In a normal year, December is nerve-racking. Firms are hustling to get clients to pay their bills, and making that year-end push to fill the coffers. Some firms have traditionally pulled in as much as 30% of their revenue in the year’s last month.
This December, nerves are worse than racked - they’re frayed. The pain is acute at firms that do a lot of corporate financing, M&A, and private equity deals, and not just because there’s no new work. Making matters worse, firms that were working on one of the many deals or financings that have been postponed or terminated may never get paid for the significant hours they did log. That’s because in most instances, law firms don’t get paid until a deal closes.
