Management Tips from Litigators-Turned-Firm Leaders
"To be a great lawyer you need to be able to solve your clients' business and legal challenges, but to be a great law firm leader you need to understand what drives the strategy and economics of the firm," said Jim Lehman of Nelson Mullins.
December 08, 2021 at 07:30 AM
5 minute read
It's always surprised me that so many law firm leaders come from the transactional side of their shops. Sure, deal lawyers often pick up a business acumen almost by osmosis by working shoulder-to-shoulder with clients on transactions. But the business of law firms is a peculiar beast. A partnership is a delicate thing. All the consensus-building that comes with maintaining one would seem to lend itself to someone with expert communication skills. Law firm leaders are also charged with telling the story of an institution in real-time. Litigators are trained to marshall facts into credible narratives, aren't they?
Sure there are the Brad Karps and the Jami McKeons and Yvette Ostolazas of the Big Law world, but when a law firm is set to announce a new leader, my betting money would still be on a deal lawyer.
It was with these thoughts in mind that I dug into Q&As my Law.com colleague Tasha Norman has conducted this year with litigators-turned-law firm leaders. We previously highlighted Tasha's "How I Made It" series back in May in a column about what it takes to make partner as a litigator these days. The litigator/leaders that Tasha connected with this year did a good job of articulating what it takes to develop skills as a leader while learning the business side of running a law firm.
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