Featured
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com.
A wealth of insights and millions of data points at our fingertips. Yet as we shift into the age of intelligence, it is not the amount of insight that will be the winning differentiator, but what firms choose to do with it. Strategic advantage will come not from choosing more—more headcount, more clients, more opportunities—but from choosing well.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Used with intention and clear guardrails, AI is not the silent killer of professional development. It may be, in fact, the best coach you've never thought to hire.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
With a confluence of factors converging to reshape the industry, from artificial intelligence to private equity to a shifting talent model, today’s leaders have an opportunity to leave lasting imprint.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Aligning a group of highly independent professionals around a common goal presents law firm leaders with a unique challenge. The trope “herding cats” persists for good reason—it captures vividly the challenge of inspiring coordinated action without undermining autonomy. Savvy law firms use a different tact—they approach strategy not as a directive but as a dialogue.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Without intentional design, firms will face higher attrition, lower engagement, and an eroding ability to deliver value to clients. This moment calls for a fundamental rethinking of how law firms grow and sustain their most important asset: their people.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
AI is often framed as the future of legal work—but its transformative potential depends on more than algorithms.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Even for firms not (yet) in the crosshairs, the challenge is real: How do leaders effectively weigh their options, balance sometimes competing interests and stay true to culture and principles while upholding their fiduciary duty to the firm’s partners and employees? Transparent, deliberate leadership holds the answer—grounded in a clear-eyed understanding of what’s at stake.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Law firms are falling short in equipping new leaders with the essential tools, and resources necessary for success.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
A confluence of macroeconomic forces—including generative AI adoption, political shifts and evolving generational expectations—are intersecting with industry-specific dynamics like changing leverage models, consolidation, and record-high compensation levels. These combined trends are reshaping the legal workplace and redefining the types of opportunities and demands firms will face in 2025 and beyond.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Gallup studies attribute most variability in engagement to “middle managers.” Within law firms, this suggests partners may hold the key to transforming their firms into sought-after opportunities with staying power.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Law firm rates have been on the rise for years—and continue to climb. Yet rumblings indicate clients may have just about had enough. Is the era of continuously rising rates about to hit a snag? Or is it all smooth sailing?
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Law firm leaders are increasingly saddled with dissent and opt-out mentalities that threaten firm culture, impede operational efficiency and ultimately hinder the firm’s ability to thrive in a competitive legal landscape.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Effective leadership has the power to reshape the legal sector. Research shows leadership behaviors—not leaders, but demonstrated leadership skills and characteristics—have direct and indirect impact on virtually every aspect of law firm performance.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Combining insights from macro-trends in organizations worldwide with critical shifts within the legal industry, five prevailing trends promise to impact the legal workplace in 2024.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
When it comes to leadership transitions, there are no easy answers. Unlike corporate organizations, many law firms deploy models more akin to political spheres, switching out leaders on predetermined term limits rather than based on performance.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Statements from firms cite their interest in promoting far-reaching benefits including collaboration, creativity, innovation and skills development. A noble pursuit? Perhaps. And a strategic misstep that is entirely undermined by evidence to the contrary.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Distinct contrasts in ways of working, personal motivators and prevailing attitudes have left many leaders frustrated and disillusioned.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer/law.com
Effective leaders and successful law firms of the future will learn to embrace change, reject perfection and accept the vague.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
Leaders, rightly concerned with the cultural impact and absence of collaboration and development opportunities, began to explore ways to make hybrid work. Most publicly, firms instituted guidelines for when and how to be in the office.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
Reality: The 80-hour in-office work week has gone the way of the rotary phone. Lawyers and professional staff alike are refusing to be bound by hard-and-fast rules chaining them to their desks. This shift was inevitable—and the pandemic accelerated it to a whiplash pace.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
The pandemic, global unrest, political extremism, the war for talent and more are placing a great burden on today’s law firm leaders, leaving many feeling burnt out and underprepared.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
Law firm leaders are experiencing this heightened state of anxiety at multiple levels. Personally, many leaders feel ill-equipped to manage the stressors of guiding a multi-million or -billion-dollar organization on top of personal challenges.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
The legal industry is at a tipping point. Talent holds the cards and will for some time as law firms sort out how best to reimagine their structure, recruitment efforts, retention and professional development.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
The role of leaders in shaping cultural experience is broad and far-reaching. Decisions on virtually every aspect of a firm—from strategy to operations to compensation—all imprint culture.
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer.
Cultural transformation is not for the faint of heart, nor is it an endeavor that will yield immediate results. It is, however, perhaps one of the most impactful and rewarding undertakings a leader can call her own.
Since April 2021, more than $19 million US employees quit their jobs, spiking turnover and turmoil across sectors. Another 40%, approximately, are at least somewhat likely to do the same in the coming months according to McKinsey’s report on The Great Attrition. These figures are sobering. And while they represent a broad range of industries, they reflect equally the legal sector’s experience.
Originally published on ALM
Rapid innovation is scary. It is also necessary, particularly in times of crisis and great change. The legal industry has undergone drastic transformation. The pandemic accelerated underlying trends – the move to remote work, client demand for greater value and efficiency, the need for enhanced diversity efforts, restructured operational models, use of technology, and more – at a pace that was wildly uncomfortable for many. It is now incumbent upon law firm leaders to harness these changes and to help their firms emerge stronger and healthier than before. Yet are they prepared?
Originally published in The Leader Intelligencer
What does it take to be a leader in a law firm – and what should it take? What effects has the pandemic had on the role of leaders? And, perhaps most importantly, what is the potential impact leaders can have on the legal industry in the aftermath of 2020?
Originally published in The Legal Intelligencer
With intention, firms can avoid falling into old habits. With intention, firms can sustain the positive outcomes they have achieved beyond COVID. And with intention, firms can continue to make improvements for the betterment of all.
Law firms have professionalized every part of the business except leadership. New research from The Tilt Institute and SurePoint Technologies reveals the gap between what firms expect from leaders and what they invest in developing them.