denotes premium content | Aug 20 2008 
Feature
posted 1 Apr 2003 in Volume 5 Issue 10
People and culture
Many law firms are experiencing a period of change. Mergers and alliances continue to dominate the news as firms look for ways to grow their businesses to a new level of global profitability. Even the current economic uncertainty has done little to abate the flow of expansion and many firms have taken the view that recession is a time to be bold, to take new steps and stamp their brand to another office and/or location.
In this new section, Managing Partner looks at an area easily overlooked in the practical necessities of business growth, namely, a law firm’s people and its culture. A law firm’s product lies in the expertise of its people and, for real success, a firm must maximise the potential of individual and collective knowledge by creating a working environment and processes that enable learning and knowledge sharing within a culture of motivation and encouragement.
Equally, in a landscape of mergers and conversely demergers, cultural self-analysis has become an imperative for all law firms looking to successfully join separate entities. Assessments of profit, specialisations and geographical positioning are some of the considerations of a merger proposal, but attempts to collaborate with a firm that has a completely different culture is doomed to failure.
