Law Practice Management, 1220 WYBJ, Vol. 43 No. 6. 50

• Position: Vol. 43 6 Pg. 50

Law Practice Management

No. Vol. 43 No. 6 Pg. 50

Wyoming Bar Journal

December, 2020

Passive Management: Is Anyone Actually Steering the Ship?

I have worked with over 1,000 law firms over the years and it certainly seems to me that a number of smaller law firms around the country are being passively managed. Is this a problem? Well yes, it very well could be.

Now I define passive management as reactive decision making or making decisions only when absolutely necessary. Often in such firms the managing partner is serving on a part-time basis without compensation and his or her primary responsibility is to address staff related issues and administrative functions when deemed necessary. The reality is that in a firm being passively managed no true firm leadership exists. From a business perspective, no one is steering the ship.

This seems to be particularly true in smaller firms for any number of reasons. The managing partner may have concerns over how his or her actions may be perceived by the other partners. Such concerns might be a fear of being perceived as playing favorites, as being overly protective, or unduly harsh. Other managers avoid tough decisions altogether perhaps with the naïve hope that the problem will eventually go away if it is ignored long enough. Heaven forbid anyone ever question the propriety of a decision...