All together now

Law firm partners do not have a great reputation for managing their non-chargeable activities. A masterclass exploring people-management methodologies, which can be applied to marketing and business development. By Nick Jarrett-Kerr.

Law firm partners do not have a great reputation for managing their non-chargeable activities. Even David Maister, who has advised a great many law firms in his time, has recently attacked law firm management capabilities.1 “After spending 25 years saying that all professions are similar and can learn from each other, I’m now ready to make a concession: Law firms are different. The ways of thinking and behaving that help lawyers excel in their profession may be the very things that limit what they can achieve as firms.” This sort of comment resonates with law firm marketers – and, indeed, any professional manager working in a law- firm environment. I have lost count of the number of marketing directors who have expressed their frustrations to me about law-firm partners – particularly in their efforts to get people to implement things.

In his article, Maister points to problems with trust, difficulties with ideology, values and principles and professional detachment as some of the issues which keep lawyers from effectively functioning in groups. Maister’s article is well worth reading and is available on his website at www.davidmaister.com. This masterclass, however, does not set out either to answer Maister’s criticisms or to deal specifically with issues of trust, ideologies, values or principles. Instead, it attempts to illustrate some practical processes and methodologies that can be worked on within law firms, particularly in the context of marketing and business development.

Lawyers have traditionally worked more or less alone on client work, perhaps with a little junior assistance. Except with the largest matters, it has not been traditional for them to team up with their peers to produce a piece of work or manage a transaction.

For convenience, most firms are arranged into practice areas, divisions or departments, with each of these subdivided into smaller ‘teams’. Generally, these teams are cooperative groups arranged merely for administrative convenience. To use a sporting metaphor, they tend to be more like a Ryder Cup golf squad than a rowing eight. With team golf, each member will play alone and the performance or scores of the individuals are aggregated to assess the success of the whole team. In contrast, a rowing eight has to work as a totally synchronised unit. As such, there is an immediate difficulty when lawyers actually have to work together. For example, lawyers often assume that because they are divided into teams for administrative purposes, they automatically understand how teams work. The truth, however, is that no team functions perfectly by magic.

A group or team member is not necessarily a team player. The key question is whether more can be accomplished in a group context than by working alone. With legal work, the frequent answer is that solo activities are the best solution.

However, when it comes to business development or marketing efforts, this position is reversed. In our consulting work we find ourselves helping firms more and more with client and industry-sector groups, where the importance of teamwork comes to the fore. Take, for example, client teams. Imagine a firm where a number of partners and lawyers are working on individual matters for a single client. Here, a certain level of cooperation is required to coordinate matters such as billing, client contact, overall management of the account and so on. However, in the purely legal work that is performed, each partner (with his assistants) may well be working on their own matters and engagements with no reference from other teams or lawyers. In marketing, however, a consolidated effort to build stronger relationships with key clients, to protect those clients from attack by competitors, or to find ways of adding value, necessitates a measure of cooperation.

Kickstarting effective teamworking
Because the majority of marketing initiatives and projects are internally generated (rather than as a result of demands from clients) law firms can come across three other stumbling blocks. First, it is difficult to schedule meetings of an entire group of lawyers dedicated to a marketing project. Second, even when such meetings are arranged, chargeable client work often takes precedence so team members simply do not show up. Finally, there can be difficulty in deciding who should be on the team in the first place – and who should be its leader. It is important to recognise and learn the various stages of forming, developing and continuing teams and to make partners aware of them, too.

Step one: Spend time forming the team
Most industry groups and client teams are self forming in that it is relatively easy to establish the partners and staff who are all already acting for key clients, or those within chosen industry sectors. However, busy lawyers may be reluctant to come forward and join a group or team that is not primarily concerned with chargeable work. It is also easy to end up with a team that is too big – we have often seen teams grow to 30 or 40 members, thereby becoming unwieldy and largely unmanageable. It is worth limiting teams to a small number of key ‘champions’, who are committed to taking the work of the entire group forward. The appointment of a team leader is, of course, critical – particularly as partners are not always willing to be led. In addition, leadership skills are not often instinctive and will need to be developed. Law firms do not usually provide training in leading teams or groups, so most individuals will learn their skills in the school of hard knocks. When forming a team, the leader should consider:

Who they should ask to participate in the team;
The purpose of forming the team;
The strengths of the other likely members;
How each member’s potential can be achieved;
Ideal team size in order to achieve objectives;
Whether membership is voluntary or mandatory;
The resources available and how to manage them.

The second stage in formation is the ‘storming’ phase, when the specific project plan is agreed, roles and responsibilities of group members are settled and operational style becomes clear. Many teams fail or lapse at this stage, even where the formation phase has been spectacularly successful and the opening meetings have gone well. In addition to objective setting and framing the project plan, you need to think about:

How the team will arrive at decisions and resolve conflict;
When, and how, the team will meet;
How mutual commitment and accountability can be developed;
Where information will be sourced;
Support, or on the flip side, stumbling blocks;
Action-point decisions and how they will be enforced.

Next, is the ‘norming’ phase, when (in successful teams) the group dynamics start to work, trust builds and communication becomes more open. Questions for the group leader should include:

How they will maintain the team’s focus and interest;
How they will identify goals and benchmark progress;
How group relationships can be further built upon.

Currently, many groups never make it to the fourth stage of development – that of performing – when there is a level of genuine commitment to goals and objectives and the team is working together with optimal effectiveness and enthusiasm.

Step two: Plan projects carefully
Ensure that the first team meeting is comprehensively prepared. The team leader has a particular responsibility at this stage to encourage participation, maintain focus and ensure that action points are created. Most teams tend to jump straight into marketing or promotional activities, but it is best to start with research and strategic planning. The vision and objectives of the group need to be set out and agreed at an early stage. Overall objectives should also be clearly stated. For example, an industry-sector group might aim to develop relationships with potential and existing clients through a deeper understanding of their specific needs and the market trends. It might also want to develop industry-specific knowledge and experience within the firm and among the group members who are enthusiastic about working for those types of client. The focus here should be on developing better business from better clients; selecting targets and activities in an insightful manner and coming up with action plans.

Step three: Hold effective meetings
I have been attending meetings in law firms for more than 30 years, the majority of which have been ineffective or, quite simply, a waste of time. Good meetings do not just happen spontaneously.

Even where partners and lawyers actually show up they often fail to feel totally committed to, and accountable for, the success of the team. The meeting leader has a vital contribution to make here. Team members also have a huge responsibility to ensure that meetings do not get derailed.

The meeting should encourage participation, remain focused and work within the boundaries of time and resources that are available. Where appropriate, it is often useful to adopt problem-solving techniques as well as brainstorming ideas. Above all, the meeting should avoid being merely a ‘talking shop’ and must always end with a conclusion. It is vital that bite-sized tasks should be agreed, fixed and delegated. Here, the leader must ensure that members only take on tasks and action points that they will have the time and resources to implement. They must also follow up and support all tasks and ensure that further meetings of the group are fixed and diarised.

At the end of the day, however, process and methodology can only take a group a short way along the road to success. The gaining of short-term achievement is particularly important in enabling success in the long term. With this connection, a worthwhile and successful marketing project that requires and demonstrates true teamwork can go a long way in nurturing trust and commitment throughout the firm. Who knows? You might even be able to persuade partners that collaborating with others in the firm is more fun than working solo.

Nick Jarrett-Kerr is principal at global consultancy Edge International and a member of the Legal Marketing editorial board. He can be contacted at: jarrett-kerr@edge.ai.

Reference

1. David Maister, ‘Are Law Firms Manageable,’ American Lawyer April 2006

Box one: Hallmarks of ineffective meetings

1.         No agenda;
2.         Ineffective agenda (too vague, too long);
3.         Attendees bored or unfocused;
4.         Meeting drifts off subject;
5.         Unnecessary (or trivial) discussion;
6.         Disagreements not dealt with effectively;
7.         Personal or destructive criticism;
8.         People don’t say what they think;
9.         Wrong people attend (or fail to attend);
10.       People attend late and/or leave early;
11.       The objective or purpose is unclear, or there is no common objective;
12.       The meeting is too long;
13.       Participants allowed to ramble or dominate discussion;
14.       No papers or material circulated in advance;
15.       Too much socialising;
16.       Inadequate notice of the meeting;
17.       Leader is unprepared;
18.       Lack of listening or lack of participation;
19.       Meeting hijacked by vocal partners;
20.       Lack of conclusion or agreement for action points.