Forget everything you think you know about law firms

Preface your strategic planning by explicitly rejecting all the accumulated conventions of the law firm model. The (legal) world has changed. Open up your strategic vistas. Prepare to start brand new.

The hardest part of planning for the future is recognizing that the future has already arrived without you noticing.

Twenty years ago, climate scientists were warning us about floods, wildfires, monster hurricanes, once-a-century storms, and other effects of unchecked global warming. That “future” is now our everyday. The same applies to the rise of authoritarianism, the spread of infectious disease, the astonishing ascent of artificial intelligence. What used to be distant possibilities or alarming prophecies are increasingly commonplace. Everything is “unprecedented.” One shock or crisis quickly supplants another. Volatility is the daily norm.

But many of us haven’t adjusted yet. We haven’t recognized and accepted that our long-held assumptions about the world no longer apply, and so we haven’t made the necessary effort to reposition ourselves into the very different world we now inhabit. We keep saying, “This isn’t how it’s supposed to be,” rather than, “This is how things are now. This is the world we live in.”

That’s entirely understandable. It’s asking a lot for people to completely re-appraise their environment and realize that they need to develop new frames of reference. That’s far beyond most people’s reasonable capacity. It takes effort just to think of our “environment” as a separate reality, like the fish in David Foster Wallace’s “What the hell is water?” story. So we cling to the reality we knew, even as it slips farther away.

But that’s where our leaders are supposed to come in. It’s their job to point out and explain how everything is changing, to perceive and describe the contours of our new surroundings, and to help people transition safely from the old world to the new one. And no leader can do that unless and until they themselves break away from all the old assumptions that have previously boxed us in.

It’s pretty unlikely, if you’re reading this, that you’re a political leader or a senior government advisor, and so these geopolitical reflections might not mean much to you. But there’s a good chance that you’re a law firm leader — and if so, you have the same sort of challenge in front of you. You need to recognize and accept that the legal world has changed, that “the future” is now here. Law firms will never again be what they used to be. So now you need to reconsider everything you thought you knew about law firms.

Take these three data points, all from the last few weeks, about the new world of law firms:

• Husch Blackwell’s virtual office “The Link” has grown from 50 legal professionals to 700 in just four years. Lawyers and staff can transition back and forth between The Link and any bricks-and-mortar office — the firm treats both types of locations the same. New associates must work for three years in person before they can join The Link, ensuring their effective onboarding and training.

• Lowenstein Sandler plans to quadruple its productivity but only double its lawyer workforce, and it aims to pull off this magic trick using Generative AI. “Rapid advances in artificial intelligence … would allow firms to do more work with fewer lawyers. A 500-lawyer firm by the end of the decade could have the productive capacity of a firm that’s three or four times larger today.”

• Complete Clarity Solicitors of Scotland has formally adopted a four-day work week, with two-thirds of lawyers and staff working longer hours four days a week. Schedules are arranged to ensure files are staffed every day. Clients do not mind. Revenue has never been higher, and the four-day work week has become “a massive attraction” to job seekers looking for a firm to join.

As recently as 20 years ago, we knew exactly what a law firm was and what it looked like. It was inside a building. There were lawyers in offices every day. They were supported by staff in nearby cubicles. The lawyers worked for clients and billed them for the time consumed. Many lawyers wanted to (and eventually did) become partners. “Partner” meant you owned equity in the firm and brought in clients. None of these things is universally or even broadly true anymore.

Now try to imagine what’s not going to be true of law firms in 10 years’ time. I mean that literally — right now, close your eyes, try to imagine it. Law firms about which nothing can be taken for granted, nothing might be familiar — what would that mean? Open your eyes, go gather your most trusted colleagues, and ask yourselves: “What might no longer be true of law firms in 2035?”

• Will client work still come to the law firm through the personal relationship between a lawyer and a client to whom the lawyer “belongs”?

• Will client tasks still be performed only by lawyers and only by humans, billing their time at hourly rates at the end of each month?

• Will new lawyers still develop knowledge and skills by immersion and osmosis, carrying out basic tasks and getting corrected by older lawyers?

• Will senior partners still presumptively maintain their positions in the firm as long as they like and on whatever terms they wish?

• Will law firms still only perform “legal” work and continue to sidestep broader advisory, risk management, and value creation opportunities?

This is just a starter set of the questions you should ask yourselves. Once you’ve explored these, open up your inquiries to include every facet of your firm. Don’t assume anything! Push aside the invisible guardrails of what’s been done before. Don’t take for granted any “normal” aspect — positive, negative, or neutral — of how your law firm looks and behaves, how it’s constituted, who it serves, who works there, how it creates value, how it competes, how it makes money. It’s all up for grabs.

What I’ve described above is the necessary new precursor to law firm strategic planning. You can’t do that the old way anymore, either. You can no longer assume that everything outside the firm — clients, competitors, talent, the economy — will stand conveniently still while you carve an exciting new path forward. You can’t do the equivalent of “assume a can opener,” conjuring ideal conditions in which your future firm will flourish. All strategic planning must now presume a volatile, high-risk external environment. Firms that don’t understand that will not make it through.

But the real advantage now will belong to those strategic planners ready to go further and question all our assumptions about the law firm itself. You can’t conduct effective strategic planning or future-proofing for your firm unless you first shake yourself loose of every conventional “fact” about what law firms are, what they’re for, and how they operate. Those assumptions have become burdens. They will slow you down and compromise your strategy.

Strategy, I promise you, is not that complicated. It’s about making informed, intentional choices about why you’re here, and then taking steps to implement those choices. It has less to do with your own brilliance and much more to do with your markets, your customers, and your competitors. Lafley and Martin’s Playing To Win is still the quickest and easiest guide to strategic planning:

1. What is our purpose, our winning aspiration?

2. In which specific fields will we aspire to win?

3. How do we plan to win in these fields?

4. What capabilities do we need in order to win?

5. What systems and measures will enable our capabilities?

Take note that none of these questions assumes a physical office or leveraged lawyers or billed hours. By the time you’ve reached the fourth question, you might find that none of these law firm features is necessary or even desirable. So make sure that you’re not carrying these features around with you on this journey — they’re only going to weigh you down and restrict your options when it’s time to make decisions.

Remember that almost every present-day feature of law firms is accidental. Law firms are artifacts of history, business models frozen in amber, increasingly archaic products of a particular era and a particular generation of men that are gone, gone, gone. You don’t have to accept their inheritance. You don’t have to use their blueprints. There is nothing about how law firms are structured that is natural or foreordained. Any limitations on your vision for your law firm are those you bring with you without realizing it.

The future is here, right now — we’re inside it. What we see all around us aren’t exceptions to and variances from the norm — it is the norm. Yeah, that’s kind of frightening — but it’s also pretty damn exhilarating, if you ask me. Because it means we can start fresh. We can write new rules. We have the chance to turn the pages over.

This opportunity has never, ever come to us before. Let’s grab it.