Tax Update Blog: Permalink

« Previous · Tax Update Blog Home · Next »

GIANT LAW FIRMS DROPPING ESTATE PLANNING PRACTICES?

January 15, 2007

The Death and Taxes blog has a post saying some big city law firms are dumping their estate planning practices:

All of this makes sense, I suppose. Law firms have increased their focus on profits, and estate planning simply isn't as profitable a practice area as corporate or litigation. You can probably get away with charging Microsoft of AT&T $1 million a year (or more) for representation. Needless to say, I've never charged $1 million to do an estate plan, or to administer an estate.

It may be that big firms don't need estate planning groups (or don't think they do -- big firms, like Kirkland & Ellis, are famous for changing their minds on this point). But I think that goes both ways -- good estate planners don't need big firms, either. We're probably going to see more T&E boutique firms (like this one) spring up in the near future, which is a good thing.

That's not a phenomenon we've yet seen in Des Moines; we just don't have many of those $1 million legal fee clients.

      Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit