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Even though there are signs that the economy is starting to recover, this recession will have a far great impact on the legal profession than any previous recession in the last 70 years.
With each of the prior recessions (which occurred every 10-15 years) the profession continued pretty much unchanged. Clients raised few, if any, issues and firms continued to operate, more or less, as they had before. Business ‘ and the practice of law ‘ returned to “normal.”
The situation is far different this time. Whether or not the law firm “business model” ‘ whatever that is ‘ is actually broken (as many legal pundits including Richard Susskind declare), there are developments and trends that are raising challenges in the management of law firms. Furthermore, these are challenges firm leaders have not faced before and for which there are few, if any, precedents. This means new approaches are needed. Certainly the historic models for financial planning, firm structure, operations and client service, to name just a few, need to be re-examined. But it is the models for management and leadership that need a major tune-up if not replacement.
Where to Begin?
Before firms can address the changes they need to make in their management and leadership, they must identify and understand the trends and issues that have developed, and the challenges they are creating. The list is extensive. It includes reduced profitability, oversupply of lawyers, commoditization of certain work, and globalization. But what must be recognized is that this is the first recession in which clients have been so outspoken and persistent in raising issues and making demands on their law firms. Therefore, the place to start is with clients. Every other issue must be addressed from the perspective of successfully serving clients. This is, after all, the objective of any successful business or organization ‘ to successfully serve its customers or clients and to organize its management and operations to accomplish that objective.
In the case of law firms, this is not just a matter of reducing fees or developing alternatives to the billable hour. It goes much deeper than that. For the first time clients are demanding “value” for their legal dollar. The Association of Corporate Counsel addressed this issue when it developed its Value Challenge in 2008. However, each client may still have a different definition of value other than “more bang for the legal buck.” Notwithstanding that, there are certain things that every client wants its law firm to do:
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