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High
Performance
Leadership Tools |
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High
Impact Retreats
Retreats can be the catalyst for uncovering
millions of dollars of new business. For ideas on maximizing
the effectiveness of retreats, click
here to view a New York Law Journal Article on
this subject.
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The "Great" Firm
Most firms are good at what they do,
but can they become better? Jim Collins, in his book Good
to Great, showed us how good companies became great
companies. To read an article on how these principles
can be translated and applied to law firms, click
here.
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Strategic
Planning
Effective strategic planning is a critically
important, but delicate process. To understand how
to navigate the potential landmines, click
here to read an LMA article on avoiding the pitfalls
that face most law firm planning initiatives.
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The
Lawyer's Role in Selling Legal Services
Many lawyers have the desire to be effective
business developers, but just don’t know what to do.
Rarely do they take a strategic approach, and many
don’t possess basic tools that could make all the difference.
The proper mix of new skills, personal planning and
coaching could mean millions in new revenue.
Click
here for a description of DFCG’s
training, planning and coaching program
for individual lawyers.
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Upcoming
Leadership Conference
NorthStar Conferences invites you to join
today’s savviest thought leaders as they share insights
on day-to-day firm management and overall firm strategy
at the next Law Firm Leadership Institute on March 11-12,
2004 at The Ritz-Carlton New York, Battery Park.
For the complete agenda and faculty listing, or to register, click
here or call 1-866-265-1975 and mention Priority Code LSR1.
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David
Freeman's Upcoming Speaking Engagements
• LMA 18th
Annual Conference, Orlando, March 10th: “Developing
a Roadmap for Establishing a Sales and Marketing Culture
in Your Firm” (co-presenting with Mark Beese, Marketing
Director, Holland & Hart LLP).
• ABA Minority Counsel Program, Philadelphia,
March 25th: “Business Development – The Power of Long-Term Relationship Building.”
• ABA Women in Law Leadership Academy, Chicago
April 17th: "Empowerment and Leadership: Taking Control of Your Career."
Click
here for more information.
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Ask David Freeman
Do
you have any questions about strategy, leadership or business
development?
Feel free to email
me for a confidential discussion on any leadership issues
you may be facing.
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Feedback
I wholeheartedly welcome your feedback
on this publication, ideas for future content and articles,
and best practices that can be shared with our community
of leaders. I can be reached via email. |
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Welcome
to the inaugural issue of "Law Firm Leadership and Strategy
Report". This publication will explore the strategic
topics of planning, leadership and implementation, and
will provide best practices for understanding and addressing
some of the most challenging issues facing law firms
and their leaders. This report, which contains some of
the best thinking of your peers, will provide tools and
techniques for becoming a higher performance leader.
Feel free to share this with other leaders, and we welcome
your feedback and insights for future editions.
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Best
Practice in Strategy:
A Planning Model for Law Firms
by Stephen
S. Aichele, Managing Partner, Saul Ewing LLP
The
Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, at one time
conducted a graduate level course for senior officers
entitled "National Security Decision Making." Interestingly,
the subtitle of the course was "If you don't know where
you're going, it's tough to plan to get there." Although
that course was obviously intended for a very different
audience, the concepts of "mission discipline" and "mission
orientation" can easily, and beneficially, be applied
to law firms. How many times in the recent past have
we observed a law firm's acquisition of an office in
a distant city or an apparently unrelated group of lawyers,
scratched our heads and said to ourselves, "Hmmm, I wonder
what they think they're doing?" While it's not important
for us to know, it is vital for them to know. I believe
that any law firm can understand both where it's going,
and how to get there, by following a very simple planning
model symbolized by the acronym "MOST" -- Mission, Objectives,
Strategies, Tactics.
Vision and Mission
At Saul Ewing, we had to determine, in the parlance of
the Naval War College, where we were going. In other
words, what is our vision of ourselves in the future?
While many firms were obviously setting a course to become
national, or even international in scope, we do not believe
that the highly centralized corporate management structure
necessitated by a national or international operation
is consistent with our Firm personality and core values.
We believe that a regional footprint, while allowing
for the national practices that we already have and for
those that we will grow, will allow us to retain the
participatory, consensual management structure, and the
one-to-one leverage model that has been our tradition.
We believe that the consensual management structure retains
the professional camaraderie and "personal glue" that
are so important in today's increasingly competitive
legal world, and that a one-to-one leverage model allows
us honestly to assert to incoming associates that each
of them has an equal opportunity to become a partner
in our Firm. We also believe that our core values of
respect for each other and respect for the profession
are more easily nurtured in a firm where we can all interact
in person on a regular basis.
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Marketing-Focused
Leadership
by David H. Freeman,
CEO & founder, David Freeman Consulting Group, LLC
What does it mean to "win" as a law firm? For most, it
means attracting and retaining excellent clients. But that can't be done without
effective leaders who focus the collective energy, skills and knowledge of their
lawyers toward achieving those goals. The leaders best positioned to influence
day-to-day activities are at the practice group level, however, for many of these
leaders, their challenge is to reposition their groups as marketing machines
rather than administrative and educational units. Leaders who possess the right
attitudes, skills and processes can enhance the marketing focus of their lawyers,
improve service to existing clients, and contribute to firm profitability.
Organizational Energy
In a service-based business like a law firm, there is
a virtual tsunami of potential energy that walks in the front door every day.
How that energy is released and harnessed directly impacts the quality of results. "We
want to engage the individual entrepreneurial spirit, and we must take care not
to douse that fire," observes Steve Armstrong, Director of Career Development
at Wilmer Cutler Pickering LLP.
Motivational speeches may work for football
coaches and evangelists, but to achieve long-term,
sustained performance improvement, inspiration
must come from within. High performing individuals
like lawyers don't need to get fired up.
Instead, the role of an astute leader should
be to reduce or eliminate obstacles that
get in the way of their natural desire to
soar. Common obstacles include unclear direction,
weak strategies, inadequate client development
skills, lack of teamwork, poor communication
with other departments, misaligned compensation
structures that do not support strategic
goals, and lack of personal commitment to
group goals. Once the energy is unleashed,
it is the job of the Marketing-Focused Leader
to channel it in a way that serves personal,
group and firm-wide goals.
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 David
H. Freeman, J.D., CEO and founder of David Freeman Consulting Group,
LLC, is a former attorney from New York who for nearly a
decade has been working with top law firms and corporations
as a specialist in strategic planning, leadership development,
retreat design and facilitation and business development.
He speaks and writes nationally on leading edge methods for
improving performance in law firms from the perspective of
its leaders, as well as its individual lawyers.
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Law
Firm Leadership & Strategy Report
David Freeman Consulting Group, LLC David H. Freeman, J.D., publisher dfreeman@davidfreemanconsulting.com
303.448.0757 © 2004 David Freeman Consulting Group, LLC. All rights reserved
“Law Firm Leadership and Strategy Report” and
“High Impact Ideas for High Performance Leaders”
are trademarks of David Freeman Consulting Group LLC.
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