A meaningful strategic direction that is widely supported by the partnership is essential to a law firm’s success. Moreover, we believe that every practice should have a well-defined set of goals and strategy consistent with the firm’s overall strategy and ambitions.

Our focus is on helping your law firm:

• Assess its market and economic position relative to competitors and the changing industry dynamic
• Develop a distinctive strategy for success that reflects partner aspirations
• Build on your unique strengths, client base, practice portfolio, geographic platform, and culture.

If you aren’t growing, you are losing ground.  If you are growing, that growth is hard-fought, by taking share from others, acquiring new talent, building into emerging markets or expanding into new practices.

Our experience and approach enables law firms to clearly prioritize and capture the practice, client, and geographic growth opportunities that will enable partners to realize their individual and collective professional aspirations.

A law firm’s profitability is the strongest indicator of the firm’s ability to attract and retain top talent and to fund growth. Our team guides law firms in understanding the economics of their practices, offices, and partners.  This perspective allows the development of profitability goals in relation to your significant competitors, as well as the design and execution of a range of profitability improvement initiatives in areas including:

• Pricing
• Cost reduction
• Alternative service delivery models
• Addressing or reducing low value client segments.

Acquiring or merging with another law firm may be the most effective way to realize your firm’s growth aspirations. At the same time, law firm mergers and acquisitions are fraught with significant challenges and risks. Our experience, industry knowledge, and analytical approach will help you to:

• Determine whether a merger or acquisition is right for your firm
• Identify and assess potential merger and acquisition candidates in the context of your strategy, economics, and culture
• Reach out to select candidates and advance discussions around a set of strategic objectives
• Manage communications and negotiations
• Achieve the firm’s post-acquisition or post-merger goals.

Top partner talent is in high demand, and it is mobile. Law firms are holding equity tightly – while the number of income partners at many firms has grown significantly, creating uncertainty regarding expectations and career paths. The historic approaches to recruiting, developing, deploying, and managing associate talent are under pressure, and interest in non-partner-track attorneys is growing.

We bring the creativity, industry knowledge, and analytics necessary to help law firms develop strategies that will advantage them in attracting, developing, and retaining associate and partner talent – and to position themselves to deliver distinctive value to their clients.

With corporations and financial institutions reducing legal spend, using fewer law firms, and seeking out firms perceived to be “safe harbors,” a stand-out brand, high impact marketing, and effective business development are essential to maintaining and increasing market share.

We partner with law firms to develop a fact-based understanding of their current brand and market position at the practice, market, sector, and firm levels  – providing the strategic insights necessary to set them apart from the competition through a combination of branding, marketing, and business development initiatives.

Client relationships are at a premium, and while many law firms have resources focused on strengthening client relationships, not many experience a significant impact from these efforts.

We step beyond cookie-cutter approaches to develop customized processes and initiatives that bring our clients real insight into how to strengthen their client relationships and how to translate these insights into measurable growth in individual client relationships and the overall client base.

The quantity and complexity of business decisions, business information, and management imperatives facing law firms have increased dramatically; and so have the size and geographic distribution of law firm partnerships.  At the same time, competitive pressures demand that firms move quickly to seize opportunities and address challenges.

We assist in adapting our clients’ governance models, management structures and processes throughout the organization to best meet the needs of their businesses, clients, and partners.

Effective execution of any strategy depends heavily on whether the incentives created through the evaluation and compensation system are aligned with the law firm’s strategic objectives.  As these strategic imperatives have multiplied so has the challenge of creating effective incentives through compensation – incentives for everything from business origination to service to practice leadership, from individual initiative to teamwork, from practice and office growth to cross-selling and capitalizing on the firm’s practice and office network.

We assist our clients in adapting their governance models and firm management and practice group structures and processes to best meet the needs of their businesses, clients, and partners. We also have significant experience in assisting law firms with issues of senior leadership succession and transition, and changes in practice group leadership roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities.