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The popularity of the practice group — an entity within a firm comprised of those who practice a specific area of law or serve a specific industry — is well grounded, in that it opens a number of advantages to managing a practice and better serving clients. But so complex and management sensitive are practice groups that they open, as well, the easy propensity to misuse the practice group concept in a classic case of poor management canceling the value of a good concept.
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A couple of years ago, Bill Payne of Dorsey & Whitney LLP invited me to come to Minneapolis on two weekends in mid-winter. Not for a retreat or winter sports, but to meet with partners in their office on Saturdays. Payne was then the head of the M&A Group and he explained: 'We do a lot of mid-market deals, many with similar dynamics, documents and time pressures. Yet, each deal seems to be run like we were starting from scratch. We reinvent the wheel. We do wonderful individual work, sometimes under crisis conditions, but we don't seem to pull together as a team.' He wanted more teamwork, more project planning, and more learning from each deal. I jumped at the chance to facilitate the partners' discussions. Any firm that values matter management to this degree must be serious.
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Last month, we identified select law firm issues that can significantly impact the cost and speed of the entire case lifecycle. In addition, we offered some viable solutions to these problems. In Part Two, we cover some of the concerns related to outsourcing versus in-house handling of certain litigation goods and services and how firms are operating.
CLIENT CO-MARKETING CONT'D. - Following up on our last blog, what else will in house counsel appreciate your asking? There are many more subtle tools at your disposal which will contribute to relationship building.
CLIENT CO-MARKETING - This new topic covers how to "co-market" with your client. To be sure, marketing the law firm is not an us-them proposition. How you can recruit inside counsel and even CEO's as parties to your own marketing and business development efforts is explored.
SELECTION - This is the fourth and final criterion a law firm team needs to identify when pursuing a client. Just what concerns and experiences will be influencing final selection? If you have mastered the other 3 Red Zone components, HIDDEN DECISION MAKING, RELATIONSHIPS AND RETENTION, and PERSONAL CONSIDERATIONS, let's explore SELECTION.
SELECTION - This is the fourth and final criterion a law firm team needs to identify when pursuing a client. Just what concerns and experiences will be influencing final selection? If you have mastered the other 3 Red Zone components, HIDDEN DECISION MAKING, RELATIONSHIPS AND RETENTION, and PERSONAL CONSIDERATIONS, let's explore SELECTION.
Features
Many lawyers today seek unconventional career paths. Instead of career ladders that envision uninterrupted, full-time, upward movement toward partnership, lawyers now think in terms of career lattices that include lateral moves, flexible work schedules, and occasional periods away from practice altogether. This highly mobile 'free agent' lawyer population creates a dilemma for law firms. Firms need a stable group of lawyers to serve their clients and become the firm's future partners and leaders. Rather than risk losing lawyers, many firms are trying inventive approaches to create more flexible career paths. Here are five current trends.
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Recently, several prominent partners have left their law firms to set up shop with a competing establishment. As was the case in each of these instances, a partner seldom leaves the firm alone — often staff, associates, and even other partners join the new endeavor. May a departing partner solicit others to join him or her without violating fiduciary duty to the original firm? At what point must the departing partner notify the partnership of his or her efforts to recruit firm employees? This article suggests that partners may solicit attorneys and staff of their original partnership without violating their fiduciary duty, as long as the manner of their solicitation conforms to their fiduciary duty.
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Kathryn Cole, a 25-year-old who earned her J.D. last year from the University of Michigan Law School, accepted a position at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges, LLP in Silicon Valley. Her starting pay was $135,000, but before she even began working she got a $10,000 raise. Then in January, just a few months into the job, her salary went up another $15,000.