I recommend you read this Law360 article and my good friend Keith Maziarek’s take on the drivers behind the data.
There’s a great need for legal industry professionals to help law firms navigate the challenges and opportunities related to COVID-19 and the year ahead.
But there’s much more than meets the eye when it comes to the data in this article.
The article is titled, “Law Firms Logged ‘Truly Remarkable’ Profit Growth In 2020” -and well that’s not exactly true. Especially not for all firms and lawyers.
What concerns me about this article is that the headline is misleading and was designed to draw in the reader.
Yes there were bright spots but don’t be fooled that it was a great year for the legal industry.
Many jobs and salaries were cut. Furloughs happened. Summer and new associate programs were scrapped. Clients took longer to pay their law firms. Demand is flat or down in most practices. Firms still have major office expenses while navigating how to manage remote workforces.
This was an incredibly hard year for many individuals and organizations – and law firms. Yes there were bright spots but don’t be fooled that it was such a great year for the legal industry. Many jobs and salaries were cut. Clients are taking longer to pay their outside law firms. Demand is flat or down in most practices. Firms still have all of the expenses of their offices and are navigating how to manage a remote workforce.
When it comes to content marketing, you must deliver on the promise of your headline. If you have a great headline but don’t back it up with valuable content, or your headline is misleading, you haven’t delivered on your promise to your audience.
As the article notes, “The researchers at Wells Fargo predicted that 2021 will be another strong financial year for law firms. Some factors they say will likely play into that include an impending fiscal stimulus and pent-up demand for mergers and acquisitions, litigation, regulatory enforcement and changing tax laws.”
I guess we will have to wait and see.