Boutique Firms Better Positioned?
Are firms with lower overhead, cheaper billing rates and less associate leverage better equipped to weather the current downturn? That is the premise of an article in today’s NLJ. The article quotes Jose Astigarraga, chairman of a litigation boutique in Miami who says that the difference between boutiques and big law firms is basically the difference between driving a Lincoln Towncar and a Ferrari.
“When you’re in the Lincoln Towncar [a big law firm] and you go over a bump in the road, you don’t really feel it that much,” he said. “In turn, boutiques are the Ferrari. When you hit a bump, you really feel it. But you can also turn on a dime, which you can’t do in the Towncar.”
I’m not sure that the analogy is a perfect one. The lawyers in the “Towncars” are certainly feeling the bumps right now. But it is true that smaller firms can be more nimble and can adapt more quickly than large bureaucratic firms.
Related posts:
- The Boutique – An Excellent Alternative for Labor and Employment Partners
- To Boutique or Not to Boutique
- Pay to Play in Politics; Pay to Stay in Law Firms
- The Boutique Alternative
- Hitting Law Firms in the Pocketbook
- I am from Akron, OH, but I’d love to work in New York or Los Angeles. Do big-city firms only hire those whose past experience was gained in other large cities?
Big Marketing For You » Blog Archive » Litigation Boutique, Billing Rates, Big Law Firms, Bureaucratic … on December 17th, 2008
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onLitigation Boutique, Billing Rates, Big Law Firms, Bureaucratic …Here’s a quick excerptThe article quotes Jose Astigarraga, chairman of a litigation boutique in Miami who says that the difference between boutiques and big law firms is basically the difference between driving a Lincoln Towncar and a Ferrari. … [...]