Law Firm Lessons from the Court

Published May 6, 2008

During the “March Madness” of the NCAA college basketball tourney, I had the privilege of watching my alma mater UCLA play in two games. One was a victory—a tough, close game against Texas A&M. The other, with a berth in the championship game on the line, was a loss to Memphis. Results aside, the games were an opportunity to watch talented performers in action and draw lessons from their achievement. And those lessons are directly relevant to another group of talented performers in a tough competitive environment—lawyers.

In its victory, UCLA prevailed even though the team played one of its worst games of the year. The players had the mental toughness to stay in the game and grind out a win. For me, it was reminiscent of a discussion I had recently with a client who asked me to do a profitability analysis of her firm. She and her partner believed that the expenses of their small firm were too high. My review of the data indicated changes that could be made in how certain expenses were accounted for, but more importantly, the review showed that the firm was in sound financial shape. The lawyers needed more revenue, and had the resources to pursue it. I believed that my recasting of their expenses would help instill in them the confidence that they are not in terrible shape and that they could succeed. That kind of confidence provides the mental toughness to continue seeking the appropriate client base to generate increased revenue. Looking at the data positively removed the fear of failure and created confidence in success.

In its loss, UCLA’s opponent played about as well as they could, and UCLA didn’t. Successful basketball, like a successful legal practice, is a team effort—if the team isn’t firing on all cylinders, it too often tries to overcompensate, and gets away from what made it successful. People no longer play their true roles.

In a law firm, you cannot profit and you cannot grow unless you have skilled visionaries and lawyers who are rainmakers. You cannot grow and continue to increase profits unless you work as a team, share client information, legal expertise, and legal knowledge with all the other lawyers in the firm. Some firms grow even to several hundred lawyers, but continue to limit rainmaking to a few stars. These law firms generally face collapse when those few rainmakers retire or “die in their boots.” Without a succession plan that includes the willingness of the “stars” to share their knowledge and transition their client relationships to others in the firm (the next generation), the entire firm disintegrates when the stars leave.

As in basketball, successful law firms are team efforts…with all cylinders working well, together!

Categorized in: Management

Audience type: Administrators, Associates, Large Law Firms, Small Law Firms, Sole Practitioners