Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
The Vortex Just Over the Horizon: Strategy, Succession, and Governance
Most of these firms are midsize firms (for their respective markets) that have enjoyed fast growth and financial success over the past 15 to 20 years. Their partners feel, with considerable justification, that they "are at the top of their games."
As these same partners look into the middle distance of 2020 to 2025, the most perceptive of them see serious problems ahead. Another of our clients recently referred to this as "our vortex — a place just over the horizon were several forces could come together in a way that could put in jeopardy everything that we have achieved and maybe even sink us."
The Succession Balance
First-generation law firms face a special challenge when planning and managing the transition of the firm from the founding partners to the "next generation.”
How strong is your bridge to the future?
We expect to see an unprecedented number of law firms go through their first generational transition of leadership between now and the mid-2020s, as founding partners retire and the next generation assumes leadership of the firm.
This will not be a smooth transition for many small and midsize law firms, especially in emerging and recently emerged legal markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
This post is not about the Chambers and Partners Awards for Excellence.
Like some of you, when I reviewed this year's short list for the Chambers and Partners Awards for Excellence for Latin America, at first I was a little surprised by some of the very good firms that were not finalists for these prestigious and coveted awards.
This post is not an attempt to debate or explain the short list selection criteria that the awards team at Chambers and Partners uses. Instead, I want to share two observations about the firms that did, and did not, make the list.
