Superleader: What makes an effective law firm leader

17 Oct 2011Feature

What does it take to be an effective law firm leader? Managing partners share their insights and experiences with Kate Clifton

In recent years, the role of managing partners has changed: not only are they expected to manage their firms, but they are also expected to lead their partners.

“Managing a firm used to be all about strategy, but it has evolved to focus more on execution,” notes Robert Milliner, who is now in his eighth year as chief executive partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. “Leadership is now a combination of your actions, the structures you set up and the people who lead with you,” he says.

Adds Julious P. Smith Jr, chairman emeritus at Williams Mullen: “I’ve always tried to stay away from the word ‘manage’ as it can denote some kind of control and, to me, leadership is more about empowerment. The focus should be on making people better, by setting a clear strategic path and following it closely.”

Managing partner Emmanuelle Barbara says her role at French firm August & Debouzy has changed exponentially over the past 11 years from an administrative focus to in-depth strategic leadership. Practice group managers are now responsible for leading their teams and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the firm. They are overseen by managing director Pascale Pontrue, who reports to Barbara and the management committee.

Barbara says she now spends the majority of her time in her “real job” practising labour law, with no more than 20 to 30 per cent focused on leadership activity.

“I see myself as the conductor of the orchestra,” Barbara explains. “I represent all of these people, but I believe that everyone must focus on their own roles. As lawyers, we are at our best when we practise our art – and that isn’t management.” This notion of not having one “army general” type individual, she concludes, contributes to her firm’s success.

FTPA is another French firm that has adopted a ‘collective leadership’ approach. Founding partner and majority stakeholder Antoine Tchekhoff believes that the next generation of partners should be responsible for envisaging the future shape of the business – and driving the firm towards that goal.

The firm’s managing partner, Fabrice Lorvo, looks after the day-to-day management issues, with ongoing guidance and support from Tchekhoff and other senior, more experienced rainmakers.

“We don’t decide on a strategy and let it trickle down to the bottom,” asserts Tchekhoff. “But I’m not paying lip service to some kind of democratic system either. We don’t vote; we just work well together and have done so for a long period of time. It works in a smaller firm like ours and is one reason we’re not seeking to grow the business too much, in case we lose that dynamic.”

At UK firm Lewis Silkin, managing partner Ian Jeffery deliberately allows the leadership of the firm to fill most of his time. He retains a residual amount of fee-earning work as he says it keeps him at the “coal face” and enables him to confront the problems that lawyers face every day.

“There will always be the question of how willing partners are to be led by someone who isn’t doing the same job as them, but you have to be careful or you will end up limiting the time you have to oversee the firm,” says Jeffrey.

Hallmarks of a good leader

Clearly, a successful leader needs the respect of his peers.

“In order to lead, you need to have people who follow you. It’s axiomatic, but it’s something that a lot of people miss,” says Smith.

Traits such as being hardworking, honest and selfless all come into play here, he notes.

Indeed, although lawyers are not always natural leaders, some of the skills commonly associated with the practice of law are transferable to management roles.

“A good leader doesn’t present himself as a leader,” says Tchekhoff. “Leadership is demonstrated by your actions. If you start throwing your weight around, it won’t work. You need to let people exist without breathing down their necks.”

The smallest actions can make a real difference, he says. Tchekhoff gives the example of FTPA’s plans to purchase new office space. Rather than leading the decision-making process, he has allowed his team to take the lead in viewing properties and feeding back their thoughts.

Pascal Lagoutte, president at French firm Capstan, adds that leaders must come to terms with the fact that their roles may not be as important as they think they are. In a law firm, management will always play second fiddle to clients, so there is no room for egotistical behaviour, he says.

“You must remain behind the scenes to some extent, while continuing to push your people onwards and remaining in contact with the firm’s clients and markets,” he adds. “Don’t misunderstand the purpose of your mission.”

Milliner agrees. “The execution of any strategy is all about people. The focus needs to be on the firm, not you,” he notes. “There is a danger that managing partners can take their own positions too seriously.”

Guiding principles

Consistency is one of the most fundamental aspects of leadership, especially when dealing with risk-averse partners, who don’t appreciate surprises or sudden change that removes them from their comfort zones. However, maintaining consistency doesn’t mean that the leader is married to the same approach or strategy indefinitely.

“Sometimes, leadership is about nothing more than ensuring harmonious and agreeable working relationships between different people,” says Jeffery. “It’s almost like being a maître d’ within the business. Depending on the situation you’re facing, your leadership style can adapt without affecting your integrity, or causing you to lose sight of the firm’s fundamental values.”

Tim Aspinall, managing partner at DMH Stallard, says his leadership style is built on consistency, fairness, the rapid implementation of difficult strategies and a continuous consideration of the firm’s bigger picture. He combines these with a pragmatic approach to strategy and execution, which is adaptable to issues arising in the marketplace.

For him, alignment has always been a challenging element of the role. “You want everybody to agree on the strategy and support it so that everything that is done has that bigger purpose in mind,” he says.

“It’s taken years of hard work to move towards alignment, but I started off by holding meetings on Saturday mornings, which everyone could attend, to talk through issues and define where we wanted to be. We got lots of buy-in and created a generation of people, not just lawyers but also secretaries and support staff, who had ownership of that vision.”

For Milliner, his experience as managing partner of Mallesons’ Hong Kong office before taking on his current role has enabled him to better understand and respond to cultural differences. “The ways in which I communicate with partners from different offices change constantly,” he says.

“I also rely on different sets of partners to reach out to and obtain support on issues that are sensitive in some offices, but not in others.”

David Morley, worldwide senior partner at Allen & Overy, faces similar challenges – not least because the firm has 39 offices in 27 countries. Ensuring that the firm’s mantra (‘one firm’) is delivered across disparate jurisdictions can create a difficult balancing act. Maintaining global consistency in client service while recognising the desire for local autonomy has its challenges.

“I pride myself in knowing the name of every single partner, which is no mean feat when there are 520 across the firm,” says Morley. “As a leader, it’s important that people feel that you have a personal interest in them and that they’re not just another cog in the machine. This is especially important when you’re working with lawyers.”

Lee Ranson, managing partner at Eversheds, also advocates the benefits of regular one-to-one interaction with partners and others around the firm. He says doing so helps him to get to the bottom of the issues that are concerning lawyers and to encourage them to take a journey with him, rather than “wielding a big management stick”.

Ranson’s guiding principle is that people will follow someone who leads by example and engages in debate at all levels of the firm. “I’ve always been a great believer in being prepared to do anything that you ask of other people. If people see that you are prepared to step out of your own comfort zone, you have a better chance of convincing them it’s the right thing to do as well,” he explains.

Common mistakes

Unfortunately, even with the best intentions, leaders often make mistakes and demonstrate behaviours which erode not only their desire to perform their roles to the best of their abilities, but also the level of support they receive from their partners.

For Michael Shaw, managing partner at Cobbetts, having an inflated view of one’s self-importance is a bad starting point. He describes a poor leader as “anyone who seriously believes the proposition that every great organisation lies in the extended shadow of one great person”.

Another issue is distraction. It’s all too easy for leaders to get drawn into the structural and mechanical aspects of law firm management, such as compliance, monthly figures and other ‘black letter’ management issues. While these areas are important, focusing on them to the exclusion of all else can result in managing partners missing political or people issues elsewhere in the business.

Communication and consistency are also important in leaders. “Anybody who only ever has one tone of voice or style is probably missing out and seen as a little one-dimensional,” offers Jeffery. “Equally, someone who has one face for the powerful equity partners and another for the rest of the firm will ultimately fail to stand the test of time as a widely trusted and respected leader.”

Operating behind closed doors, deliberately miscommunicating information and politicking are equally undesirable leadership traits.

Management consultant Andrew Hedley notes that law firm leaders shouldn’t be ducking issues; they should be addressing them head-on in a fair and transparent way.

There is also a fine line between managing partners who ‘glance over their shoulder’ from time to time, seeking to validate their future role should their leadership come to an end, and those who become protectors of their positions.

“In the best cases, this can be manifested in them perhaps not making brave decisions for the business, for fear that they will undermine their positions,” says Hedley. “At the other end of the scale, it can lead to the ‘kneecapping’ of other potential candidates in order to preserve their roles.”

Effective leadership

Rely on those who care about you at home and at work to keep you grounded and provide honest feedback.
Recognise that you are a role model and behave accordingly.
Be a good listener. Seek out your constituents, listen to what they have to say and maintain open communication channels – this is how you empower people.
Treat everyone equally, as individuals, irrespective of status.
Evaluate your firm’s meeting processes and determine if there is room for improvement, both to improve their effectiveness and increase value for attendees.
Build a strong leadership team, with people who are on the same wavelength. You can be as skilled as you like, but, if the management team is dysfunctional, it will rip the firm apart.
Be yourself. People will soon see through a leader who is trying to be something he’s not.
Accept that you are human – you are not infallible.
Stay grounded and avoid becoming grand or remote.

Don’t

Ask anyone to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself.
Impose too much change at once – it’s better to embed one major change than to achieve partial success in numerous areas.
Seek to emulate the success of other firms – remain true to your own vision.
Expect praise when things go well. Criticism is the award of action and if you’re seeking recognition, then you’re in the wrong job.

Note: Thanks to Tim Aspinall, Simon Beswick, Ian Jeffery, Pascal Lagoutte, David Morley, Michael Shaw and Julious P. Smith Jr.

Adaptive leadership

Law firm leaders are facing up to the difficult market ahead. Those who have recognised the need for evolutionary – but not necessarily revolutionary – change are more likely to lead their firms towards a sustainable and profitable practice.

“We must all develop, all of the time – standing still is a step backwards,” says Simon Beswick, managing partner at Osborne Clarke. “We must constantly change what we do and how we do it. The successful law firm of the future will be very different to today’s models.”

Morley has experienced both the positive and negative effects of that changing environment, having managed Allen & Overy through a comprehensive restructuring in the wake of the recession – something that neither he nor the partnership had experienced previously.

The firm subsequently decided to target high-growth markets and to open an office in Australia, following a 48-hour discussion. “It was a situation where we had to act quickly or the opportunity would evaporate; it also had to be done in great secrecy,” reflects Morley.

“While we took the decision as a leadership team, it was ultimately my responsibility to make the call – and we had to advance the decision-making process at an unusually rapid rate.”

Different challenges require different approaches in responding to various management scenarios. Every law firm leader has a preferred leadership style and works within a different partnership culture.

However, Smith notes, this all pales in significance to having the entire firm on board with the leader’s vision. “As the old saying goes, they can love me, respect me or fear me, but as long as they follow me, it doesn’t matter,” he suggests.

Are you confidant that your firm will follow you?

Lessons from the top

“When I started, I was advised that I should communicate key messages three times and in different ways. That was helpful but, if anything, underestimated how many times key messages would need to be communicated by a factor of two or three.”

– Simon Beswick, Managing Partner, Osborne Clarke

“Be honest with yourself and everybody else. Usually, where I got in trouble was when I tried to sugar coat something to make it an easier message. Ultimately, you will find people will appreciate it more if you tell them exactly where they stand.”

– Julious P. Smith Jr, Chairman Emeritus, Williams Mullen

“New leaders might find that their early ideas or proposals are not opposed, or are met with a lukewarm measure of agreement and not followed up throughout the business. Encourage debate, even discord; work hard for partner buy-in. It’s only when you achieve a deeper, more certain consensus that you’re able to move things on quickly.”

– Ian Jeffery, Managing Partner, Lewis Silkin

“I’ve never heard any leader say that they wish they’d made a decision later. Your gut instinct often tells you the answer. You may need to verify this, but do it sooner rather than later – things don’t get better with time. Make the decision and move on.”

– Tim Aspinall, Managing Partner, DMH Stallard

“I learnt early on that changes that are logical, sensible and rational to undertake as a business aren’t always the right things to do. You have to balance them against your people’s sense of self-worth. Sometimes, relatively small things are massively important to their perception of status and are not worth messing around with.”

– David Morley, Worldwide Senior Partner, Allen & Overy

“A famous football manager once talked about having a cup of tea before making difficult decisions. Don’t react with a kneejerk response. Take time out, reflect and think about the wider ramifications and your ongoing strategy. This is worth its weight in gold.”

– Lee Ranson, Managing Partner, Eversheds

“Don’t compromise your values even for the sake of monetary gain, which will quickly prove to be illusory. Any business needs the right people doing the right things. Respect is a far greater prize than popularity.”

– Michael Shaw, Managing Partner, Cobbetts