What are the danger signs and early indicators of a difficult partner?

According to Joel Rose, management consultant to law firms, the following are the early warning signs of someone who could possibly cause heartburn and heartache in the office:

• Works too few hours, rendering time spent on clients as unproductive.

• Does not produce adequate revenue, although a hard worker.

• Hoards work due to inability or unwillingness to delegate.

• Readily assigns work, but does not follow-up or provide direction to other attorneys or staff.

• Holds the firm hostage by threatening to leave if things aren’t done “my way.”

• Accepts work that does not generate adequate revenue.

• Has experienced a reduction in, or elimination of, work due to external causes, i.e., loss of client due to merger or acquisition, deregulation, higher interest rates, etc.

• Devotes a disproportionate amount of time to pro bono, bar association, or personal business activities.

• Displays an unwillingness to communicate with other partners on business or substantive matters.

• Will not trust other partners to handle client work.

• Shows an unwillingness to permit others to handle matters in a different fashion.

• Was admitted to partnership and is unable to perform at the partner level.

• Lives beyond personal means and the economics of the office.

• Defends feelings of insecurity by taking every comment and criticism as a personal affront.

• Undervalues work performed and repeatedly discounts or writes-down fees and costs of services.

• Exhibits an excessive fear of losing clients, consequently committing the office to unrealistic timetables, deadlines, or fee estimates.

• Possesses unrealistic economic objectives for the office and for him- or herself.

• Does not recognize personal shortcomings.

• Lacks the ability to adjust to working with others.

• Is a senior member of the office with significantly higher earnings, but less than desired contribution to office profits.

• “Over-lawyers” client work due to lack of adequate volume.

• Manipulates the system by recording substantial fee-producing or billable hours, and then writes off many of these hours prior to billing the client.

• Simply does not work hard enough.

• Will not “cross-sell” or refer work to others within the office.

• With misapplied frugality, will not approve the expenditure of funds for essential items or services.

• Refuses to train associates and younger partners, or communicate with these attorneys, on client matters.

• Exhibits overly aggressive behavior and tends to “turn-off” other partners and clients.

• Lacks a sufficient commitment to the office’s objectives.

• Will not serve as a team member.

• Lacks professionalism within, and outside of, the office thereby damaging the office’s image and reputation.

• Will not share authority or control with others.

• Will not participate in office-approved activities, i.e., practice development, etc.

Rose gives several common sense solutions that firms of any size can implement to resolve the issue or to at least minimize the external damaged caused by a problem partner.  To read Rose’s full article, click this link:  http://www.joelarose.com/articles/difficult_partner.html .  His website is www.joelrose.com.

As the trend shifts away from regional focus to practice groups in how legal teams are managed, it is important to clarify the roles and goals of the office managing partners and the practice group leaders, especially when they may be on a parallel path.  Law firm management consultant Patrick J. McKenna offers sound ideas in how to define these roles.  Click HERE for his white paper.

Several years ago I was consulting to the founding partner of a professional services firm in New York City. The firm built an established presence in its niche for at least two decades, and had a sizable team of employees well into the hundreds, but it was struggling in both employee morale and retention. During my initial session with my client, I asked him what he felt his purpose or mission was for his firm. “To provide an income to me and the other shareholders.” I asked him if he felt that mission inspired his employees. “Probably not. But it’s not their job to worry about that. It’s their job to get back to work and do their jobs.”

I think we found the reason for the morale and retention problem, I thought to myself.

This client wasn’t the most open-minded individual I’ve ever come across, but finally through several sessions I was able to get him to see how morale, retention, and even operational performance were directly tied to the emotions the employees felt about the impact of their work. If they felt that the only reason they came to work everyday was to fill the pockets of a few rich older guys, then they would eventually quit and go to work at a place that offered more meaning.

My client soon learned that his employees didn’t come to work for everyday for him. They came to work for themselves. We looked at how he offered long term value to his clients, and re-focused the mission of the firm to offer value to others and articulated that among the team.

In the legal world, a managing partner needs to ask similar questions: What is the mission or purpose of our firm? Why do we exist? To practice law, they might say. Well, any law firm can practice law. If that’s all you can see that your firm does the you need to look a little bit further down the road at the impact of what you do, and then search for the meaning behind that. How does your law practice make the lives of others better? How does it make a difference in the lives of those whom you serve?

Kevin Fitzgerald, the managing partner of Troutman Sanders’ office in Washington, DC, says that he leads his office with an approach of building an environment where attorneys become the key trusted advisor to their clients. Through their expertise and counsel, they become indispensable resources for their clients. Because he bridges this gap and articulates that among his colleagues, it infiltrates the culture of the firm and helps to create meaning and purpose in the practice of law. In building this type of practice, Fitzgerald encourages his team to spend non-billable hours to build agenda-free relationships with clients so the relationship is enhanced and authentic and the client is served through that relationship.

When I would consult to my corporate clients, I would always begin my consulting relationship by asking this question: “What business are you really in?” We’re in the staffing business, they might say. One client of mine, a large regional staffing company, found that their entire industry had trained their clients to purchase services purely on price. Their client prospects would purchase staffing services from those companies who charged the lowest. I helped this client to evaluate its purpose, its true value to clients, and uniqueness as a company, and use that sense of unique purpose as a tool to not just add meaning to the the work of their staff, but as a tool to impact their sales process and culture. They found that when their sales team believed in a calling to their work more than just profit margin, they became more passionate in the belief of their work and probed for more opportunities to add value in their client’s companies. The result was that they consistently won business away from cheaper competitors. The whole exercise didn’t just impact employee morale, but it transformed their sales team from price quoting to selling on value.

When you look past what you do and focus on how that benefits others, then you’ve reached a whole new level of organizational performance. If you can align the hearts and minds and energies of your team with a higher calling, a worthy purpose or mission, then you will witness with your own eyes the long term transformation of morale, performance, and retention among your team.

In the next few posts on this blog, I’m going to offer a simple and step by step model that law firms can use to improve their practices.  My series of posts will be posted each Tuesday and Thursday of each week until I run out of ideas.  Check back for updates.  If you have questions about a post I wrote, please email me at scott@attorneysearchgroup.com.

What’s missing from most law firms? Quite a bit, actually.

When I was in my mid-twenties, I started consulting to organizations on leadership development when I was still an officer in the United States Navy.  I would travel around to various Navy commands near the Norfolk area, both civilian and military, and help improve their performance by developing innovative leadership models.  On the corporate side beginning in the mid 90’s, I conducted leadership studies through both my mangement consulting and also my executive search practices.  In working directly with companies to help grow their teams,  whether it was conducting a retained search for a vice president or delivering a keynote at a corporate convention or a retreat with the board, I gave my clients a model of building blocks that, despite their simplicity, are critical for growth.

Values.  Vision.  Mission.

It’s rare to find law firms that understand that legal skills and leadership skills are two separate core competencies.  They forget that these are human beings who need to be led, and that you can push people to a point before they start asking themselves, ‘Why on earth am I here?’

As a legal recruiter, I talk with partners every day about their options.  Every once in a while, surprisingly high at about one in five, I come across a partner who admits a lack of satisfaction with his firm’s practice.  It has nothing to do with the comp plan or the bonus program or the equity share. It has everything to do with something related to leadership.

How do you solve for this problem?  It’s simple and sounds easy, but it’s not.  Leadership is something that can be learned, fortunately, so you have to take time to study it and talk about it and get together as a group and learn it and apply it together.  The concepts aren’t hard to get your arms around, you just have to do it.  And you can’t say you don’t have time.  It’s kind of like saying that you don’t have time to get to the dentist to fill the cavity. It’s painful and sometimes expensive but you sure are glad at the end of the visit.  Contrast it with the consequences of not going and all of a sudden you seem like you can find the time.

Law firms are starting to face that consequence right now.  They scratch their heads and wonder why they just lost a three-partner group to a competitor and if they knew the answer they would have tried to solve the problem earlier.  But they don’t know the answer because their focus isn’t on leadership development.

When recruiting partner level candidates, what I’ve noticed seems to be most intriguing to them is the way I present the openness of my clients’ organizations when it comes to helping others.  One client has a distinct reputation of getting subject matter experts within their office to help other partners without the first question revolving around their percentage. 

Last week I recruited a parnter whose primary motive to move was the inaccessability of his colleagues to help.  For him, the emotional context of the workplace superceded all other motivations, including compensation. 

This isn’t something you can institutionalize.  It’s either there, or it isn’t.  And it’s a descending emotion that starts at the top.  The leadership of the office must intuitively mandate the openness of the office to helping colleagues.  And they don’t mandate it through meetings or memos.  They integrate it into their culture by first acting like that themselves.

When you look to attract top performing attorneys, especially those with a portable book, you need to answer only one question:  Why?  Why would it be worth it for them to disrupt their lives, add stress to it, and possibly lose some of their clients? There has to be a compelling reason why someone would go to your firm.  And you can start analyzing it by looking at what is DIFFERENT about your firm.  Differentiation is the beginning of all sales. Yes, sales.  You are selling your advantages and the hope of a better future to someone else.  You have to look at what is different about your firm and how that will benefit your prospect on a personal and emotional level.

When you give direction, whether it’s to a subordinate associate or a paralegal, remember that they have a choice in their response and in the quality of work they choose to perform.  If we could rate that choice and their enthusiasm of work effort on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being most enthusiastic, what can you do to ensure that their response is at the higher end of the spectrum?

Here are a few ideas:

1. Give them reasons why it will benefit the client.

2. Give them reasons as to how it will benefit them on a personal or professional level.

3. Always say the word ‘because’ at the end of your direction when doing this.

4. Ask them, ‘What can I do to help you do your job better?’

5. If they ask you for clarification, don’t tell. Ask.  If you tell them what to do then you are a boss.  If they come up with their own solutions, then you are a leader.  Say this:  “That’s a good question. What do you think you should do to solve that problem?”  Keep asking them questions to lead them in the right direction.  When they get the solution, it’s theirs and they own it.

When you are admitted to the hospital, the first procedure performed is a check of your vital signs.  Your pulse, blood pressure, and temperature all are indicators of problems that might exist below the surface.

A key vital sign of the morale of your firm is the trust factor. What is the general mood among your colleagues with respect to trust?  Have you ever seen a trust violated in your office among staff and peers?

Read this compelling article by legal strategy consultant Patrick McKenna.