Speedy shadow – A cyclist at top speed on the triathlon race.

When a Tour de France competitor comes upon a hill that would make even a resilient goat need counseling afterward, he has three choices. He can conserve energy until he reaches the top, try to continue at the same pace as before, or accelerate uphill. What do you think his strategy should be?

Champions attack the uphill. While everyone may want to win the race, those that employ the wrong tactics and strategies will be struggling to finish it. Your position on the other side of the hill, and the long flat stretches that follow, are determined with each pedal stroke on the way up. What can we apply from cycling strategy to how law firms should be reacting to the economic, human, and emotional upheaval related to the COVID-19 crisis?

There are a significant number of firms that have been enjoying the downhill slope of the legal market for quite some time. This downhill slope is a metaphor for the relative ease it has been to continue to grow profits year over year, which is similar to a competitive cyclist coasting down a steep hill. It does not mean they are not working hard, but most people would agree that trying to build a practice in an expanding economy is not as arduous as one where clients are under stress and being conservative with their choices.

However, over the last 2-3 years, many firms have been steadily pedaling and not looking up from their handlebars as often as they should. Clients making demands for more transparency, predictability, and cost control were early warning signs of an increased incline. Losses of key talent, disproportionally weighted towards diverse and female lawyers, due to antiquated recruitment policies and rigid career paths were more portents of disruption. New, unconventional competitors such as ALSPs, LPOs, as well as a growing in-house counsel bench, showed that clients were starting to take action even when law firms wouldn't.

However, with a looming slowdown in the economy, many lawyers are staring straight at an intimidating, uphill climb for the foreseeable future. What is your strategy? Should you conserve energy until you get to the top by cutting back on technology and business development time and expenses? Or, should you accelerate uphill and invest in business development and the infrastructure that makes it possible at scale? For the answer, let's go back to our metaphor to show why a champion cyclist pedaling uphill is a scientifically proven strategy.

Most consistently high performers have won more than their fair share of contests. So, it is reasonable to think that they choose not to do things the hard way just for the extra challenge. They employ strategies that are proven time and time again.

Three things are working against you when cycling: rolling resistance, air resistance, and gravity. When going uphill, air resistance is not a concern, so drafting to reduce fighting against the wind is less effective. Rolling resistance is consistent at the elite level. Since gravity is the main issue while climbing, it favors the smaller riders and the ones with the highest aerobic efficiency and lean body mass. Hills are the great equalizer. The perfect approach, according to David Swain at the Wellness Institute and Research Center at Old Dominion University, "Overall performance is enhanced by using a variable power strategy: increasing effort slightly on uphills and compensating with decreased effort on downhills." [Swain, D.P. Cycling: Uphill and Downhill. In: Encyclopedia of Sports Medicine and Science, T.D. Fahey (Editor). Internet Society for Sport Science: http://sportsci.org 6 Nov 1998.]

Champions know that extensive research has proven that cyclists who are trying to come out ahead, not just finish, must accelerate uphill. The main reason is that more time is added during the climb than can be reduced on the descent. Everyone can go fast on the downhill, especially the larger riders that have more strength and weight. Lawyers and law firms are subject to the same rules. The larger firms have more resources and people and are harder to overtake during times of plenty (the downhill). Thus, it is competitively advantageous to accelerate uphill and make up any gaps in profitability when others may be coasting, hesitating, or just being lazy.

First, forget the 3- or 5-year strategy defined by what the firm would like to be one day. What a firm wants based on future financial goals and aspirations is irrelevant. What the COVID-19 crisis shows us is that firms with a strategy based on speed, agility, and quickness are the ones that will break to the front. Your plan now and in the years to come is adaptability, agile teams, and change management.

Second, resources (time, money, and attention) are finite, so firms need to invest in technology and business development initiatives that are focused on small groups of core contacts and have a measurable return on investment. The technology exists today to identify these people down to the individual. Advancements in technology enable lawyers to spend more time building loyalty as opposed to general awareness. You should be visiting and talking with your most profitable clients instead of broad prospects more than ever. Like a cyclist using a heart rate monitor or other digital training aid, you should be taking advantage of the latest technology to do so.

Third, extreme focus and collaboration are essential. Winners of the legal industry race will be using technology and digital strategies to be able to assemble multi-disciplinary teams to solve business problems. When a client is struggling to stay afloat, they need real estate, employment, tax, logistics, financial, and endless other experts to continue serving their clients. Leveraging "teams of teams" that are malleable and liquid is how the Big 4 operates. Law firms risk losing goodwill, and perhaps future market share, to them if firms treat client demand as isolated legal matters.

Variable power strategy means you gain ground and overtake your competitors on the uphill slope. It has demonstrated that it results in the fastest times. The steeper the hill, the more effective the strategy is. The same holds for lawyers and law firms facing a slowdown in the economy.

However, being a large firm does not mean they cannot act like a smaller, more agile one. Slowdowns favor the nimble firm or adaptable lawyer. According to the study mentioned above, "…large cyclists can achieve greater downhill speeds, but overall performance still favors smaller cyclists on hilly courses." In other words, those that can quickly adapt to the change in the course have the advantage over the hulking megafirm that has to carry all that weight uphill.

In full disclosure, this is a rewrite of a blog post I wrote in the past: March 4, 2009. In studying high performers in business, sport, military, astronauts, and other high-stress domains with extreme consequences, I have found this to be a common distinction between those that come out ahead in tough circumstances and those that don't. Looking back, the firms that stood up on the pedals in 2009 and accelerated uphill know it works. The ones that didn't might not have even finished the race. We all have the same resistance at the moment. How we choose to deal with it is entirely up to you.

Darryl Cross is an ALM Fellow, legal technology executive, and high-performance team coach with over 22 years of experience advising lawyers and business professionals in the legal industry. He is also a Master Fitness Trainer certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine and resides in Washington, D.C.