Setting, Measuring and Coaching High Performance
Anecdotally, 2019 was a solid year for most practices throughout Australia and New Zealand. It has been a long time since I have heard a partner tell me they don’t…
Continue readingPlanning for the New Year: An Approach for Small Firms
This is an article that contains a methodology that I first published in 2000. Nineteen years on, during a time of change, we often forget the basics, those things that…
Continue readingCharacteristics of Winning Small Firms
It was my recent pleasure to attend the annual conference of a group of affiliated small firms that I have known for about 25 years. Every now and then they…
Continue readingDo Financial Incentives Work in Law Firms?
Incentives are complex and, according to Wikipedia, omnipotent: ”The study of incentive structures is central to the study of all economic activities (both in terms of individual decision making and in…
Continue readingIn Defence of Holidays
I’m on holiday. On vacation (Verb and Noun; fixed period of cessation from work), not doing work stuff, painting the deck, swimming, walking, surfing, flagrantly abusing new year’s resolutions to…
Continue readingStrategy on the Back of an Envelope
I’ve just participated in a two-week charity fundraising event, driving 40-year-old cars 5000 kilometres through the Australian outback to raise money for disadvantaged kids. The fleet consisted of 95 pre-1976…
Continue readingThe Importance of Deciding to do it
Two consulting engagements in the past couple of months illustrate why some firms fly and some firms flounder, particularly in the smaller end of the market. There were a lot…
Continue readingSome Thoughts on Cost of Production
Not that long ago, law firms were price setters. We decided what profit we wanted, tallied up the expenses, set a chargeable hours budget, and hey presto: we had an…
Continue readingLaw Firm Capital
This article looks at specifics around law firm capital, and should be read in conjunction with the excellent article by Sean Larkan entitled, “Ignore your law firm capital structure at…
Continue readingNew Partners
I have just spent the weekend with a smallish firm about to introduce 3 new partners. These people are currently associates with the firm and have been employed by the…
Continue reading2018 – Australian and New Zealand Legal Profession Outlook
One of the benefits of writing an article at the end of the year is the opportunity to look back over the past 12 months and make some predictions about…
Continue readingEight Reasons for Optimism
There has been no shortage of pessimistic predictions for the future of legal practice. Issues such as graduate oversupply and underemployment, digital disruption and increasing disintermediation, increasing price competition coupled…
Continue readingThe Changing Nature of “Leverage”
Ten years ago, profitability was relatively straightforward: leverage, price and productivity, right? The more the better. Ten years ago, one of the strongest correlates to ‘high-profit performance’ was ‘employed lawyers with…
Continue readingRethinking Fee Earner Budgets
Law firms of all shapes and sizes have been setting fee earner budgets for many years. In many firms this process has involved some common and consistent features: Fifteen years ago…
Continue readingVariable Cost Base: Why, What, and How?
The legal profession, and arguably all professions, have to date been comprised of top-line focussed firms. In its simplest terms, the management thinking could be summarised as ‘If we get…
Continue readingBenchmarking – Focus where it Matters
From the early 2000’s a number of performance trends have gathered strength in the legal profession. Benchmarking data from the FMRC Legal Business Monitor (www.legalbenchmarking.com.au) shows a continuation of performance…
Continue readingCost of Production
Price is critical to profit. Price determines your client mix. Price determines how hard you have to work. Price is a critical part of your marketing strategy. Many aspects of…
Continue reading6 Strategic Opportunities
1. Life balance versus performance ethic Chargeable hours worked by employed solicitors are declining as salary expectation continues to rise. Employees are not prepared to work the long, arduous hours…
Continue readingProfit Improvement for Small Law Firms
Financial performance in the legal profession is best described as patchy. Some firms are doing exceedingly well, others are muddling along and a lot are struggling. Whilst the more financially successful…
Continue readingA Year of Practice Management
Law firms usually don’t mirror the economy. More often than not they lag behind it, slowing down some time after economic slowdown and growing some time after economic escalation. The…
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