A thoughtfully informed and well-articulated strategy can be management gold for law firm leaders. You can use a well-crafted strategy and plan to inspire and guide your team, support decision-making and prioritization, help attract, develop, motivate and retain talent for the long term, and optimize your client development efforts and resources … all elements fundamental to building a successful, enduring law firm.

But if your firm does not have an active and relevant plan, or your previous planning efforts are afflicted with SPOTS (strategic-plan-on-the-shelf), starting a planning process can feel daunting and burdensome – the absolute opposite of inspiring and motivating! Even worse, if your firm is experiencing retention, transition or other challenges, planning can feel like an unwelcome defensive reaction rather than an aspirational and energizing path forward.

Our Strategic Advisors have decades of strategic planning, management and operations experience in the law firm environment. We have worked with firms of all sizes and practice focus, some brand new and some with over a century of service to their clients, some experiencing growth and some looking for a reset after a period of challenge or complacency. We do this work because we love seeing the tremendous positive impacts that a great planning process can have for our clients.

Using our trademark “House” Planning model, our Advisors will take your law firm’s leadership through a simple, streamlined process to:

1. Understand your firm’s current strengths and challenges, what has your team motivated or frustrated, which aspects of your firm’s culture are assets, and what might be impacting engagement levels and performance.
2. Articulate a clear, relevant and motivating Vision that captures the best of what your firm aspires to be and provides motivation and focus to your team moving forward.
3. Identify the strategies and priorities that are most fundamental to your firm achieving your Vision.
4. Detail the initiatives, actions and deliverables that you will undertake in the near term to advance those strategies and priorities.
5. Create a reference document that will help keep your team focused and accountable for advancing your most important firm initiatives.

We know that a great planning process is only as good as its implementation. We provide recommendations for plan communication and implementation supports (resources, references and referrals), optional post-plan check-in/update meetings, and ongoing advice in areas such as culture-building projects, associate and staff training, mentorship programs, performance appraisal systems, and many other areas that are often difficult to implement without external support.

Many clients also choose The Lawyer Coach for one-on-one coaching in areas like leadership development, practice management, business development, and succession planning.

For small and mid-sized firms, we also offer a year-long membership program that combines coaching, education, and community support.

We welcome the opportunity to learn about your firm, and to discuss how a planning process might inspire and accelerate positive change!