Photo by Molly: https://goo.gl/SE6gqE
To our knowledge, there is no person more knowledgeable about the health and well-being of the market for legal services in Minnesota than Mr. Brian McMahon, Managing Director of the Minneapolis office of Major, Lindsey & Africa (“MLA”). MLA might be the most preeminent legal recruiting company worldwide. Mr. McMahon circulated a report this week from Hildebrandt Legal Consulting and Citi, adding his own condensed local insights.
So, what’s up, Doc?
According to Hildebrandt Legal Consulting, Big Law is devouring its smaller colleagues. That is, the 50 largest U.S. law firms are hurting if not killing the top 100-200 law firms. This is great news for some high-powered Minneapolis big firm partners and bad news for the regional firms these top lawyers ditch for more money, more national and international reach.
The path to partnership at the large firms is tilting away from “organic” partners (aka, “internal promotions”) toward lateral hires.
Old lawyers are dying, too often without transitioning their client relationships to younger lawyers.
And, finally, some good news: “litigation is making a comeback.” Yay.
[The full Citi Hildebrandt Report is here.]