Law Firm Partners

Rethinking Sales As an Act of Service

Lawyers are one of only a handful of professionals whose job requires them both to do the work and generate the business. This “Doer-Seller” Dilemma is particularly vexing for lawyers because of a long-held belief that sales is somehow beneath the legal profession and because lawyers have a limited view of what successful selling looks like.

Being asked to join the partnership of a firm is a measure of success as a legal professional. With that achievement comes tax and financial responsibilities that, surprisingly, few attorneys are fully prepared to deal with. These responsibilities include the unexpected individual federal and state and local tax filing and payments.

Strengthening Cultural Expectations Is Key

Client relationship succession planning is a top concern among law firm leaders. Firms of all stripes frequently develop goals in their strategic plans to facilitate more effective client relationship transitions. However, there is room for many firms to take a more formal and proactive approach to effectively transition client relationships across generations.

Entertainment practices with well-known clients are in high demand in the Los Angeles legal market, leading to a spate of lateral hires among American Lawyer 200 firms in the latter part of 2018.

An Astute Lawyer-Manager Must Achieve the Appropriate Balance of Building Consensus Among the Partners Applying management techniques to practice areas may introduce to the firm a new take on methods for enhancing profitability.

More Law Firms Are Paving the Path to Partner, But What Happens Once One Gets There Is Less Than Certain

In some ways, the country's most recently promoted partners are more prepared than ever to take on their new roles. But the change still comes with its surprises.

A rundown of the top items lawyers should have on their financial checklists, based on their career stage.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act made significant changes to certain Internal Revenue Code provisions dealing with highly compensated employees. Among these are restrictions (in the form of excise taxes) on compensation of certain highly paid employees of “applicable tax-exempt organizations.”