By Brian Malcom

And the observant and seemingly prophetic song about suburban life goes . . . "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky-tacky, . . . And there's doctors and there's lawyers, And business executives, And they're all made out of ticky-tacky, And they all look just the same."

Well, suburbia, if you thought there were lawyers before, wait until they hear that some suburban law firms are prospering in this recession.  According to the ABA Journal, "location, practice areas, flexibility and lower rates are some of the reasons why" some smaller and suburban law firms are seeing more growth in this recession than their big law colleagues.  Although, this author seems to think the latter two reasons are the true reasons for the recent success of suburban law firms.

Some former big law lawyers are trading in their swanky loft apartments for a house in the suburbs.  According to the ABA article, suburban law firms are taking business away from the big firms and, in some cases, lawyers with ample books of business.

Think of it like this:

• BigLaw is a tractor trailer package delivery service.  BigLaw needs more fuel.  BigLaw costs more to maintain. BigLaw is more intimidating on the road.  BigLaw can handle large shipments and large packages with ease, and you may begin to see some economies of scale with a significant volume of business.  Although, BigLaw may be overkill and overpriced to run a document across town.
• SuburbanLaw is, appropriately, a minivan package delivery service.  SuburbanLaw needs less fuel.  SuburbanLaw costs less to maintain.  However, SuburbanLaw usually does not intimidate those it encounters along the way.  Also, SuburbanLaw is not equipped to handle large shipments or large packages.  Nonetheless, SuburbanLaw shines with its cost-efficiency for routine shipments of average-size shipments with average-size packaging.
• Both get the package from point A to point B, but they have very different methods and models for doing so. 

To continue the metaphor, fuel ("revenue") is short in this recession.  Overhead costs make larger law firms less flexible in their billing.  While a tractor trailer is nice when there is no shortage of fuel, maybe a minivan is better when fuel is scarce.  In these times, clients do not want to pay to fill up an eighteen-wheeler when a minivan will do the job just fine.

Big firms are clunkers in definite need of cash.