With so much being written about the changes afoot in the legal ecosystem, it is a good time to revisit the practical definition of some key terms. Here is a sampling:
- Chinese Wall: a term applied to a conflict that involves lots of money and the construct by which it is swept under the rug
- Partnership Track : an archaic term that once described a career trajectory at a law firm
- Partner: once synonymous with “tenured”, it now applies meaningfully only to law firm rainmakers who, themselves, are increasingly peripatetic.
- Alternative Providers: a pejorative applied to law firms and legal service providers who do not conform to the traditional BigLaw economic model
- PPP: the quintessential BigLaw metric; see also “hubris” as well as “lateral bait”
- Virtual Law Firm: another pejorative applied to law firms and service providers who do not share BigLaw’s “edifice envy” and, instead, rely on technology and a different economic model to drive down costs and promote efficiency
- e-Discovery: formerly sometimes referred to as “The Lawyers’ Economic Relief Act of the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries”; now the province of metric driven companies who have commoditized it
- RFP: an anathema to most, it is a process that often compares apples with oranges; see also “Royal F–king Pain.”
- Bespoke Legal Work: an urban fiction quickly being replaced by “commoditized tasks”
- Legal Supply Chain: until recently, an unbundled collection of tasks and providers in need of integration
- Project Management: historically, something inapplicable and beneath lawyers; now, another new element in the legal delivery process
- Budgets: see “Project Management”, supra.
- Law Graduate: generally, someone who has incurred $120K of law school debt (in addition to undergraduate obligations) and who has a 50/50 chance of securing legal licensure-required employment within 9 months of graduation
- Associate: in BigLaw, an attorney who has about a 5% chance of becoming a partner (not necessarily an equity partner)
- Law Firm Merger: commonly mistaken for an acquisition by the firm with the higher PPP; also referred to as a lifeline to forestall bankruptcy
- Swiss Verein: an organizational structure promoting brand leveraging; see also “tents in the bazaar”
- Mentorship: once a key element of legal training, it is becoming as rare as making equity partner at BigLaw
- Service Partner: the experienced workhouse at BigLaw; see “Partner”,
- Law Firm: Historically, a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. What constitutes “the practice of law” is now under serious market evaluation, suggesting law firms will be something different soon.
- Lawyer: Historically, one who exercises legal judgment in the representation of clients. see “Law Firm” supra; a new definition is forthcoming.
