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.
The pandemic has caused an unprecedented change to the practice of law for many law firms. Since March, the delivery of superior client service has required a new way of thinking and a little bit of scrambling. Yet after a couple of months living in the Covid-19 world, some law firms feel a new normal
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
A law firm in crisis is in a different world—a world in which leadership must learn to adapt. It is a place that requires thinking differently, acting decisively, and making choices count. In battling crisis mistakes inevitably happen, but successful crisis leaders keep the number and magnitude small. A law firm leader flexes brain muscles
The vast majority of law firms are already or in the throes of or are about to experience a marked decrease in revenue, whether to closed courts, stalled transactions, or simply because clients are pulling back and paying more slowly.
For a very small minority of law firms declining cash balances aren’t a problem thanks
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
