Chapter 17 is entirely devoted to lawyers and has a memorable and humiliating opening sentence: “After 25 years of saying that all professions are similar and can learn from each other, I am now ready to make a concession: law firms are different.” The main effect of this difference is that lawyers have difficulty working effectively in groups, which raises the question of whether they can be managed. The importance of the 82% goes far beyond the semantic misunderstanding of the term “multidisciplinary” among lawyers. It showcases the profession`s isolated, lawyer-centric culture at a time when its business clients are digitally transforming. A lawyer-centric mindset undermines the transparent, multidisciplinary, cross-functional collaboration required to meet the needs of digitally mature legal buyers. This requires teamwork within the legal department and beyond. The digital enterprise needs a technology-driven, data-driven, agile, collaborative, customer-centric, multidisciplinary, cross-functional, diverse, skilled and integrated workforce. Its functions and roles are constantly re-evaluated in order to extract innovations that drive impact, efficiency and accessibility for customers. Traditional departmental silos are being replaced by fluid, agile silos that can develop more holistic, data-driven, and innovative solutions to internal operational and customer challenges. This requires teamwork. I doubt that any reader would believe that lawyers as a group are less sensitive to incentives than other types of professionals. In addition, accountants, investment bankers, and management consultants have much better records of collaboration and teamwork. However, when we conclude that poor collaboration between lawyers is the result of poor compensation systems, the question arises, “What is the underlying error?” This article is part of a series written by former Managing Partner of Canada`s leading lawyers Norm Bacal and M.C.
Sungaila, Chair of Appellate Practice at Buchalter, who provide new employees with insight into the environment of large law firms and build a reputation and career outside the law firm. Part 1 is here. This type of integrated and open collaboration is quickly becoming an integral part of customers around the world. Law firms looking to maintain important relationships and win new business must take a team approach to providing legal services – one that brings lawyers, business people and clients together to also contribute to a common goal. The focus should be on results, such as the quality of service provided to clients, rather than billable hours. In this way, companies can increase the value of their work through collaboration. The answer: collaboration. For many, sharing legal trade secrets may seem absurd. But, as the Harvard Law School article: Collaboration in Law Firms – The new wave of customer service points out, “when lawyers work across multiple disciplines, their firms achieve higher margins, clients are more loyal, and individual lawyers are able to charge more for the work they do.” In short, collaboration is the key to success. Strong teamwork in a modern law firm lays the foundation for developing experience, especially in the courtroom. And with experience, assault lawyers not only feel safe when bringing cases to court, they enjoy and thrive in this environment. One of the easiest ways to identify teamwork is through sports.
Most sporting events are played as a team with the aim of winning a match. This goal requires significant teamwork, with players pooling their resources and expertise to play both offensive and defensive roles. The same goes for law firms for bodily injury. Gardner acknowledges that compensation systems “play an enormous role in shaping partner behaviour, and probably explains why some firms are, on average, more cooperative than others” (p. 156). However, it also stresses that remuneration systems cannot explain the great diversity of cooperation within a company. In fact, associates who are identical due to practice area, office location, years outside law school, incoming and outgoing recommendation templates can vary 8-10 times. Corporate and corporate client law is increasingly integrated into the rest of the business world. Forward-thinking companies that position themselves as strategic, full-service consultants will dominate the industry over the next decade.