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Leadership Transition in a Law Firm

By William C. Cobb
October 01, 2003

How does a law firm transition leadership from the founders or the current set of leaders to the next generation of leaders? There are three models of transition: King to Prince, CEO with credibility to COO with credibility and accepted founder/leader to people who should become leaders. Obviously the last model is the most difficult to execute. The approach for this transition model is also applicable to the first two. The King to Prince will probably not make the transition because benevolent despotisms crash if the Prince has not gone through a credibility building process. The CEO to the COO assumes the COO has gone through the process outlined below.

Has Leadership Taken a Backseat?

Over the years, I have found that leadership has levels, most of which need to be experienced to produce a successful leader. There are exceptions, but for the most part, leaders have to go through each level. Those who think they have earned the right to be leaders may try to skip a step in the process, but if they don't have the vision and capability to be leaders in the first place, skipping a “learning level of leadership” will backfire. However, there seems to be a lack of leaders in law firms today, creating a need for potential leaders to skip a level. The following is a process for skipping a level without creating a management crisis in the firm.

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