Strategic management of the family law practice.

• Author: Bennett, Jesse J., Jr.

This article discusses the fundamental concepts of strategic management and illustrates how they may be successfully applied to the family law practice.

Many family lawyers, myself included, did not go to business school as undergraduates. Perhaps we should have. After entering the practice of law, we were told that law is a "profession," not a business, and that our profession and practice would suffer if we approached our practice from a business perspective. This perspective was understandable in the era (pre-1970s) when the demand for legal services exceeded the supply of lawyers. Ironically, in today's legal economy, where too many lawyers chase too few quality cases, it is this antiquated viewpoint that could in fact be most deadly to the viability of our practice.

Why do some businesses succeed and others fail? Why has Wal-Mart consistently outperformed the retail industry as a whole while K-Mart has struggled? In your own legal community, you may know lawyers of equal ability experiencing radically different levels of success. Strategic management theory argues that the strategies an organization employs have a major impact upon its performance relative to its competitors.

A strategy is simply a specific pattern of decisions or actions that managers take to achieve an organization's goals. Strategic management focuses on long-range planning.

The strategic planning process has five major steps:

1) Establishing strategic vision and mission for the firm;

2) Converting the strategic vision and mission into measurable objectives and performance targets;

3) Developing a strategy to reach those objectives;

4) Executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively;

5) Evaluating performance, reviewing new developments, and taking corrective action.

Developing Strategic Vision and Mission

Most family lawyers practice in small firms. As such, the process of developing a strategic vision is somewhat different than the process undertaken by corporate managers. Before deciding on the firm's vision and mission, the family lawyer must first establish goals and priorities in his or her personal life. We must remember that our law practice exists to serve us, not burden us. If properly managed, our practice can support our families, send our children to college, and provide for our retirement. If improperly managed, it can make us miserable and, ultimately, may fail.

You should ask yourself:

* How much money do I need or want to make?

* How many hours per week do I want to work?

* When do I want to retire?

* What aspects of my current practice do I most enjoy?

* What do I dislike?

Stephen Covey, in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, refers to this process as "beginning with the end in mind." He writes:

[T]he most fundamental application of "begin with the end in mind" is to begin today with the image, picture, or the criterion by which everything else is examined. Each part of your life--today's behavior, tomorrow's behavior, next week's behavior, next month's behavior--can be examined in the context of the whole, of what really matters to you. By keeping that end clearly in mind, you can make certain that whatever you do on any particular day does not violate the criteria you have defined as supremely important, and that each day of your life contributes in a meaningful way to the vision you have for your life as a whole.

Therefore, it is essential that you reflect upon and recognize your personal core values and your personal definition of success before defining the strategic vision for your practice.

The mission statement for your law practice defines the nature of the firm's practice and what the firm is trying to accomplish over the next five to 10 years. The ideal mission statement should answer the following questions: Who is being satisfied by our services? What needs are being satisfied? How are our client's needs being satisfied?

For example, the mission statement for my law practice states: "We seek to provide the highest quality legal representation available in the area of marital and family law (excluding dependency cases) to...