To become effective law firm leaders, lawyers must develop political expertise

Conventional models of leadership are predicated on the assumption that leaders, by definition, must have followers. But in a law firm the distinction between leaders and followers is problematic because power is widely distributed. 

Power in general belongs to the people who control access to key resources. In a law firm these resources are major client relationships, valuable specialist expertise and a strong reputation.

Leadership in law firms presents a distinctive set of challenges. Conventional models of leadership don't apply. Instead, through my research into professional services firms, including more than 20 law firms, I've developed the concept of the 'leadership constellation' to help identify the key actors in the leadership dynamics of a law firm.

This leadership constellation expresses the informal power structure of the law firm that overlaps with and sits alongside the formal authority structure.

At the centre is the senior executive dyad or pairing – typically a managing partner and a senior partner, or a chairman and a chief executive. Then there are a few selected heads of major fee-earning areas such as specific practices or offices – not all, just the key ones. Many firms also have heads of business services, such as the CFO or the head of human resources. And finally there are the key influencers.  They may have no formal leadership role but they have power derived from their control of the key resources.

How do lawyers get into a position in the leadership constellation? And how do they operate effectively once they are there?

First, a lawyer must be successful in the marketplace if peers are to accept him or her as worthy to lead them. Having won the legitimacy to lead, it is vital that these lawyers remain close to clients. As they move away from full-time fee-earning work, they shouldn't become dependent on their colleagues to tell them what clients are thinking. Knowledge of clients is the only way lawyers can continue to exploit the personal legitimacy that clients confer. 

As one practice head said to me: "My predecessor, who's very, very good, made a classic mistake of cutting right back on his practice and becoming full-time management. And that doesn't work in a firm like ours. You lose credibility doing that. You have to be able to show that you can still cut it."

Lawyers in the leadership constellation must also interact politically while appearing apolitical. Many interviewees explained that they were not political, that most of their colleagues weren't either and that those colleagues who were seen to be political tended to suffer as a result.

But law firms are rife with politics. It is simply an organisational fact of life. Their leaders therefore need a high degree of political skill. This is partly because lawyers create these conditions through their formal governance structures: elections are held and candidates issue manifestos and give speeches at debates, talking of 'their electorate', 'constituents' and 'mandates'. 

As with a politician, a leader within a law firm needs to build and sustain consensus among his or her colleagues, making trade-offs between competing interest groups, and offering incentives to individuals to lend their support to particular initiatives.

Lawyers' professed abhorrence of politics seems to arise from their conceptualisation of political behaviour as Machiavellian duplicity and unscrupulousness. But in truth, successful politicians have four key qualities: social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability and apparent sincerity.

Framed in these terms, it becomes clear that leaders of law firms must be supremely effective politicians. And, as with the best politicians, their skill comes in persuading their colleagues and their electorate that they are not pursuing their own self-interests,  but are genuinely motivated by the desire to improve the situation of the people around them.

Laura Empson is professor in the Management of Professional Service Firms at Cass Business School. Her research can be found at www.cass.city.ac.uk/cpsf.