Multi-skilled lawyers – a vision of the future?
The end of 2007 saw a small number of firms considering the merits of multi-skilled lawyers. The utopian vision would see a pool of lawyers with a broad-based skillset, available to carry out a number of different legal caseloads. Thus, a situation may arise whereby a private equity lawyer would have cross-over into structured finance. Good client service was the crux behind such a move, but during a period of economic uncertainty, where certain specialisms will not be quite as active as this time 12 months ago, it also seemed to make commercial sense.
Nevertheless, one of the reasons lawyers are so highly valued is their very specific expertise and knowledge in one area. Focusing on one specialism allows for an in-depth market knowledge that makes it hard to envisage how this could ever be achieved with a more generalist approach.
Eversheds’ clients felt much the same and expressed concern over such a move, with the result being that Eversheds have now rejected this new approach. It will be interesting to see how the restructure at Allen & Overy and Freshfields pans out, and whether the multi-skilled lawyer will be a thing of the future or resigned to the rubbish heap. Whilst clients continue to regard the specialist lawyer as a sign of quality and delivering good service, it is hard to imagine much enthusiasm elsewhere.
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One Response to “Multi-skilled lawyers – a vision of the future?”
So called Multi Skilled lawyers are hardly a new concept. For those of us who have practised in the city for 20 years or more it was always the norm. The leading practices like Slaughter and May and Norton Rose (where I spent my early career) expected lawyers to be adaptable. Familiarity with a product or market sector is always helpful and can lead to efficiences but over specialisation is dangerous both for clients and for lawyers careers.