New York Pulse

Expert Analysis

• Nonequity Partner Boom Forces Lawyers To Pick A Lane

  With firms increasingly offering the nonequity partnership tier, the position can become either a parking spot to help build a book of business or a permanent landing zone, and for those who want to become equity partners, business development matters more than ever, says Kate Reder Sheikh at Major Lindsey.

• Series

  RFP Reset: Focus On Execution, Not Just Expertise

  Law firms that treat responses to requests for proposal as concrete evidence of staffing, budgeting, communication and project management discipline will be better positioned to win business from legal departments than firms that tout generic credentials alone, says LaResa Young at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

• 3 Ways Firm Leaders Can Nurture AI Fluency

  Lawyers can’t develop artificial intelligence fluency from continuing legal education courses, webinars or email updates, so firm leaders must foster conditions that are conducive to attorney learning if they want AI investments to deliver their promised return, says Adrienne Prentice at Keep Company.

• Series

  Being A Singer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  Before law school, I spent seven years trying to make it as a professional singer in Los Angeles, and nearly everything I learned about preparation, humility, confidence and more has followed me into my legal practice, says Jessica Caterina at Moses & Singer.

• The GC's 1st 90 Days: How To Build Trust With The CEO

  During the early days in the general counsel role, establishing a CEO relationship that holds under pressure is dependent on earning access, communicating in business terms and advising candidly — all before a crisis arises, says Chaka Patterson, former general counsel at Adtalem Global Education.

• Series

  Biz Development Tip Of The Month: Harness Client Trust

  Clients stay with counsel not simply because their lawyers follow the rules, but because they feel safe, respected and heard, making trust essential to business development, especially in high-stakes matters where reputational risk runs high, says Derrelle Janey at Olshan Frome.

• Series

  Legal Tech Talks: Summize GC On Operating Strategically

  Lexi Lutz, general counsel of Summize, discusses how legal tech can make lawyers more proactive and less tied up in repetitive process work, so that they can spend more time acting as real business partners.

• How Associates Can Use AI To Gain A Biz Development Edge

  Junior lawyers can harness artificial intelligence to identify where they are gaining traction with clients and build a data-driven business development foundation long before conversations about partnership track begin, says Tigist Kassahun at Vinson & Elkins.

• Law Firm AI Rollouts Depend On Buy-In, Not Bigger Budgets

  Recent research demonstrates that the organizational qualities that make for a good associate experience, like strong leadership, are also strengths that prove critical to successful artificial intelligence implementation, say Cait Evans at Chambers and Partners, and Vivek Mohan and Meredith Williams-Range at Gibson Dunn.

• Series

  Bass Fishing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

  Landing a trophy striped bass and closing a big deal both require cultivating the patience to finesse — not force — your way to desired outcomes, changing course when your old approach isn’t working and learning from the ones that got away, says Jon Ruiss at Alston & Bird.

• Trump's EO Puts AI Agent Governance On GC Agenda

  Section 4 of President Donald Trump's executive order promoting the advancement of artificial intelligence innovation and security establishes a federal baseline around AI agents, so general counsel cannot wait for enforcement to define the standard, says Camilo Artiga-Purcell at Kiteworks.

• Series

  RFP Reset: Standardize Pricing Requests

  To keep up with rising legal costs amid an industry overhaul fueled by artificial intelligence, legal departments can make outside counsel requests for proposal more defensible and cost-effective by making pricing requests uniform, requiring comparable fee templates and evaluating staffing assumptions, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

• Making Legal Cents: Create Marketing Clients Find Useful

  The law firm marketing efforts with the best return on investment are things that actively provide value to potential clients: practical business guidance, uncluttered proposals that anticipate their questions and opportunities to participate in curated industry conversations, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Strategic Consulting.

• Law Firm Leaders Should Adopt Founding Fathers' Bold Ideas

  To ensure continued success, law firm leaders helming their firms through the legal industry revolution should take inspiration from the Founding Fathers' bold decisions, such as James Madison's abandonment of the Articles of Confederation and George Washington's trust in junior officers', says Samuel Pond at Pond Lehocky.

• The AI Ownership Question Firms Can't Afford To Skip

  The artificial intelligence conversation among law firm leaders has advanced from adoption to governance and business impact, but it hasn’t resolved who maintains ownership and operational responsibility, which should be determined by the range of functions that AI touches, says Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate.