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There is more than one path to success. The law firms that have transformed the legal marketplace over the last fifty years did so by charting their own courses and following their own strategies even in the face of doubt and criticism from the keepers of the Conventional Wisdom. The same can be said for the path-breaking legal departments.
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Every law firm needs a strategic vision. At some firms there may be a single goal and operations manual. At others, organizing by practice or industry groups will make more sense. The important point is that law firms make choices and then execute on them.
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Lawyers—at law firms and in legal departments—perform better when they understand their clients and their goals and communicate more fully with them.
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It matters how law firms organize themselves. Whether they choose to be a community of professionals or a coalition of warlords or some combination, will have impact on the strategic choices they will confront and the lives they lead.
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Law firms and legal departments must focus both on their business and professional interests and duties. Lawyers are, of course, in business; that’s neither shameful or a surprise. But that’s not all that they are. We believe that taking their professional obligations seriously will make their lives and work richer and more valuable to their society and themselves.