The Law Firm of the Future
Our popular MPF Webinar Series - “The Law Firm of the Future” - is presented on the third Wednesday of the month to help firm leaders look beyond COVID-19 toward a long-term, proactive, forward-thinking, and strategic approach to the firm and the practice of law. These 60-minute Webinars are complimentary for our readers. The on-demand recordings and handout mateirals are listed below.
____________________________________
What Law Firm Leaders Need to Know about AI and ChatGPT ** NEW **
By MPF with Rosanna Berardi and Tony DeSimone
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on August 16th
We thank our guest speakers Rosanna Berardi, Esq., Managing Partner of Berardi Immigration Law; and Anthony DeSimone, President of YEN LLC. We had a great conversation with practical advice and guidance provided. Here are a few topics we discussed:
- AI's Impact on the Legal Industry
- Lean, Learn, Get Ahead of the Curve
- Tony’s Cheat Sheet RE: Bard, Bing, Chat
- Training Your People, both lawyers and staff
- Adopting Firm Policy
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
Click here for Highlights and Recap by 9Sail.
____________________________________
The Rise of the Law Firm C-Suite:
The Importance of Data in Law Firm Management
By MPF with Julie Boehme, Rebecca Goodman-Stephens and David Schaefer
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on July 19th
Among other things, we discussed the importance of metrics and KPIs to the business and practice of law, and the future of data analytics in the legal industry. As always, we collect and share current benchmarking data.
Our guest speakers were Julie Boehme, Chief Operating Officer of Bernstein Shur; Rebecca Goodman-Stephens, Chief Executive Officer of Moses Singer; and David Schaefer, Managing Director of Calibrate.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
Click here for Highlights and Recap by 9Sail.
____________________________________
What Every Managing Partner Needs to Know
About Marketing and Business Development
By Managing Partner Forum with Roy Sexton, Susan Slifer and Lee Watts
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on Wednesday June 21st
Fresh off the LMA’s Annual Conference in Hollywood, Florida, we invited Roy E. Sexton, President of the Legal Marketing Association and Director of Marketing of Clark Hill; Susan Slifer, Principal of Edge International; and Lee Watts, Founder/CEO of Ashby & Co. Consulting, to share the latest trends and developments. Here are a few things we learned:
- Less than ten percent (10%) of firms regularly solicit client feedback. This is low-hanging fruit, and there are plenty of ways to go about it.
- Sixty-eight percent (68%) of firms say they provide business development training for lawyers. Only nine percent (9%) include staff. We think you should include everybody at your firm in business development training.
- Fifty-nine percent (59%) of firm leaders say that their firms track marketing/business development time. Twenty-six percent (26%) say that it matters. We say track it and reward it. You get what you pay for.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Improving your Firm's Profitability:
What Every Managing Partner Needs to Know About Expense Right-Sizing
By Managing Partner Forum with Bill Meck and Rob Mattern
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on Wednesday, May 17th
We discussed how to improve your firm’s bottom line through a strategic approach to expense management. One hundred and forty-eight (148) managing partners and firm leaders participated, and we learned the following:
- Forty percent (40%) of firm leaders reported that Total Firm Profitability is "up" this year, compared to 2022. Forty percent (40%) said it was "about the same."
- Fifty-six percent (56%) said that Associate Salaries are the fastest growing expense category at their firms.
- Ninety three percent (93%) reported that their firms have Raised Rates in 2023 to improve the bottom line.
- Sixty-six percent (66%) told us that they are focusing on Expense Management "more than usual" in 2023.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Winning the Law Firm Merger/Acquisition Game
By Managing Partner Forum with Corey Castillo, Roger Hayse and Alex Muñoz
An MPF Webinar Orginally Broadcast on Wednesday, March 15th
The live session was held on Wednesday, March 15th, and our guest panelists were Corey Castillo, Roger Hayse, and Alex Muñoz. Eighty-eighty (88) law firm leaders participated, and here are some of the things we learned.
- Fifty-seven percent (57%) observe an uptick in merger/acquisition activity in their regions
- Eighty-one percent (81%) say their firms are in growth mode, and seek to acquire smaller firms/practice groups
- Forty-five percent (45%) say growth is driven by a "written" or "adopted" firm strategic plan
- Fifty percent (50%) say cultural fit is the biggest concern assessing opportunities
These popular programs are complimentary for our readers. Participants value the fast pace, the interactive format, and the timely bench-marking data we share.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
MPF UPDATE:
The Movement toward Law Firm Ownership Reform in Arizona and Utah
By Managing Partner Forum with Whitney Cunningham and Carson Pearson
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on Wednesday, February 15th
During the session, we asked Whitney and Carson to provide an overview of the reform efforts in their jurisdictions, discuss how law firms have responded, and share what their firms are doing in light of regulatory reforms. Eighty-five (85) managing partners and firm leaders participated in the live session, and here are a few things we learned via surveys and live audience polling:
- Ninety-four percent (94%) of participants think the legal profession is not doing a good job educating society-at-large about the law and the legal profession.
- Sixty percent (60%) of participants said that access to capital is important for their firms.
- Fifty percent (50%) of participants think that technology companies are a competitive threat to their firms.
- Seventy percent (70%) favor Multi-Disciplinary Practices ( MDPs) and Alternative Business Structures (ABSs). Fifteen percent (15%) are strongly opposed.
This session offers an interesting and thought-provoking conversation with two firm leaders on the front line of regulatory reforms in the legal profession.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
BIG BOLD Predictions for 2023
By Managing Partner Forum with Uri Gutfreund and John Remsen, Jr.
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on Wednesday, January 18th
Drawing on insights and perspectives from managing partners and law firm leaders from across the US and Canada, Uri Gutfreund and John Remsen Jr. presented their BIG BOLD predictions for the legal profession in 2023.
As always, the session was fast-paced, entertaining and featured plenty of current survey and benchmarking data.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Should Your Law Firm Apply for Employee Retention Tax Credits?
By Managing Partner Forum with Lance Einstein
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on Wednesday, November 16th
You may have noticed lots of scams regarding this program, and we invited Lance G. Einstein, Esq., Co-managing Partner and Tax Partner at MendenFreiman, to sort things out for leaders of smaller and midsized law firms.
As always, we generate timely and relevant survey data on our topic and, among the questions we asked our participants was:
“Does Your Firm Plan to Raise Rates in 2023?”
- Twenty-four percent (24%) of participating firm leaders said their firms plan to increase rates by 10% or more.
- Forty-one percent (41%) said they were raising rates by 5-9% on average per time-keeper.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Best Practices in Business Development:
What Firm Leaders Can Do to Develop Lawyers into Rainmakers
By Managing Partner Forum with Josh Driskell, Corey Castillo and David Freeman
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on Wednesday, October 12th
Becoming a rainmaker is tough! It is the rare few who are blessed with inheriting a great book of business. The rest must figure it out the hard way....or they can learn shortcuts from the masters.
We invited David Freeman, JD, Founder of Lawyer BookBuilder; Joshua Driskell, Esq., Managing Partner of Lagerlof LLP; and Corey Castillo, COO of Lagerlof LLP, to share secrets used by top rainmakers for building great books of business. We discussed how leaders can guide their lawyers to use winning techniques for personal branding, building great networks (both internally and externally), delivering “wow” levels of service, increasing cross-selling, getting and maximizing client meetings, staying top-of-mind, etc.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Trends and Best Practices:
Hybrid Workplace Models at Smaller and Midsize Law Firms
by Managing Partner Forum with Sherry Cushman
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on July 20, 2022
The "hybrid workplace model" is top-of-mind for many managing partners and law firm leaders. Consequently, we are pleased to share some timely and relevant information on this important and evolving topic.
Here are a few highlights of the session:
- Eighty-five percent (85%) of firm leaders say their firms are more focused on long-term strategy as a result of COVID-19.
- Forty-five percent (45%) of firm leaders report that their firms are committed to and working toward a more hybrid workplace model. An equal percentage are having "lively discussions" at partner meetings about the issue.
- Thirteen percent (13%) say they have their remote work policies figured out. Seventy-six percent (76%) say they are still working on them.
- Seventy percent (70%) said they were taking a firm-wide approach to remote work policies. Eighteen percent (18%) are taking an ad-hoc approach.
This is a terrific program to share with firm leaders as it provides great insights to determine the best course for your firm.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Preview of the MPF 2022 Leadership Conference
by Managing Partner Forum with Debbie Foster and Gerry Riskin
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on April 20, 2022
As law firms and their leadership teams are grappling with return-to-office policies and hybrid remote workplace models, these will likely be “hot topics” at next week's MPF Leadership Conference. It was also the primary focus of the Webinar.
Here are a few things we learned when it comes to “returning to the office”…
- Fifty-two percent (52%) of participating firm leaders said that the strongest resistance came from support staff.
- Twenty-eight percent (28%) of firm leaders claimed it was partners who were most reluctant to return to the office.
- Twenty percent (20%) of firm leaders named the associates.
- Twenty-three percent (23%) of firm leaders claim to have a formal “wellness” program in place at their firms.
- Twenty-five percent (25%) of firm leaders report that their firms regularly measure employee satisfaction.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
What Managing Partners Need to Know about IT in a Post-Pandemic
World and a Sneak Preview of the ABA TechShow 2022
by Managing Partner Forum with Ivan Hemmans and Morris Tabush
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on February 16, 2022
As always, we conduct surveys among attendees, and here are a few things we learned:
- Managing partners and firm leaders say that more than half – fifty-five percent (55%) of attorneys and sixty percent (60%) of support staff – are working "from the office" on any given day.
- Sixty-seven percent (67%) of managing partners believe that their firms have adequate cyber-security measures in place. Eleven percent (11%) acknowledge that there is work to be done, and twenty-one percent (21%) are not sure.
- Twenty-seven percent (27%) say improved cyber-security measures are the top IT priority for the coming year. Migration to the cloud and software improvements are among other top IT priorities.
- Firm culture and talent retention are top concerns as many law firms contemplate more hybrid workplace models.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
The Impact of COVID on the Legal Profession:
How Smart Law Firm Leaders Are Responding
by Managing Partner Forum with Uri Gutfreund and John Remsen, Jr.
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on January 12, 2022
We presented our first MPF Webinar of the new year (and 26th since we began the series in March 2020). During the 60-minute program, we highlighted lessons learned during five of our most popular Webinars:
- Mitigating the Psychological Impacts of COVID at Your Law Firm
- Law Firm Culture in a Post-Pandemic World
- Trends in Law Firm Compensation Systems
- The Law Firm of the Future: The Managing Partner’s Perspective
- Point/CounterPoint: Should We Bring Everybody Back to the Office or Rethink Our Workplace Model?
As well, we surveyed participants as they registered and we conducted several live audience polls during the program. Here is some of what we learned:
- Forty percent (40%) of firm leaders reported that their firm’s financial performance was “excellent” in 2021. Forty-five percent (45%) said it was “very good.”
- Associate Retention is the number #1 priority facing midsize law firms in 2022. It replaces Marketing/Business Development, which has held the top spot for many years.
- Seventy-five percent (75%) of law firm leaders report that Firm Culture is a "high priority" this year.
- Seventy-seven percent (77%) of firm leaders say their firms are moving toward a more "hybrid, flexible workplace model."
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
What Every MP Needs to Know about Information Governance
by MPF with Ella Gower, Andy Hoedt, Rob Mattern and Nathan Curtis
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on December 1, 2021
During the Webinar, we gathered and presented lots of data on our topic, and we learned the following:
- Twenty-seven percent (27%) say their firm's insurance provider is pressing for more attention on this issue. Twenty-four percent (24%) say their clients are pressing. But the real catalyst for better Information Governance is coming from law firm COOs and CIOs say seventy-six percent (76%) of our participants.
- Attorney resistance to change is the #1 hurdle to implementing Information Governance policies.
- Thirty-two percent (32%) of participating firms have formal Information Governance policies in place. Compliance is frequently a challenge.
- Forty-four percent (44%) of firms have record retention schedules in place for both paper and electronic records. Thirty percent (30%) have schedules for paper records only. Twenty five percent (25%) do not have retention schedules in place.
- Eighty-three percent (83%) say Information Governance is an important strategic priority for 2022.
- COVID has accelerated the integration of better technology practices into most mid-sized law firms.
- Recent studies by Deloitte and McKinsey report that organizations embracing "digital transformation" significantly outperform competitors.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
An Introduction to Law Firm Succession Planning
by Managing Partner Forum with Don Mrozek
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on October 13, 2021
Our guest speaker was Donald L. Mrozek, Esq., Chair Emeritus and Chair of the Professional Services Practice Group at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP. One-hundred fifteen (115) managing partners and firm leaders participated in the live session, and here a few interesting data points we gathered:
- Twelve percent (12%) of firm leaders report to have a "clearly articulated" succession plan in place at their firms
- Sixty-five percent (65%) say their firms are doing a "fair" or "poor" job identifying and grooming future firm leaders
- Twenty-one percent (21%) have mandatory de-equitization provisions in their firm's partnership agreements
In recent years, we have observed that "succession planning" is emerging as a top priority for many smaller and midsize law firms. Clearly, there are opportunities for most firms to improve as they look to the future and seek to implement strategies and initiatives to assure smooth and successful transition.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____________________________________
Trends in Law Firm Compensation Systems
by Managing Partner Forum with Uri Gutfreund and John Remsen, Jr.
An MPF Webinar Originally Broadcast on September 1, 2021
Law firm leaders crave timely, relevant data about industry trends and how other firms do things, so on this edition we presented a change of pace from our usual program format with two or three guest speakers. Rather, we asked 20 rapid-fire live audience polling questions. Here is a sampling of what we learned:
- Thirty-two percent (32%) of firm leaders report that their firms have made significant changes to their compensation systems in the past five years.
- Sixty-two percent (62%) of firm leaders describe their firms’ compensation systems as “mostly objective,” with thirty-eight percent (38%) heavy on “collections” and twenty-four percent (24%) heavy on “origination credit.”
- Forty-five percent (45%) report a trend toward “more objectivity” in their systems in recent years.
- Forty-one percent (41%) say their compensation process are trending toward "more transparency” in recent years.
- Firms are trending away from “seniority” as factor and assigning more weight for “firm-building” contributions.
- Most firm leaders (53%) report a multiple of three-four between the lowest and highest compensated equity partner.
- Thirty percent (30%) say that top performers are undercompensated.
- Seventy-two percent (72%) say that chronic underperformers are overcompensated.
If compensation is on the agenda at your firm’s leadership meetings, this is good stuff to share.
Click here for On-Demand Webinar.
Click here for Handout Materials.
____