Career Journal: Professional Management

“Of course, it's not just about the numbers,” according to Seth Kraus, EVP and General Counsel at Take-Two Interactive. “I never hire a firm based on price. I am looking for a firm [that] will add value by understanding and empathizing with our business and legal issues. Quality of relationships is everything and, ultimately, pricing takes care of itself.”

Law firms do hire specialists to help them implement best practices and optimize service delivery ' leaders in human resources, knowledge management, technology, finance and marketing. But firms, fixated on finding someone with the right cultural fit, in the end tend to hire talent from other law firms. Or they promote from within, nurturing professionals who joined them early on, and retooling them for a variety of support roles for which they have no formal training. Neither is necessarily the best formula for winning over new clients or maintaining existing ones.

Break from the Pack

A few firms have taken a different approach. Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and McCarthy T'trault LLP, have each hired chief operating officers from outside the industry. Tracie Crook, who joined McCarthy T'trault in August of last year, was the president and chief executive officer of a trust company and before that, a director with TSX Group.

“We've been benchmarking ourselves against other law firms,” Ms. Cook says. “We need to be comparing our customer service, our technology and all our internal processes to best-in-class players in the broader industry.”

Morrison & Foerster, a San-Francisco-based global law firm whose chief operating officer hails from Hewlett Packard, is another firm that has broken the mold. “Hiring talented, intelligent and accomplished individuals, who are not themselves from law firms, represents an opportunity and a challenge,” says the firm's global director of attorney recruiting, Anand David, himself an ex-investment banking and energy sector professional. “We have recognized the positive impact that fresh views and best practices from outside the legal profession have brought to our firm. These individuals have to invest a considerable amount of time and patience in understanding how a law firm works differently than other businesses, and earning the respect necessary to succeeding in the job. Strong support for the firm's senior leadership is integral to this outcome.”

Cast a Wider Net

This is not to say that large firms need to take a chainsaw to their current model. Rather, it means opening up what you might call the hiring aperture to include candidates from other industries, who might bring with them applicable experience and leading-edge skills.

Nicola Dingemans, global chief people officer for Pittsburgh, PA-based law firm Reed Smith, says her firm has been looking for new sources of talent. “Frankly, our clients expect a level of sophistication commensurate with cutting-edge industries outside of legal, so we can't afford to look too narrowly when acquiring talent. Sustaining our best-in-class service delivery standards means we have to put in place a new staff professional development program as well as being creative in on-boarding new talent to maintain our competitive edge.”

Think Added Value

To build deep client relationships, law firms need to be able to support the general counsel's office with whatever comes up. This speaks to the need for leaders who have broad-based business experience.

“Given a choice, we'll favor a firm that can offer services that go beyond basic legal advice and better dovetail with our overall business structure, where legal issues need to be addressed in the context of more complex challenges,” says Martin Guest, Vice-President & Chief Counsel, Individual Wealth Management, Manulife Financial.

Where to Look?

So where should law firms seek out new pools of qualified candidates? They can start by considering their needs in relation to the industries that tend to do each best. Maybe a firm needs a chief marketing officer who can position it as a thought leader, differentiating its brand through published content and industry events? Consider professionals from accounting, public relations or management consulting firms.

A firm wants world-class project management tools and processes? It may want to consider talent from companies building enterprise software solutions. A firm needs someone who can help nurture client relationships for loyalty and growth? A Chief Client Officer or Business Development Executive may be the perfect choice. Professionals from financial services or wealth management may have these skill sets honed.If you need to reduce costs and increase profit, look for a COO or CFO from a corporate environment.

Conclusion

The quickest, most effective way to bring new capabilities to an organization is to bring new talent. There is no shortage of capabilities out there if you look broadly enough.

Carrie Mandel is a Partner and leads the Legal & Compliance Practice at Odgers Berndtson, a global executive search firm. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 1997 and practiced law at Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett and Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler before becoming an executive recruiter. She divides her time between Toronto and New York.

Law firms have a problem. As they merge and grow larger, they need to improve how they serve their clients and how they manage themselves. Their clients compare them with their accountants and consultants ' how they gather and share knowledge, how they set prices, how they manage projects ' and wonder why they lag. Faced with more competitive pricing and the consolidation of many law firms to create larger-scale national and global players, the pressure on infrastructure, processes and talent to support enhanced service delivery is mounting.

“The expectations are clearly higher ' clients are paying more attention to their legal bills,” says David Allgood, EVP and General Counsel of Royal Bank of Canada. “Law firms are trying to better project-manage, but in many cases it's just glorified budgeting.”

The Numbers Are Secondary

“Of course, it's not just about the numbers,” according to Seth Kraus, EVP and General Counsel at Take-Two Interactive. “I never hire a firm based on price. I am looking for a firm [that] will add value by understanding and empathizing with our business and legal issues. Quality of relationships is everything and, ultimately, pricing takes care of itself.”

Law firms do hire specialists to help them implement best practices and optimize service delivery ' leaders in human resources, knowledge management, technology, finance and marketing. But firms, fixated on finding someone with the right cultural fit, in the end tend to hire talent from other law firms. Or they promote from within, nurturing professionals who joined them early on, and retooling them for a variety of support roles for which they have no formal training. Neither is necessarily the best formula for winning over new clients or maintaining existing ones.

Break from the Pack

A few firms have taken a different approach. Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and McCarthy T'trault LLP, have each hired chief operating officers from outside the industry. Tracie Crook, who joined McCarthy T'trault in August of last year, was the president and chief executive officer of a trust company and before that, a director with TSX Group.

“We've been benchmarking ourselves against other law firms,” Ms. Cook says. “We need to be comparing our customer service, our technology and all our internal processes to best-in-class players in the broader industry.”

Morrison & Foerster, a San-Francisco-based global law firm whose chief operating officer hails from Hewlett Packard, is another firm that has broken the mold. “Hiring talented, intelligent and accomplished individuals, who are not themselves from law firms, represents an opportunity and a challenge,” says the firm's global director of attorney recruiting, Anand David, himself an ex-investment banking and energy sector professional. “We have recognized the positive impact that fresh views and best practices from outside the legal profession have brought to our firm. These individuals have to invest a considerable amount of time and patience in understanding how a law firm works differently than other businesses, and earning the respect necessary to succeeding in the job. Strong support for the firm's senior leadership is integral to this outcome.”

Cast a Wider Net

This is not to say that large firms need to take a chainsaw to their current model. Rather, it means opening up what you might call the hiring aperture to include candidates from other industries, who might bring with them applicable experience and leading-edge skills.

Nicola Dingemans, global chief people officer for Pittsburgh, PA-based law firm Reed Smith, says her firm has been looking for new sources of talent. “Frankly, our clients expect a level of sophistication commensurate with cutting-edge industries outside of legal, so we can't afford to look too narrowly when acquiring talent. Sustaining our best-in-class service delivery standards means we have to put in place a new staff professional development program as well as being creative in on-boarding new talent to maintain our competitive edge.”

Think Added Value

To build deep client relationships, law firms need to be able to support the general counsel's office with whatever comes up. This speaks to the need for leaders who have broad-based business experience.

“Given a choice, we'll favor a firm that can offer services that go beyond basic legal advice and better dovetail with our overall business structure, where legal issues need to be addressed in the context of more complex challenges,” says Martin Guest, Vice-President & Chief Counsel, Individual Wealth Management, Manulife Financial.

Where to Look?

So where should law firms seek out new pools of qualified candidates? They can start by considering their needs in relation to the industries that tend to do each best. Maybe a firm needs a chief marketing officer who can position it as a thought leader, differentiating its brand through published content and industry events? Consider professionals from accounting, public relations or management consulting firms.

A firm wants world-class project management tools and processes? It may want to consider talent from companies building enterprise software solutions. A firm needs someone who can help nurture client relationships for loyalty and growth? A Chief Client Officer or Business Development Executive may be the perfect choice. Professionals from financial services or wealth management may have these skill sets honed.If you need to reduce costs and increase profit, look for a COO or CFO from a corporate environment.

Conclusion

The quickest, most effective way to bring new capabilities to an organization is to bring new talent. There is no shortage of capabilities out there if you look broadly enough.

Carrie Mandel is a Partner and leads the Legal & Compliance Practice at Odgers Berndtson, a global executive search firm. She graduated from Harvard Law School in 1997 and practiced law at Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett and Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler before becoming an executive recruiter. She divides her time between Toronto and New York.