In this Roundup: a report on the Large Law Firm Leaders Forum (with coda on demise of Goodman and Carr); comments on new New York State advertising ethics rules; and a SharePoint 2007 case study. 

Large Law Firm Leaders Forum
Adam Smith, Esq. has a fabulous report on the “Law Firm Leaders Forum” held in San Francisco last week. Many managing partners attend and participate actively in a discussion about the future of large law firms. My take: “storm clouds on the horizon.” [By the way, you can’t be strategic about legal technology unless you understand the legal business environment.]

Lest anyone think the discussion of the future of firms is just academic, see Law firm Goodman and Carr shutting down (Toronto Globe and Mail, 3/14/07): “the decision to shut down what insiders say is a profitable practice shocked its clients and competitors…. The law firm’s demise is the latest sign of stresses on mid-sized shops. Larger competitors are increasingly aggressive about recruiting top lawyers from mid-sized firms to boost their business.”

NY State Ethics Rule on Lawyer Advertising
New York State recently passed what I consider ill-advised (ridiculous?) ethics rules concerning advertising. One read is that the rules require lawyer-bloggers to keep hardcopy of every blog post (and update to posts). I’ve refrained from commenting because ethics and advertising are not my specialty. I was therefore pleased to see PR guru Berky Belser‘s Rotten to the Core blog post commenting on the rule (at the College of Law Practice Management blog).
See also New York Law Firms Struggle With New Restrictions on Advertising (New York Times, 3/2/07).

Sheppard Mullin SharePoint Case Study
Microsoft SharePoint has gained remarkable mind- and market-share among large law firms. Sheppard Mullin is an early adopter of SharePoint 2007. Found at Sheppard Mullin CKO Tom Baldwin’s Knowledgeline blog, a Microsoft-published case study of SharePoint 2007 at Sheppard Mullin. This is a good read for any firm considering SharePoint; it has some tech detail but focuses more on the benefits the firm has achieved.