Bloomberg Law
Aug. 10, 2015, 7:04 PM UTC

Fannie Mae GC: The Law Firm Profit Structure Is Broken

Blake Edwards

Before he was hiring law firms, Fannie Mae’s General Counsel Brian Brooks was helping run one — from 2008 to 2011, he served as managing partner in O’Melveny & Meyers’ Washington, D.C., office.

Not surprisingly, he has some well-formed opinions on the law firm business model.

In the second installment of a three-part interview with Big Law Business, Brooks argues that, because clients increasingly refuse to pay for expensive associate work, the law firm profit model — which depends on “leverage,” or the difference between associate and partner hours on a matter — is broken.

The solution, Brooks proposed, is for law ...

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