Category Archives: BigLaw

Happy New Year and Full Steam Ahead

As we head into 2015, our major law firms are by and large optimistic with respect to their revenue and profitability, and eager to take opportunistic gambles on lateral talent as well as ventures into new markets.   This optimism is tempered however with the still-fresh memories of the brutal financial crisis of 2008 and the unprecedented law firm layoffs that followed, coupled with heightened sensitivity to the reality of the ongoing avalanche of major law firm collapses at a rate of one every year-and-a-half since the year 2000.

As such, while law firm managers are eager to grow strategically, they do so  with heightened due diligence and caution;  no firm wants to be the next Bingham McCutcheon, Dewey & LeBouef, Howrey, Heller Ehrman, Wolf Block, McKee Nelson, Thacher Profit, Thelen, Dreier or Brobeck.  Similarly, no attorney wants to be on board the next Titanic as it starts to sink.

As we enter our fifteenth year in business, Hanover Legal remains constantly vigilant of the health of our major law firms both financially and culturally and prepared to assist our finest attorneys in their efforts to secure spots at those most likely to provide enhanced stability as well as financial and cultural well-being to them going forward, and reciprocally to our finest firms in the increasingly fierce competition for top talent on the lateral attorney market.

We wish all our firm and attorney clients a healthy, happy and prosperous 2015!

37 Signs That Your Firm May Be Sinking

It does not take a legal market expert to know that the landscape of major law firms is changing like that of the polar ice caps. Since 2000 at least nine firms have collapsed from their perches amidst the Am-Flawed 100 directly into oblivion, namely: Dewey & LeBoeuf, Howrey, Heller Ehrman, Thacher Proffitt, McKee Nelson, Wolf Block, Dreier, Thelen, and Brobeck — or on average one firm every one and a half years.

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Happy Holidays from Hanover Legal!

As we fast approach the edge of the fiscal cliff and our first peek into 2013, Hanover Legal urges our clients to proceed cautiously.

Despite the enormous market uncertainty ahead, we are hopeful that our Congress will agree on a budget in the nick of time and our economy will be spared free-fall and the consequent unfathomable market casualties. On the flip side, if the storm is even nearly as dramatic as many fear, our strongest, most agile and best managed firms will enjoy a lateral feeding frenzy the likes of which the legal market has never before witnessed.

No matter how severe or not 2013 turns out to be, we promise to stay by your side offering our assessments and advice as we have done continuously since our founding in 2000 and during each and every market cataclysm we’ve encountered along the way.

May good karma be with us in 2013 and our market gods gentle. With that, please accept our warmest wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013!