Tom Fitzgerald Discusses Challenges and Opportunities Facing Law Firms Today

As an addendum to “Selling the Firm,” an article in The American Lawyer on Winston’s record 2017, Winston & Strawn Chair Tom Fitzgerald is featured in “The Law Firm Disrupted,” a briefing from Law.com in which he offers perspective on the biggest challenges and opportunities facing law firms today.

According to Tom, technology is the number one threat to the legal industry. And while he notes that the challenges it will bring are inevitable, Tom also believes that as “reservoirs of knowledge and information,” lawyers employ “a lot of innovation and mental strain to get to the right place and write it correctly and be persuasive,” which is a skill no technology comes close to replicating at this point.

On the rise of alternative legal providers, Tom says Winston has adapted to the resultant loss of lower-end work by investing in people with “skills that are important to clients at other levels.”

Finally, Tom comments on the stratification of top tier law firms. At last year’s intensive strategic planning session, Winston identified three distinct types within the Am Law 50: Wall Street firms, global behemoths, and those “with offices in major cities who represent large corporate clients on their biggest matters.” Identifying as part of the third group, Winston is competing to increase revenue and capitalize on its talent and technology.