Accountability and law firm leadership (actually, management more accurately describes what goes on at most firms) are words rarely used in the same sentence, paragraph or conversation. I decried the lack of accountability last March in my post, Who Is Accountable For The Lack of Vision?. This morning’s AmLaw Daily contains a wonderful article by my friend Ed Reeser, On Law Firm Leadership and Accountability. It is a must read for every partner in a large law firm. Those who lead the firm (or at least make management decisions) should read it for the challenge it poses to them. The rest of the partners should read it for the novel idea that those who lead actually should be accountable instead of anointed.
Ed comes at this issue with a great deal of credibility, having lead the Los Angeles office of an AmLaw 50 firm. Ed does not suggest that so-called leaders who fail their partners should be booted from their positions. His suggestion is far more reasonable:
The partners, including leaders, should respectfully require ALL persons in positions of leadership at the firm, as a group, to proportionally reduce their compensation in 2009, and again in 2010, by enough to bring all other capital partners to projected partner compensation levels announced at the end of 2008/beginning of 2009, should operating performance not be sufficient to reach those income levels, up to a maximum reduction of 20 percent of compensation for Leadership Partners. A lesser percentage doesn’t have enough incentive, and more seems too great a disincentive to good leaders to step up. Build in incentives for superior performance if necessary….but survival of your firm should be enough for true leaders.
What happens if leaders (self-styled, no doubt) fail or refuse to rally behind an idea like this?
If Leadership Partners cannot, or will not, it tells all of partners something they are better off knowing now, and not later: Whether the leadership of the firm exists to promote the betterment of the firm and the partners, or whether the firm and partners exist to promote the betterment of the Leadership Partners. The process will deliver a budget that will finally confront reality, the first step in developing a business plan that works, and a budget everyone can believe in!
The partners of firms are not getting performance which as shareholders they deserve, and have been promised. Leadership Partners, it is time to lead your people, by walking behind them. This may be the last chance for leaders in many firms to make a right decision.
Real leaders lead from the front. If a firm’s leadership can’t commit to this simple concept, they reveal themselves to be anything but leaders.