A true partnership requires a compensation structure that rewards partner-like behavior — collegiality, mentoring, expansion and transition of client relationships to fellow partners, and a consensus to pursue long-term strategies promoting institutional stability rather than maximizing short-term profit metrics.
Lawyers need to know what the client wants and how to get them there before the process starts. Just like a driver who doesn't know exactly where he's taking his riders, a lawyer who isn't totally sure what a client wants — let alone how to get them there efficiently and effectively — is likely to end up with a client who is disgruntled.
Firms place a lot of weight on lateral hiring, but many of them aren't very good at it.
The issues that I confronted a dozen years ago when I became a CMO for the first time are very much the same issues that my CMO brothers and sisters face today. Irrespective of whether you've had decades of experience or not, the job is tough. Well, the job is relatively easy, but ensuring that your team members get all the credit and your firm hits its success metrics, while maintaining your visibility and growing your perceived value, remains very much a challenge to even the most seasoned professionals.
Although a handful of law firms has hired non-lawyer sales teams, most still rely upon individual attorneys or practice groups to generate new client matters (i.e., to sell) even though the majority of them have never received business development skills training. This article describes some of the important characteristics and habits shared by attorneys who have built successful practices.
Law firm leadership is at a proverbial fork in the road. The people running law firms can continue to do business as usual, or they can lead their firms toward a model of business that reflects the new and still evolving client expectations and market demands.
Optimal Insights Through Inter-Departmental Initiatives
As dizzying amounts of resources and the need for the timeliest insights grow, the conduit and collaboration between business development and an organization's information management department, especially, becomes more critical than ever.
Over the years, the structure of law firms has shifted from a geographical model to a practice group model. Rather than placing leaders in each geographical office, law firm practice group leaders have more power. As law firms have evolved in size, reach, and complexity, so too has the need for seasoned executives to manage the business of law.
With associate compensation dominating the headlines over the past several months, partner compensation has managed to slip under the radar. This isn't particularly surprising, however, given how uncomfortable discussions regarding partner pay can be for lawyers and their firms.Despite the tendency to delay or even avoid such conversations, partnership compensation remains one of the most scrutinized decisions in a law practice.
The Paradigm Shift Hits the Fan
AI — artificial intelligence — and its relatives: digital research engines, “bots” and other automatons, have made their beachhead in the legal profession, and it really looks like this is gonna change everything.
