Walker Clark
Worldview Archives
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.
Is your 2015 business plan ready?
For law firms operating on a calendar year basis, a large part of the next 20 to 30 days will be (or at least should be) consumed by putting the finishing touches on the business plan for 2014.
While you're at it, why not write a two-year business plan?
“…not to name, shame, or embarrass…”
According to an article in today's on-line edition of The Lawyer, a 56-lawyer English law firm, Munday's, has introduced a "mystery shopper" scheme to test their own client service functions.
Grow or Die? — a Third Way Forward for Small Law Firms
Small and midsize law firms in consolidating legal markets, especially in emerging economies, usually have only two basic options if they want to continue to compete effectively for the highest-value work from the best clients: grow to meet increasing demand for services in large, complex matters or shrink to become a boutique.
There is a third option, however.
It might be unpleasant for some law firm partners, but it can be a realistic option worth consideration.
What is the business case for change?
When law firm partners discuss significant possible changes in their firm, someone often asks, "What's the business case for this?"
At least, someone should ask that.
It's a good question.
Why Small and Midsize Law Firms Can Have a Great Future
At Walker Clark, we remain amazed by how many law firm partners — and even some law firm management consultants — really believe that the legal profession will eventually be dominated by the global giants. Under this overblown scenario, all the other firms will simply have to be content with the scraps that fall from the big firms' dining tables.
Our firm's experience and observations advising small and midsize firms on business strategy, profitability, and internal operations, persuasively demonstrate that smaller firms can compete very effectively even against some of the best-known and most powerful law firms in the world.
Chaos, Control, and Change in Law Firms
By training and experience, most lawyers tend to be risk-adverse. This can sometimes make change difficult, especially when the changes are a little threatening to those in power, or when they challenge long-held paradigms about how things should be done.
This is one of ten most frequently read posts in the Worldview Archives, with more than 14,000 views since it was first published in 2013.
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-Proof Your Law Firm: Pay attention to the business.
This is the second of a series of four posts that outline issues that law firms should consider today in order to be prepared for future recessions... or worse.
Cash is the life blood of a law firm at any time, and it is critical to survival in a troubled economy.
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.
The Next Recession: Is your firm ready?
This is the first of a four-part series that examines possible strategies and tactics to prepare your law firm now for the next recession.
Some of them also can produce good results now — even without an economic downturn.
New Blood for Zombie Law Firms
There is an old saying among law firm managers: "Even the best-managed law firm is only 90 days from bankruptcy."
This is because most law firms traditionally have been woefully under-capitalized. To some extent, some of these firms are already financial zombies. They survive due to good luck, deft financial management, and the persistence of partners — none of which can sustain them indefinitely.
Understanding How We Work
The British firm Addleshaw Goddard is taking a closer look at its internal work processes to make them less expensive and more efficient for clients. Under the direction of the firm's head of client delivery, Andrew Chamberlain, the people in Addleshaws have mapped the internal processes by which it delivers legal services in 46 service lines.
Their probing analysis of how the work gets done in a law firm is essential to achieving any serious improvements in client service and satisfaction. It is an essential element of a comprehensive approach to quality that is long overdue in the legal profession.
What will your clients need five or ten years from now?
Do you know?
Have you ever asked?
We can help you find out.
Three (Plus One) Most Important Things
I was asked yesterday about strategic planning in law firms.
"Quick! Based on your experience, what are the three most important things that law firms need to keep in mind about strategic planning."
“If you were stranded in a law firm and could have only one management book...”
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) might be the most important book on management written in the past 200 years.
The Numbers Fog
Earlier this week, I had the privilege of teaching an advanced course in Law Practice Management as part of an LL.M. program. The class included associates, in-house counsel, and partners from some of the best law firms and legal departments in the region.
What particularly impressed me by the people in the class was their ability quickly and efficiently to penetrate through numbers and surface details in the fiendishly devious case studies I presented, to diagnose underlying issues and vulnerabilities that were the real potential causes of the problems, and to find solutions that could produce lasting results.
As we worked through the eight case studies, I thought about how, unlike the students in the class, many lawyers and law firms never take the time or invest the intellectual effort to do that. Instead, they frequently focus on obvious, quick-fix responses that usually only cover over the basic issues, which always return sooner or later and sometimes worse than ever before.
DIY
"Why couldn't we just do this ourselves?"
My colleagues and I at Walker Clark LLC are frequently asked this question when we submit a consulting proposal to a prospective client.
The "do it yourself" mentality that some law firms have raises several important points about law firms and consulting services.
Getting Your Partners to Do the Right Thing
This would be a great law firm if I could get my partners to do the right thing."
This is a frequent comment in many law firms, even ones that are otherwise well-managed and successful. It is easy to become frustrated when our colleagues do not perform in ways that are consistent with commitments that they have made.
