NEW YORK — At the recent COO/CFO Forum, we had the chance to sit down with Dr. Evan Parker, founder of Parker Analytics, and a true pioneer in the art and science of using data analytics to help law firms make more informed decisions.

Dr. Parker shared with us how he and some fellow researchers analyzed law firm data to determine where the strength of a particular firm lies. The project we discussed looked at profitability as an indicator of law firms that are better at running their organizations. In particular, the researchers looked at practice concentration as a driver of profitability. What they found was that firms with a greater focus on a smaller number of practice areas, other factors being equal, tended to be more profitable than firms with a disparate focus on a wider number of practices.