Five Signs of “One Firm Thinking”
Managing partners sometimes complain to me about the lack of collaboration and teamwork in their firms. Then they shrug and declare, “It’s the nature of lawyers to be individualists.” The implication is that nothing can be done about it. I contend that a good leader can move a firm toward “one firm thinking” despite those […]
Choosing Board Members
In some firms the top leadership team or board is almost self-selected from a very short list of partners or members who are prepared to involve themselves in management. Equally there are many firms that need to choose their boards and even their managing partners from a long list of potential candidates. Many factors need […]
Matching Authority and Responsibility
Many law firms remain acutely political organizations with much of the firm’s decision-making having to run the gamut of opinion-seeking, back-scratching and adroit manoeuvring before the management team can make significant progress. It has long been recognised that the extreme consensus model (whereby every major decision gets delayed until the achievement of positive ratification) is […]
Three things about special law firm leaders
With two upcoming talks on leadership development to deliver over the next few months to groups of lawyers, I thought it would be interesting to get some fresh ideas from one or two of my colleagues; Nick Jarrett-Kerr was kind enough to share his thoughts. While Nick was quick to emphasise the mountain of books […]
Bigger vs Better: Should your firm merge?
First, see if it can answer “yes” to one essential question. So law firm mergers are back in the news again, to the continued fascination of the legal press. For every combination that’s completed and announced, you can count on several others bubbling under in conversations within executive committees and at luncheon gatherings of senior […]
Does “The Vision Thing” Work?
Specific behaviors by leaders can contribute to the success of a firm’s shared vision. When law firms prepare or revise their strategies, we ask them to write a vision statement: “What do you aspire to be?” We find that discomfort is evident, and disagreement follows. Somehow, the statement gets written, and then adopted by the […]
The Tall Poppy Syndrome and Origination Credit
Law firms talk a good game about sophisticated management but often, just when a firm reaches the verge of running like a business, its culture gets in the way. Case in point is business origination: should it be measured, how should it be measured and what do we do with the data? Almost 25% of […]
The “Cheap Grace” of Compensation Systems
I’m always impressed with how much time many of my clients spend wrestling with their compensation systems. The animating seduction of compensation typically doesn’t bring with it a law-firm appetite for changing what is already in place, but it does tend to make up a lot of firm mindshare. When you think about it, though, […]
Entrepreneurship is at the Heart of Good Governance
In the last couple of years I have been honoured to advise nearly a dozen clients on complex governance projects in at least six different jurisdictions. Some of these projects have been driven by tax or regulatory considerations, but most have had effective management and leadership at their core. One of these projects was to […]
Is It Time to Abandon Your Firm’s Business Model?
“Big Law is dying” That’s the theme of thousands of articles and blog posts that show up on our desktops every week. Mainly the writers are wringing their hands about the disruption that is occurring to the traditional business models of large law firms. But if we can divert our attention from the pity party […]