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Awarding practice group leadership posts as plums to top rainmakers or star practitioners is a thing of the past for many large law firms, with the industry determining that managerial ability and communication skills are more critical qualifications.

Firms that haven't changed their approach may be regretting it more than ever now.

The abrupt shift to remote working since the coronavirus crisis hit has raised the stakes for practice chiefs, who act as key intermediaries between top leadership and the lawyers and staff whose work is paying the bills.

"It's been an incredibly disruptive time for everyone. Particularly at the beginning of the pandemic, it was critically important that our practice leaders were accessible, visible and connected all the time to our lawyers and staff," said Ellen Dwyer, who chairs the executive committee at Crowell & Moring.

Obviously, the almost overnight downturn in the global economy has placed extreme pressure on managing partners and executive committee members to read the tea leaves and make snap decisions on budgeting and compensation.

But practice group leaders, who often serve as "mini managing partners" for their corner of the firm, according to Fairfax Associates principal Kristin Stark, are playing a crucial role to ensure that attorneys and staff, now working out of their homes, remain connected to the firm.

Dwyer noted that for lawyers, bringing laptops home for work needs during mornings, evenings and weekends is "second nature"—at least for short stretches—but many staff have never worked from home before. Bringing these individuals into the fold is particularly important in the present moment.

Susan Lambreth, a specialist in practice group management at LawVision, emphasized that even under ordinary circumstances, the most successful group leaders have communication skills that allow them to excel in team building.

"That ties into what the good ones are doing right now: They have an understanding of how to engage the members of their group as valuable contributors to the team, rather than that traditional hierarchy of partners versus associates or lawyers versus non-lawyers," she said.

Cooley global litigation department chair Michael Attanasio said that this is the chief message he's impressing on the group leaders who report to him.

"Communicating closely with the partners and associates in the group with genuine empathy, confidence and a sense of teamwork—those attributes have never been more valuable than they are today," he said.

In their absence, morale throughout the firm is bound to suffer. One managing partner told LawVision co-founding partner Joe Altonji that, apart from all the economic issues associated with COVID-19, his single biggest worry is keeping people connected to the culture of the firm. And these top leaders can only do so much on their own. Hildebrandt Consulting CEO Brad Hildebrandt notes that managing partners in many firms are doing weekly calls with associates, partners and staff, but these are more akin to press calls than sources of real connection.

"Practice group leaders are the front-line lieutenants in replicating the culture of the firm," Altonji said.

And the medium matters too. The telephone, as well as the much-talked-about Zoom call, can make a difference.

"We've always encouraged team members to pick up the phone, rather than invariably resort to email or instant messaging, but now it's even more important than ever to increase the frequency of voice or video contact and help diminish the sense of isolation," said Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr chief legal personnel and professional development officer Peggy Giunta. "We are finding this kind of contact is having a genuine impact on continuing the feeling of community within the firm."

Crowell & Moring is hosting "open mic" sessions, where practice group leaders play a lead role in answering questions, sometimes anonymous, from the members of the group.

"There's no question that won't be answered," Dwyer said. "Sometimes it's not answered in the way everyone would hope, but the honesty and direct responses have been prized by everyone across the firm."

Beyond communication, the current moment also presents group leaders with unique demands on coordination. Attanasio said that, in order to do the job successfully, practice group leaders must be able to manage workflow and ensure that assignments are distributed in an efficient manner, so that heavy burdens aren't falling on one group of busy lawyers and not on others.

"That management of the trains is always important, but never more than it is now," he explained.

And while there's tremendous uncertainty about when the crisis will finally come to an end—and what the landscape for law firms will look like when it does—effective practice group leadership will likely be part of the story of every firm that lands on two feet.

"Some firms will emerge less harmed. Those that do will be the ones who have been able to engage lawyers on a one-on-one basis and a personal basis," Stark said. "The managing partner and the executive committee don't have the bandwidth to get to a large group of people in small increments. Firms that do this better will come out of this moment better."

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