Legal Operations

Recessions are full of opportunity. No matter what industry you work in, a slowdown in the economy is an opportune time to invest in your brand, improve your processes, strengthen your business focus, and innovate to get a jump on competitors.

While economic troubles and fears of a recession are top concerns for law firm leaders now, some shifts within the legal industry are also triggering alarm bells. Interviews with more than a dozen law firm leaders identified a growing list of challenges that law firm leaders are grappling with now,

The problem with giving feedback is that it often comes across as criticism. Human beings tend to react defensively, resulting in a denial of the feedback or worse, entrenchment in the behavior or attitude that may be derailing them in the first place. How can we give feedback in a way that minimizes defensiveness?

Why do some people sail through the entire budgeting, billing and collection process, while for others collection always means trepidation?

Buyers of legal services are now a highly sophisticated and connected community. What the clients now not only want but insist on, is operational efficiency, effectiveness and transparency.

Firm leadership must think about their talent (and that means all their talent) differently than they do today: as a core business asset whose managed value can make or break the firm's success.

It is not accidental that funding the creation or growth of law firms and practice groups has tended to follow a traditional path. Rather, this circumstance is a combination of traditional legal temperament and structural barriers to innovation. Recently, there have been changes to both.

In the post-pandemic era, widely adopted flexible work arrangements have given lawyers a new view of their work. But in a profession without mandatory retirement policies, a partner's decision to keep practicing may not entail a discussion of the ultimate succession of their practice and clientele.