Pune corporate firm · 18 lawyers · 9 years
The firm wasn't dying. It was busy. Partners were billing, clients were retained, juniors were promoted. But headline revenue had drifted only with rate increases — no real growth in client count or matter complexity. The partners assumed it was the market. It wasn't: peers in the same city had grown 60–80% in the same period.
No deliberate positioning. The firm was a "general corporate" firm in a market that was rewarding specialised practice areas. No new practice areas had been launched in seven years. No new sectors had been opened. Lateral partner hires had been discussed but never executed. Partner-level annual goals were billing targets, not growth targets. The firm was operating on autopilot.