Rethinking Priorities to Deliver Modern Legal Value
John Eix is Director of Business Development & Marketing, Crowe Dunlevy
In a rapidly evolving business and regulatory environment, corporate law firms face significant internal and external challenges that impact their long-term sustainability, culture, and client value proposition. While many firms have seen short-term gains in revenue and market positioning, deeper structural issues threaten to erode client trust, associate retention, and operational efficiency.
Firms that address these hurdles head-on will be better positioned to lead in a client-first, talent-conscious, tech-enabled future.
This white paper outlines eleven key hurdles facing corporate law firms in 2025—challenges that must be addressed to remain relevant, profitable, and resilient in a client-first legal economy.
1. The Persistence of the Billable Hour
The billable hour remains the dominant metric for measuring attorney productivity, but it increasingly clashes with client expectations for value, transparency, and predictability. Internally, it disincentivizes efficiency, innovation, and mentorship. Externally, it creates misalignment between firm incentives and client outcomes.
2. The Misplaced Emphasis on Attorney and Firm Rankings
Am Law lists, Chambers, and other ranking systems often shape internal culture and hiring decisions more than client satisfaction or meaningful results. Firms sometimes overinvest in campaigns to “climb the list” while undervaluing the substance of their services.
Clients are rarely swayed by these accolades (4% according to BTI Consulting), and associates may become disillusioned when prestige is prioritized over purpose.
3. The Misguided Obsession with SEO and Vanity Metrics
Many firms pour resources into dominating search engine rankings and generating digital leads without a cohesive digital strategy. SEO-driven marketing efforts that ignore brand integrity, thought leadership, or client relationship-building dilute the firm’s message.
True client loyalty isn’t earned through Google, but through trust, responsiveness, and domain expertise. It’s extremely rare that a company will hire a corporate law firm based on a blind Google search. Firms and attorneys should put their energy and resources into building relationship and referral networks.
Suggested read: David Ackert’s “The Short List”
4. Lack of Business Model Innovation
Despite the legal industry’s evolution, many firms still follow a century-old pyramid structure: leverage junior attorneys, maximize billables, distribute profits to equity partners. Newer models—including subscription services, fixed-fee portfolios, and hybrid legal consulting—are disrupting this structure. Firms that fail to experiment risk stagnation. This approach has also given rise to chief operating officer (CCO) roles within many larger corporate law firms.
5. Talent Drain and Associate Burnout
High turnover among associates continues to plague large firms. Long hours, unclear career trajectories, and lack of meaningful mentorship contribute to burnout.
Firms that ignore workplace wellness and purpose-driven culture face attrition that costs millions and hampers institutional knowledge retention.
6. Underinvestment in Legal Technology
While legal tech has made major leaps, many firms lag in implementation. Fear of short-term disruption, lack of tech fluency, and the billable hour disincentive create a vicious cycle. Firms that do not automate routine tasks or leverage analytics will struggle to compete on speed and value.
7. Failure to Truly Embrace DEI
Many firms publish DEI reports and initiatives, but few have embedded diversity, equity, and inclusion into their leadership pipelines and client service teams. Clients increasingly demand accountability, and younger attorneys expect authenticity.
DEI cannot remain a branding exercise—it must be a business imperative.
8. Lack of Industry Specialization
Clients want legal counsel that understands their industry landscape, not just the law. Yet many firms remain structured by legal function rather than market sector. Without industry fluency, firms risk being seen as generalists in a world demanding specialists. Potential clients want corporate firms to understand their industry and their business with experience handing similar matters for similar companies.
9. Rigid Hierarchies and Partnership Models
Traditional partner models often reward longevity over leadership and innovation. Hierarchical barriers stifle collaboration across teams and generations. Firms need more agile, team-oriented models that promote cross-functional leadership, shared success, and transparency in decision-making.
10. Lagging Behind on ESG and Social Responsibility
Firms increasingly advise clients on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, but often lack internal ESG strategies themselves. Ignoring sustainability, pro bono impact, and social purpose creates a disconnect with corporate clients seeking values-aligned partners.
11. Origination Fees and Compensation Structures That Discourage Collaboration
Most corporate law firms continue to rely on origination-based compensation models that reward attorneys for bringing in and “owning” client relationships. While these structures incentivize rainmaking, they often do so at the expense of collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and holistic client service.
The result? Attorneys guard relationships instead of sharing them with subject-matter experts, junior lawyers are boxed out of opportunities to develop business, and clients miss out on the full capabilities of the firm. These models also reinforce hierarchy and can foster internal resentment—particularly when origination credit becomes disconnected from actual client work or value delivered. It also serves to disincentivize associates from building relationships and developing their business development skills.
To build durable client relationships and resilient teams, firms must rethink how they reward business development. Modern models should balance origination with teamwork, cross-practice integration, and long-term relationship management.
Building Smarter, Healthier, Forward-Thinking Firms
Law firms that address these hurdles head-on will be better positioned to lead in a client-first, talent-conscious, tech-enabled future.
That means rethinking outdated metrics, reinvesting in people, embracing innovation, and aligning with the values of today’s clients and legal professionals. The future of legal service isn’t just about billing more hours or ranking higher—it’s about building smarter, healthier, and more forward-thinking firms.
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Connect with John Eix on LinkedIn.
