a survival guide for legal practice managers.

As we all know the legal profession is undergoing its greatest period of transformation at present: the sands are literally shifting beneath your feet. As practice managers and leaders it’s often your role to not only stay on top of all the fast transformation within the industry, but also, to ensure that staff remain calm and retention remains steady.

In today’s business environment, social media should now be an integrated part of a law firm’s wider business development and marketing strategy.

As a technology provider keen to help more firms integrate technology with their core business strategy, here are five things I’ve learnt from firms who implemented successful strategies in 2018.

Without question, the most important leadership skill to master is effective leadership communication. When done well, it’s inspiring, transformative and spurs employees to greatness.

Here are three ways you can recognise emerging leaders within your firm.

Welcome to the industry of law, where revenue is based on inputs rather than outputs. The industry’s cost-plus model guarantees a profit at the expense of clients. For decades, this model has worked while firms tinkered with technology around the edges, stuck to traditional methods and prospered. And clients paid for it all without question.

The age old question asks whether leaders are born or made. And somehow, we never get tired of asking it or seeking the answer. Truth is that perhaps both options are true. In my view most people in leadership positions can develop leadership skills like communication, presence, EQ etc but that won’t always make them leaders.

You have poorly performing or badly-behaved partners dragging the firm down, ‘ruining’ the culture and there is nothing you feel can be, or is being, done to deal with the issues. The ‘wrong’ things are being recognised and remunerated in your firm. Your firm is looking to grow and keeps hiring lateral partners, half of whom leave within two or three years or otherwise stay and exacerbate the other issues already in the firm. Your office premises lease is up for renewal in the next 18 or so months.

People who are considering reducing their work hours in the leadup to retirement, but who are concerned about not having enough disposable income as a result can, through a superannuation transition to retirement (TTR) strategy, access part of their super to top up their income.