BigLaw firm change management: Reckoning and Retooling

BigLaw firm change management means having difficult conversations and empowering business development professionals. It’s a case of Reckoning and Retooling writes Heather Suttie.

A senior partner who has practiced law for 45 years recently observed to me, “The traditional firm pressures are huge. A few big failures and we will see radical transformation.

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Navigating the multi-polar legal market

Georgetown Law School and the Thomson Reuters Legal Executive Institute are ready to call it: the party’s officially over. The 2017 edition of their annual Report on the State of the Legal Market is unequivocal in its assessment of how completely the commercial legal services market has changed over the past decade.

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What real transformative change could look like

What real transformative change could look like is the sequel to Ken’s post on Dialogue two days ago, Stagnation and the legal services industry. Ken does us all a great service by painting a concrete picture of his view of what the future might look like. He’s putting it out there for the rest of us to think about, test and challenge what real transformative change might look like. Let’s go to it!

I often write about radical transformation in the legal industry and how it has not arrived. That line of reasoning begs the question: what could radical transformation look like?

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Harbinger of the change affecting #BigLaw, courtesy of @ArtificialLawya

Harbinger of the change affecting #BigLaw, courtesy of @ArtificialLawya breaks with the pattern of Dialogue: [1] I am publishing Richard Troman’s article as a news item [2] hours prior to the release of Ken Grady’s post on transformational change. This juxtaposition is a metaphor for what all BigLaw business model firms need to come to grips with, very quickly. Thank you Richard – and Ken.     

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Stagnation and the legal services industry

Real transformation has yet to arrive writes Ken Grady in his latest post Stagnation and the legal services industry. Welcome back Ken!  Readers can look forward to the sequel in a few days from now.

It is unpopular today to write something about the legal industry from a realist perspective. Optimism abounds among entrepreneurs, and among the old guard there exists the fantasy that the world is not as bad as everyone says it is. Unfortunately for me, I am a realist

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Classic: What I would do if I ran a 20th-century law firm in the 21st-century

John Chisholm returns as agent provocateur with this classic: What I would do if I ran a 20th-century law firm in the 21st-century. Many have commented that remaking a BigLaw business model law firm is like turning the Queen Mary or changing a 747 engine at 12,000 meters. Now – slowly – more and more of these traditional firms are taking remaking steps. John’s polemic post, first published in 2015, is at once humorous and deadly serious. Enjoy.

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