Transforming the Dysfunctional Professional Firm – Part One

Hollywood wants you to think all law firms are finely-tuned machines full of high-energy, good-looking, case-reciting, fast-paced, brilliant lawyers, collegially pursuing justice while making bags of money. Well, it ain’t like that.

At best, a law firm is a happy place where lawyers and their assistants pursue interesting work and make a good living. At worst, they are collections of isolated lawyers ranging across the spectrum from highly competent to frighteningly incompetent, all trying to be all things to all people, working in jealous silos, and scrapping like hyenas over the spoils.

There are, regretfully, as many dysfunctional law firms as there are functional ones. And having spent thirty-seven years collaborating with parallel professions such as accountants, doctors, engineers and realtors, I can say confidently that we lawyers are not alone in our dysfunction, although to be fair, our personalities and training seem to make us more prone. We are, after all, inclined, trained, and paid to be gunslingers.

Almost invariably the roots of dysfunction are few in number and obvious to everyone except those trapped in the unhappy dystopia. At the core, believe it or not, is insecurity, the fear that if you don’t work harder, not smarter, the world will end.

Many, probably most, highly successful professional firms fit into what I call the tribal model, founded by one or two giants who were not only exceptionally gifted, but who also stuck to their knitting. Such luminaries were not only giants in their firms, but leaders in their professions, and with a deep, passionate, almost parental love for those coming up behind them. These were the George Welches, the Gordon Hendersons, and the John Nelligans of the world.

Most unsuccessful firms are some kind of pirate ship, a collectivity of individualists who are shacked up with each other hoping to get more out of the deal than they put in. Dysfunctional firms are notable for their high churn rate, partners and associates coming from and going to other dysfunctional firms in the hope of a better deal, soon to discover that the new idiots are no more to be trusted than the old idiots. Another sure sign of dysfunctionality is the presence of palace politics, huddled closed-door bitch sessions producing more heat than light.

Turning around a dysfunctional firm is never easy and not always successful. It requires, to use a religious term, a repentance for the sins of the past and a wholehearted, unreserved will to follow a new path. And that doesn’t come easily to most of us as professionals, particularly lawyers.

Next week we’ll look at what it takes to turn around a dysfunctional professional firm. Stay tuned!