‘This is Who We Are:’ Tech-Minded Law Firms Don’t Fear Recession

About 45 leading partners from Cleveland-based law firm Thompson Hine met last October at a Washington hotel to plan how the firm would respond to a potential recession.

The consensus: double down on its strategy of requiring its lawyers to use budgets for clients’ legal work.

In the wake of the Great Recession, the firm’s managing partner Deborah Read invested in building proprietary software that helped lawyers build budgets for legal matters and let clients track their progress and bills in real-time.

While that seemingly simple workflow remains rare in Big Law, Thompson Hine has pushed it to the limit. ...