positive environment for colleagues of all backgrounds and experiences. We’re honored to receive this recognition for the fifth time.”