Today's law firms are concerned about consolidations, international influences, and
attracting and retaining attorneys. But no matter what the issues are, or what changes take place, the professionals at J.H. Cohn are well prepared to assist you.
Through our dedicated Law Firm Industry Practice, we provide our clients with the highest level of talent and skills, offering guidance based on our knowledge and real-world experience within the legal profession. We deliver our services with the efficiency and responsiveness our clients deserve and demand, and we are passionate about our mission, our value proposition, our clients' success, and our role as leaders within the legal community.
Accounting, Tax, and Consulting Services that Add Value to Law Firms
J.H. Cohn's Law Firm Industry Practice provides attorneys and administrators with a breadth of accounting, consulting, and taxation services designed to help build more profitable and efficient practices.
Our services specific to law firms include:
- Business strategy for growth through mergers and acquisitions
- Industry benchmarking
- Internal control studies
- Infrastructure improvements such as billing processes
- Internal management reporting
- IT consulting
- Opening international offices
- Partner/employee compensation and bonus alternatives
- Partner retreats
- Practice valuations
- Profitability analysis
- Recruitment of financial personnel
- Retirement plans audit
- Risk management review of insurance policies
- Succession planning
- Trust accounting reconciliation and management
We enjoy a well-earned reputation for the high standards we adhere to regarding confidentiality, sensitivity, objectivity, and integrity–and we know these are qualities you value as well. As your firm reacts to changes in the profession, J.H. Cohn provides the appropriate solutions and intelligent guidance you need to support your continued profitability throughout the life cycle of your firm.
The J.H. Cohn Advantage
J.H. Cohn’s Law Firm Industry Practice consists of a team of professionals with expertise in audit, accounting, tax, and consulting services specifically for law firms. The practice meets regularly to discuss changes in the industry, client services, and educational topics that enhance the team’s collective knowledge base.
We help clients drive profits and increase wealth by providing custom solutions based on our in-depth understanding of clients' unique operations and challenges, decades of industry expertise, and close personal contact. We do this while preserving the objectivity and independence required in the performance of our professional services.
We are committed to:
- Enforcing a program of continuing legal education that keeps us at the cutting edge of the legal services sector
- Building a deep understanding of law firm management, the trends and challenges in the legal profession, and the special concerns of the individuals within the firm
- Building strong and meaningful relationships within the profession that provide an advantage for all clients
- Sharing our knowledge with you while respecting client confidentiality because we know that the sum of our experiences with our broad base of law firm clients will enable you to better understand your competition and expose you to best practices
J.H. Cohn's Law Firm Industry Practice provides accounting, consulting, and tax services to more than 100 law firms. Our expertise ensures that J.H. Cohn services will be efficiently tailored to attorneys' unique needs. We are actively involved in the industry's key trade associations including the NJ Association for Legal Administrators (NJALA) and the NJ State Bar Association.
Legal Industry Snapshot
Over 165,000 law firm offices comprise the legal profession in the United States, generating revenue of $140 billion. Although the average firm is small, with one office—six employees, and annual revenue of about $1 million—there are about 150 firms with annual revenue in excess of $100 million and more than 200 lawyers.
Today's attorneys face a multitude of concerns:
- Higher fees for specialization: High rates for specialists helped raise prices for legal services 4 percent compared to a year ago.
- Non-traditional business models: Law firms with new business models are attracting attorneys who want a different pace than traditional law groups including not paying full time salaries, offering telecommuting options, and paying lawyers only when they work.
- Soft economy leads to staff reductions: A soft economy is affecting staff levels at law firms. US law firm employment fell 0.6 percent compared to a year ago.
- Law Firms' Overall Prices Rise Higher than for Consumers : Law firms are asking and receiving higher overall prices from clients, including businesses and consumers.
- Offshore legal work: With labor costs lower and enhanced communication provided by the Internet, companies are now outsourcing legal work to English-speaking foreign countries such as India.
- Personnel management: There is intense competition among newly hired lawyers and high turnover among associates who do not become partners. Today, law firms with more than 100 lawyers may experience turnover rates of 40 percent or more over a three-year period, especially during periods of strong demand.
- Settlements and verdicts: Juries continue to award large dollar amounts for verdicts especially in the areas of asbestos lawsuits, medical malpractice, and class actions. Tort reform is a hot issue because of the limits it puts on the amounts juries can award in punitive damages.
- Dependence on local economy, specific industries: Law firms with a large transactional business (such as in real estate or finance) are strongly affected by swings of the local and national economy.
- Customer concentration: The increasing specialization of law firms means that more firms do business in only one industry (such as real estate, airlines, or investments). Economic forces that negatively impact that industry affect these specialized law firms disproportionately. The average law firm is still small and may get a large percentage of its revenue from a few customers.
- Restrictions due to state regulation: State government regulation of lawyers hampers the growth of smaller law firms by requiring unique state licensing requirements for practicing law.
- Competition from accounting firms that has resulted from CPAs becoming "one-stop shops" for clients. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 may restrict the ability of accounting firms to offer legal services to audit clients, but accounting-related legal firms of the future are creating more competition.
- Do-it-yourself law and non-lawyer competition is a trend that indicates more people are representing themselves or are turning to independent paralegals for legal help.
- Law firm marketing is becoming accepted at firms of all sizes as a necessary competitive advantage.
- Restrictions due to state regulations that are affecting attorneys handling legal issues across state lines.
- Technology improvements are impacting law firms, including the acceptance of digital signatures.
- New rules are expected to encourage attorneys and law firms to engage in pro bono work more frequently, although no disciplinary procedure will be in place to enforce it.
Golden opportunities are also available as changes emerge in the profession.
- Class action lawsuits are increasing.
- Cross-selling services are becoming more commonplace.
- Firms are asked to give more overall business advice.
- Online recordkeeping and storage are making lawyers and staff more efficient.
- Consolidation in the legal industry has been driven by corporate customers' desire to have one law firm handle all their legal needs. In response, legal firms are growing bigger and adding expertise their clients want in new fields like antitrust and international law. Mergers among midsized law firms have also increased.
- Today, most law firms use videoconferencing internally for firmwide departmental meetings and associate training sessions. Now, lawyers and courtrooms are launching new videoconferencing systems for depositions and settlement conferences.
- The sharp rise in the number of small high-tech firms that require legal work and business advice, and the large profits sometimes made when these firms go public, have prompted some legal firms to take equity positions in their clients, often taking stock instead of fees.
- Employees spend an average of seven days away from work a year due to legal life events. Employers who want to attract and retain employees and reduce labor costs are driving the growth in providing group legal services to their employees.
- Clients can sign up for a basic legal plan or a small business legal plan, pay a monthly fee, and get access to an attorney at special rates. Prepaid legal services are used by small businesses and individuals to secure basic legal services without a high retainer fee.
The legal profession is influenced by technology, politics, the economy, and changing legislation. These factors are creating both obstacles and opportunities for small and large firms. At J.H. Cohn, we stay abreast of the issues facing law firms, and are dedicated to developing solutions to address the evolving needs of our legal industry clients.