Winning through Practice Excellence
The attaining of best practice can lead to an advantage in which true excellence becomes a winning competitive formula.
Retreats – The Edge Approach
In every endeavor, there is an optimum way of doing things. The art of sculpting a retreat is no exception. So the content for your retreat should not be prescribed externally. Beware the consultant with a hammer to whom all the world is a nail. No matter how tempting it is to pull a previous […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part I
The rapid growth of law firms in the past decade has created some new and unique management difficulties. With firms’ size, and the complexity of global legal practices, coordinating the availability of partners to perform any management function beyond routine meeting attendance is increasingly difficult. The problem of finding partners to assume leadership roles is […]
Planning a Law Firm Retreat: Part II
Expanded Annual Meeting Many firm’s partnership agreements require an annual meeting for the election of member of management, selection of new partners, approval of compensation and other similar issues. These are important issues, not only because they concern day-to-day operating concerns but because they go to the fabric of what it means to be a […]
Mount Everest Syndrome
End the cycle of making big plans for non-billable project…and accomplishing nothing. Here we offer practical suggestions for breaking that cycle… Most professionals in good law firms tend to think big. If someone in the firm decides it might be a good idea to take up mountain climbing, it will not be more than a […]
Associate Dissatisfaction: The Chance that Clifford Took
On October 15, 2002, associates in the New York City office of Clifford Chance responded to a request for input from the firm’s partners with a memo–a very candid memo. Somehow, a copy got into the Financial Times of London and became public. The result has been pivotal for Clifford Chance and, maybe, the legal […]
The Leading Question of Learning.
Many people seem to think that skills such as management and leadership cannot be learned; you are either born with them or not. This article examines the case for management and leadership training in Professional Service Firms. I had a Partner once who firmly believed that all leadership and management abilities are a matter of […]
Intelligent Design for Law Firms
In a recent issue of Fast Company, an article entitled “The Interpreter” starts out like this: Claudia Kotchka is holding the secret to understanding design at Procter & Gamble in her palm. It’s not a P&G product, but a tin of Altoids®, the “curiously strong” mints produced by Wrigley. As the scent of peppermint oil […]
The Management Imperative
by Gerry Riskin A leader can be forgiven for doing the wrong thing on occasion but what about failing to manage at all? In a corporate setting, this would be perceived as abdication and likely result in dismissal. In many law firms, however, leaders are excused from their management responsibilities… Continue reading by accessing the […]
Mind Your Own Business! Manage Your Law Practice Like a Corporation
There is only one line that stands between you and phenomenal success — it separates action from inaction. By considering yourself in all the senior executive roles in managing your practice, you will optimize satisfaction and income. Position: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Function: Creating a vision for the personal practice that fits with the firm’s […]