1. THE MOST
DANGEROUS MISTAKES
LAW FIRMS MAKE
...and How they Can Impact You,
Your Reputation, Your Firm,
Your Colleagues, Your Clients, Your
Employees and Your Future...
Image source: sesow.com

2. Areas Covered
• Several millions dollars of research indicate five major
trends that must urgently be address by every firm or
they will cripple the success of your firm and career:
▫ – escalating competition + accelerating change
▫ – the spiraling impact of stress
▫ – increasing dependence on human capital
▫ – a shrinking talent pool
▫ – rising demands upon leadership
▫ - strategic relationships
• This research also points to the critical action steps
necessary to secure your future prosperity.

3. Who are you?
• Whether you are a Solo
Practitioner or part of a Small,
Medium or Large law firm…
• Whether you have 5, 10, 25, 50 or
5000 employees…
• There are alarming market trends
that can cripple the success of
your firm if you do not take
decisive action.

4. Trends
• Accelerating change
• The impact of spiraling stress
• Dependency on qualified human
capital and the shrinking talent pool
• Debt loads
• Leadership 2.0
• External Relations

5. Challenges?
• 1.3 Million Attorneys
▫ 200 Accredited Law Schools
 50 Thousand New Lawyers
▫ 65 % set-up practice within 2
years
Attorneys Per Capita*
In 1970 there was
1 attorney for ever 700 people
2010 there was 1 attorney for ever 340
San Francisco there is 1 attorney for ever 66
Washington D.C. there is 1 attorney for ever 33
By 2052 it will be 1 in 2
Source: American Bar Association, 2011

6. Even the Most Powerful are Vulnerable
2008 and 2009 were
marked by the largest
corporate failures &
bankruptcies in U.S.
History, including such
giants as:
• Lehman Brothers, $691 Billion • Washington Mutual, $327.9 Billion
• WorldCom, $103.9 Billion • General Motors, $91 Billion
• CIT Group, $80.4 Billion • Enron, $65 Billion
• ConSeco, $ 61.4 Billion • Chrysler, $ 39.3 Billion
• Thornburg Mortgage, $ 36.5 Billion • Pacific Gas & Electric, $ 36.15 Billion
Source: BankrupcyData.com

7. Rainmakers with Umbrellas
• The Heller Ehrman – 730 lawyers
• Thelen law Firm – 630 lawyers
• Latham and Watkins – 190
lawyers, 250 staff
• David Stern – 1,200 people
Sources: Karen Sloan, National Law Journal
John P. Heinz, American Bar Foundation
Owen L. Coon, Northwestern U. School of Law

8. TRENDS
Escalating Competition + Accelerating
Change in the Economic Landscape
• In 1990 it took six years to
develop a new model car –
currently it takes 24 month.
• A generation ago there were
50,000 computers in the world –
there are that many being
installed today, as you read this
• In another two years there will
be a billion people surfing the
Web

9. QUI NON PROFICIT, DEFICIT
He who does not advance, go backwards
3
P

10. 3
P
• Planning
(better systems)
• Policies
(the guidelines, the why)
• People
(internal and external relations)

11. Words of Wisdom
• “Remember, at the end
of the day, the ability
to learn faster than our
competitors may be
our only sustaining
advantage. Everybody
else is the world is
hoping the same thing
we are. We’re going
to get there faster
with better prepared
people.” Larry Bossidy, CEO
Honeywell International, Inc

12. Challenges for Today‟s Firms
• To survive you must stay
competitive
• You must learn to master
“permanent white-water”
• You must come to grips with
constant and never-ending
change

13. Restructuring, downsizing,
mergers, acquisitions
• There is no escaping change in
business
• While you are busy trying to make
things better, your employees may be
left shaken and unsure
• No matter how well you’re leading...
Are your employees actually
following?

14. Even the most experienced leader
needs to be careful
• Some of the most simple problems can
cost money and use up your valuable
time
• Solving some of these problems can bring
on a landslide of new problems
• There is so much more to consider than
just offering your services
• Have you begun to develop the necessary
strategic plans for your firm, your future,
people, your career.

15. Laser-Focused Strategy,
Flawless Execution
• A ten year study published in the
Harvard Business Review found
that companies which out performed
their industry peers excelled in at
eight
• The first two are:
▫ Laser-focused strategy – sharply
defined, clearly communicated, and
well understood by employees,
customers, partners and investors.
▫ Flawless execution of that strategy
throughout the company, from the top
execution on down.

16. Critical Question
• Are you satisfied with the results
of your current business?
• Is it sound enough to ensure
increased success over the next
10 years?
• Is it being executed consistently
by everyone in your organization?

17. The best strategy in the world is worthless
your people are fully committed to it
• Effective execution is driven by
employee committed – which is
influenced by a number of
variable:
▫ Satisfaction with co-workers
▫ Ease of access to the tools needed
to perform their job
▫ Tasks independence or team
reliability
▫ The degree to which employees
receive conflicting orders or
requests from supervisors
▫ Satisfaction with superior vision or
management

18. Keeping your employees
“satisfied” is no longer enough
“The most essential best practice is the measurement and
cultivation of employees engagement - which is
significantly distinct from satisfaction. When employees are
highly engaged and their energy and actions are aligned with
the goals of the enterprise, a dynamic of growth emerges.
Research in recent years indicates that employee
satisfaction is only minimally predictive of organizational
performance; employee engagement, on the other hand, is a
powerful leading indicator of whether the company will
be successful. “
Source: U.S. Business Review, Nov 2006

19. Your Firm?
• Personnel is not satisfied with
status quo – they all think and act
like entrepreneurs
• Innovative and add great value
• Happy with self, with what they
are doing, and where they work.
• Motivated by work and go the
extra mile for the client and the
company

20. Competition?
“There is more emphasis on
growing business, so the
partner who is maintaining
the status quo is falling
behind."
-Shook, Hardy chair John
Murphy in "Building a
Breakout Firm."
Source: American Lawyer, December 2011

21. 40% of all major litigation currently faced by
law firms is from their own dissatisfied
and un-happy clients.

22. Reports Like:
• ‘The Most Dangerous Trends Facing
Lawyers Today’ by Cole Silver, a lawyer and certified
marketing consultant with 30 plus years of experience who heads
the Silver Group
• ‘Why Firms Fail’, by Burkey Belser and Mark T. Greene
of Greenfield/Belser Brand Design Ltd.
• ‘The Top 20 Reasons Lawyers Fail’ by Keith
Lee of associatemind.com
• ‘Anatomy of Law Firm Failures’ with an in-
depth look at Law Firm Dissolutions written by William G. Johnson
at Hildebrandt International.
All point to three major discernable areas of business –
the „business‟ of law, not the practice of law in itself.

23. The „Business‟ of Law
1. Poorly managed or implemented
business practices - debt loads
2. Internal dynamics mainly focused
on leadership or the lack thereof,
incompatibility between partners,
their skills sets and goals, and
differences over compensation
philosophies;
3. External dynamics involving the
firms client base, the acquisition
and expansion of the same,
qualified talent and external
partnerships (i.e. strategic
relationships).

24. Laser-Focused Strategy
“He will win whose army
is animated by the same
spirit throughout all its
ranks”
Sun Tzu

25. THE MOST
DANGEROUS MISTAKES
LAW FIRMS MAKE
...and How they Can Impact You,
Your Reputation, Your Firm,
Your Colleagues, Your Clients, Your
Employees and Your Future...
Image source: sesow.com

26. The 5 Most Dangerous Mistakes Law Firms Make
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