Law Firm Innovation and the Bad Bank
I’m starting to see more large law firms seriously consider, or actually create, the role of “Chief Innovation Officer” or the like. This position is often responsible, among other things, for creating a strategy and framework for leading change within the firm, coordinating and managing all the firm’s current and future innovation initiatives, developing a […]
ProfitMotive®
A mini case study about positive change… Many of our clients strive to build on current achievements. To that end, when planning retreats and workshops, managing partners often ask me to suggest a structured list of objectives — and to reflect on what the discussion topics ought to be. It was just this kind of […]
Forget About Revenue
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.
Retreats – The Edge Approach
In every endeavor, there is an optimum way of doing things. The art of sculpting a retreat is no exception. So the content for your retreat should not be prescribed externally. Beware the consultant with a hammer to whom all the world is a nail. No matter how tempting it is to pull a previous […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part I
The rapid growth of law firms in the past decade has created some new and unique management difficulties. With firms’ size, and the complexity of global legal practices, coordinating the availability of partners to perform any management function beyond routine meeting attendance is increasingly difficult. The problem of finding partners to assume leadership roles is […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part II
Expanded Annual Meeting Many firm’s partnership agreements require an annual meeting for the election of member of management, selection of new partners, approval of compensation and other similar issues. These are important issues, not only because they concern day-to-day operating concerns but because they go to the fabric of what it means to be a […]
Intelligent Design for Law Firms
In a recent issue of Fast Company, an article entitled “The Interpreter” starts out like this: Claudia Kotchka is holding the secret to understanding design at Procter & Gamble in her palm. It’s not a P&G product, but a tin of Altoids®, the “curiously strong” mints produced by Wrigley. As the scent of peppermint oil […]
A Cautionary Tale: Broken Glass
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… In […]
Be a Cheerleader for Downsizing
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. Historically, firms have tended to make practice leader that individual […]