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Many law firms invest considerable time, effort, and resources in cross-training younger lawyers to work in more than one practice area. Cross-training is a worthwhile investment, but often a very costly one. This in-depth analysis outlines a new approach to cross-training, which achieves well-defined, measurable results without the negative business impact that most law firms experience.
A Demographic Sampling of Law Firms in Latin America.
This paper summarizes the results of research conducted by Walker Clark, LLC, in January and February 2004. Walker Clark examined the professional biographies of 5,538 lawyers in 240 law firms in the region, organized into representative samples of law firms in 19 countries. Firms included in the samples each were considered to be mid-size or large for their respective markets. Each firm also had a substantial practice providing commercial and corporate legal services to international clients. The national samples were then analyzed to identify regional and national trends that will affect the composition of lawyer staffing of law firms in the next ten years.
The results of the study support several points, each of which will have important implications for long range planning and management of law firms in Latin America:
- The legal profession in Latin America, as well as in most of the countries in the region, is a young profession. Half of the lawyers are 35 years old or younger.
- It is also a relatively junior profession in terms of experience. Half of the lawyers in the region have nine years or less experience since qualification. This reflects the substantial growth of Latin American law firms in the past ten years.
- The legal profession in Latin America is becoming much more diverse with respect to gender. Women comprise 32.8% of the legal population throughout the regional sample, ranging in the various countries from 21% to 51% of the lawyers in law firms. The percentage of women is much higher, however, among younger lawyers. This predicts that within as soon as ten years, the legal profession in many of the Latin American countries will be predominantly female.
Effective Law Firm Differentiation: Standing Out in a Hyper-Competitive Legal Market
What message does your law firm communicate to the market? Why should a prospective client select your firm over the many other excellent law firms that offer essentially the same service at approximately the same price? Walker Clark prinicipal Fernando Moreno explains the critically important strategy of differentiation and offers practical suggestions about how to communicate it to the market. This is a PDF version of the slides from his presentation to the Lawrope conference on 1 June 2007.
Infrequently Asked Questions About Starting Your Own Law Firm
One of the new currents in today's legal profession is the growing number of law firm partners who are starting their own firms. Are you ready to go out on your own, either as a solo practitioner or as a member of a small new firm? Do you have the values, interpersonal skills, and leadership behaviors that are necessary even in a solo practice? Well thought-out business plans and a portfolio of faithful clients are important, but you also need to examine the most important resource of all --- yourself.. Lisa Walker Johnson suggests some tough questions that will yield important answers.
Managing the Opportunities and Risks: Strategies for Law Firms in Emerging Economies
As national economies emerge and regional economies begin to develop, the legal profession faces new opportunities and complex new business risks. Some law firms will survive these challenges and build sustainable long-term success. Many more will not.
This paper is based on an address by Walker Clark founding principal Norman Clark, delivered to Second Annual Business Law Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association on 13 March 2007. Click here to download the paper. Click here to download the slide show in PDF format.
Managing an International Legal Portfolio
General counsels and chief legal officers report that they are spending more time and money than ever before on legal matters outside their companies' home jurisdictions. At the same time, a very clear set of best practices in client service is emerging among international law firms.
What should corporate clients expect from their foreign law firms? Clearly a good legal product is not enough. This paper explores the same question discussed in Serving the Foreign Client, but from the client's perspective. It suggests questions that in-house lawyers should ask their foreign law firms.
Meeting the Challenges of Uncertain Times
Executive summary of the Walker Clark Strategic Outlook - 2005.
One of Walker Clark's most frequently downloaded documents has been updated through the end of 2005. This article summarizes the results of the Walker Clark Strategic Outlook project, which our firm conducts every three years, collecting information, insights, and opinions throught formal interviews and informal conversations with senior partners, chairpersons, and managers from successful law firms outside the United States.
To base a strategic paper on data compiled exclusively outside the U.S. may seem counter-intuitive to most U.S.-based management consultants, who still wrongly view the United States as the primary source of all wisdom and knowledge concerning law firm management. To us, it our approach seemed to make common sense. In our experience working with progressive, entrepreneurial law firms worldwide, we have learned that the best practices for law firm management are often first executed in the highly competitive legal markets of places like the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Hong Kong, to name but three examples.
The law firms that contributed to this research project may not be among the biggest or best-known law firms in the world; but each has a proven record of sustained success in challenging market conditions. We believe that our clients, friends and colleagues in the U.S. legal profession will learn from their experiences, observations, and insights.
Navigating the Oceans on a Flat Planet
For many law firms, the past few years have posed difficult challenges to continued robust growth, and for some, even to their survival. Bruce Davidson points out that there is no simple checklist for planning a firm's business strategy in today's highly competitive legal markets. Instead, he outlines practical steps that law firms can take to move from the bloody, competition-ravaged "red oceans" of the business world to "blue oceans" with open opportunities and no significant competition.
Next Generation Technology: Is your firm ready?
Where is legal management technology headed in the next five years? What should law firms do today to get ready? Cristián Fourcade demonstrates the measurable financial benefits of integrating information technology and new communications capabilities into the day-to-day operations of law firms. Not only will these investments produce dramatic improvements in profitability and performance. They are also becoming essential if small and midsize firms want to remain competitive.
The Partner in Crisis: The Role of Counseling Psychology
This article is based on a speech by Lisa Walker Johnson to the 2005 conference of the International Bar Association in Prague, Czech Republic. Lisa explained her role as a counseling psychologist dealing with sensitive and frequently firm-threatening issues arising from abusive or inappropriate workplace behavior by lawyers. She also discussed three fundamental rules that must be observed if a partner crisis is to be resolved productively.
Partners, Allies or Just Friends
Most strategic relationships between law firms -- whether formal strategic alliances, "best friend' relationships, networks, or full mergers -- produce disappointing results because of weak intellectual planning. This presentantion by Norman Clark and Fernando Moreno, given to the Argentina-Brazil Bilateral Conference of the International Bar Association in April 2007, outlines the analytical and decision making steps that law firms should take to improve their chances of long-term success in a strategic relationship with another law firm or network. The slides are in PDF format.
Perspectives on International Leadership
As law firms cross borders, lawyers, managers and staff from different cultures must learn to appreciate traditional professional customs and values while remaining open to new leadership behaviors. North American lawyers, in particular, may be surprised to learn that styles and behaviors that work well at home may produce unintended negative effects among lawyers and staff in other countries. At the same time the firm's international clients and the firm's own younger lawyers may be more open to, and even expect, approaches that are different from the traditional law firm culture. Walker Clark business advisors Bill Henderson and Lisa Walker Johnson explore the challenges for each culture in an international law firm.
Six Drivers of Law Firm Profitability
Six key economic factors are the most influential forces in the profitability of a law firm. If a law firm is failing financially, the problem can almost always be found in one of these six factors. Moreover, a careful analysis of these six factors will reveal significant opportunities to improve profitability, even in well-managed firms.
Secrets of Successful Innovation in Client Products and Services
How can law firms enjoy the substantial business and financial benefits of innovation, while also minimizing the risks? In a presentation to the conference of the International Bar Association on 26 October 2004, Walker Clark principal Norman Clark outlined seven common-sense steps to more profitable design and introduction of new client products and services.
Secrets of Successful Survivors
This article, originally written for and published by Latin Lawyer summarizes Walker Clark research into the common characteristics of Latin American law firms that have produced sustained, long-term financial success. The research identified seven strategies that each firm followed, with varying degrees of formality, documentation, and customization to each firm's national and organizational culture. These secrets of the "successful survivors" in the Latin American legal market can be used very successfully by any law firm anywhere in the world.
Serving the foreign client requires more than good cross-cultural skills. It is a learning process. The authors recommend that law firms invest considerable time and effort at the beginning of the relationship to discuss and define the client’s expectations, as well as any practical, economic, or political implications in the firm’s home jurisdiction. When acting for a foreign client, law firms should assume nothing. In today’s quickly changing global marketplace, assumptions based on yesterday’s experience might not be reliable guides for client satisfaction tomorrow.
Startup Leadership: Moving from Good Management to Great Leadership in a New Law Firm
Leadership is the most important component in the business success of a new law firm. It is more important than a business plan, capitalization, or a portable client base. These three things are needed, to be sure. However, the new firm will not succeed unless its owners can motivate themselves, their staff, their clients, and their external suppliers to make the contributions needed to sustain long-term financial performance. This article examines the special challenges and characteristics of leadership in new law firms. In the successful professional services organization, leadership is more than a philosophy or set of cultural values. It is more than slogans and exhortations. Rather, leadership is a set of specific, observable behaviors, which motivate by the force of their example.
Strategies for the Emerging Trans-Pacific Legal Market
The next ten years will see the greatest increase in foreign trade and direct investment in history, and most of this growth will come from fast-emerging economies in Asia and the Pacific. Law firms in Latin America may discover that their most important relationships will no longer be in North America and Europe, but across the Pacific. In this article, reprinted with permission from Latin Lawyer, Norman K Clark and Gerald J Kirkpatrick, of Walker Clark LLC, assess strategies for developing these relationships.
Think Big If Your Firm Is Small
If a small law firm isn't growing, it is dying. On the other hand, bigger is not necessarily better in today's legal markets. How can a small firm grow its business and market presence? How can it compete successfully against much larger, better financed firms? Gerald J. Kirkpatrick outlines a "think big" strategy that works even for the smallest firms.
Trends and Strategies in the North American Specialty Legal Markets: 2004-2006
This paper summarizes research by Walker Clark, LLC, concerning important trends that are likely to continue to shape the specialty legal markets in North America during the next three to five years. It outlines the special characteristics of the market in which the most specialized law firms practice, and the reasons why successful strategies for these markets may often appear counterintuitive or contrary to prevailing business theories and practices in general law firms. The paper outlines several common strategies which, in the experience and opinion of Walker Clark consultants, are found in the most successful competitors in the specialty legal markets.
Value, not Gender: Successful Strategies for Equal Opportunity in Law Firms
Law firms have not done a good job of providing equal opportunity for women and minorities. Contrary to widespread assumptions, U.S. law firms, as a group, do not provide shining examples or best practices for the rest of the world to follow. In this article, originally written for and published in Latin Lawyer, Lisa Walker Johnson points out four highly successful strategies that allow progressive law firms, in Latin America and elsewhere, to leverage diversity for greater business success.
