Wake Up Call: Florida Foreclosure Law Firm Closes Doors

Below is a list of the most recent developments in the legal industry:

• Large law firms are taking market share of intellectual property litigation away from boutiques by using more junior lawyers to handle matters, according to a new report by LexisNexis CounselLink. At the same time, the big firms are also decreasing their partners’ hourly rates, which fell from a median of $656 in 2011 to $622 in 2014 at the largest 50 law firms LexisNexis reviewed in its report. (Big Law Business)

• Butler & Hosch, a Florida-based real estate law firm with 11 offices and 700 lawyers and staff that advised on foreclosure and bankruptcy matters, has abruptly closed its doors . Employees were told of the closing in a May 14 memo when the firm’s CEO Bob Hosch announced that he had stepped down as CEO and Senior Partner. Hosch blamed the firm’s expansion efforts as a primary cause for the firm’s collapse. As foreclosures declined after the recession, the firm tried to stabilize itself by acquiring several firms over the past year. “Unfortunately, BH grew too fast and could not merge processes from the acquired entities quickly enough to meet our economic forecasts, which resulted in short term cash crunches and our ability to attract new capital in the interim,” Hosch wrote. (Orlando Sentinel)

• Greenberg Traurig has hired the former co-head of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft’s renewables practice and head of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission group. Gregory Lawrence will join Greenberg Traurig as a partner in Boston and Washington, D.C. Lawrence had first joined Cadwalader from McDermott Will & Emery in early 2011 as part of a nine-partner energy and commodities team. (The American Lawyer)

• Elizabeth Wurtzel, the best-selling author and former associate of Boies Schiller & Flexner, shared some candid thoughts about what she feels is a major problem at big law firms: inefficiency. In a recent video interview, Wurtzel said that “Most of what anybody does at a law firm, actually... there is no use for,” and that based on her experience in Big Law, she thinks that “nobody knows how to use judgment; Everybody just knows how to do too much.” (Big Law Business)

• The number of alternative fee arrangements between law firms and in-house counsel are on the rise . According to a recent report by Altman Weil, nearly 90 percent of firms with 1,000 lawyers or more have increased the use of alternative fee arrangements over the past year. At Reed Smith, alternative fee arrangements now account for 30 percent of the firm’s $1.5 billion in revenue. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

• Ricardo Anzaldua, Executive Vice President and General Counsel at MetLife, said that he wishes his outside counsel would communicate with him in “business friendly language” rather than legalese. “I really don’t find enough of that in the outside counsel,” Anzaldua said. In an interview, he outlined his views on the changing relationship between law firms and in-house counsel, and addressed some of the company’s regulatory concerns. (Big Law Business)

• Dentons has announced the launch of a new Silicon Valley legal tech “accelerator,” called NextLaw Labs. It is a wholly owned by Dentons and will focus on improving three types of technology products: those co-developed for the firm’s clients, those developed for the firm’s lawyers, and existing technology that needs investment. (Big Law Business)