Ask the Managing Partner of any 100 law firms to list their top 5 objectives for their firm, and 99 or more will say something that relates to growth in the number of lawyers, locations or practice disciplines.
Ask the same Managing Partners what is driving the need for this expansion and the response will
For followers of the law firm industry, there never is a shortage of opinions about its current state or what the future holds. True to form, the recent publication of Professor Ben Barton’s Glass Half Full: The Decline and Rebirth of the Legal Profession is a provocative take on where the law firm world
As discussed in my last post, Law Firm Succession Planning 2015: Leadership’s Hidden Challenge (Part One), the confluence of upbeat economic news with generational differences in the lawyer ranks presents a problem for law firm leaders not having an institutional succession plan. The issue is not just theoretical-Altman Weil’s 2015 Law Firms in
Altman Weil’s 2015 Law Firms in Transition report recently came out and as usual it offers interesting and valuable information about the law firm industry as well as the perceptions and attitudes of law firm leaders. One fact noted by AW in its report is that in 2015 much of the industry is enjoying
Growth among law firms generates headlines. Legal publications report on a merger here, a planting of a law firm flag there and the lateral moves of significant practice groups. The thing about growth is that it is a planned exercise-an initiative that is a matter of choice based on strategy. The opposite of growth, a
It has been estimated that lawyer turnover costs US law firms in excess of $13 billion per year — a staggering sum. At a more micro level the total cost of losing a lawyer is equal to more than two times the lawyer’s annual salary.
Although most industries face challenges associated with retaining
Passing on leadership to the next generation at small to medium law firms can be a challenge. These firms give themselves the greatest chance of success for eventual transition if they identify future leadership early and take the time to nurture the best prospects before succession presents itself. Taking on this blocking and tackling is
Leon Shapiro’s recent “How to Improve Your Organization’s Succession Planning” in Executive Street: The Business Leader’s Resource, reviewed the state of succession planning among many business organizations. Mr. Shapiro’s article noted the near universal recognition of its importance among business leaders, yet their confession that in many cases not enough is done for
Dentons and McKenna Long recently announced the intent to merge. Media reporting of the merger was substantial, including an April 8, 2015 article written by Sara Randazzo in The Wall Street Journal. In her Dentons, McKenna Long to Merge, Ms. Randazzo quoted Denton’s global chairman Joseph Andrew as stating, “[O]ur goal was not
As we continue to see law firms fail, and dramatic efforts at restructuring continue at a heady pace, market analysts can’t help but look for a common denominator. Is there a quantifiable predictor of tomorrow’s troubled law firm?
While a number of things can push a firm into a transition mode, there seems to be
