Are You LinkedIn Yet?

I had the pleasure of meeting Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, last week.  Reid was a keynote speaker at the Global Leadership Conference of The Entrepreneurs’ Organization at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California.

Reid talked about the rationale behind the founding of LinkedIn and some of the key functionality that has propelled it to over 10,000,000 users worldwide.   I have had a profile listed on LinkedIn for some time, but have not actively utilized it as part of my networking strategy.  After hearing Reid speak and more fully understanding the new features of Answers, Jobs & Hiring and Groups, I am inspired to begin integrating LinkedIn into my overall daily life.

With effective in-person and electronic networking a key component to long-term success and partner status for most lawyers, one may conclude that not being LinkedIn constitutes career malpractice.    

The Flattening Legal World

The legal industry world is changing dramatically as law becomes more of a business and less of a profession—for the same reasons that Thomas Friedman laid out in his popular and comprehensive book, The World Is Flat.

The unbundling of tasks, so lower-level work can be performed by lower-wage countries, is a viable way to close the perceived “price/value gap” in legal services. One trend I foresaw back in 2005 (when I first began writing about this subject) was that law firms would look at reducing cost structures for fungible services that support the practice of law. (“Fungible” refers to work that can be easily digitized and transferred to lower-wage locations.) Another trend: consolidation of larger firms to achieve cost efficiencies will occur.

Since then, we’ve continued to see law firms grow in size and look for efficiencies on the expense side. Global law firms like Clifford Chance have substantially ramped up support functions to be done off-shore to decrease operating expenses and increase profitability per partner, in order to continue to attract world-class talent.

For more on how all of this affects our industry, including views from others regarding both law firms and in-house counsel, see The Effects of a Flattening Legal World.

My hope is that Legal Purport will be an open forum. Your comments are welcome, and encouraged.

Also visit Lumen Legal and see our informational website: Offshore Legal Services