People ask me this frequently. To be honest, every so often, I get a little pang: maybe my whole indie-law schtick is going to be DOA. Maybe I should consider a firm job.

The one firm I've occasionally been curious about is Quinn Emanuel. They only do litigation, they do a lot of trials, they don't wear suits to work, they're a relatively new firm (i.e. the named partners are still alive & working there). They sound kind of cool. But then I read something like this:

As Quinn Emanuel grows -- it now has 200 associates -- it's become harder to find the smaller cases that the firm takes at reduced rates to give to young lawyers. Even a highly regarded young partner like [38-year-old Shon] Morgan hasn't taken a case to trial ... B. Dylan Proctor, a sixth-year associate, says he's argued roughly 15 motions in court and was the third chair at a two-month federal trial.

"The trial issue [for associates] is one we're keenly aware of, and it's a problem," [founding partner] Quinn says. "We want to do the complex matters, but, by definition, the associates won't have much of a speaking role."

Let's be clear here. The firm specializes in trials. There is a 38-yr-old 'partner' (= probably non-equity) who has never been to trial. What are his chances of moving up at the firm? Um, pretty small.

How about the other guy? He's been working six years and he's argued an average of 1 motion every 5 months. And third chair at a trial = nothing. Where is QE going to get its next generation of trial attorneys? Not from its associate pool, clearly.

QE's problem illustrates the fatal flaw of the hourly firm. When you're billing by the hour, the incentive is to move every task in the firm to the highest-billing attorney who can plausibly be assigned to it. There's no reason to put a $250/hr associate on a trial when you can put a $550/hr partner on it. Trouble is, there's never a situation when it will make sense, and the associate will never do a trial.

Compare this to a contingency firm, who only gets paid when they win. Every case is a risk, so the incentive is to take as many cases as possible (to diversify the case portfolio) and in the interests of conserving capital, push every task down to the lowest-paid attorney who can plausibly be assigned to it. The associates at that firm may be paid less initially, but they're going to get better experience.

06 Aug 06