I'm sure that many of our readers may disagree with my colleague Brian's statement yesterday that salary is not the only driving factor impacting a young lawyer's decision to join a law firm.  I'm not a lawyer, and I didn't go to law school, nor did I carry a huge amount of debt upon my graduation from college, but I was fortunate enough to graduate with an Economics degree and a minor in Finance when the job market was considerably more robust than it is today.  I entertained no fewer than six job offers out of college, from Wall Street Investment banks to commercial banks.  And it's the absolute truth when I tell you that I took the job with one of the lowest salaries because they offered a perk that no other company came close to matching...

The post yesterday by my colleague Brian exposed some interesting ideas about maintaining profitability.  Another one of my colleagues, Bo Yancey, previously published an article in the 2009 LexisNexis Business of Law Insight on a related topic, exploring various 2009 scenarios to "right size" firms in the face of reduced demand and downward pressure on pricing.  Bo draws a similar conclusion to Brian's assertions - the four scenarios he addressed in the article show that firms cannot maintain profitability by just reducing associate headcount, and he encourages firms to explore structural leverage.

Social networking has evolved significantly from pressing the flesh at boring seminars and dinner events to the online world of LinkedIn and other such sites, and at LexisNexis we're proud to be a part of that world now. Today marks the launch of Martindale-Hubbell Connected. At Redwood we have always endorsed the idea of business development from within - it's easier, faster, and less expensive to bring in new business from existing clients than to pound the pavement in search of new clients, and given today's economic client, this is even more important. However, the cost effectiveness of online networking can change that equation. The opportunity to connect online in a private, authenticated network with General Counsel and other legal professionals across the globe through existing trusted relationships is one key to the success of business development in a time of budgetary constraints.

It is part of my job to make sure I am up to speed on all the economic movements of firms here and abroad as this economic downturn has not trickled down but headed full- fledged into the legal industry. Each day I read article after article about associate and staff layoffs at firms of various sizes and peer status. In addition I attend conferences and listen to Managing Partners, CFOs, and other C-level staff address how to combat this downturn through various actions used to cut costs. At most conferences there has been an inevitable line of presentations on reducing overhead along with addressing the headcounts of staff and salaried timekeepers.   If I have to hear about controlling space planning and technology expenditures anymore I think my head might spin.