Many law firm leaders look at business planning as a massive, exhausting mountain to climb—something to be done once every three to five years, checked off a list, and forgotten. But treating business planning as a rare, monumental event is a dangerous mistake in today’s legal market. With technology changing overnight, client expectations shifting constantly, [...]
When I ask law firms if they have a strategy, most Managing Partners say “sure: we want to grow our client list, recruit and keep top talent, and increase our profitability”. But if those goals only exist in the heads of the management committee or scattered across email threads, you don’t have a firm strategy. [...]
For lawyers who are concerned about job stability, or those who wish to eventually move into the Partnership, it is time to focus on positioning yourself to transition from a technical service provider to a work generator. In my experience (primarily based on firms with one to 45 lawyers), true rainmakers represent less than 1% [...]
In an interview with Dr. Michael Gervais (mastery expert and podcaster), Missy Testerman, the 2024 USA Teacher of the Year advised that “great teachers don’t raise kids; they raise adults”. It’s a subtle but important distinction, speaking to a series of actions geared towards a specific future intent. It’s what author Stephen Covey called, “Beginning [...]
I’ve noticed an interesting trend in current law firm activity. It’s slowed down, almost to a crawl. But it’s not the results of a change in markets for law firms. It seems to be a reaction to the tumultuous world around us. Trump’s on again, off again tariffs and uncertainty about their ramifications. The Canadian [...]
Biden held onto leadership as long as he could. But when it became apparent that he had lost the faith of his party, and that he couldn’t possibly beat Trump in the Presidential election, he was convinced to step down. There can be tremendous strength in quitting a strategy, and trying something different. Lawyers, and [...]
A client once asked me for the best piece of advice I could give a client and I said “listen to me”. But the reality is that my clients probably follow the rule of thirds: one third absolute listen and do what I suggest, a third try it for a while but eventually let their [...]
Typically, lawyers work from 40 – 80 hours per week. If they are able to bill out 2/3rds of that time, they are lucky (or organized). But it could be better. The difference between billed work and the rest of that time is often wasted or at least under-utilized time. That’s because most lawyers don’t [...]
(This post first appeared in SLAW). I provide a wide range of services to law firms, so I can always tell what’s happening in the industry by the run on certain types of services. Sometimes I seem to do nothing but coaching; lawyers wanting to improve their personal skills in a range of business areas. [...]
I was recently asked how a law firm management philosophy relates to the strategic planning process. It was a great question, because how we manage a firm (or plan to manage a firm) must either be aligned with firm culture, or set out to consciously adjust firm culture. So how we plan sets the tone [...]