China Law Boutique Mystique
Another good article on why small is the new big, this one in Washington Law & Politics Magazine on law firm boutiques, including my own. We are the token "international law boutique."
The article talks about lawyers being reluctant to talk about fees "primarily because of antitrust concerns" and then quotes me on my firm's typical fees. I am sorry, but I find it hard to believe that a law firm's being upfront about its fees is going to lead to antitrust scrutiny in the highly competitive legal industry. But I will be sure to file away the "antitrust concerns" line to pull out the next time someone asks me a question I just do not feel like answering.
I found it interesting how closely the stories of the others interviewed matched our own. Anyway, enjoy the read.
Comments (2)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endSheng - December 26, 2006 3:07 AM
Quite enlightening writings.
As I know, some Beijing lawyers are also thinking about going boutique.Two directions have constantly been proposed and argued over. One is to focus on a certain, specific area of practice, as suggested in the article you cited(A great read for me), while another is to focus on a specific industry, say, film&television(as popularly categorized in China). What's your thought about the latter option, of its upsides and downsides Dan? It is a viable option from an American lawyer's perspective? I feel the trend here in Beijing still is dominantly going big.
China Law Blog - December 26, 2006 9:21 AM
Sheng --
Great question.
I do not know the domestic Chinese market to give a great answer, but I think both ways of carving out a niche ought to work. They certainly have in the US, where it is actually commont to have boutique firms that cater to a particular industry. Nearly every good sized city has at least a construction law firm and a real estate law firm, and many cities have entertainment law firms, municipal law firms, health law firms, aviation law firms and maritime law firms. These may sound like they are broken out by area of law, but they really are not; they are broken out by industry. The construction law firm, for instance, will have lawyers who focus on labor law as it relates to construction, lawyers who focus on transactional work as it relates to construction, and lawyers who focus on litigation as it relates to construction. The maritime firm will also have lawyers who focus on all sorts of different legal areas, but for the maritime industry. The same is true of real estate firms, entertainment law firms, health law firms, aviation law firms and municipal law firms.
Many of the big firms have groupings by industry, beyond even those set out above. I am aware of firms with a "plastics" group, a "schools" group, and a "commodities" group.
I do not see why China should be any different. The more the law and the legal market evolves, the more need there is for specialization and the more room there is for niches.