Ikigai: Some Personal Reflections on Raison d’Etre and Purpose in Professional Firms
Introduction – Identity, Purpose and Vision for the Professional Firm I have often written of the imperative for a professional firm to develop an overall and shared “Strategic Intent” as a great starting point for the development of the central part of a firm’s strategy. Strategic Intent (Identity, Purpose and Vision) provides and communicates an […]
Knowing the Enemy – and Setting up Battle Lines
All over the world, the legal profession remains a fragmented sector with a bewildering choice of possible legal advisers facing every client. It is very difficult for law firms to be truly differentiated or set apart from competitors in terms of developing and marketing unique products or services or being or becoming the only show […]
The Death of Deference
Lawyers have always been a distrustful bunch, but in the last twenty years the growth of larger law firms on the back of increased accountability and performance management seems to have repressed independence of thought amongst professionals, who have been encouraged to focus much of their effort on fee generation and to leave leadership decisions […]
When the Monkeys Run the Zoo
In running any business, reaching wise and sensible decisions is never easy. And in competitive markets, many who are charged with managing professional-service firms can suffer sleepless nights attempting to get decision-making right. But trying to get the right outcome can become a ‘worst nightmare’ in firms without a clear governance structure or with a […]
Edge International Global Survey of Partner Compensation
Every few years, Edge International carries out a short global survey of partner compensation in law firms. It was very much the brainchild of our late and much-missed colleague Ed Wesemann, assisted by Nick Jarrett-Kerr. Over the last twelve years it has been interesting to track the trends across the world as firms have steadily […]
Retirement Benefits – Does your Firm Provide a Nest Egg?
For many years, a generation of law firm partners has become accustomed to funding their own retirements through personal savings and schemes. They know that their naked-in-naked-out style of partnership means they will never be able to extract value from their years of effort. However, partners in highly profitable first-generation law firms – those they […]
Lateral Hires and the “Slam Dunk” Myth
This is an edited extract from the second (and much expanded) edition of Ark’s best-selling report Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms by Nick Jarrett-Kerr, released in April, 2018. It seems logical that both law firm growth and the plugging of a skills and market gap can be met by hiring a partner with […]
Ten Steps toward a Happier Firm
I have been involved in the management of professional service firms for upwards of twenty-five years, and during that time much of my effort has been directed towards helping firms to develop and build what might loosely be described as “success” – strategic success, financial success, business development success, organisational success and positioning success (relative […]
Another Look at Practice Group Analysis
Many law firms now have sophisticated methodologies for assessing or measuring the profitability of their practice groups, and yet many stumble across one of three typical issues. Many firms do not have a clear definition of their practice and industry groups. The issue is that firms often have too many specialised groups with some overlapping, […]
The Fading Power of Niches
It has often been stated that only two broad strategic directions are available to law firms, summed up in the often quoted platitude “Get Big or Go Niche”. Over the last few decades, many boutique firms have successfully followed a niche direction by doubling down on particular areas of focus and creating depth in sectors […]