Leadership for Lawyers

More Law Firms Launch Leadership Programs

Reporter Gina Passarella of The Legal Intelligencer reports on the law firm of Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young's new Leadership Development Program in her article, Leadership Programs Born From Lack of Born Leaders .   What do you think?  What is the best way to provide leadership training for lawyers?

Cordell Parvin Launches BD Blog

Cordell Parvin, a former construction lawyer for the Texas firm Jenkins & Gilchrist, has started a second career as a business development trainer and coach.  His blog, www.lawconsultingblog.com, tells stories of his clients' success and gives a number of business development tips. 

Leadership Development for Lawyers

Several legal marketers have been discussing leadership development on its list serve.  Here is my response to one member's question about starting a leadership development program in their firm:

Thank you for launching a discussion topic that is close to my heart.  I've been working with law and architectural firms for almost 20 years.  These professionals are smart, energetic, creative, insightful and mostly great people.  They come up with great ideas and aggressive plans.  Why, then, do so many practice groups, regional offices, and task forces struggle with getting things done?  Was is just that they are compensated and rewarded for billing hours?  Can it be that firms are really just lawyer-hotels with portable practices?  Why is that a few groups and offices grew smartly and rapidly, but other wobbled along, struggling to replace the associates or partners that have left?  Why does the conversation almost always go silent this time of year when firm leaders ask, "So, who should we choose as the next leader for XYZ practice group?"

My conclusion is that it comes down to leadership.  About 5% of lawyers in firm management have developed adequate leadership skills.  Their skills are often recognized and they serve in some sort of practice group, office or firm management role.  Unfortunately, we need more than 5% to grow the many practice, industry and client teams prevalent in large firms.   --more --

Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast

A few weeks ago I discussed lawyer ranking websites, along with Lawdragon.com founder Katrina Dewey and legal ethicist Ben Cowgill.  The conversation was moderated by host Robert Ambrogi, co-author of Legal Blogwatch.   You can listen to the show at Lawyer2Lawyer, or download the MP3 here.