Page 47 - Legal Leaders 2018 Master Copy - 9
P. 47
Law Firm Business Strategies
Timothy B. Corcoran1
Principal, Corcoran Consulting
Group
Every successful business must periodically review and adjust its service offerings in
light of changing market dynamics. New entrants pose threats to entrenched players; emerging
technology automates at a low cost what was once a lucrative manual undertaking; and leaders
must engage in continuous game theory, acting and reacting to changing circumstances and
competitors’ moves. In the global legal marketplace, rapid changes have increased the pressure
on law firms and law departments alike to examine what and how they deliver legal services to
clients, and leaders of these organizations must step up their game.
Redefining Strategy
In prior years, with near unlimited
demand for legal services, legal services
strategy required less rigor to identify
new markets and new offerings. For law
firm leaders, strategy was more closely
aligned with branding and positioning —
what do we want to look like in the future
— with the expectation that whatever we
choose to be, we will be. For law
department leaders, strategy often
followed the cadence of corporate
strategy: decentralizing and aligning in-
house counsel with business units one year; centralizing and consolidating legal services the
next; but always with an eye on slowing the growth of overall legal services spending. As a
result, the strategic planning process carried with it an unstated perspective: “We lawyers are
here to stay, for what we offer will always be necessary.” The growth plans that resulted were
quite often tactical in nature.
For law firm leaders, there was little need to engage in an organized process of internal
advocacy, aligning the firm’s capital investments toward the practices, markets, and resources
that generated the best return, for all practices generated increasing revenue year after year.
Indeed, many firms have only recently begun to calculate profit margin at the practice or matter
level, so it was often impossible or highly impractical to measure performance in any way other
1 Timothy B. Corcoran is the principal of Corcoran Consulting Group, LLC and served as the 2014 president of the international Legal
Marketing Association. A former CEO, he specializes in helping law firm and law department leaders adapt and profit during a time of great
change. He authors Corcoran’s Business of Law blog and can be reached at +1.609.557.7311 and tim@corcoranconsultinggroup.com.
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Timothy B. Corcoran1
Principal, Corcoran Consulting
Group
Every successful business must periodically review and adjust its service offerings in
light of changing market dynamics. New entrants pose threats to entrenched players; emerging
technology automates at a low cost what was once a lucrative manual undertaking; and leaders
must engage in continuous game theory, acting and reacting to changing circumstances and
competitors’ moves. In the global legal marketplace, rapid changes have increased the pressure
on law firms and law departments alike to examine what and how they deliver legal services to
clients, and leaders of these organizations must step up their game.
Redefining Strategy
In prior years, with near unlimited
demand for legal services, legal services
strategy required less rigor to identify
new markets and new offerings. For law
firm leaders, strategy was more closely
aligned with branding and positioning —
what do we want to look like in the future
— with the expectation that whatever we
choose to be, we will be. For law
department leaders, strategy often
followed the cadence of corporate
strategy: decentralizing and aligning in-
house counsel with business units one year; centralizing and consolidating legal services the
next; but always with an eye on slowing the growth of overall legal services spending. As a
result, the strategic planning process carried with it an unstated perspective: “We lawyers are
here to stay, for what we offer will always be necessary.” The growth plans that resulted were
quite often tactical in nature.
For law firm leaders, there was little need to engage in an organized process of internal
advocacy, aligning the firm’s capital investments toward the practices, markets, and resources
that generated the best return, for all practices generated increasing revenue year after year.
Indeed, many firms have only recently begun to calculate profit margin at the practice or matter
level, so it was often impossible or highly impractical to measure performance in any way other
1 Timothy B. Corcoran is the principal of Corcoran Consulting Group, LLC and served as the 2014 president of the international Legal
Marketing Association. A former CEO, he specializes in helping law firm and law department leaders adapt and profit during a time of great
change. He authors Corcoran’s Business of Law blog and can be reached at +1.609.557.7311 and tim@corcoranconsultinggroup.com.
33
