How far can law firms go before clients have had enough? Increased billing rates and high associate bonuses in the face of an uncertain economy may have finally pushed clients to the limit. I'm Lisa Shuchman, Executive Editor of Law.com International, bringing you this week's edition of The Global Lawyer—our weekly summary of the major news and trends affecting the global legal industry. |
Protests against China President Xi Jinping and his government’s “zero-COVID” policy have rocked China over the past few weeks. Rare protests erupted that began with calls for an easing of COVID restrictions but morphed into attacks on the Communist Party and even on Xi personally. It was the largest show of public defiance in China since the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. Beijing had finally pushed its citizens too far. In the world of Big Law, have law firms also gone too far? Their clients think so. While parallels between China and global law firms are obviously limited, it is worth noting that just as China pushed its citizens past their limit, Big Law may have finally pushed its clients to a breaking point. Law firms for a long time have been angering corporate legal departments with ever-higher billing rates. So when news broke that law firms are planning aggressive rate hikes in 2023, it wasn’t surprising that the in-house legal community reacted with outrage, especially since the firms know that their clients are under pressure as the economic outlook sours. To be sure, the heads of company legal departments have been complaining about outside counsel rates for years, threatening to take their work elsewhere or bring more of it in-house. And they still kept going back. But this year will be different, they insist. |
