Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Tear Down the Silos
Is your law firm an integrated professional business or a collection of fiefdoms?
This is the tenth in a series of sixteen articles that will explore the relevance and, for some law firms the existential importance, of W. Edwards Deming's Fourteen Points.
Deming’s ninth point in his Fourteen Points of Total Quality Management stresses a vital, yet often overlooked, aspect of organizational effectiveness: "Break down barriers between departments." As the practice of law becomes more complex and competitive, with greater challenges to sustainable profitability, this point is more important than ever before, even among smaller firms who might have “silos” that are so small as not to be noticeable.
“New Law”: When Being an Excellent Lawyer is not Good Enough
As one managing partner of a U.S. law firm recently commented, "Today we have to be experts in subjects that they never taught in law school, not even five years ago. Being an excellent lawyer is no longer good enough."
Advising clients about compliance with international economic sanctions is one such challenging "new law" area.
Partner Compensation and Individual Partner Profitability
Even the most effective partner compensation systems sometimes have difficulty basing a partner's remuneration on the profitability of each partner’s practice.
This is because they try to take too simplistic an approach to a complex and highly individual concept.
“Zero-Tolerance” Profitability: Why are we doing this work?
Have you ever been tempted to discontinue some of the services that your law firm offers? That could be one of the most important things that you can do to improve your firm's profitability.
This is the third in a five-part series of posts that focuses on profitability in small law firms and solo practices.
Big Ideas
This is the time of the year when some law firm partners start thinking in bold terms about possible strategic opportunities. One of the most frequent of these "big ideas" is the creation of a new practice group or industry sector specialty.
Some of these ideas succeed, but most fail.
