In recent years, we have worked on a number of law firm mergers where one of the firms was in a significantly weakened position relative to its past. More often than not, these mergers fail to move forward because there is too much uncertainty about the stability of the firm, the deterioration of its financial condition, and the questionable commitment of key partners to remain with the combined firm.
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.
Not all revenue dollars are created equal. So, how should firms balance the important role of profitability with the challenges it can create in order to incentivize and encourage partners to pursue more profitable work or to manage the work more effectively?
