Our joint research project with the Managing Partners Forum continues and our topic in February 2014 was practice group management. Specifically, are there particular responsibilities practice group leaders should be taking on in order to drive effective practice management? In…
Over the past year we have noticed an important word showing up more often in the strategy deliberations of our law firm clients. That word is intentional, literally meaning “done in a way that is planned or intended; thoughtful; deliberate;…
Most law firms are deeply in (or about to enter) budget season. We surveyed law firm leaders last year regarding best practices around budget development. As a seasonal follow-up to that survey, we offer the following five tips to improve…
Our last post introduced the principles underpinning a valuable strategy tool – co-creation. We noted that co-creation is a tool particularly well suited to sophisticated legal practices for two reasons. First, in many respects co-creation principles align well with attorneys’…
This is the first in a two-part discussion of a valuable innovation tool for law firm leaders – “co-creation.” Co-creation has its greatest value at the individual client level, but can be applied at practice level as well. Co-creation dovetails…
The rise of Axiom, Clearspire and other disruptive innovators in the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) segment of the market has led to a wave of articles and blog posts – some insightful and well considered and some likely to prove…
We have seen a spike of interest in the Balanced Scorecard since our December 2012 strategy question of the month focused on what kinds of measures law firms are using. As regular readers will recall, the only measures firms are…
Throughout the course of 2012, Sterling Strategies conducted monthly mini-surveys, each focused on a single strategy topic. The intent was to develop some empirical data on what works and what does not work relative to a variety of strategic management…
Our final strategy topic for 2012 focuses on what law firm management is doing relative to setting objective measures for their strategic plans. More specifically, what do law firms measure and are those measures in any meaningful way connected to…
Our final strategy topic of the month for 2012 focuses on what law firm management is doing relative to setting objective measures for their strategic plans. Peter Drucker famously said, “you can only manage what you can measure.” The question…
October’s law firm strategy topic of month was the value of client feedback. Our initial rationale for exploring this topic grew as a by-product of our June 2012 strategy question of the month. June’s survey focused on best practices in…
Our June 2012 strategy question of the month focused on best practices in strategic planning in law firms. One of the principle factors that distinguished the firms reporting the most success with strategic planning from those reporting the least success…
Our September Law Firm Strategy Question of the Month focused on the budget process. Specifically, this month’s quick survey identified the budgeting practices that are most useful in real world settings in law firms. As in past months, we also…
The budget process is right around the corner – at least for the vast majority of firms that are on a calendar year cycle. These quick monthly surveys are primarily intended to build a foundation of useful information and benchmarks…
Last month’s law firm strategy question of the month asked law firm leaders to create a ‘model partner’ (i.e., a partner with the optimal balance of positive characteristics). The ‘model partner’ results can be found in the July 2012 archives…
One of the key findings of our April 2012 “strategy question of the month” involved the strategic importance practice groups (and filling out the practice group portfolio) have in determining law firms’ merger and acquisition strategies. In the write-up of…
The results of our February 2012 strategy question of the month generated a number of follow-up discussions, as well as some very intelligent and insightful correspondence with readers. We thought it warranted a bit of follow-up here on the blog.…
PRACTICE GROUP MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS FEBRUARY 2012 STRATEGY QUESTION OF THE MONTH This month’s strategy question of the month focused on practice group management. Specifically, we looked at the question of whether there is a link between what we ask practice…
Our strategy question of the month for February focuses on practice group management. Specifically, we are asking law firm leaders to share their own experiences relative to what practice group leaders are expected to do at their respective firms. The…