An Attorneys Book of Business - Article Example

Document drafting is no longer the crowning glories of a lawyer’s worth but rainmaking abilities and a huge book-of-business have become the yardsticks of his legal competence. In gauging, for example, which associate should ascend the ladder of equity partnership, legal firms today decide almost solely on the basis of a lawyer’s book-of-business which should equal to the value of his clients. Moreover, a book-of-business’ crucial role does not end upon gaining equity partnership but is made a perpetual barometer of a lawyer’s value throughout his professional life.

De-equitization, among others, can be slapped him once his book-of-business ceases being profitable to the firm. The inordinate emphasis on an attorney’s book-of-business however, engenders a host of maladies that can precipitate the decline of the legal profession as a whole as it highlights the commercialization of the profession, erodes the quality of the legal profession, puts psychological and emotional strains on lawyers, destroys intrafirm collegiality, and encourages disloyalty of clients.

The objective of this paper is to conduct a critical examination of the effects of placing excessive importance on a lawyer’s book-of-business to the extent that it is made the sine qua non of his existence as a legal practitioner in law firms. To successfully proceed with the conduct of this examination, it is important that the paper first delves into the historical and evolutionary aspects of the legal profession that seemed to have underhandedly and surreptitiously taken place through the years and staggeringly transformed the law profession from its Jeffersonian ideals and principles to the blatant commercialistic inclinations it exhibits today to discover the forces that steered it to its present course.

Concurrently, the changes in the measures employed in client development that accompanied the revolutionary changes in the profession are also observed and noted.