Breakthrough at Linklaters: A Major Strategic Pivot Point

Breakthrough at Linklaters: A Major Strategic Pivot Point is an important contribution in that Pam Waldow and Doug Richardson summarise the facts and opine on the significance of Linklaters’ move away from measuring the performance of individuals. 

Historically, few law firms have actively embraced Franklin’s formula for survival and success.  They paved the road to profitability by aggregating the revenue-producing activity of individuals lawyers, each operating as a discrete profit center and each driven to leverage personal achievement to maximize income.

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How to fail at collaboration

With collaboration in professional services firms very much in the news as a result of the work and publications of Heidi K. Gardner of Harvard Business School, it’s a good time for Dialogue to publish How to fail at collaboration, an iconic post by Pam Woldow and Doug Richardson. We all know that many law firms send mixed messages to their lawyers (and often to their clients, too). They talk the talk, but they don’t walk the walk, particularly when it comes to the informal norms and values that define “the way we do things around here.” This opens them up to charges of hypocrisy – or at least insensitivity to the human factors that define law firm success in today’s market.

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LPM, a vital business development tool lawyers are ignoring

LPM, a vital business development tool lawyers are ignoring is the first post on Dialogue by Pam Woldow and Doug Ricardson. They start with a parental admonition: Eat your damned vegetables. What’s the matter with you?  Don’t you know what’s good for you?  

I am particularly pleased that their vital message and its timing resonates with a recent keynote address I delivered to 300 leaders of professional services firms in Australia and New Zealand (1). 

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