IT’S NOT JUST LAW SCHOOLS WITH FUNNY NUMBERS: Law Firms Exaggerate Profits Per Partner.

As the WSJ notes, profits per partner is “often used by lawyers and law-school students to judge the success of a firm.” So after law students are mislead about their chances of being employed by a large firm, the firms mislead them about their profitability.

Hey, it’s the good thing the legal profession is regulated.

Now maybe one can see why lawyers hate the idea of publicly traded law firms. Imagine if law firms faced the scrutiny of public securities markets. I don’t actually think that law firms are deliberately lying. The problem is that they persist in using an easily manipulable number instead of a more reliable metric.

Indeed.