Law Practice Management
Legal Marketer Challenges Law Firm Leaders to Be Above Average
Posted Jul 15, 2008, 09:31 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Legal marketer David Freeman has a depressing view of law firms, but he says managers can change the “cultural microclimate” by aspiring to be above average.
Freeman says the profession confines lawyers “to prisons of bureaucracy, internal politics, dysfunctional interpersonal relationships, inefficient systems and ineffective leadership.”
Some of the reasons for this dynamic are the drive for billable hours and lawyer personalities, Freeman writes in an article in the Marketing the Law Firm Newsletter. “Law firms are filled with independent-minded, noncollaborative people who are required to interact with similarly anti-social creatures,” he says.
So what’s a law firm manager to do? First, managers need to say no to long-standing disputes between partners, to turf issues in law firms, and to inefficient systems that drain productivity.
Managers should “build systems that hum” and “demand a maniacal focus on the client.” But they shouldn’t forget their workers.
Managers should find out what is important to the people they supervise and then help them achieve those dreams. People work harder when their leaders truly care about their success, he says.
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