Downsides always have bright sides and smaller law firms will vouch for that. With big firms usually attracting clients willing to pay even bigger bucks for their services, the economy’s shaky downfall has caused everyone to make financial adjustments. Therefore, those big firms are being traded in for smaller ones due to their much more reasonable bills.

Having fewer ties to the “financial sector’s heavy hitters,” the smaller firms are experiencing less of an impact from the economic meltdown. Although smaller firms do state that certain practice areas, for example, real estate, transactions and public offerings are down, practice areas such as bankruptcy and restructuring are way up, enabling these mid-size firms to possibly even surpass their 2007 financial performance.

“In this type of downturn, we expect to see some negative impact on the firm, but not to the extent you see with the New York firms,” said Alan Levin, managing partner at Indianapolis’ Barnes and Thornburg, which has 446 attorneys and seven offices, including four in Indiana. “Our economy is not quite as tied to the highs and lows of the financial markets.”

Thus, people are turning to these smaller firms for services. For instance, a large Colorado-based client moved his antitrust business from an East Coast firm to Holme Roberts.

“We were $250 or $300 less [per hour] than the East Coast firm,” said the branch spokesperson.

According to Dykema Gossett Chairman Rex Schlaybaugh Jr., who is located in Michigan, “That trend becomes accelerated in tough economic times. Purchasers of legal services have found that there is tremendous value in what I call ‘Main Street’ firms as compared to ‘Wall Street’ firms.”

Popularity: 6% [?]