Walker Clark Worldview

If you have clients with business interests or investments in Africa, Legalbrief Africa is required reading for you.  This detailed and highly informative newsletter is a sponsored initiative of the International Bar Association.

It also serves as an information network for African lawyers and other legal professionals in the fields of the law, human rights, governance, constitutional issues, and legislation.

You can visit the Legalbrief Africa website for more information or to register for their electronic newsletter.

Norman Clark

Prague

Last Friday we launched our new Central Europe Group, to deliver global experience and local expertise to law firms practicing in five dynamic legal markets in Central Europe:  the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

The Central Europe Group originated from suggestions and comments by Walker Clark clients, as well as professional friends in the region, who are seeking a multidisciplinary approach to business strategy, management, and operations, that is not readily available from traditional consulting firms at a reasonable cost.

The Central Europe Group delivers country-specific services in:

• Strategic planning and implementation
• Profitability analysis and improvement
• Establishing clear competitive advantages
• Evaluation of mergers, networks, and other growth opportunities
• Improving the marketing performance of the firm and each of its lawyers
• Building the firm’s national and international visibility
• Law firm governance and partnership structures
• Compensation systems
• Performance management to get the best results from each person in the firm

The Central Europe Group has also published a series of country pages with up-to-date news and analysis of the major business and economic trends affecting the business of law firms in each of the five countries. We are also publishing a series of in-depth Background Papers on each legal market. The first of these, Foundations of the Modern Czech Republic, by Daniel E. Miller, Ph.D., one of the coordinators of the Central Europe Group, was published this past weekend and is available for download from www.walkerclark.com.

If you would like a complementary consultation about how the Central Europe Group can assist your law firm, please contact me by e-mail or by telephone at +1.239.466.8370.

Norman Clark

The Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania has recently published a very interesting article “Family Firms in the Middle East:  The New Rules of Engagement.”

A significant number of Walker Clark clients are “family” law firms in emerging legal markets. We have observed how the strategic management of such a law firm sometimes requires a thoughtful balance between:

• A compelling business need to complete a transition from what has been essentially a “family business” to a modern “institutional” law firm; and
• The continuing strengths provided by close family relationships, “traditional” workplace values, and the visibility and reputation of the family in the legal market and business community.

The Wharton article points out several important changes that family businesses in the Middle East are now undertaking.

• Creation and documentation of a formal system of governance, to replace informal ad hoc decision-making by family members
• Introduction of contemporary management structures, such as management boards, audit boards, and independent advisory boards
• A better definition of the relationship between the family and the business, with a clear segregation of ownership of the business from the operation and management of it

These changes are similar to those that Walker Clark, LLC, has helped family law firms to introduce and manage in emerging legal markets in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. If you practice in a family law firm, the Wharton article could be quick, but interesting and potentially valuable, reading for you and your colleagues.

Norman Clark

I think that it is very appropriate that South America will be the venue for three major international legal management events in the first half of 2010. During the past ten years, Latin American lawyers have emerged as global leaders of the legal profession; and some of  the best-managed, most progressive law firms in the world are based in the region.

Mark these three major events on your calendar, and click on the links for more information:

• Biannual IBA Latin American Forum Regional Conference , 17-19 March 2010, Santiago, Chile - This major international conference is produced by the Latin American Regional Forum of the International Bar Association. It  will include a showcase session on 19 March 2010 dedicated to law firm management issues, including interactive audience polling. I will be co-chairing this session with Jaime Carey, the managing partner of Carey & Companía, one of Chile’s leading law firms.
• Arbitration Practice Management, 12 June 2010, Asunción, Paraguay – This half-day program is produced by CEDEP, on of South America’s leading continuing legal education institutes in association with the Law Firm Management Committee of the International Bar Association. It is a special session of CEDEP’s annual Latin American Arbitration Conference, which attracts leading international lawyers worldwide. I will moderate this session, which will be a roundtable discussion focusing on the special issues in the management of an international arbitration and dispute resolution practice.
• Managing a Modern Law Firm, 14 June 2010, Buenos Aires, Argentina – This one-day conference is produced by the IBA Law Firm Management Committee and the IBA Latin American Regional Forum. It will cover four contemporary challenges for modern law firms: writing and executing a marketing plan; a business approach to law firm strategy; career management of associates; and know-how and knowledge management in a small or midsize law firm. My Walker Clark colleague Fernando Moreno will be one of the panelists during the session on marketing plans; and I will chair the session on law firm strategy.

Although these programs are being held in South America, I recommend them to any lawyer anywhere who is responsible for the management of a law firm or practice group, but especially for those from small and midsize law firms. Each one is also an outstanding networking opportunity, especially for lawyers from North America and Europe who are interested in meeting top lawyers from some of the best law firms in Latin America (and the world).

Norman Clark

In many countries, the legal market that is emerging from the economic crisis of 2008-20?? is one in which some law firms will have to learn to operate in a fundamentally different manner than the short-term focus on high fees and quick profits that characterized the strategies of many of them.

Long-term client relationships have always been important to the legal profession. They are now critical. One of the best proven strategies to build and sustain those relationships has been cross-marketing.

“We know that we should be cross-selling more, but we never can get around to it,”  one law firm partner from the United Kingdom told me recently.

So how do you move your firm’s cross-marketing from something that is a product of unsolicited client kindness and good luck to a regular and ongoing business process in your firm? My colleagues and I recommend four steps, which get good results for our clients:

1. Identify services that other firms are currently providing to the client.
2. Define the competitive advantages that the firm should present to the client with respect to each of those potential new services.
3. Identify the partner or partners who would be most effective participants in the cross-marketing effort.
4. Document a plan to sell the identified services to the client.

Don’t forget or discard the last step. A common characteristic that we have observed in law firms that produce the highest return on their investment in cross-marketing is that they all have — without exception — documented  cross-marketing plans for each of their major clients.

Documentation is the difference between a plan and an aspiration.

Norman Clark

I was recently asked for advice about legal services in Nigeria from an in-house counsel in United States.

“I suppose that I should be thinking about a London firm, shouldn’t I,” she commented.

This is a common assumption that many potential clients and their counsel make when considering an emerging market.  Although many of the leading international firms in the United Kingdom and United States can provide excellent services in Nigeria, a prospective client might not be aware of the capabilities and quality of an emerging group of dynamic Nigerian firms, which can deliver equal or sometimes even better quality to foreign clients at a very reasonable cost, especially when compared to the fees that some foreign firms might charge.

Nigerian lawyers and law firms deservedly rank among the international leaders of the legal profession.  Their leading professional association, the Nigerian Bar Association, is a world-class organization; and Nigerian lawyers usually constitute one of the largest national constituencies at international legal conferences, such as those of the International Bar Association.

My point does not apply only to Nigeria.  When looking for legal counsel for a case or transaction in an emerging market, you should consider the leading international firms, of course, because of their ability to delivery high-quality service almost anywhere.  However, do not overlook the option of direct instructions to a national law firm, which might be able to deliver better results at a better cost.

Consider the international firms, of course.  But do not overlook the leaders in the national legal profession.

Norman Clark