I’m ending my posts of the year with a difficult subject…individuals within a Partnership who consistently seem to be in opposition with the rest of the Partnership. It's one of those areas of challenge that Partnerships are very good at ignoring, but ultimately to their peril. That vast majority of Partnerships function quite well. This [...]
Precedent figures heavily in most law practices, so it’s understandable that lawyers would rely on past experiences and belief systems in the running of their lives as well. Life experience can create wisdom. It can also lead to our greatest weak spots. In over twenty years of coaching lawyers, my primary goal has been to [...]
While law firms tend to be a relatively flat structure, there is usually a management structure that helps to guide things along. Typically, this includes a lawyer leadership team (a Managing Partner and potentially, an Executive Committee), practice or client team leaders if the firm is organized into teams, and an administrative team comprised of [...]
Law firm managers need to be active, conscious and pro-active in their role. Management is not merely a title, it is a critical role that is seldom done well in a law firm. Law firms require a range of managers. These include professional managers such as Administrators, marketing or IT directors and the like. But [...]
Change is a reality of business. Client needs shift; legal expertise shifts due to retirements and new hires; legislation and case law create new opportunities and close down previous legal practises. Change is hard for most people, but particularly for lawyers. The lawyer personality doesn’t like change; it likes the expected, precedent and tradition. Lawyers [...]
While Ronald Reagan wasn’t one of my favorite Presidents, he produced one of my favorite quotes about leadership: “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." The decision-making process most firms seem to use for selection of [...]
Most businesses – especially law firms – must market to some degree. And they do. They have a website. They print business cards. They make sure the logo is used on tombstone ads and sponsorship programs. Law firms do spend some money on marketing, and some of their lawyers even spend time on marketing – [...]
Strong leadership is critical to successful firms, especially as so many firms experience the transition from retiring senior partners to the next generation. Gone are the days when a firm could rely on a handful of rainmakers to bring in enough work to keep everyone busy. When those senior partners leave, the door to that [...]
Years ago, when lawyer attrition started to reach alarming rates (which for some reason we are more complacent about now), Catalyst in the US conducted research to determine why so many female lawyers were leaving the profession. Not that only female lawyers were leaving; that was simply the focus of their research. They found that [...]
I often get asked “what kind of marketing should we do?” Or I’m asked to “just provide us with a bunch of great marketing ideas”. No time spent determining what the firm wants to look like in the future. No proper assessment of where they are today. No indication of what success would look like. [...]