THE WAY IT IS

You are stepping back from the daily grind at your law firm to think about the Big Picture and what it is that you are doing. We'll take it from there.

There are two types of law firms: commercial law firms and litigation law firms. You will appreciate this taxonomy better from the perspective of bringing in the business to your firm and the concentration of the 'best' legal talent, whatever jurisdiction you are in.
The litigation law firms are the firms that the general public associates the words lawyers with because they go to court, they wear the wigs and everybody knows that the lawyer goes to court. They generally work with individuals and small to mid sized companies.
The commercial law firms are the ones that keep the business world humming. They help actual businesses prepare contracts, timelines, schedules, achieve clarity and most importantly, they wield the big stick so everyone plays by the rules. If you have an Alpha Wolf Law firm, everyone will leave you alone. These types work with HNIs, RNIs and large companies.

Now the way the practice of the law has evolved you may have got it into your head that litigation is the only way to practice the law but it is a wonder how many billion dollar law firms across the globe are commercial law firms. Their fates seem intertwined to the world of trade and finance businesses.
This narrative matters to you because to follow the law of economics you will be better off as a law firm being a commercial law firm than a litigation law firm and a commercial lawyer than a litigation lawyer. You will also know what sort of entity you will be crushing in the near future as you compete and raid each others' territory.

The question now arises, is litigation a viable practice area for law firms? Commercial law practice areas can sustain the firms without any support from litigation practice areas but can litigation do likewise? For example, preparing a Mortgage Deed can yield $10 million with no drama and Goodwill to all men but for litigation to do likewise all sorts of hourly rates billing procedures and padding will fall into place. Plus the matter should be sophisticated or involve large business enterprises.

Now moving on to the effect of this on talent. Speaking with a random lawyer the other day at the Bar association meeting, it was revealed to yours truly that a move was being planned, by said random lawyer, to move over to corporate law because 'that is where the money is' The marketplace has spoken loudly and quite clearly, anyone with a modicum of common sense will set his sights firmly on a commercial law practice.

But the marketplace is always shifting and changing and responding to new developments, is the commercial law practice area here to stay?
Is this the way it is?