Partner's Report for Law Firm Owners

Being a managing partner, practice group leader, or simply a partner with management responsibilities is certainly not a cakewalk. Aside from the difficulties tied to the need to maintain a law practice while assuming a management role, there’s the obvious "people dynamic" to contend with as well. Even the most adept managing partner can run into trouble.

Developing a strategic business plan takes a serious investment of time, energy, and money. However, in the many law firms that understand the need to put one together, strategic plans still end up languishing on shelves in partners’ offices. To ensure that this doesn’t happen at your firm, start thinking about your strategic plan now—before the year-end crunch takes hold and reduces the level of thoughtful attention that you and your partners can devote to the process. Summer retreats provide the perfect opportunity for law firm owners to revisit strategic planning.

New data on the going rate for paralegals and more. Although law firms significantly upped their median billing rates for paralegals this year, last year saw only modest increases in median total cash compensation for most paralegal positions, according to the 2006 Annual Compensation Survey for Paralegals/Legal Assistants and Managers.

Owners of large law firms take their marketing efforts to the next level. Law firms, which have historically spurned the use of traditional selling techniques, are hiring business development professionals and increasing their investment in related programs, according to the 2006 Law Firm Business Development Practices Survey from ALM Research (for information on the survey, call 888-770-5647).

Five simple steps to help law firm owners build better fee agreements. Using this back-to-basics approach should help your law firm eliminate the element of surprise for clients and cover all bases:

Insights for partners on how to reduce lawyer turnover. Meaningful work (not money) motivates legal professionals most, a new survey from Robert Half Legal shows. Forty-two percent of the 300 lawyers polled in the U.S. and Canada said that challenging assignments provide the greatest job satisfaction. Compensation packages ranked second with 22%.

Three things that law firm owners must address in relation to practice groups:

How can law firm owners better manage workplace tempers and tirades? A misstep in communicating with a fellow partner, colleague, or client can quickly escalate into a more severe confrontation if not carefully managed.

Real partners/leaders do more than talk a good game. They take leadership to the next level by exhibiting the courage needed to:

Are lawyers an intrinsically unhappy group of professionals? We think not, but study after study suggests a correlation between the practice of law and career dissatisfaction. One example: According to In Pursuit of Attorney Work-Life Balance: Best Practices in Management, a recent NALP Foundation report co-authored by Susan Saab Fortney:

When it comes to law firm leadership, it really does take a village. Solo leadership is waning as a force in the market, and collaboration is the new trend, according to a Center for Creative Leadership survey of more than 300 mid- to upper-level managers around the world.

How partners can ensure that time away from the office is time well spent. When you’re out of the office, there are success tips that can ensure you are productive in any setting. The professionals polled by the Bay Street Group offered the following suggestions:

What you don’t know about client service can definitely hurt you. Different points of view from business and professional experts can enrich your law firm’s strategic planning and client service initiatives. Having an advisory board also offers an opportunity to expand your relationships with firm advisors from the areas of accounting, banking, and insurance.