On October 15, 2002, associates in the New York City office of Clifford Chance responded to a request for input from the firm's partners with a memo—a very candid memo. Somehow, a copy got into the Financial Times of London and became public. The result has been pivotal for Clifford Chance and, maybe, the legal profession globally. This article outlines practical and useful "lessons learned" from this unfortunate situation...

Getting the best from your group's collective thinking.

Getting the best from your group's collective thinking. (Part II)

There is only one line that stands between you and phenomenal success—it separates action from inaction. By considering yourself in all the senior executive roles in managing your practice, you will optimize satisfaction and income...

End the cycle of making big plans for nonbillable project...and accomplishing nothing. Here we offer practical suggestions for breaking that cycle...

What's it worth?...
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a Utopian world where all of the partners in our firm agree to take on an equal amount of the management roles required for the greatest possible firm success…and that they are qualified to meet those management challenges. Of course, many are neither qualified nor willing to assume the roles. This is a major hurdle that professional firms must overcome if they are to achieve long term goals. Too many partners are focused only on the short term, in particular upon generating larger personal incomes.

Unspeakable but effective...stealth discrimination: A model for choosing and managing your leaders...

Start out fast and keep picking up speed. Leave skid marks!...

We are often asked, “What do we think is the best way to organize a professional service firm, both in terms of generating the greatest profitability and providing the greatest work satisfaction?” Well, the answer can differ from firm to firm because of their client base, their geography, their culture, the individual personalities and/or their compensation system.

Person-to-person is still the best way to communicate with colleagues and clients. This article explores the communication challenges of the information age and offers practical and useful tips for keeping client relations and inter-firm relations on the right track...

It can be very challenging to manage a group of professionals with different substantive skills, diverse experiences, a variety of work styles, and sometimes conflicting priorities. Nowhere is this more visible than in the fundamental workings of practice group meetings.

Profits are a better way to measure a law firm’s financial health. This article explores why so many firms are preoccupied with revenues instead of profit and what you can do about it...

Relationships with senior colleagues directly affect the career of new partners (and perhaps not-so-new). How do you gain credibility with those extremely bright but highly critical and analytical seniors who will watch your every step—noticing the negative more than the positive? This article explores how to measure up...

Identifying the attributes that distinguish effective practice group performance.

Professionals who are used to assimilating huge amounts of information very rapidly sometimes do not distinguish between acquiring knowledge and acquiring a skill...

The care and feeding of prima donnas: what to do when your top performer is a royal pain.

Once upon a time there was a practice group that thought it was special. It thought it could accomplish much more than many of its counterparts within, and outside, the firm. And it came to pass that the practice group did accomplish a number of measurable results. And the firm said it was good...

Defining contribution and accountability in practice teams.

It's not only about the money...

John Harris is the CEO of Olive & Co., an Indianapolis, Indiana-based law firm. We asked John to talk about his blueprint for the future: why it was necessary, what the firm sacrificed to achieve it, and what it stands to gain as a result of a very specific, very resolute strategy. John identifies why a commitment to developing strong industry-focused practices is the only way a professional firm, professing to truly serve their clients, will go in the near future.

As the former managing partner of Morgan Lewis and Bockius in Washington, D.C. and now as Practice Leader of one of the nation's leading Energy Practice Groups, Jack Newman offers an instructive insight into the importance of developing and managing in harmony with a specific business plan at the practice group level.

CEO of Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone in Detroit, Michigan, Bob Gilbert estimates that his firms net income per principal has increased over 70 percent in the last few years based on a bone-deep commitment to practice groups and their particular methodology for rewarding practice group profitability. We asked Bob Gilbert what went right.

Brenda Fingold is the Partner Responsible for Training and Professional Development at Hale and Dorr in Boston, Massachusetts. We asked Brenda to share some of the specifics of that program, and her vision of why it works. Here Brenda explains the important role that training and development has in developing leadership qualities among practice group managers.

Deborah Koeffler is the Managing Partner of Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp in Los Angeles, California. Coming from having been a practice leader for the firm's labor and employment group, Deborah reviews the principles she learned as a practice leader and how she is employing those same principles as a firm-wide effort.

Jack Newman is the kind of lawyer who, when one looks at the quality of his practice and the power of his credentials, one would think shouldn't have time for practice group management. He is accomplished in a specialized niche field, the energy group at Morgan Lewis & Bockius in Washington, D.C., and has built the kind of practice and leads the kind of team wherein one could say, "Well if there's anybody I'd excuse from this because they're so powerfully good, he'd be the one I'd would excuse." Perhaps some of the success that he and his group have enjoyed have been because he has not ignored team leadership. We have the pleasure of bringing you Jack Newman to tell you himself...

Brenda Fingold is from Hale and Dorr in Boston, Massachusettes. She is a very capable and powerful lawyer who makes leadership programs work; who stimulates action throughout the firm. Here she shares with us how she how she accomplishes that so successfully.

To reach their potential in productivity and profitability, greater numbers of firms than ever before have been focusing very seriously on the development of effective practice groups. However, many firms succumb to the temptation of choosing the wrong professionals to head up their practice groups.

Management of a partnership and its associated training poses one of the great challenges for law firms. Judith Mayhew explains the vital role of individuals in achieving results.

Compensating Practice Team Leaders...

The popularity of the practice group — an entity within the firm dedicated to practicing a specific kind of law, or serving a specific industry — seems well grounded, in that it offers a number of advantages to managing a practice and its services. But with all its advantages, there exists an easy propensity to misuse the practice group concept, even as it strives to serve the firm's objectives.