Leadership Development in Law Firms Widely Divergent

Law Firm Inc Magazine published an article on the state  of leadership development training in law firms last month.  In "Reluctant Leaders", (free registration required), reporter Arthur Jones interviews several law firm managers and trainers on the nature of and acceptance of leadership development among law firms.  Programs range from a day and a half to two weeks.  Firms, Jones reports, still haven't figured out how to compensate leaders outside of the billable hour/production model.  Skilled lawyer-leaders are in high demand within law firms, as well as in law departments. 

Motivation to be a leader is critical:

"Hildebrandt consultant Larry Richard, who is a Ph.D. psychologist and a J.D. [see "The Full Program," below], focuses on lawyer/leader development for Dechert, a 17-office international law firm. He works on "skills to make lawyers more effective managing partners and practice group heads," he says. Richard says the first thing he looks for are lawyers who really want to lead. "Research tells us that people who genuinely want to be leaders make the best leaders," he says.

Next, says Richard, the would-be top managers must learn the "leader behaviors" that make them effective. And that means "attending a leadership boot camp, a didactic program that teaches partners the fundamentals of what makes leaders effective in a law firm," Richard says. "The key quality is motivation."