Sound strategy starts with having the right goal.
Most firms assess the year behind them and plan for growth in the year ahead. Substantial growth does not happen without goals, and without a strategy that says where the firm is going and how it intends to arrive.
Goals
What are your specific growth goals?
Two of the more common growth goals are market acceleration and service expansion. Market acceleration is the deliberate effort to provide existing services to new clients, as when a labor and employment boutique opens in a new city and takes on clients there. Service expansion is the deliberate effort to provide new services to existing clients, as when a litigation firm hires a transactional lawyer and begins doing that work for the clients it already has.
Strategies
Hiring
Will you need to hire? Partner-level attorneys, associates with a few years behind them, or recent graduates? Each has advantages. Experienced attorneys bring judgment and skill; newer ones bring energy, fresh ideas and fluency with technology. Less experienced lawyers cost less and typically generate less. The answer is often some of each. Clients tend to hire attorneys rather than firms, so the lawyers you bring in, and their ability to build trusted client relationships, will decide much of the growth.
Technology
Where is the firm’s technology? Are you using relationship analytics to see where the client relationships actually stand? Are you using the available tools to raise lawyer productivity? Do you have a social media presence and a content strategy? Is the website usable on a phone? Each of these carries growth with it.
Culture
Where is the firm’s culture? Are your non-legal staff satisfied in the work, or looking? Do the attorneys collaborate, sharing ideas, insight and business development? Do they see each other outside the office? Attorneys who trust one another rather than compete create a culture that attracts clients and lawyers alike, and it shows in revenue and profit.
Client Feedback
Do your attorneys take a genuinely personal approach with clients? Do they seek out feedback, listen to it and act on it? Firms that do tend to retain more of their clients, and small improvements in retention compound quickly in profit. An active client feedback program is a growth strategy in its own right.
Growth begins with knowing where you are going, and then working the strategies that get you there: hiring, technology, culture and client relationships. OnBoard Legal looks for attorneys who understand the technology, build durable client relationships, and fit the culture you have built. Attorneys are more than senior employees. They are the economic engine of a law firm. Contact us.