Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
How could Trump Administration trade policy with China affect law firms and their clients?
Sarah Max continues her discussion of the financial implications of a second Trump administration. In this post, she unpacks some of Trump’s economic policies with respect to China and how those impacts are expected to affect the international financial industry.
What impacts should law firms expect from proposed Trump Administration tax policies?
This is the second of a series of articles about how the demand for legal services might change over the next two years under the Trump Administration. This article focuses on the effects of proposed changes to taxation.
What should law firms (and their clients) anticipate from the incoming Trump Administration?
With an impending administration change in the U.S. on January 20, 2025, many of our clients and professional friend have asked us the same question: What will the second Trump administration mean for my firm?
This is the first of a series of articles about how the demand for legal services might change over the next two years.
The Antidote to Fear
In recent confidential discussions with law firm leaders around the world, the author has noticed a very interesting apprehension that seems to be emerging as they consider the business prospects for their firm in for the next two to five years.
How then, can a law firm navigate through the strategic fears about the rest of the decade -- even the rest of 2025 -- with a reasonable degree of confidence?
Establishing a Risk-Management Program for AI in Law Firms
How can your law firm's risk management programs keep up with the ethical and practical challenges of artificial intelligence?
Here is a "quick start" outline.
Leading the Way to Quality in Legal Services
The legal services industry is awash in advice about leadership. How can Deming's Seventh Point build better leadership in law firms?
Here are five practical actions that Walker Clark clients are taking that are consistent with Deming’s Seventh Point and the outcomes that they are experiencing from each one.
Eight Things for Indian Law Firms to Think About
As part of our ongoing experiment to test the potential value of artificial planning in law firm management, we asked the newest version of our chatbot, openai GPT-4, what Indian law firms should be considering in their planning for the incursion of foreign law firms into the Indian legal market.
The response outlined eight good starting points.
What if our brilliant strategy fails?
Even the best business strategies can be knocked off-course, or sometimes even wrecked, by a crisis that the law firm only vaguely anticipated, if at all.
Some law firms not only survive crises, but actually emerge from them stronger than ever before. Our firm’s observations of the experiences law firms of all sizes, but especially small and midsize firms, worldwide between 2020 and 2022, suggest that you can make your law firm “crisis-resistant.”
You won’t be immunized from the effects of a crisis, but you will be able to resist its most serious effects and recover much more quickly.
Yes, diversity really is a priority.
The old excuse, still heard in many law firms around the word, that "diversity is not a priority for our clients or our firm" is not only misinformed, but in some cases could be a formula for long-range failure.
The Law Firm of the Future: “Anytime, Anywhere” Service
One defining characteristic of the successful law firm of the future is already visible in many of the most successful law firms today.
The successful law firm of the future will be able to deliver a high degree of responsiveness and service quality anytime and anywhere the client needs legal services.
The Law Firm of the Future: Intimate Client Relationships
"My lawyer is my best friend."
How often has a client said that about you?
"Client intimacy," not just good client service, will be an important feature of the successful law firm of the future.
The Law Firm of the Future: Seven Critical Forces That Will Determine Success
One of the most frequent questions that I am asked these days is What will law firms look like ten years from now? Twenty years?
Contrary to popular belief, we really can foretell the future, especially of the legal services industry.
And a very clear picture is emerging.
This is the first of a series of posts that will describe and explore seven characteristics that will determine which law firms remain successful in the legal services industry of the future, and what law firms can do now to build them into their operations and professional cultures.
Buried Treasure
Most lawyers have an untapped source of new fees...
...from old clients.
Research conducted by Walker Clark LLC with our clients over the past twenty years confirms that the return on investment in keeping in touch with inactive clients — even ones who haven't provided any work for years — can be significantly better than the time, effort, and expense of looking for new ones.
CRM: No Longer a Luxury for Lawyers
One of the most important lessons of the pandemic has been the vital importance of maintaining frequent personal contact with clients.
Client Relations Management (CRM) systems need to move from the marketing department onto the desktop of every fee earner in a law firm. In the hands of a reasonably diligent lawyer — even a horribly busy one — a good desktop CRM system streamlines the flow of information between a central marketing and business development database and each lawyer.
A Four-Day Work Week for Law Firms?
There has been considerable discussion recently about whether a four-day work week promotes greater individual and group productivity.
Some of this appears to be relevant to law firms.
What would your law firm have to do to move to a four-day work week?
Your Law Firm’s (Secret) Autobiography
Almost every law firm has some type of "about us" page on its website.
Have you ever considered what an honest "autobiography" of your firm would say?
Of course, it wouldn't be for publication, but it could be more important than what you publish to the world.
Can't innovate? Ask a client for help.
To paraphrase Marcel Proust, the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.
A focus group of your best clients could be your best guide to seeing, understanding, and becoming a "law firm of the future."
The International Challenge to Asian Law Firms
As international law firms from outside the region become more deeply embedded in the legal markets of Asia, the leading local and national law firms, which previously may have held relatively secure market positions, must respond quickly and accurately to these new competitors, or face relegation to the lower, less-profitable levels of the market.
Is it laziness or fear...
An article in today's on-line edition of Australasian Lawyer, reports a shocking statistic for an industry sector that claims that its highest value is service to the client.
A study to be released next week report that 60% of law firms do not ask for client feedback regularly. No wonder that the legal profession has a customer satisfaction score that is lower than other major professional and business services sectors.
Looking Back to Look Forward
As law firms begin a new fiscal year, whether in January or at some other point in the calendar, most of them overlook one of their most powerful and reliable planning resources, last year's performance. Year-end financial data and the collective experiences of a firm's partners can help detect the probable causes of serious, often chronic, strategic, financial, and operational issues.
