Defining the Role and Development of a New Managing Partner

A significant majority of those surveyed agree that their greatest and most frustrating challenge is the approach to follow to provide leadership to their firms. Central to this conflict is whether to lead by consensus or decree. All of the partners interviewed agreed that astute lawyer management must achieve the appropriate balance of building consensus among the partners versus managing as an autocrat — and which works best, under what conditions.

Most managing partners agree that in today’s highly competitive environment, authority for managing their firm’s administrative and substantive activities needs to be centralized in a managing partner and/or a management committee, to some extent. It is no longer feasible or desirable for attorneys to exercise their independence on virtually every issue. Partners must be willing to subordinate their prerogatives as owners of the firm for the “good” of the firm. This was referred to by one partner as “being a good citizen of the firm.” To achieve this level of acceptance it is incumbent upon lawyer management to determine how the following will apply to their respective firms.

What specifically should be the role and responsibility of the partners, the managing partner and department heads for the following:

• Policy determination and implementation;
  
  
• Long-range planning, including practice development;
  
  
• Recruiting and training lawyers;
  
  
• Practice management and quality control; and
  
  
• Confronting underachievers.
  
  How to improve the quality of communications between and among the partners and associates and staff for substantive and administrative matters, including the following:
  
  
• The types of issues/matters partners and associates would like to be kept apprised of regularly; and
  
  
• How these issues/matters should be brought to the attention of partners and associates, by whom and at what frequency.
  
  What specifically should be the role and authority of department heads (coordinators) and individual partners for:
  
  
• Accepting work from clients;
  
  
• Assigning work to other attorneys;
  
  
• Overseeing billing and collecting fees and disbursements;
  
  
• Developing plans for marketing legal services to existing and potential clients; and
  
  
• Providing for an interdisciplinary approach for serving clients.
  
  Additionally, younger partners are more involved in the management process today than a decade ago. These younger partners have been educated about firm economics in published surveys and have set high economic objectives for themselves and their partners. Hence, many of them are willing to make those difficult and oftentimes unpopular decisions which may be necessary for the well-being of the firm.
  
  

  Major Concerns

  “Sacrificing client development,” “making enemies among partners” and “the short memories of those partners not involved in the management process concerning the personal and professional sacrifices and contributions of lawyer managers” were identified as the major concerns confronting managing partners and members of management committees. Several lawyer managers are apprehensive about “remaining too long” in their management positions, in light of the “overemphasis placed by many partners on business development and revenue production when setting compensation percentages.” Half the lawyer managers interviewed questioned the extent to which those partners not involved in firm or department management are willing to “pay” those partners who serve as managing partners, members of management committees or managers of substantive department managers, or whether the lawyer managers are expected to manage the firm “on their own time” and also maintain a full client workload during the firm’s usual business hours.
  
  

  Learning to Manage