Book of business is common parlance in the United States legal services sector and refers to the collection of clients that a
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...
(usually a partner) has assembled throughout their career.
Since most U.S.
law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to ...
s are organized as
limited liability partnerships or
professional corporations, each partner is usually responsible for acquiring their own clients in that partner's specific area of specialty. In the competitive legal market, especially in large city markets, partners are evaluated by committees of their fellow partners, with assistance of non-legal market and financial professionals, both in-house and outside the firm, on a yearly basis, which also sets guidelines on billable targets. An
equity partner
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...
with a stagnant or declining book of business can be "de-equitized" or demoted from the status of a partner who receives a share of the firm's profits to that of a salaried partner or counsel.
Firms seeking to expand often retain outside legal recruiters and specify the minimum book of business they require for a lateral candidate, usually between $1–$3 million in larger legal markets. When a partner resigns from a law firm,
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of aca ...
and local bar rules require that their clients to be notified, giving them a chance to decide on their own representation. Given the fierce competition among law firms in the past 20 years, anecdotal reports suggest that partners are informing their clients before handing in their resignations to determine how much of their business is portable.
A
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...
check is also an important step before a book of business can be considered portable. For example, a partner whose primary clients are insurance policyholders would generally be unable to take most of his book of business to a firm that represents insurers.
See also
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Law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
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White shoe firm
A white-shoe firm is an American term used to describe prestigious professional services firms that have traditionally been associated with the upper-class elite who graduated from Ivy League colleges. The term is most often used to describe leadi ...
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Book Of Business
Practice of law
Informal legal terminology