Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
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.
Six Months from Failure?
An article posted today in the Law Society Gazette suggests that as many as 5,000 small English law firms and solo practices could be forced out of business within the next six months. Most of these firms are retail firms, or "high street" firms, that primarily serve individual clients and small businesses in relatively small matters, such as real estate conveyancing.
The problem is cash flow.
COVID-19 Update: Resilient Leadership in a Time of Crisis
Resilience has become a big buzz-word in the business world during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the legal services industry is not immune from it.
But what does resilient leadership look like in a law firm? How do the leaders of a law firm — both the titular ones and the de facto ones — successfully guide their organizations through bad times?
This article, first published in Walker Clark Worldview in 2015 and updated for the current crisis management context, offers six actions to build resilient leadership in a law firm. Remember, the goal is not just to get through the current storms, but to emerge from them stronger than before. To do this, everyone in a legal services organization — but especially in law firms — needs to deal with some very disquieting questions.
Business Intimacy in an Age of Social Distancing
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has introduced social distancing as a basic business practice.
We also need to master the skills of business intimacy.
Even If You Don't Have a COVID-19 Plan
Effective crisis management involves more than just good planning. It also is a valuable learning experience.
Most law firms have been caught unprepared for the short-term and potential long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you have a well-developed tested plan, no plan at all, or something in-between, one of the most important things that you can do is to document all the practical problems that you have encountered in responding to the pandemic.
A Quick — But Not Easy — COVID-19 Strategic Checklist for Law Firms
The March 9, 2020, issue of Bloomberg Businessweek contains a practical strategic checklist to "make your company disaster-proof-ish."
The nine steps listed in the article apply with full force to law firms, especially small and midsize ones. It should be required reading for every law firm managing partner.
Why Small and Midsize Law Firms are Especially Vulnerable to Mental Health Issues
What would you do if you suspected that one of your colleagues was chronically depressed or was abusing alcohol or drugs?
Unfortunately, most small and midsize law firms can't answer this question.
Some don't even want to think about it.
After We Hit the Iceberg
The massive systems failure at Delta Airlines on 8 August 2016 disrupted operations for more than 48 hours and left tens of thousands of Delta passengers stranded.
Delta Airlines is one of the largest airline companies in the world, with perhaps the world's largest and most sophisticated operations systems, but Delta's experiences over the past several days provide sobering warnings to even the smallest law firms that take don't take disaster planning and client relations recovery seriously.
So, before we all get into too much of a high dudgeon about Delta Airlines and other air carriers that have experienced similar systems problems, let's look at your law firm. There are some good lessons to be learned from Delta's misfortunes this week.
“Something’s wrong.”
We all know when "something's wrong" – whether we act on it or not. There is this place of inquietude in our thoughts that tells us "something's wrong" - whether in our relationships, in our careers, or in our organizations.
Three Questions for Better Crisis Management
The closing weeks of 2014 are proving to be very challenging for many law firms, large and small, around the world. There are things that every law firm should do now so that it can manage a crisis if it arises, rather than try to rely on improvised responses.
Making Lemonade
Crisis usually brings opportunity, and one of Ukraine's leading law firms, Sayenko Kharenko, has demonstrated commendable strategic agility in response to the Crimean crisis in a newsletter that they published today.
Recession-Proof Your Law Firm: New Dynamic Approaches to Planning
This is final installment in a series of four posts about how law firms can anticipate, prepare for, and respond successfully to the next recession or economic downturn..
It outlines the third, and possibly most important, change that law firms must make to increase their chances of surviving the next recession (assuming that they emerge from the recent one).
Recession-Proof Your Law Firm: Innovations in Client Care
This is the third in a series of four posts about how law firms can anticipate, prepare for, and respond successfully to the next recession or economic downturn. We are investigating three basic rules that describe how a relatively small group of law firms — of all sizes, practice specialties, and locations — not only have survived the Great Recession that began in 2007, but actually have emerged from it stronger than before.
In this post, let's consider client retention tactics: taking care of your clients through innovations in client care.
Recession, Depression, and the Legal Profession
Challenging economic times elevate the mental health risks for law firms. Law firms should take highly effective preventive measures to promote a personally supportive workplace in a way that helps the firm and its people to manage the stress.
This is the most frequently read posts in the Worldview Archives, with more than 25,000 views since it was first published in 2009.
