It”™s not just a buyer”™s market in the realm of real estate. The same holds true for the legal profession.
“We”™ve posted for our attorney positions in the local law schools and on the Internet and received an enormous amount of resumes for those positions,” said Jon Dorf, founder and managing partner of The Dorf Law Firm L.L.P. in Mamaroneck “There are a lot of talented, capable people out there. We”™re fortunate that we have been for the last couple of months in a hiring mode, but I think the private practice has been really hit.”
The firm recently added six new attorneys to its original group.
Industry-speaking, the general restructure of the global economy and the challenges that arise, has significantly impacted those seeking a law degree.
“What”™s interesting about the law school numbers today is 50 to 60 years ago, the demand for legal services outstripped the supply and there wasn”™t this necessity to go out and market yourself,” Dorf said. “That structure has been turned upside down. Today you have supply outstripping the demand. Fifty years ago, you could go in the practice of law and it was a bit of a security blanket because as a general rule, there was always opportunity.”
Lawyers much more mobile today
Ideally speaking, it could have been said that once a partner, always a partner.
“Unless you committed a bad deed, you were there for life,” Dorf said. “Now, that is not the case. A partner could leave a firm and end up taking half of a department with them. You”™re seeing transportability.”
Joel Lever, a founding partner of White Plains-based Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever L.L.P., concurred that large firm downsizings are no longer unusual.
“Because of their size, I truly believe there is ”¦ an identity crisis,” Lever said. “If you”™re not doing well, it”™s easy for a firm to follow a policy and get rid of you. Small firms can”™t do that. We live and die with our people. In larger firms, many have forced retirement at age 60 to 65, which gets rid of the higher earners and replaces them with younger partners who are earning less.”
Lever said that his mid-sized firm traditionally eyed the large firm junior or equity partner as a value-added asset.
“We found we needed to attract a partner or attorneys who can bring their own business,” he said. “You can always help your business by bringing in one client at a time, but a sure way is to bring in a lateral partner who has 20 clients. ”¦ A downsized person in the city will still be a productive person here.”
Expansion and the M&A market
Amid all of the late legal fluidity, mergers and acquisitions have come with the territory.
“Five years ago, I think it was more difficult for a mid-sized firm to compete in the M&A market against the larger firms because there wasn”™t, on the client side, the price/fee sensitivity that there is today,” Dorf said. “I believe there is an opportunity for midsized firms that don”™t necessarily have the overhead that the larger firms have, have the capacity to perform the services and can deliver the services at more competitive rates.”
Intellectual property firm Leason Ellis L.L.P. in White Plains this spring acquired several attorneys and staff from the dissolving IP law giant of Darby and Darby P.C., and took out a second sublet in their now 6,000-square-foot downtown office to accommodate the new workers, according to Peter Sloane, partner.
“With the Recession, a lot of the IP attorneys within general practice firms find they”™ve become unaffordable to their clients, since IP is a cost-sensitive area and I think you”™re seeing the pendulum swinging back to people starting their own IP practices,” Sloane said. “At the same time, people have come to realize it”™s not necessary to have an address on Park Avenue to attract clients. That”™s where Westchester comes in.”
