Powering Your Way Out of the Recession

All law firms have a primary financial concern as they come out of the last two years of economic change, including shrinking margins and the return
on the time invested in providing services. The vision of this article is to provide a model that may be used in discussing how a firm can power into the next few years. This article uses a watershed analogy to demonstrate drivers for higher margins and the skills required to maximize each stream of effort running toward the earnings “lake.” The implications are: 1) the need for credibility in leadership; and 2) an understanding of where to invest the resources of the firm to provide the highest impact on margins (and therefore earnings) to keep services at the highest possible level. The urgency is that the competition is seeking to bust out of this environment, and the role of the firm is to bust out first and gain a competitive advantage.