Here at Beeman & Muchmore, we are thrilled to share some recent favorable coverage by various publications in the legal industry who have taken notice of our new “GigLaw” model as it coincides with the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. When Beeman & Muchmore first launched almost 2 months ago, we identified the concept of GigLaw, our name for a platform to deliver the exemplary legal services of BigLaw – in our case, Oracle and other software licensing and auditing services – in a highly specialized manner that is free from the inefficiencies of the traditional full-service law firm. It has been incredibly rewarding to watch our GigLaw solution to the woes of BigLaw excite others within the legal industry during these transformative times.
Most recently, Alex Andonovska, writing for the JD Journal, wrote an article titled Big Law Veterans Launch a Virtual Law Firm for a New World. Her article begins with the following:
With COVID-19 casting a harsh light on the outdated, entrenched ways of how legal services are delivered, it was clear as day from the very beginning that the pandemic will turbocharge the industry transformation. The unique nature of the crisis has affected the entire legal ecosystem, forcing the “business as usual” out of the ‘law universe’ and clearing the path for alternative work paradigms long resisted by ‘the old legal order’.
Further commenting on our GigLaw model value proposition, Andonovska continued, “in this current climate of change in the legal field, two partners with 60 years of combined experience in Big Law introduced a new model that has the potential to replace the full-service model.”
We couldn’t agree more. Suffice to say that no single model for the delivery of legal services will fill the chasm left by the rapid erosion of the monolithic BigLaw model. But we do believe our GigLaw model will be followed by others that share our desire to tailor their services directly to their clients’ precise needs and remove the harmful distractions and waste caused by the anachronistic BigLaw model.
Soon enough, our industry will emerge from the pandemic, and it is our sincere hope that we will collectively be wiser and more client-focused at that time. We remain overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we have received from clients and friends and write to share the latest story with our supporters, because we believe it captures so well the spirit and energy of Beeman & Muchmore.
You can read Andonovska’s article in its entirety, including a lengthy interview with us, here.
Additionally, on July 17, 2020, we were graciously mentioned on Twitter by Rick Mitchell (@WakeUpRickM) who writes for Bloomberg Law. His tweet begins, “Two former Big Law intellectual partners recently started virtual firm @BeemanMuchmore, specializing in software licensing and audit-defense counseling. They predict the Covid19 crisis will lead to more ‘Giglaw’ firms like theirs.” Along with his tweet is a link to his article at bloomberglaw.com where he highlights the latest legal news which includes Beeman & Muchmore:
Two former Big Law intellectual property partners who worked together at Arent Fox, Dentons, and Crowell & Moring have founded a virtual law boutique, Beeman & Muchmore, specializing in software licensing and audit-defense counseling. ‘The decision to launch Beeman & Muchmore was made before the pandemic, but the rapid acceptance of remote working will help pave the way for more firms such as ours,’ they said in an interview.
We close with the notion that BigLaw’s weakening prominence may be accelerating faster than anyone originally anticipated. Given these uncertain times and the economic situation, more BigLaw firms appear to be getting ready to cut costs with more layoffs as discussed in this sobering article from July 15, 2020, in Above the Law titled Be Prepared, Because More Biglaw Layoffs Are Coming:
Firms are getting to grips with the idea that the economy will stay down for a while. The next step is structural change. Clients are thinking about how to lower legal costs and still meet their needs, and as we get into the fall, two things will happen: firms don’t want to be seen doing layoffs until they have to, but they’re also realizing the economy will be down for a while, maybe the next year and a half.
And so the cycle we identified in “The Road from BigLaw to Giglaw” continues. Economic downturns lead to BigLaw frantically preserving per partner profits and, therefore, its place in the Am Law 100. It does so by laying off attorneys, shrinking the pool of equity partners and raising rates. While these unpopular practices led to a paradigm shift with the delivery of legal services with the Great Recession, we believe that paradigm shift will be all but completed by the time our industry emerges from the pandemic-induced economic fallout.
Acknowledging that this is a long and hard road, we could not be more excited about the future of our industry.
Published on 7/27/2020
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