In learning to drive a stick shift, there is the moment when starting up, letting up the clutch, depressing the accelerator, and shifting on the fly fall into place. The drive smooths out and you are off! Downshifting at the right moment is critical to the joy of driving a stick shift and this is the moment for downshifting to accelerate.
The wrenching events of the pandemic and ensuing economic slowdown steam-rolled through the spring, but the legal services sector generally survived the short-term trauma pretty well. What we expected to last about 90 days is looking more like a year. Weariness born of uncertainty, isolation and the surreal circumstances thrust upon us persists. It’s tempting to hunker down. But as anyone who has driven a stick shift knows, coasting gets you literally nowhere.
The COVID era is magnifying both organizational strengths and weaknesses. There is no time to lose in prioritizing what will clear the road ahead for bypassing other firms slowed by inertia and unable to power forward with significant strategic moves.
Law firms and their management are typically terrific at analysis, but speedy decision-making and implementation are frequently harder to manifest. Best to narrow the focus to the initiatives and projects that will do the most to (i) increase revenue and profitability, (ii) improve firm health, and (iii) advance law firm and lawyer opportunities.
In this context, pricing promises to take on increasingly nuanced dimensions as clients demand efficiency, transparency on deliverables and progress updates, and budget predictability. Firms have struggled for years with alternative fees, but tepid client enthusiasm for anything other than getting billed by the hour or contingent fees has persisted. Look for transparency as a critical factor in pricing discussions with clients, which means that firms must be able to provide concrete data on their costs and efficiency for delivering legal services.
The COVID era’s competitive pressures mean that business development is necessarily a critical skill for every lawyer in a firm. Few service purveyors would be satisfied with one, maybe two, business development activities a month. Yet, a startling number of lawyers continue in this mode. There is no law firm marketing team or strategy that can compensate for lack of habitual business development activities by the lawyers.
One of the great behavior drivers in a law firm is reporting. Fundamental to its usefulness is making data readily digestible and accessible to lawyers, which assumes even greater importance in a remote work environment. Too many financial reports are data dense and bulky for practical use by the lawyers and managers. Real time data delivered in a palatable format is critical so folks know not only what is expected (e.g. their targets or financial goals, but what the other financial metrics show in terms of overtime, expense, write-offs, unreimbursed costs and so on) as well as how they, their colleagues and the firm are doing. With margins under strong pressure, elimination of waste is a priority for improving firm health and this includes committed focus on timekeeping and billing hygiene.
Ultimately, of course, law firms are all about the people. Looking back at my experiences and that of numerous colleagues across the country, I have yet to encounter one who claimed they did not give a professional or staff member long enough to prove a fit. Law firms, bless them, are invariably reluctant to change out lawyers and staff when it becomes clear that a change is needed. Notwithstanding advice of employment counsel, every week that goes by with someone in the wrong job costs the organization momentum. Today’s acceleration of trends greatly increases the cost of a person in the wrong job.
Now is the time make those moves you think can best push the organization forward and past inertia and the competition. Downshift, focus, and hit the accelerator. Ahead lies progress.