If you think practice group management is a fad that will run
its course, you should read this
piece by Patrick McKenna. [Patrick is a well-known expert
on strategy and practice management and, among other things, co-author
with David Maister of "First Among Equals," a
commendable book about managing highly sophisticated professional
service firms.]
What’s to like about practice group management? To paraphrase
the thoughts of a group of partners (at an un-named firm): Practice
groups
- provide us a critical mass in the marketplace;
- foster training and development of associates and partners
alike; - permit us to develop standard methodologies, thus improving
profitability; - make us more attractive in the market for recruits and
laterals; and - help us develop a genuinely distinctive intellectual advantage
in our area of expertise.
More pointedly, practice group management addresses the two single
most important challenges to your firm’s long-term strategic prospects: (1) From
the supply side, it increases your attractiveness
to recruits by promising a "home" of like-minded practitioners
working together off an economically sturdy base; and
(2) from the demand side, it answers the question
at the forefront of most clients’ minds: What really makes
your firm different from your peer group?
It may be a truism to say that attracting new talent and retaining existing talent are both essential for your firm’s future, but this statistic got my attention: According to McKenna, an LA firm calculated that losing a "junior"
partner cost each remaining partner $23,000 over the next year. I’ll
let McKenna describe how he clarified the source of the problem:
All of this prompted me in a discussion with one managing partner to pose the question; “Tell me, do you sense that you are losing your best young talent from those groups that you would consider your best organized, or from those groups that are slightly dysfunctional?” This particular managing partner paused for all of two seconds, looked at me and said; “You know, I think you’re on to something there!”
If it’s the case that finely-tuned practice groups are so effective,
the interesting question then becomes how to achieve their sustainable development and growth. The question is not so
much whether organization by practice group is a wise
managerial stratagem, but whether your firm can pull it off. And here,
McKenna leaves no doubt, leadership from the managing partner
is indispensable: It is his "attention, dedication, and commitment"
that will make or break the effort. For starters, do something
all lawyers like to think they’re good at doing: Communicate.
And then communicate some more and some more, even beyond the
point where you’re tired of it. Why?
Because first, people will not hear, then they will not understand,
and then they will not believe. If you stop emphasizing
the point too early, people will conclude you were never serious. But
it takes your commitment, and your follow-through. Are
you ready?
