May 5, 2006
What Keeps Managing Partners Awake at Night?
I was reading Patrick J. McKenna’s article in the Edge International Review titled What Keeps Managing Partners Awake at Night. With the exception of the emphasis on globalization, there isn’t much difference between the list for the over-500-attorney firms and the list for the midsized firms.
During the Juris Managing Partner Forum in 2005, participating midsized firms compiled a list of the issues on their minds. Consistent with the large firms, they too are concerned with talent issues, strategic matters, survival of the firm, and the firm’s profitability. I have grouped their concerns as identified during the forum into four categories:
Talent Concerns:
- Assimilation of Laterals
- Compensation of partners and associates
- Inconsistent partner performance
- Managing non-billing activities
- Managing partner responsibilities and authority
- Motivating associates
- Practice vs. management
- Problem and rogue partners
- Quality of life vs. productivity
- Talent retention
Strategic Concerns:
- Maintaining competitiveness
- Managing and sustaining growth
- Ownership of clients—firm vs. individual
- Service quality
- Shared culture
Survival Concerns:
- Business Continuity
- Conversion of paper to data
- Disaster planning and recovery
- Succession transfer
Profitability Concerns:
- Billing discipline (getting time in, approving draft bills, etc.)
- Client intake standards
- Collection strategies
- Lawyer initiated billing adjustments
- Productivity
- Profitability
If you share similar concerns, you should find helpful information about all of the above topics on morepartnerincome.com. Use the search function to identify previous posts dealing with your topic of interest. You can expect morepartnerincome to continue to address the concerns of managing partners in midsized law firms. That is its mission.
PS: See anything missing from the above list? Send your addition to morepartnerincome@juris.com and I will send you a morepartnerincome™ hat for your next partner event.
Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.
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Filed under Operations by Tom Collins