John Gapper of the Financial Times on how the end of Dewey symbolises the changes coming for large law firms:
“Like Lehman, Dewey was a second-tier institution that over-borrowed and overextended itself in a push to become one of its industry’s global elite…
…In austere times, with greater cost pressures, law firms cannot borrow money and make rash promises to force their way into the top tier. Those beneath the UK’s “magic circle” and firms such as Cravath and Davis Polk in the US will have to be more like utilities. They will be lower-margin businesses doing higher volumes of ordinary work, perhaps owned by outsiders.”
For more Dewey, see here.
