What’s Keeping NJ Managing Partners Up At Night In 2023

Sills Cummis Managing Partner Max Crane spoke with Law360 about a range of topics, from the economy to demand for certain practices to remote work.

According to Crane, “‘We see different headwinds than we were facing at the outset of the pandemic, and the headwinds are principally economic. You can’t be blind to the fact that the Federal Reserve is changing its whole way of looking at things, from loose money to tight money, from low interest rates to high interest rates.’ Crane said Sills Cummis specifically hasn’t felt the effects of that change in the economy, as the firm has always been focused mostly on litigation, a reliable source of business even during economic troubles. One smaller change the firm has seen is a ‘pause’ in some transactional work while buyers and sellers factor in increased and steadily increasing interest rates into pricing, but Crane said he considered that a temporary issue.”

As to remote work, “The legal profession is ultimately a ‘people business,’ Crane said, one that’s difficult to fully recreate remotely. ‘Yeah, you got to be smart, you got to work hard, you got to be creative, but it’s really about the people you work with, the people you represent, the judges you appear before, the adversaries you’re across the table from.’”