Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
The Law Firm of the Future: A Predisposition for Innovation
Successful law firms in the future will not only keep up with trends and developments; they will lead them.
Innovation is more than just doing things better. Rather, it is a fundamental change. It shifts the paradigms that control how we think and act today.
The Law Firm of the Future: 40-to-1 Leverage? 400-to-1?
The successful law firm of the future will be almost unrecognizable to most law firm members today.
Unprecedented workflow leverage will create opportunities for exponential increases in productivity and unprecedented challenges to manage it.
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: From “Factory” to “Shipyard”
The law firm of the future will probably be more like a shipyard than a factory.
The conversion is already underway in many law firms.
“We have to get our house in order...”
Although rapidly-changing, intensely-competitive market dynamics will continue to shape the strategic context in which most law firms will operate in 2018, the new year is also proving to be internally challenging, especially for small and midsize firms.
We have noticed, beginning in the third quarter of 2017, a sharp increase in requests for advice and service with respect to three issues: partner compensation, governance, and succession planning.
You have decided to change your partner compensation system. What’s the next step?
It sometimes seems as if there is an almost infinite range of structures and options for partner compensation systems in law firms. Choosing among them can be a challenge for anyone.
The biggest challenge for most law firms, however, is actually making the change, once they have decided what it will be.
From Strategic Planning to Strategic Success: the “3x3” Model
The implementation of a law firm's most important decisions can be as simple as: Ready-Aim-Fire.
So why, in so many law firms, is it: Ready-Fire-Aim?
Document! Document! Document!
Getting things done requires that we confront reality at its most basic levels in the firm. Documenting internal strategic priorities, business plans, and commitment to and expectations of our people is a fundamental step for getting things done.
One of the most common characteristics of firms that fail to implement decisions well is that they try to short-cut documentation, or omit it completely.
Priorities, Low-Hanging Fruit, and Risks
One of the most intriguing and sometimes most frustrating issues in strategic planning often arises when a law firm's leaders consider the question "What should we work on first?"
Among all of the attractive strategic goals that we have set for ourselves, which ones should receive the most immediate priority in terms of our management attention, resources, and action?
What excites you?
A good business case can be persuasive.
Excitement is what can make it compelling.
Will We Succeed? Five Tests for Strategic Implementation
There are two phenomena that are far too common in law firm strategic planning.
The first is the the exciting, visionary, brilliantly-written strategic plan that collects dust on a remote bookshelf in the managing partner's office and is never implemented.
The second is the plan that consumes substantial resources — especially partner time — but produces disappointing results, and sometimes counterproductive ones.
“Backwards” Planning
"We are great at making plans, but we can never implement them."
This is a common observation by partners and managers at many law firms. Their firms invest substantial amounts of time, effort, and money on planning, but most of the plans never achieve anything.
Or, if they do, the results are far less than what the firm had hoped.
Future Search: Is it right for your law firm?
If traditional strategic planning methods have not produced the results that your firm wants, you might want to consider Future Search.
