How A Leader Adds Value To A Law Firm

After years of analyzing the personal and professional styles of lawyer managers who are perceived as leaders of professionally and financially successful law firms, three inescapable conclusions have become readily apparent to the author:

1. The authority of lawyer management is derived from the willingness of partners to be managed;
2. Partners in most law firms perceive themselves as being owners of the firm, having certain prerogatives and independence, not as employees to be “managed”; and
3. Law firms have their own personalities and cultures; and management techniques that may be effective in one firm may be marginally or not successful in another.

It is the author's opinion that the greatest, and perhaps the most frustrating challenge with which effective leaders of law firms must deal is the approach to follow to provide leadership to their firms. Central to this conflict is whether to lead by consensus or decree. Astute leaders achieve the appropriate balance of building consensus among the partners versus managing as an autocrat.