Smart Strategy

First, please allow me to ­acknowledge that no, I am not particularly into self-denigration. I am also well aware that I am, in fact, a consultant to the legal industry. This article is not intended to be an attack on any individuals or even the profession as a whole. Think of it instead as a reset; as an opportunity for reflection and advancement.

Many law firm consultants and ­management teams are experts in the mechanics of law firm financials—RPL, PPEP, utilization, realization and the like. They wax poetic about the value of originations and working attorney figures, advocate formulaic compensation models, debate the merits of two-tier partnership structures and guide law firms through facilitated discussions of strategy and practice management. What if the truth is that none of these matter—or, more accurately, they matter a lot less than they used to? What if tomorrow's law firm simply didn't have any of these—no more measuring of time in six-minute increments, no more quibbling over origination credit, no more hardline divisions between practice areas (gasp!)?

As with many adages, “you are what you measure” speaks truth when it comes to law firm management. The persistent, and seemingly unflappable, ­connection law firms—and many of their consultants—have to yesterday's metrics and methods of performance fly in the face of achieving many, if not all, of the changes demanded by new law firm economics. Encouraging lawyers to put more hours on the board will not drive lasting results. Nor will measuring performance based solely on year-over-year gains in revenue, or maintaining formulation-based compensation structures that value production hours over origination (often by a factor of 2:1). All of these approaches emphasize quantity over quality.