Consulting for mid-sized law firms
Challenge
What we do for these firms
Medium-sized law firms, with revenues of between € 2 and 10 million and more, are mostly locally grown partnerships that cover the needs of commercial enterprises at a high level. Their challenge is to further develop the business model in the face of diverse challenges: Lack of junior staff, generational succession, investment needs, knowledge of personnel management etc. in view of a law firm size that actually requires a different type of management. The dilemmas are manifold. We help these partnerships to distinguish the important from the unimportant and, through joint reflection, to find a consensus on the challenges for the next steps.
Enabling the partners to manage and develop their own law firm is the greatest benefit, as our clients say. At the same time we sometimes deal with old conflict situations, help to simplify complicated issues and make market developments comprehensible.
We analyze the economic development and benchmark it to identify the areas in which the law firm performs well and those in which it performs less effectively. Next, internal and external challenges are gathered. Together with all partners, this information is then evaluated and compared with the insights we’ve gained from working with other law firms over the past 20 years. This enables us to distinguish what truly matters from what does not.
Thanks to our unique law firm market database dating back to 1997, our publications, and hundreds of consulting projects, we are familiar with virtually every challenge a law firm may face. Our expertise in coaching, facilitation, and mediation helps partnerships reconnect and regain the strength to shape their future.
Case studies
We can name the following cases from the last 20 years of our law firm consulting, with many examples overlapping; at the core, it is always about culture change:
- Growth by taking on new partners from the firm; introduction of a new profit distribution system; clarification of the special role of the senior partners; introduction of business planning resulting in 300% profit growth in 3 years without increasing staffing levels
- Turnaround of an old-established commercial law firm, which had not sufficiently observed the change in focus and profitability
- Definition of the organizational structure including job descriptions and core processes to increase the efficiency of the organization
- Reflection of the management team regarding further development of the law firm and design of decision-making processes due to constant disputes within the management team.
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