Banking Law

Look At Me, Ma! I Gotta Brand New Practice Group!

While the world teeters on the precipice of financial ruin, the legal profession-at least in the good old U.S. of A.-revs up its engine of avarice and guns for the finish line that all men of good will and charitable understanding race toward: wealth beyond the dreams of Croesus.

At least two Tampa Bay area law firms created special cadres of lawyers in new practice groups focused on business related to the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

Commonly referred to as the financial bailout plan, the act and the resulting additional governmental regulation, uncertainty and other issues are expected to generate millions of dollars in legal fees as lawyers target opportunities for clients and themselves.

Nearly 100 lawyers from Holland & Knight's various offices are participating in the firm?s new Financial Recovery Team practice, which includes some Tampa lawyers.

?We?re leveraging our experience and expertise with an interdisciplinary team,? said Steven Nesmith, one of five team coordinators and a lawyer in Holland & Knight?s Washington office.

"Special cadres of lawyers in new practice groups." "Leveraging expertise." Doesn't all that hype send-ala Chris Matthews-a "thrill up your leg"? Or, to the contrary, does it remind you of the same laugh-worthy marketing blather that accompanied the "subprime mortgage practice group" promotions of earlier this year?

In the old days, the rain makers gathered about themselves their minions, who possessed whatever skill sets the Big Dogs thought useful in assisting the client, and, raising their hands heavenward, would shout (as The Prophet Senator Obama might exclaim): "Behold His Mighty Hand!" (Rambo McCain would also love to shout such a phrase, but he can't raise his arms above shoulder height). Anyone who would suggest the need for a catchy new "team name" would be banished to the Austin office, there to toil in the fields of low-to-no bonus with the rest of the fruits and nuts.

A large, old-line Denver, Colorado, law firm, has even thought it wise to promote a "Changing Markets Practice Group."

The changing markets group will ?provide an integrated response to each client?s specific issues and needs as they relate to the changing business environment,? the firm said in its statement.

One of the benefits of writing this blog is that I get to hear not only from the seriously disturbed but, occasionally, from the seriously witty. As one old-time law firm management consultant wrote to me about this latest approach to marketing: "Are they saying that until they organized this new practice group, they were not able to 'provide an integrated response to each client's specific issues and needs as they relate to the [always] changing business environment'? What the heck were they doing to service clients through previous changes in the business environment?" Such observations can cast a little ray of sunshine on even the gloomiest day.

I realize that the primary purpose of these announcements is simply to get the name of the firm in the press, so that potential clients say to themselves, "Oh, yeah! Those guys!" Still, you have to wonder if the old saw, "any publicity is good publicity," is always true.

Full post as published by Bank Lawyers Blog on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).