Law360: George Vincent and Industry Leaders Discuss Legal Job Growth Trends During COVID-19
Law360 spoke with Dinsmore Chairman and Managing Partner George Vincent and other national leaders in the legal industry recently for an article on law firm job growth trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read what they said below.
Amid the contraction sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic last spring, many law firms braced for severe drops in revenues, prompting salary cuts, furloughs and layoffs. But the industry's worst fears did not come to pass, as many practices were able to smoothly transition to remote work environments. Some have also noted that reductions in travel expenses positively impacted firms.
BigLaw firms experienced a 5% revenue growth through the first nine months of 2020, according to a report from Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group and Hildebrandt Consulting, although the biggest and most profitable firms "substantially outperformed" the rest of the industry, it said.
Dinsmore & Shohl LLP Managing Partner George Vincent told Law360 on Monday that legal services work has remained busy throughout the pandemic. He said that a key difference between the pandemic and the 2008 financial collapse was that demand "did not abate" for a lot of his firm's practices.
"[In 2008], the M&A world stopped, public finance stopped. You couldn't remarket debt. The financial markets froze," Vincent said. "This was a different situation."
John A. Cashman, president of legal consulting and recruiting firm Major Lindsey & Africa, also noted that improvements in technology have proved crucial for attorneys.
"The ability to do legal work remotely today is materially different than it would have been had this happened five years ago," he said. "The power of computers and video, that really kicked in. [Lawyers have] been slow to use that stuff, but it's been out there. They were able to do most of their work."
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