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American Lawyer Book Review: Richard Susskind's anaysis of the future state of law firms

Storm Warning – In a new book, futurist Richard Susskind finds most firms unprepared for the challenges ahead.

  • “…my analysis suggests that law firms in the coming decade and beyond will be driven relentlessly by their clients to reduce their costs. For most firms, despite their current hesitancy, I predict that this will lead eventually to the deployment and execution of alternative sourcing strategies. And, in turn, we will witness the end of leverage—at best the pyramid (with partners at the top and less experienced lawyers at the base) will move from being broad-based to narrow-based. No longer will firms aspire to building large teams of junior lawyers as the basis of their profitability. “To survive,” in the memorable words of [economist] Theodore Levitt (in his seminal article Marketing Myopia [in the Harvard Business Review ]), lawyers “will have to plot the obsolescence of what now produces their livelihood.”
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