
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993                   TAG: 9310090024
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

LAW OF THE (CORPORATE) JUNGLE ALTERS LEGAL PROFESSION'S WAYS

IN THESE LEAN TIMES, law firms find themselves reducing their staffs and settingcompetitive fees - just as other businesses have had to do. Pressured by a soft economy, their corporate clients using them less often, law firms are rethinking the way they do business: They're cutting their staffs and even bargaining over fees.

In the 1980s, the legal profession rose to such prominence that college students practically fell over each other to sign up for the Law School Admission Test.

Even entry-level associates earned big salaries. Those who achieved the more senior status of partner were virtually guaranteed wealth and prestige.

But 1990s competition has brought a different reality.

"In some ways, we're being treated the same way as a parts supplier," said Robert L. Berner Jr., managing partner of the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie, the nation's largest law firms.

A survey by The National Law Journal in its Sept. 27 issue found that nearly half of the nation's 250 biggest law firms cut their legal staffs this year for the second consecutive year.

By contrast, in 1988, when the legal profession began to realize it was getting too bulky, 11 percent of the big firms reduced their staffs.

Revenue is under pressure, too.

Instead of charging hourly fees for services, methods like "value billing" and "alternate billing" have emerged. Those allow clients to negotiate flat fees, although there may be variables, said Phil J. Shuey, chairman of the law practice management section of the American Bar Association.

All in all, does this dim prospects for a law career?

No way, judging from the numbers.

The lawyer population in the United States, now around 850,000, is expected to exceed 1 million by 2000, Shuey said.

And they can still make plenty of money.

The National Law Journal found the top starting salary among the 250 largest firms was $86,000, at the New York firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.

by CNB