Ask the authorities.

• Author: Hirsch, Stewart

THE QUESTION

"Our firm is seeing fewer cases and deals, and we're watching work go back in-house as our lawyers are being poached by clients. Firm management asked me what our marketing department can do to replace the lost business and get more. I think we need to make major changes, but I doubt they will agree, and they may just shoot the messenger. Suggestions?"

Alina Gorokhovsky

The "it is not 'us,' it is the 'industry'" complaint won't lead to solutions or better outcomes. Your firm has to look at itself. with firm management, start with a client audit and a cultural assessment. Look at the five-year history of your top 100 clients and identify exactly why the firm is seeing fewer matters. Determine why clients retain your firm and why they don't.

Also, look internally to figure out why lawyers are leaving. Do you have a cultural erosion problem? Not enough opportunities? A broken compensation system?

Armed with client profiles and culture data, continue to work with firm management on basic business planning, including a SWOT analysis. Further, a need to understand your clients better may lead to a new client interview program, client teams, BD teams or other targeted collaborative campaigns.

If you include the partners and management in the process and all of you work together on a re-invention strategy and a business plan that defines the firm's future success, they will not shoot the messenger.

Alina Gorokhovsky, a partner in RCT Partners, advises driving law firm strategy, using big data and predictive analysis. She was recently chief strategy officer of McKenna Long & Aldridge.

Catherine Alman MacDonagh

First, clarify roles. Marketing department: develops strategies that 1) identify and address the root causes of the problems and 2) delivers the greatest benefits. Firm management: ensures there are good processes for 1) selecting and approving the strategies, 2) delivering good resource planning and allocation, and 3) providing support.

Next, combine process improvement (PI) and project management (PM) for a disciplined approach that provides structure for success. Start by carefully defining the problems. Develop a business case and get agreement about the scope and magnitude of the situation. Gather data, then translate it into information. Conduct a thorough analysis to understand all the reasons lawyers have left and why cases/deals are declining. Synthesize this into specific and overall data points. Create graphical...