2015 news reputationspillover 883x432 1

Reputation spillover

30 January 2015

The article at a glance

Each law firm practice area affects reputation of other areas, shows Cambridge Judge research. The reputation of one practice area in a …

Each law firm practice area affects reputation of other areas, shows Cambridge Judge research.

Reputation spillover
The reputation of one practice area in a law firm carries over significantly to the reputation of that firm’s other practices, according to research by Lionel Paolella, University Lecturer in Strategy & Organisation at Cambridge Judge Business School.

So a firm’s reputation in the “Tax” category will affect the firm’s reputation in “Mergers & Acquisitions” as it provides a signal for clients regarding the firm’s overall skill and quality of service, shows the research, which looked at more than 500 corporate law firms in New York, London and Paris over a decade (2000-2010).

Lionel presented his research paper – “Category inferences and reputation spillovers in international legal services market” at the Novak Druce Annual Conference on Professional Service Firms in August at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.