When downturns would hit the legal business, Haynes and Boone founder Mike Boone liked to pull out a copy of “The Shakeout Is Here,” an editorial written by Steven Brill, founder of The American Lawyer, a Texas Lawyer affiliate. The piece described widespread lawyer layoffs and intensifying client pressure for cheaper rates, and it predicted a major restructuring of the legal industry.

After sharing the article with other lawyers, he asked them, “Would anybody be surprised if I told you that article was written in 1983?”