Running a global law firm requires leadership and management; and they are not the same thing. Leadership is about providing vision, direction, motivation, energy and enthusiasm. Management is about providing systems, structures, metrics, rewards and controls. The problem is that most lawyers see leadership as good and management as bad. Yet both are essential and the real trick for a managing partner is to marry the two in a way that best achieves his three essential tasks:

- setting a strategic goal and objectives for the firm and getting real partner buy-in
to them;

- aligning every aspect of the firm behind that strategy and maintaining that alignment; and

- providing the infrastructure and support the firm needs to achieve its goal.

The first task demands leadership, not just in having the vision to define the right goal, but in selling that vision to the firm. This is not easy; lawyers are trained to look at the detail rather than the big picture; to identify and eliminate risk rather than to take it; and to look to precedent rather than the future. Yet getting enthusiastic buy-in from partners is crucial. No amount of top-down action is enough to define and implement a strategy. In a law firm it is the behaviour of individual partners every day, in staying close to rapidly moving markets, in dealing with clients and in managing and motivating people, that defines the firm's strategy and provides the right cultural context within which that strategy can successfully be played out.

The second task, of getting the firm aligned behind agreed goals and objectives and keeping it aligned, is a daunting challenge which requires both leadership and management. Partners find it hard to understand the benefits of aligning every aspect of what a firm does behind its strategy. They ask why, if the firm is by and large doing the right thing, does doing just a little bit of something else really matter: 'If the way I have always done it works, why should I do it in a different way?'

But, in organisations as large and complex as global law firms, the advantages that can be obtained from alignment are huge. It takes leadership to convey that benefit, and to persuade partners that the firm's vision has ultimately to be reflected in the detail of difficult choices – such as which clients to target, what work to do, the proper career management of people and the prioritisation of limited resources. And ensuring these choices are properly made and acted on are 'management' tasks that, because they appear at first to inhibit freedom of action, are not naturally welcomed. So, achieving and maintaining alignment requires an ability to explain why change is necessary and that choices must be made, and then encouraging, motivating and managing people through a difficult period of transition and insecurity.

The third task – providing infrastructure and support – is an essential management role if the first two are to be achieved. For partners to maintain their course towards the common goal, they need to be freed up to do the right things and be given the right tools to do the job and the right information to chart their progress. In a global firm, competitive advantage comes from putting together integrated teams across practices and offices to do complex transactions for global clients. So, globally integrated systems that facilitate cooperative working and provide timely, accurate and easy to access information across boundaries of practice and geography, are key. So too are efficient processes that free lawyers from routine tasks, help them to identify the progress they are making towards their objectives and support them as they develop their practices.

Leadership and management then are both critical to the success of global law firms; we focus on just one of the two at our peril. With the right combination, however, the sheer power and success that comes from an aligned firm is extraordinary. Partners are motivated and liberated to do the challenging and complex work they want to do, acting on the deals and for the clients that drove them to be successful lawyers in the first place. A virtuous circle is created that encourages even greater focus on doing what is right. And while it is too much to say that at that point the firm runs itself – the pace of change in the market ensures that will never be the case – a cohesive, motivated and aligned firm is well-placed to meet the daunting challenges of the future.

Tony Angel is managing partner of Linklaters.

This article draws on his contribution to 'Managing the Modern Law Firm', edited by Laura Empson and published last month by Oxford University Press (www.oup.com).