This month we interview Stephen Zubiago, the new CEO and Managing Partner of Nixon Peabody. He took over as CEO and Managing Partner on February 1 and shares his observations on his first six months in the role. Steve has been with Nixon Peabody since 1999 and has practiced law since 1992.
We often work with law firms as they transition senior leadership positions in the firm. Increasingly, firms facing a leadership transition are taking the opportunity to refine their leadership selection process, review the leadership roles and governance structure, and, importantly, clarify the characteristics and capabilities required for leadership roles.
In today’s world, there is no shortage of challenges keeping managing partners awake at night. We see one particular set of challenges receiving insufficient management time and attention in the current environment – talent management. For a variety of reasons, firms simply are not investing the creativity and resources needed to ensure effective talent management in today’s unusual and heavily-virtual law firm environment.
In times of economic uncertainty, it is tempting to focus attention principally on business resilience measures. Disruptions in the world around us are causing a number of law firms to ‘hunker down’ and focus on short-term management. This creates the risk of strategic drift at a time when a clear strategy and direction has never been more essential. Not only do firms need to continue to make progress on strategic initiatives in order to avoid falling behind the market and competitors, but they also need to think about how their business and the business of clients will change as a result of the pandemic.
For many law firms, the month of June marks the halfway point in the firm’s fiscal year, a time when leaders begin to more closely assess year-to-date lawyer performance trends, refine year-end financial projections, and evaluate the the need for mid-year partner performance messages. Of course, this June is unlike years past. This June, we face a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the broader economy and also within the legal industry.
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