Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
Will 2022 be the year when everything changed?
For most law firms, internal operations and client service processes will not be the same in 2022 as before the COVID-19 pandemic. Many law firms have already announced how what began as temporary adjustments have already become, or soon will become, permanent components of their practice.
These changes will have substantial effects of law firm finances, lawyer performance, profitability, and in many cases, partner compensation structures and formulas.
There will be many responses by law firms around the world, but one response that will almost always be fatal eventually will be to throw up one's hands and say, "We'll figure it out as we go along — one problem at a time."
Have you tested your surge capacity recently?
Two reports this week suggest that a robust economic recovery could be as close as six months away.
Is your law firm ready?
How do you know for sure?
The “new normal” will not be good enough.
Banish the phrase "new normal" from your thinking about the future.
As law firms begin to think about operations after the pandemic subsides, many of their partners have been using the phrase new normal. This mindset — that the future will be just a continuation of the past — is as risky to the future of your law firm as ingesting bleach or taking ineffective, dangerous drugs to fight a coronavirus.
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.
“Zero-Tolerance” Profitability: Do you always make money for your partners?
"Hyman Roth always makes money for his partners."
Forget for a moment the somewhat less desirable business practices of the Miami-based gangster Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II. Can you say the same thing about each of your partners? Can they say that about you?
This is the fourth in a five-part series of posts that focuses on profitability in small law firms and solo practices.
Resisting the Temptation to Cut Costs
Although some of the world's law firms are beginning to enjoy the results of a slow economic recovery, many others are not. In eastern Europe and Russia, for example, many firms are confronting the prospects of sharply declining fee revenues in 2015 from what were some of their most profitable practice areas and clients in 2013 and 2014. In such a scenario, it is very tempting to start cutting operating costs.
Resist that temptation.
