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In his newest book, Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms, Edge International partner Nick Jarrett-Kerr addresses a highly sensitive issue that has faced nearly every law firm at one time or another: What do you do when one of your partners is not pulling his or her own weight?

In preparation to write the book, Jarrett-Kerr conducted a ground-breaking, in-depth survey of partner underperformance at 22 law firms of all sizes from around the world. He then examined pertinent academic research from various disciplines in light of his own unique, wide-reaching blend of knowledge and experience in the fields of law-firm strategy, governance and leadership development.

The result is a realistic and comprehensive – and always compassionate – exploration of the roots and causes of partner underperformance. The book also offers a spectrum of strategies and best practices that may be undertaken by law firms that are managing partner underperformance (or are working to prevent it), depending on their particular goals and circumstances.

Jarrett-Kerr defines underperformance as “the consistent failure of a partner to meet the firm’s reasonable expectations or standards for productivity, profitability, quality, technical proficiency, client service or interpersonal relationships.” Underperformance by a partner is a problem that firms often wish they could sweep under the rug for a host of reasons, but Jarrett-Kerr points out that ignoring the situation can lead to potentially serious conditions for the firm, including:

  • diminished profitability
  • loss of opportunity
  • disaffection of high performers
  • challenges to the firm’s values, and
  • falling morale (p. vii)

Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms provides guidelines that firms can use to determine and assess critical areas of performance, and examines how a compensation system can be optimized "that will align with partner performance.” Jarrett-Kerr lists motivators for strong performance, and sets out the various causes of underperformance, including: stress and depression; burnout and boredom; failure on the part of the partner to keep up with the pace of change; internal office politics; personal problems; and several other factors.

Jarrett-Kerr’s wide-ranging and highly user-friendly book goes on to set out plans and approaches that can help firms to support partners as they return to productivity, and it also addresses the issue of how to terminate the agreement if a solution cannot be reached. Most readers will find it reassuring to learn that in the majority of cases, underperforming partners leave before they need to be asked to do so.

Nick Jarrett-Kerr’s background, which includes eight years as chief executive partner at a leading regional firm in the UK, and ten years as a consultant to firms in 22 different countries on three different continents, has made him an authority on management and leadership topics with an emphasis on strategic and business planning, as well as issues of governance and structure, partner compensation and strategy execution. He is the author of Law Firm Strategy – After the Legal Services Act published in November 2009 (Law Society Publishing) and he is a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University, where he leads the strategy modules for the Nottingham Law School MBA.

Edge International welcomes this contribution to the growing library of world-class law-firm resources that have been produced by our outstanding partners. We are proud to have been involved with Ark Group and Managing Partner in the creation of this book, and to have sponsored The Edge International 2011 Survey into the Management of Underproductive and Underperforming Partners which serves as its foundation, and which appears in the book as an Appendix.

Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms is available from MP Managing Partner/ARK Group Publishing.

Mark your calendars! Nick Jarrett-Kerr will facilitate a web-based discussion on the subject of partner underperformance on July 18, 2012, 12 to 1 p.m. EDT. This Ark Group webinar should be attended by managing partners, senior partners, heads of practice groups and members of your firm’s C-suite. See agenda and register here.

 

“There is a significant difference among countries in what law firms take into consideration in setting partner compensation.” – The Edge International 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey  

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“There is a significant difference among countries in what law firms take into consideration in setting partner compensation.” –  Edge International 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey

For the third time in six years, Edge International has surveyed the largest law firms in the world to discover how partner compensation systems are changing to meet economic challenges, non-equity partnerships and evolving young partner expectations. The result is Edge International’s newest publication, The 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey, co-authored by my Edge International partners Ed Wesemann and Nick Jarrett-Kerr.

In order to prepare this new, eminently useful and succinct report, Ed and Nick surveyed 263 major law firms in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and Canada. They compared approaches to partner compensation geographically and historically in order to gain an understanding of differences based on the firms’ sizes, profitability and nationalities. The authors then deployed their extensive knowledge of law firm strategic planning, governance and leadership to analyze the data, summarize trends and predict future directions.
 

Some highlights:

  • US and Canadian law firms tend toward significantly more subjective compensation systems than do firms in other countries;
  • The use of non-equity partners is increasing in every country, and this trend is anticipated to continue;
  • In the UK and Australia, business development and client management are the most highly valued performance criteria in compensation, whereas in the US and elsewhere in the world, the most commonly cited factor is the value of the legal work the partner personally performs.

Among their conclusions, the authors point out that “Everywhere in the world, the trend is towards greater and wider use of performance-related compensation systems for at least part of the compensation package for law firm partners.”

Edge International is pleased to be able to offer our clients this important document, and we will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about it—or its implications for your firm.

Download pdf here: The Edge International 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey

 

The iPad has become a formidable competitive weapon for law firms:

Quote from Fennemore Craig case study on Apple.com/business:

"If I didn’t have an iPad as a lawyer, I’d be at a major disadvantage,"

Quote from Virtual Strategy Magazine article: iPad® Harnessed by Law Firm to Sharpen Client Service

Now, legal materials live on a fleet of iPads that Fennemore Craig pre-loads and loans to clients and adversaries.  Communication with lawyers occurs instantly through built-in FaceTime or Skype apps.

My opinion:  The worry over what kind of laptop to buy is fading because of the domination of the ubiquitous iPad.  If you have not acquired iPads for every lawyer in your firm, at least provide them to a subgroup in exchange for some serious exploration as to how the iPad can assist in your substantive practices as well as your relationships with your clients.  Every day that passes is increasing the relevance of the iPad to your competitive position.

 

 


Your law firm’s success in 2012 may require considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure just as it did from the crew of Apollo 13 for their safe return to Earth.

Apollo 13 was the third mission in the American Apollo space program intended to land on the Moon. The number 2 oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded en route to the Moon, approximately 200,000 miles (320,000 km) from Earth.  The developing drama was shown on television and depicted in the Apollo 13 movie based on the mission.

If you saw the movie, you may recall that the head of Mission Control assembled a team in a conference room and requested that the materials available to the astronauts in the Service Module be brought to the room because they had but a few hours to learn how to make oxygen to save the astronauts’ lives.

By contrast, when the senior leadership team in most law firms meets to explore strategy, there is no sense of urgency. Worse, after extraordinarily bright people come up with some amazing plans, in most firms they are doomed to atrophy due to a lack of execution.

As you consider 2012, I recommend that you:
 

  • Take off the rose colored glasses… the apparent good economic news is at best an exercise in extreme optimism and at worst the willful concealment of the truth
  • Clients have tasted economic power in the lawyer/client relationship and they are not going to give it up. In fact, if you are not exploring legal process management (LPM) in harmony with some of your most important clients, your firm is headed for rough seas.
  • Make your plans as if they were a matter of life and death because they very well may be. In today’s perilous times, your firm’s fate may be as precarious as that of the 3 astronauts when the oxygen tank exploded.


I confess that I have framed this in a slightly melodramatic way in order to be provocative. The serious lesson I ask you to take from this is that your plans need a deadline and they must be executed as if life itself dependent upon them. That is why in Edge, we make no apology for being obsessed with action.

Your comments would be appreciated as usual.

 

(Thanks to Wikipedia for the image and details)

An article in this month’s Corporate Counsel Magazine has the spotlight on Valorem and for good reason. 

Author Susan Hansen says:

Valorem… now boasts a list of big, brand-name clients, including funeral industry giant Service Corporation International; national shoe retailer DSW Inc.; Veolia Water, a supplier of water and wastewater management services; and the online travel site kayak.com.

and later in the article reports::

…clients definitely like the fact that Valorem is more than willing to work out fee arrangements that are at least partially tied to the results they produce. Case in point: a major lease dispute that Valorem is currently handling for DSW that is headed for trial in Los Angeles this fall. As part of its agreement, the company has been holding back 20 percent of Valorem’s billings, with the final payout to be determined by how well the firm meets mutually defined success metrics in the case.

Punchline:  in a world where firms and clients are talking a lot about alternate fees (AFA), Valorem and its clients are innovating with imaginative fee and billing solutions that truly are win/win, and I say BRAVO !  Managing Partners of all firms intent on surviving would do well to analyze and understand Valorem’s approach.

 For the full article, click on the image.

Disclosure:  I have the honour of serving on Valorem’s Advisory Board

Presentation Materials from the Good to Outstanding, it’s all about your people” conference in Hong Kong

 

For the required PASSWORD, kindly email me. (Your email address must match your registration)

To download presentation materials, click on the relevant presentation.

    Really ? (No.)

 

  Really ? (Yes.)

 

How refreshing for Forbes to offer us 26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO, Shama Kabani.  Her wisdom is well-suited for consideration by Managing Partners of the most significant law firms.  Her ideas are extraordinarily mature for her age which may explain her phenomenal business success.  Here are a few examples:

…planning (#1):

  • A written vision of what you want your company to look like in 3 years is important. The pen (or keyboard!) has power. It isn’t enough to envision your goals in your mind. You must have a blueprint on paper. Every decision you make, ask yourself: does this help me get closer to my vision?

…listening (#2):

  • Learn to listen to your clients. When we started, we were only offering social media consulting services. But, clients quickly demanded more. We eventually ended up serving as their web marketing department. The marketplace will tell you what it needs. You have to listen, and then deliver.

 …and #15 (who would expect a 26 year old to remind us to dress appropriately):

  • Appearances matter. I just interviewed an intern who showed up in an outfit more appropriate for an 8 a.m. class. I had to wonder how he would represent us in front of clients. Whether we like it or not, appearances matter. Dress appropriately.

…and #26 (think "Managing Partner" rather than CEO and "firm" rather than company):

  • Being a CEO means being a CVO. CVO stands for Chief Value Officer. Always ask yourself: How can I create value for our clients? Our prospects? Our internal team? The answers will guide you to building a better company.

My opinion: Except for #18 (decide for yourself), I think every single one of the 26 lessons is worthy of consideration by every law firm leader

Read all 26 lessons at Forbes: 26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO

Shama Kabani is the award winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group, a full service web marketing firm in Dallas. She is also the author of the best-selling, The Zen of Social Media Marketing; and hosts her own web TV show at Shama.Tv.  Her photo is courtesy of the Young Entrepreneurial Council.  Thank you to Annie Colbert of Guy Kawasaki’s ALLTOP for bringing this Forbes Blogpost to my attention.