"Lawyers, simply by being lawyers, do not innately come
to law practice with any minimum level of sound business
preparation, knowledge or abilities."
Without a change in law school curricula, lawyers will not
advance their business education, as firms' professional staffs
continue to improve theirs. More important, when lawyers
spend time on administrative issues, billable hours are lost.
The logical conclusion: Lawyers need to provide legal services
and businesspeople need to run the business.
Lawyers need to
provide legal services
and businesspeople
need to run the
business.
• Administrator Education: Perhaps the biggest change in
the last generation has been the rise of professional staff.
Today, it is commonplace for even small law firms to employ
at least one non-secretarial professional. As the operations
of a law firm become more sophisticated, lawyers recognize
the need for more specialized personnel. This has raised both
the quantity and quality of firms' professional staffs and has
added major departments to firms, including accounting,
human resources, marketing, operations and technology, to
name a few. Increasingly, these business-minded professionals
are finding a home within law firms and gaining first-hand
experience with law firm operations. This education and
experience are allowing firms to shift a growing percentage of
their business matters into the hands of non-lawyers.
THREE HURDLES TO PROGRESS
Once a law firm's leadership recognizes its lawyers are not bestsuited to run their business, they might be ready to think about
hiring a CEO and embark on a new future. A law firm and potential
CEO must confront three hurdles:
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1. Who will have power?
2. Who will lead?
3. Who is qualified?
Peer to Peer
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