What is missing in driving revenue growth at law firms is accelerating leadership. It is one of 12 exceptional management practices that firms should focus on, including branding, building client value, strategy, team building, and so forth.
The art of speaking, understanding, asking and developing dialogue has been eliminated in this fast-paced, quick-reply, "do it now" universe we now live in. Sure, we can communicate around the world in seconds, and conduct business at extraordinary speed; however we have lost the "human" elements of conversation. And it matters!
How to Leverage Technology to Showcase Them
From following up more effectively to communicating with greater frequency, the elements of distinction are well known, but often poorly executed. Those who embrace them, even imperfectly, are likely to rise above their peers.
Professionals and watchdogs from all walks of life are thinking, talking, writing and counseling about ethical practices in various industries. Public relations and marketing professionals, too, must always consider ethics in the context of how they advise law firms and attorneys on making sound decisions about the messages and content they disseminate to the public.
One aspect of law firms that is becoming increasingly of interest to clients — and an area that might offer opportunities for differentiation — is law firm commitment to increasing and sustaining diversity.
The law firm business model of the past is under attack. Slowly, private legal is responding with things like developing knowledge management systems, establishing jobs for data analysts who can establish pricing of services and beginning to look at ways to outline workflows and processes. Unfortunately, corporate clients are impatient and are beginning to push harder for improved efficiency and increased speed of service delivery.
NASA Doesn't Need a Social Media Policy, and Neither Do You
You don't need a separate policy governing how your firm's staff will represent you on social media. You already have one.
Given the level of focus placed on client teams, industry teams, and client feedback by our law firm clients over the past 18 months, it would appear that firms are not only seeking out the voice of the client, but they are listening and taking action.
The two major challenges now facing lawyer management in many of these mid-size firms are: 1) how to motivate the non-entrepreneurial attorneys to achieve and to perform; and 2) how to retain the "over-achiever" attorneys so they will remain with the firm.
Where law firm leaders' "gut judgement" was once sufficient, running the business well now requires solid intelligence (yes, Big Law is a business). Decisions must balance the demands of clients with those of the partnership. Law firms are awash in data, but harnessing it to support sound decision-making is a major challenge.
