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Law Firm Leadership Isn't a Role, It's a Mindset

By Michael A. Gerstenzang and Hy Pomerance
October 01, 2019

At most companies, the leadership structure is typically clear and hierarchical. But what does leadership look like at a law firm when a traditional corporate structure doesn't apply?

The short answer is that firms should expect and encourage leadership from everybody — partners, associates, professional staff — and leadership needs to be a firm-wide mindset that's aligned with both culture and business strategy.

Leadership in a flatter, more project-oriented law firm context can't be one partner asserting authority over others in a static bureaucratic or hierarchical structure. Instead, a distributed leadership model should be built into how a firm operates and how lawyers and staff work with each other. When everyone is given the opportunity to learn and demonstrate leadership, it allows them to take full responsibility for moving the firm forward, creates an overall environment in which the default is to support colleagues, and makes it easier to always put the clients' needs at the center of decision-making.

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