Fifty-two percent of law firm leaders responding to Altman Weil’s Law Firms in Transition Survey (PDF) said their equity partners are not sufficiently busy. Sixty-two percent said nonequity partners are not busy enough, and 25 percent said associates don’t have enough work. A summary is here; Bloomberg Big Law Business and the Am Law Daily (sub. req.) have stories.
Eighty-eight percent of the leaders said they have “chronically underperforming lawyers” at their firms. When asked why, 82 percent identified weak business development skills and 59 percent said flat or declining market demand was part of the problem.
The survey also found:
Sixty-five percent of law firm leaders say their partners resist most change efforts, up from 44 percent in 2015. Yet 72 percent of the leaders believe the pace of change will continue to increase. “There is a very concerning misalignment between what law firm leaders believe regarding the pace of change and what their partners believe or are willing to do,” the report says.
