Virtually all law firms have had to adjust business practices to address the pandemic’s impact.  Whether working remotely, refocusing or changing firm economics, making personnel moves, or partnering with clients more, today’s challenges have fundamentally changed the way law firms operate.  For the law firms grappling with too many upheavals in their world, crisis looms.

Crisis Management Plan on an office desk and papers.

Law firm crisis typically brings financial pressure.  Reduced demand, slow-paying clients, and now due obligations incurred in better times are but a few of the hallmarks of crisis.  As bad as these things can be, the strain can intensify quickly when the

Covid-19 has impacted virtually all law firms.  A few firms have benefitted, some have suffered catastrophe, while the bulk of firms fall somewhere in the middle and forge ahead as best they can.

Whether leadership for this third group is plugging a leaky dike or simply boosting morale, the focus on short-term survival is a

Regardless of degree, Covid-19’s impact on law firms is near universal.  Some firms have been impacted so severely that crisis is their reality.  Confronted with a do or die situation, strong leadership fights to bring back normalcy.  Failure can mean disaster.

Leaders used to positive law firm performance can find themselves uncertain about their new

The Coronavirus is causing broad-based law firm disruption.  Reports of law firms reducing draws, decreasing salaries, furloughing or laying off of lawyers and staff, and modifying summer associate programs appear daily.  Besides creating concern for health and well-being, the pandemic presents real and substantial challenges for law firms.  All firms will feel it, and some

Recent years have been good for law firms of all kinds and sizes.  But good days can’t last forever.  Whether the next downturn hurting law firms gets traced to a world-wide virus, political disruption, or just a plain old recession, it doesn’t really matter. What matters for law firms having to ride the looming bumpy

For a lot of law firms, “business as usual” is like a favorite pair of shoes-they seem to fit and sure feel comfortable. When that is the case, falling back on usual practices continues as long as there is no pressure to change.  But once a watershed event occurs that shakes the foundations of management

“Law firm disasters are almost always of the man-made variety…. Once a storm is brewing, add the fact that as business organizations go, a law firm is among the most fragile, and you have the climate for a series of catastrophic events.”

            from Decisions That Matter: Tales of Law Firm Leadership in Moments of Consequence

The typical press release announcing a law firm merger extolls the excitement, the opportunity to have one plus one equal three, and the great fit of culture, practices and people.  It’s perfect until it is not.  In fact, by some measures more than half of all law firm mergers fail. When the realization sets in that your law firm merger is a bad one and not the combination of your dreams, what can you do?

Besides whistling past the graveyard, you’ve got to do something.  And while a solution stimulated by panic is not recommended, prompt action is advisable. As action plan options go, the following three options generally are presented and often are considered:Continue Reading Dealing with the Bad Law Firm Merger–Annulment, Divorce or Staying Together for the Kids?

As the calendar year comes to a close, there is a lot to do at most law firms. Activities like collecting bills, distributing profits and casting next year’s budget can occupy many a leadership team. The tasks at hand can be time consuming and all engrossing. Given the importance of these short-term issues, thinking about