The Top 10 Habits of Successful Firms
The top law firms emphasize client service and development of their own lawyers and employees, according to a consultant who has drawn up a list of the top 10 habits of highly successful law firms.
Consultant and writer John Cunningham wrote for the Legal Marketing Reader that he studied American Lawyer reports on the top 200 law firms from 2000 to 2005, and found that most law firms were unable to boost revenue per lawyer beyond increases in billing rates. Some law firms were able to post greater gains in revenue per lawyer by firing their least successful partners, he wrote, but that formula isn’t likely to ensure long-term success.
In his October 2007 piece, Cunningham set out to find out other ways that law firms outperformed the average. His top 10 list emphasizes client service and employee satisfaction.
He observes that law firms on Forbes’ list of the best places to work do well financially. Law firms on the list in 2005-2006 included Alston & Bird, Bingham McCutchen, Nixon Peabody, and Perkins Coie. For all of these firms, the growth in their revenue per lawyer was near 45 percent from 2000 to 2005, compared to an average of 35 percent.
Other effective habits on his list:
–Cultivating transparency and trust by sharing information with employees.
–Having a managing partner and executive teams that devote most of their time to management.
–Emphasizing client service and conducting client surveys to find ways to improve.
–Learning more about clients. In one case, Alston & Bird sent employees to ride on UPS delivery trucks.
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