E-MAGAZINES:
E-BOOKS:
MANAGEMENT:
STRATEGY:
MARKETING:
SPECIAL ADVISORY ARTICLES
CORPORATE COUNSEL
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The Challenge of Sharing Leadership
In November 2010, I surveyed and heard from 92 law firms on this and other issues related to firm leadership. My research was a repeat of a survey I conducted six years earlier. The most striking difference between the two was the time dedicated to full-time management of the firm. In 2004, 24 percent reported managing their firms on a full-time basis. By late 2010, only 9 percent claimed that their management/leadership roles were full-time. All indications are that this decrease in full-time effort is one consequence of our protracted recessionary conditions. Today, even firm leaders are increasingly sensitive to their partners
seeing them make a billable contribution.
What this seems to be stimulating is a growing trend towards a model of shared leadership – either by having co-managing partners, an Associate Managing Partner role, or a Chief Operating Officer who all continue to practice law, even while having firm leadership responsibilities. This allows each individual to keep his or her hand in the practice and maintain client relationships against that day when they may return to practice full time. Perhaps of equal importance in some firms, it provides a measure of credibility that may be needed in dealing with partners.
Now we face a different challenge!
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Ashridge House 
