Practice Finance

Larger law firms had ‘buoyant performance’ in first quarter of 2024; revenue, demand and rates are up

Law firms had a robust first quarter of 2024, helped by growth in billing rates, according to two reports released within the past week.

May 7, 2024 8:51 AM CDT

Gender bias suit against Lewis Brisbois cites ‘sycophantic’ attorney favoritism, ‘systemic business deficiencies’

"Systemic business deficiencies" rooted in mismanagement at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith had a disparate impact on a female former partner suing the law firm for alleged bias, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Apr 22, 2024 10:07 AM CDT

Winston & Strawn will provide reduced-cost legal services for routine tasks under Winston Legal Solutions umbrella

Winston & Strawn is offering its clients a lower-cost alternative to outsourced legal services that uses attorneys trained by the law firm for more routine legal tasks.

Apr 4, 2024 2:48 PM CDT

This BigLaw firm surpasses $7B in revenue, but that’s not metric being watched by many firms

The nation’s top grossing law firm has crossed the $7 billion line. Kirkland & Ellis had $7.208 billion in gross revenue for 2023, a 10.6% increase.

Mar 27, 2024 8:36 AM CDT

The fate of billable hours is in the hands of artificial intelligence

The billable hour has long been the subject of much debate. Whether you love it or hate it, the billable hour could face an existential crisis, thanks to the rapid introduction of generative artificial intelligence tools.

Mar 12, 2024 2:11 PM CDT

How lawyers can use Substack to generate business

Founded in 2017, Substack, which is a publishing platform open to anyone and everyone who has something to write, has recently attracted a slew of lawyers and attorney-adjacent writers who realized how much it could help their careers.

Mar 1, 2024 1:18 PM CST

Kasowitz Benson sues former Gibson Dunn partner for nearly $500K in latest suit seeking legal fees

Kasowitz Benson Torres is seeking nearly $500,000 in legal fees from a former Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in New York state court.

Feb 29, 2024 2:34 PM CST

Boosted by spike in negotiated rates, law firms return to profitability, report says

Law firms returned to profitability in 2023 as “worked rates” accelerated throughout the year, according to the Law Firm Financial Index report for the fourth quarter of 2023 by the Thomson Reuters Institute.

Feb 13, 2024 3:16 PM CST

Schnader Harrison used retirement contributions to fund operations, pay equity partners, suit alleges

The defunct law firm Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis is accused in a lawsuit of commingling contributions to the firm’s 401(k) plan with the firm’s general assets for months at a time and using the money to make distributions to equity partners.

Feb 12, 2024 12:53 PM CST

BigLaw associates ‘have never had it better;’ they are working fewer hours, survey says, and making more money

Lawyer head count is growing, while productivity is declining, according to a year-end survey of more than 130 larger law firms released this week by Wells Fargo’s Legal Specialty Group.

Feb 1, 2024 12:56 PM CST

Quinn Emanuel disclosure order highlights relatively new product: judgment preservation insurance

Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan must disclose terms of judgment preservation insurance that it allegedly bought before distributing a $185 million fee award to partners, according to a U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge.

Jan 31, 2024 3:39 PM CST

Streamlining Legal Billing: An overview of online payment-processing tools

Updated: This article is the third in a series that explores legal tools for law firms to increase profitability. Previously, we discussed time-tracking software for lawyers and legal billing software.

Oct 23, 2023 8:19 AM CDT

Retired Judge Posner must face suit alleging he failed to pay leader of his pro se center

Former federal appeals Judge Richard Posner must face a lawsuit alleging that he never paid a promised $120,000 annual salary to an employee who co-led a pro se center for nearly a year and a half.

Sep 27, 2023 2:36 PM CDT

‘I see legal finance moving into ubiquity,’ says litigation funding company co-COO

Ari Kaplan recently spoke with David Perla, the co-chief operating officer at Burford Capital, a litigation funding company and a leading provider of legal finance.

Sep 25, 2023 8:18 AM CDT

Litigation funder would make 37,000% return on its investment in litigation over oil company seizure

Litigation funding company Burford Capital would receive about $6.2 billion under a federal judge’s order requiring Argentina to pay likely damages of about $16 billion for its 2012 seizure of an oil and gas company.

Sep 12, 2023 2:36 PM CDT