In this final post in our five-part series on succession planning, we address perhaps the most challenging aspect of the topic: managing and supporting individual senior partner transitions. In Pillar 1, Pillar 2, Pillar 3 and Pillar 4 we discussed various components of how firms can design and manage approaches to the many facets of succession…
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This post follows two prior posts and addresses the third pillar of succession management. Like many aspects of law firm management, the subject of succession planning often is limited to internal firm or management discussions and consideration. This is a mistake. Clients know and worry that senior partners may be nearing retirement, and absent any…
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In our recent blog post Succession Planning: The Problem and a RoadMap, we concluded with a RoadMap for how to establish a framework for an approach to succession planning. This post provides additional detail about five components that comprise the pillars of succession management. Pillar 1 ComponentsDone correctly, as described in our post The Succession…
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All of the research on gender bias and communications indicates that there are significant differences in the way men and women communicate. Men often are direct, women indirect. For men, communication helps achieve a goal, provides an answer; for women, it is more of a process, they want to tell a story and make a…
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In our prior post, Industry Group Strategy Part 1 – What are They and Why Have IGs? we clarified the difference between sectors and industries and discussed the benefits and goals of having them. In law firms, Industry Groups, like client teams, straddle multiple practice groups and lawyers may be members of several practice groups…
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Ask the most successful rainmakers what their secret is to their success and most will tell you that they work on it constantly and relentlessly. It has become integral to their client work and practice and they do it every day. Given the pressure lawyers feel to record billable hours, it may seem almost impossible…
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Everyone has a personal brand and it often plays a critical role in professional success, advancement and business development. Similar to a business’ brand, your brand is a promise of what others will receive from you, what you will be known for and how people react to your personality and approach. Whether or not you actively…
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Our last article The Millennial Generation in Law Firms – How to Attract and Retain Gen Ys focused on several aspects of the workplace that appeal to millennials and must be present in order for your firm to avoid the common turnover so prevalent in this generation. According to a Clutch HR survey, 40% of…
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The law firm model likely will change in the coming years as described in our article The Shape of Things to Come – Tradition Gives Way to a New Model! These changes may result in the hiring of fewer traditional lawyers out of law school and the advancement of fewer associates to partnership, the hiring…
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[Note: This post is co-authored by RainMaking Oasis and Jonathan Hollenberg of HawkPartners, a marketing strategy and research firm for Fortune 500 companies.] In our prior two posts Customer Experience (CX) Part 1 – Is It Different than Customer Service and Customer Experience (CX) Part 2 – Mapping the Client Journey, we discussed the difference…
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Providing exceptional and consistent client service is critical to your firm’s success, but to be a real winner, you will have to deliver an exceptional client experience (CX). With clients now in the driver’s seat and law firms aggressively competing to hold on to clients or take work away from others, we know that excellent…
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[Note: This article is being published with the permission of our client, Morgan Lewis & Bockius.] Two of our previous posts on collaboration, True Collaboration Drives Profitability and Collaboration: The Next Law Firm Frontier, discussed the benefits of collaborative cultures and approaches to client representation. But both articles also alluded to the reasons why collaboration…
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Collaboration in the workplace is widely recognized as an important success factor in the most effective organizations. It is necessary in order to build and share knowledge, accelerate innovation, break down silos and facilitate connectivity. A recent Harvard study found that managers and employees now spend 50% or more time in collaborative activities than they…
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Despite all the talk about clients not being loyal anymore and only being interested in pushing matters to the least expensive “bidder,” many things about relationships still matter to most clients. In our last blog post Sales and Service: The Loyal Client Lifecycle, we touched upon some of the ways to nurture and advance client relationships….
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Law firms continue to compete aggressively for new clients and new work from existing clients. We know from recent surveys by Citi and Altman Weil that client demand for outside lawyers remained flat in 2016 and is expected to do so again in 2017. With the same or less work to go around, this means…
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