I am grateful to Adam Smith Esq. who has just posted a detailed consideration of an article of David Maister which has just appeared in the American Lawyer. To view this very important article entitled "Are law firms manageable?", please click here.
In this article, David Maister sets the scene by writing:
" Law firms are different.
The ways of thinking and behaving that help lawyers excel in their profession may be the very things that limit what they can achieve as firms. Management challenges occur not in spite of lawyers’ intelligence and training, but because of them.
Among the ways that legal training and practice keep lawyers from effectively functioning in groups are
- problems with trust;
- difficulties with ideology, values, and principles;
- professional detachment;
- and unusual approaches to decision making."
From my perspective, the crux of the article comes towards the end "If lawyers deal with each other so poorly, why do they do so well financially? My answer is only partly humorous: The greatest advantage lawyers have is that they compete only with other lawyers. If everyone else does things equally poorly, and clients and recruits find little variation between firms, even the most egregious behavior will not lead to a competitive disadvantage."
My view is that with increased globalisation occurring in all legal jurisdictions and now the prospect of non lawyers entering the legal services market, the times of law firms being able to dysfunction in the way that Maister describes and yet make lots of money will soon be over.