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New strategies for sustainable growth and development

In order for law firms to stay competitive in this ever-changing marketplace, strategic planning focused on sustainable growth and development should be at the top of a Legal Chief Operations Officer’s agenda. Improving the bottom line through diligent expense management is the simple end scenario, but getting there requires a fresh perspective and a keen eye on technology.

Top-line revenue must include strategic account management, business development training, client satisfaction metrics, creative talent acquisition and retention strategies, business intelligence tools, and competitive intelligence. Using analytics and client metrics to help determine innovative ways to gain new clients and increase internal productivity, and concurrently ensuring fees are targeted correctly, will set any firm up for growth and success.

Utilizing internal resources to meet new demands

The digital revolution has transformed how the world communicates and does business. Law firms are not excluded from this digital era and benefit by processing information and producing work more efficiently than ever before. In order to determine how to best meet the new demands that come along with this digital revolution, COO’s need to re-examine how business is being done and re-define how value is determined, through the eyes of the clients.

Implementing resources like real-time automation can help clients interact with their lawyer while increasing client satisfaction and saving time.  Further time and money savings can be accomplished by boosting self-service options, using e-Discovery tools to expedite document discovery while controlling costs, finding ways to commoditize routine legal work by outsourcing to non-lawyers or using artificial intelligence tools.   As each firm scans its own internal resources opportunities to find solutions to specific demands will be uncovered.

Keep in mind that new technology and being part of the digital era may pose greater business risks and vulnerabilities in the digital space. Implementing cybersecurity measures, including an enterprise security program, is a critical part in reducing cyber-attacks and keeping client information secure.

Continuing education for attorneys and legal staff

Rapid changes in the landscape of the legal field have helped to generate an expanding role for the COO in law firms. Charged with the profitability and daily operations of the law firm, the COO now will ensure that attorneys and legal staff are meeting their continuing education requirements, as professional development initiatives become part of the strategic plan.

Depending on the firm’s internal expertise and resources, professional development can either be managed in-house or outsourced. At Fennemore Craig, we chose to manage our professional development initiatives in-house through the appointment of a Chief Talent Officer, ensuring that one person is charged with aligning the need and the resources in a consistent and deliberate manner. Either under the advisement of a COO, or as a stand-alone entity, a CTO is a strategic investment in ensuring there is someone with 100% time dedicated to professional development.

Some law firms choose to put the ownership of professional development on the attorneys and legal staff. Attorneys and staff are charged with finding their own learning and development opportunities, with the understanding (sometimes via firm policy) that it is simply an expectation of working at that particular law firm. This can make the COO’s role in the process one of oversight and not details. Alternatively, partnering with a third-party vendor to manage continuing education, whether through an online learning portal or delivering education on-site, can be a viable solution to helping attorneys and legal staff meet their professional development needs.

Fostering synergy among practice groups

Fostering synergy among practice groups is an essential role of the COO in today’s law firm. The integrative nature of legal work now requires attorneys to combine their areas of expertise in order to create innovative outcomes and generate more lucrative work. Breaking through internal silos to provide cross-practice services requires careful planning, especially if this type of collaborative environment does not currently exist in your law firm.

From a client perspective, the interest for cross-collaboration allows for answers and solutions that span across various areas of expertise, providing a streamlined result that is practical and actionable. However, doing this requires attorneys that have become entrenched in their own specialized niche to learn how knowledge from other practice groups can add value to their clients.

Although things like trust, partner personalities, firm culture, and access, can serve as common barriers to launching this type of cross-collaborative effort, there are several things that a COO can do to serve as a jumping off point for collaboration. Knowing the unique personalities of the various practice group chairs and what their main drivers would be to incentivize starting the discussion is a good starting point to developing a strategy. Targeting key practice groups, identifying clients that can be mined for business, encouraging expertise sharing, re-defining compensation systems to foster joint working, and getting creative within existing structures will help establish collaboration within a firm across structural and interpersonal boundaries.

Vet and hire other C-Suite personnel

For a law firm that has made the decision to add a C-Suite hire, the COO plays a key role in both the recruitment process and vetting of the potential candidates. Finding the right C-Suite hire requires looking for candidates with real-world experience (legal or non-legal), financial knowledge (the main role of many C-Suite members is the bottom line) and a background of strong leadership skills. Working with an executive search agency to find the right fit can expand the reach across functions, industries, and geography.

Once the executive search agency provides a list of viable candidates, sorting through the sea of resumes might seem daunting for a COO, but knowing the key traits and experience points will allow for easier movement to the interview stage. Looking for things like clear process and strategy, modifying and streamlining business solutions, ability to connect on the ground level with staff, moving a company forward through creative thinking, implementing innovative ideas through technology, and other factors that are relevant to that particular position.

The candidates making it to the next phase of interviewing will then get a chance to explain some of their key successes through a panel process consisting of the COO, members of the management committee, Human Resources leader, and any other C-Suite personnel who are deemed essential to provide feedback. Allowing for a panel made up of various members of the firm to interview the candidate allows for a broader perspective and read on the potential fit in the firm. The final selection and hire should depend upon the majority opinion, with the oversight of the COO. It is important to keep in mind what the next potential C-Suite need might be and to create a pipeline of internal candidates by working on grooming high potentials from within the firm.