The Failing Law Firm: Symptoms and Remedies

As institutions, firms face different, and in some cases, more intense structural challenges than most-if-not-all others. They are not held to the same standards of transparency, financial hygiene, and infrastructural-sterility as their publicly-traded clients. Leadership and management can all too easily be unprepared for their incumbency and overwhelmed by double duties. The firm s product is highly mobile and prone to flight during even minimal financial dips. The Failing Law Firm was initially written with the purpose of illuminating the symptoms of a struggling firm. After some research and contemplation, the author came to understand that by the time most symptoms revealed themselves, it is often too late for the attorney, management, or leadership to do something about them. This deeper understanding provides readers with a tool that is geared more toward predicting destabilization, rather than just defining it once it is happening."

David J. Parnell is co-founder and Principal of Edward, Anthony & Steele, LLC (EAS), a Manhattan, NY-based legal recruiting and coaching firm that services the professional needs of some of the highest caliber attorneys in the world.