Push Your Firm Past Existing Boundaries

By Kathy Hancock, Consultant

3/25/21

It occurred to me that as law firms chart their roadmaps forward in the post-COVID era, there will be those who fail despite a recovering economy, not because of what they did wrong but because they simply endured. The legal services landscape is littered with failed firms that ignored the signs warning of perils ahead. The fact that change in a law firm is mostly unpopular, this resistance absolutely saps the organizational energy and momentum to make impactful and important things happen.

Coping with COVID and its attendant crises started as a sprint that became a marathon for law firm leaders. Twelve months later, it would be nice to catch a break and breathing room, but in this era of acceleration of almost everything, time-outs come at a very high cost. A law firm risks falling behind competitors and alternative service providers that are embracing the tumult, peering over the horizon, and taking some calculated risks.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the neurosurgeon and author who frequently appears on CNN, recently wrote Keep Sharp.^[1] Among the many recommendations he makes for people staying sharp is embracing change, because it builds resilience in the brain. He goes on to advise readers to “do something that scares you every day.” He’s not recommending we all take up sky-diving, but doing different things and stretching for activities that take us outside our comfort zone. It’s great advice regardless, as this makes life more interesting, but why not apply this advice to keeping organizations sharp as well.

In this era of dramatic acceleration, organizations -- and law firms, in particular -- can combat decline by intentionally pushing past what is comfortable and initiating new projects, services, programs and ways of doing business. Lawyers understandably question why mess with what is working but the reality is that what works is fine until it doesn’t – and there is often little warning when the reversal will occur.

The road to organizational resilience is paved with change. In weathering one of the darkest periods in modern history, this is the perfect time for law firms to launch their own all-out efforts to try new ways of doing things, tap into new technologies, take some hard looks at organization weaknesses, and strategize to improve future outcomes.

Start by educating the lawyers about the new legal services environment, which now more than ever demands strategic determination to advance with some key initiatives and disciplined attention to financial and business fundamentals. These should come together in a concise roadmap to keep the firm moving forward, adjusting on the fly and seeking meaningful opportunities for the lawyers and the firm.

For certain, successful initiatives require preparation, design, planning, communication, and implementation but they do not have to take lots of time. Pfizer developed a vaccine in months rather the routine 10-year time frame by approaching a monumental task with a clear goal in mind, tough-minded determination “to find a way” and a blank slate for how best to reach the goal.^[2]. Instead of using a typically linear vaccine development process, the company stacked the steps of vaccine development, testing and production.^[3]

Sharpening a law firm’s focus and competitive platform followed by disciplined, determined strategic actions will get the job done. And, while these moves may not save the world from the pandemic, they can boost law firms’ options for succeeding in a predictably uncertain future.

¹Keep Sharp, by Sanjay Gupta M.D., published by Simon & Schuster, January 5, 2021.
²“How Pfizer Delivered a Covid Vaccine in Record Time: Crazy Deadlines, a Pushy CEO,” by Jared S. Hopkins, The Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2020.
³“Pfizer’s CEO: 3 key decisions helped it develop a COVID-19 vaccine in record time,” by Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief, Fast Company, March 10, 2021.