Pivoting From Big Law
Photo by Allison Browning on Pexels By Murray Gottheil | May 20, 2025 Sometimes I meet a young lawyer whose career goal is to work in Big Law. That might not be my first choice, but they should go for it as long as they know what they are getting into. This article is not about those […]
Sometimes, I Just Don’t Care About The Client’s Damn Budget
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | May 1, 2025 A young lawyer named Eve called me today about a fee dispute. She had quoted an hourly rate without providing an estimate and issued an interim bill for the time spent. The client did not think it should have cost that much […]
A Masterclass on Quoting Fees For Lawyers Who Bill by the Hour
By Murray Gottheil | April 28, 2025 Estimating is what you do when you don’t know ~ Sherman Kent A young lawyer named Eve called me today. She had made the same mistake I had made numerous times in my first years of practice. She quoted an hourly rate for reviewing and reporting on a draft […]
A Matter of Trust
Photo by Liza Summer at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | April 16, 2025 Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.~ Stephen Covey A Canadian grocery chain has just announced that it will launch a new brand to sell low-priced groceries in Canada. […]
Living Paycheque to Paycheque on $6,574,000
By Murray Gottheil | April 2, 2025 Photo by Pixabay at Pexels. It’s Not a Principle Until it Costs You Money – Bill Bernbach We have all been reading about the Paul Weiss law firm settling with the Trump Administration to get out from under an executive order, the legality of which is, to say the least, […]
Soaked to the Skin
Photo by Min An at Pexels By Murray Gottheil | March 17, 2025 I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin – Leonard Cohen I have a friend who is a dermatologist. I will call him Howard. Howard […]
Murray’s Masterclass in Managing Client Expectations
By Murray Gottheil | March 9, 2025 Photo by Max Fischer at Pexels At My First Rodeo Client (C): We need to close this transaction in two weeks. Murray (M): That is impossible. C: The vendor said that his lawyer told him that deadline is perfectly reasonable. Why are you creating roadblocks? If you cannot get […]
A Sucker’s Game
By Murray Gottheil | February 13, 2024 Imagine the following scenario: Jordan is a third year associate with Big Law targets. He typically achieves that target and receives a bonus of $18,000. He is also paid 10% of the billed and collected business that he brings in. Despite the “reasonableness” of the target, Jordan is […]
Gladly Suffering Fools
By Murray Gottheil | February 10, 2025 Back in the day, before I became as warm, compassionate, empathetic, and all-around loveable as I am today, I had a reputation as someone who did not suffer fools gladly. There were even a few people around the office who found me to be intimidating. Of course, self-awareness not […]
Titles are the Opium of the Masses
By Murray Gottheil | February 3, 2024 Unsuccessful people are the ones who are impressed by celebrity, by people’s names and titles – Robin S. Sharma In the old days, there were associates and partners. Every lawyer planned to work ridiculously hard as an associate for about seven years, after which the firm would invite them […]