Today, perhaps more so than ever before, law firm leaders are under pressure. As new and unprecedented world events arise on a nearly daily basis, law firms as businesses and service organizations require new, untested, and unproven leadership approaches. These approaches range from moving the firm’s entire workforce to a remote working environment, to virtual people management, to remote staffing and team coordination, to creative and proactive client service and retention strategies, and to making hard business decisions to preserve the stability of the firm without a clear picture of what the future holds.
In the second and third quarters of last year, economic advisers warned of a potential mild to moderate economic downturn in 2020 or 2021, and in light of those concerns we wrote our July Insight, Managing in a Downturn. At that time, no one anticipated the rapid series of events which have impacted the world over the past 4-6 weeks and the global recession we will likely face over the coming months.
Over a decade ago, corporate and law firm strategists developed 5 and even 10 year strategic plans. Yet years of disruptive change have rendered stagnant 5-10 year plans ineffectual.
We sometimes hear firms express surprise that competitors are able to offer similar services at significantly lower prices than they are able to offer.
Many firms these days are focused, rightly, on being client facing and on differentiating themselves from competitors.
