Table of Contents
Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Part 1: Role of the Legal COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1: Horses for courses – the spectrum of chief operating officer roles in law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 By Chris Bull, principal, Edge International COO models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Model 1 – “Riding shotgun” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Model 2A and 2B – The chief finance and operating officer . . . . . 9 Model 3 – The internal service and procurement head . . . . . . . . . . 10 Model 4 – The infrastructure head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Model 5 – The shared service head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Model 6 – The practice COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Model 7 – The operational transformation leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The corporate legal operations head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 2: Shaping change: the rise of the COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 By Laura McNair, head of people and operations, Totum Defining leadership – why COOs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Makings of a modern COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Stepping-stones – the business manager role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Structure and remit of the COO role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 What makes a great COO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Recruiting your COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Into the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Writing a COO job description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Chapter 3: The three flavors of law firm COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 By Stephen Allen, chief scout, Trampelpfad, and Mark J. Masson, managing partner, Lotis Blue Consulting Chief operating officers’ changing roles, Role #1: “head of back office” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Role #2: “chief efficiency officer” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Role #3: the strategy driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The empowered client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 When to make a change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Where does a firm go from here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Chapter 4: The role of the chief operating officer in a law firm – post-pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 By James G. Perkins, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves&Savitch LLP Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Pandemic preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 The comforter, managing uncertainty, and a Black Swan event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Strategy and uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Concluding thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chapter 5: Habits – are they your COO superpower or holding your firm back? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 By Paul Bennett, solicitor and partner, Bennett Briegal LLP What is a habit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Habits matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Business habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Your habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 What positive habits should you adopt to discharge your COO duties? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Chapter 6: When a new firm leader takes the reins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 By Patrick J. McKenna, internationally recognized author, lecturer, strategist, and seasoned advisor to the leaders of premier law firms 1. Be clear on the new leader’s specific goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 2. Be honest and candid in identifying those areas that the firm leader may regard as a weakness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 3. Sort out the reporting relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 4. Determine boundaries and division of responsibility . . . . . . . . . . 62 5. Identify expectations and the specific behaviors you want to see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 6. Determine your preferred communications protocols . . . . . . . . . 63 7. The COO needs to know how to best read and interact with the firm leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 8. Determine how you need to operate in order not to undermine each other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The bottom line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Chapter 7: Factors that impede effective firm leader-COO relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 By Patrick J. McKenna, internationally recognized author, lecturer, strategist, and seasoned advisor to the leaders of premier law firms 1. You need to have respect for one another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 2. There should be role clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 3. Have the ability to compromise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4. Provide candid feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 5. Beware of the divide-and-conquer ploy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 6. Poor performance can overwhelm any relationship . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Chapter 8: The COO role in managing profitability and client engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 By Steve Nelson, executive principal, The McCormick Group History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Distinction between internal and external responsibilities . . . . . . . 73 Emphasis on profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Management of key categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Impact of the pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 View of the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Chapter 9: Three roles the COO must play to enable innovation and digital transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 By Kate Boyd, COO, Sente Advisors Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 COO as culture keeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 COO as technical strategist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 COO as metrics maven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Chapter 10: The chief operating officer and the use of data in law firm management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 By David S. Schaefer, managing director, Calibrate Consulting, Inc. Maintaining competitive advantage in a digital market . . . . . . . . . 89 The power of KPIs for law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 What are the right number of KPIs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Presentation of KPIs – dashboards and scorecards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Changes in KPIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 The need for accurate and clean data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Create a data-driven culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 How can you boost data literacy to support your KPI strategy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 The future of data analytics in the legal industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Annex: list of possible KPIs and metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Chapter 11: The New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 By Kiran Scarr, counsel – transformation, Support Legal Limited The emerging dominance of New Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 The business of New Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 The New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 The leadership behaviors of a New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Collaboration for growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Part 2: Interviews with Legal COOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Interview 1: Peter Blair, chief operating officer of Quadrant Chambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Interview 2: Kimberly A. Gardner, chief operating officer of Holland&Knight LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Interview 3: Ricarda Hauke, chief operating officer of Taylor Wessing Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Interview 4: Andrew Keith, chief operations officer of DAC Beachcroft LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Interview 5: Jennifer P. Keller, president and chief operating officer of Baker Donelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Interview 6: Darren Mitchell, chief operating officer of Simmons&Simmons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Interview 7: William Robins, operations and compliance director, Keystone Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159