About the Book
It is a strategic imperative for firms to remain competitive, adaptive, and capable of delivering high-quality legal services in today's complex business environment. Partner performance is a critical issue and will become more so in the coming years as AI threatens to replace or reposition underperforming employees. The dynamic and evolving nature of the legal profession, coupled with external factors such as technology, globalisation, and economic changes, underscores the importance of performance management for law firms.
Managing partner performance: Strategies for transforming underperforming partners takes a comprehensive look at how to improve underperforming partners within the legal profession. It provides insight and practical solutions for law firm leaders committed to revitalising their teams and optimising organisational success. Structured into four parts, the book systematically diagnoses underperformance, its cause and effect, how to deal with underperforming partners, and how to proactively performance manage over the long-term.
From crafting individualised improvement plans to implementing mentoring and coaching programs to unlock untapped potential, the book addresses skill development and continuous professional growth through training, while also emphasising the crucial role of effective communication in improving internal dynamics and client relationships.
Strategic role redefinition is discussed to align partners' strengths with organisational goals, while motivation and engagement strategies offer tools to boost overall job satisfaction. The book tackles interpersonal conflicts through conflict resolution and team dynamics, ensuring a collaborative environment.
Throughout, the importance of accountability and consequences is emphasised, establishing clear expectations and measures for underperformance. The book, enriched with real-world examples and case studies, will appeal to law firm leaders, managing partners and HR professionals. It will equip readers with actionable strategies to transform underperformance into excellence. Managing partner performance: Strategies for transforming underperforming partners fosters a high-performance culture, promoting individual growth and ensuring the enduring success of underperforming partners and the entire legal organisation.
Table of Contents:
PART I: THE CAUSES OF UNDERPERFORMANCE
Chapter 1: What constitutes underperformance?
By Nick Jarrett-Kerr
Chapter 2: Common causes of underperformance
By Patrick McKenna, author, lecturer, strategist, and advisor to the leaders of premier law firms
Chapter 3: Culture mismatch and lateral hires
By Steve Nelson, executive consultant, The McCormick Group
Chapter 4: Performance – a changing landscape
By Joel Barolsky, managing director, Barolsky Advisors
PART II: EFFECTS OF UNDERPERFORMANCE
Chapter 5: The core drivers of burnout and strategies to overcome them
By Paula Davis, founder and CEO of the Stress & Resilience Institute
Chapter 6: Costs to the profession
By Graham Browning, global head of employee relations and people performance, Freshfields
PART III: DEALING WITH PARTNER PERFORMANCE ISSUES
Chapter 7: Performance reviews
By Ray d’Cruz, CEO and co-founder, Performance Leader
Chapter 8: Mentoring and coaching
By Krystal Champlin-Garage, consultant, RJH Consulting and Maverick Coaching Solutions
Chapter 9: The role of wellbeing in promoting performance
By Bree Buchanan, JD, co-founder, Institute for Well-Being in Law and Sr. Advisor, Krill Strategies, LLC
Chapter 10: Remuneration models
By Michael Roch, managing director, MHPR Advisors and head of partnership consulting, Performance Leader
Chapter 11: Global approaches to underperformance
By Jonathan Middleburgh
Chapter 12: When to cut your losses
By Jonathan Middleburgh
Chapter 13: Conflict and claims of unlawful discrimination
PART IV: PROACTIVE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Chapter 14: The importance of clear purpose and strategy
By Nick Jarrett-Kerr
Chapter 15: Cultivating a resilient mindset
By Chetna Bhatt, founder and CEO, Being Lawyers
Chapter 16: Conflict resolution and team dynamics
By Jonathan Middleburgh
Chapter 17: Training and development
By Jonathan Middleburgh
Chapter 18: Accountability and consequences
By Jonathan Watmough
Chapter 19: Technology
Chapter 20: Views from the profession
By Nick Jarrett-Kerr and Jonathan Middleburgh
Review :
It is good to read a comprehensive collection of essays that address from multiple perspectives one of the hardest issues of all: how to undertake highly sensitive and potentially sensitive conversations with senior colleagues… this is an enlightening collection which strikes the appropriate balance between authoritative commentary and sensitivity to its subject-matter; it is a fine stable-mate to the Globe Law and Business list.
Managing Partner Performance: Strategies for Transforming Underperforming Partners was a great joy to read as it provides great insights, contains very clear descriptions of behavior patterns and causes for partners’ underperformance and has many brilliant and practical recommendations to remedy the underperformance and to help struggling partners.
The book is very much directed at firm leaders, and quite rightly so, as many have little or no management training and skills and the book will prove immensely helpful to them. This book is equally helpful to all those partners (whether on equity level or below) and other senior lawyers who are actually struggling. It provides such a wealth of good advice that it may even be used as a “self-help” book.
But there is a third group of people that will actually greatly benefit from perusing this book – anyone in a big law firm with the goal of making partner and having a successful long-term partner career. I would like to recommend this book specifically to this latter group of partners and lawyers. They will find a wealth of information, recommendations, action lists, alternative ways of handling matters, or dealing with issues that will prove invaluable and that I wish had been available both at my transition from senior associate to partner and on moving firms.
While one may find today much help, information, and support on the internet or on social media, it is difficult to find a collection of such high-caliber experts who have authored the 20 chapters of this book and the depth that they provide in each of them. I have rarely read a book on law firms where I was not disappointed by significant parts or where whole chapters did not meet my expectations – this book is one of these rare exceptions where I thoroughly enjoyed each chapter.
I wholeheartedly recommend this book and each of its chapters to anyone interested in the workings of a big law firm.
The nature of our profession has changed a lot over the years. There used to be only one legal framework – partnership – which, whether big or small, was built on trust. Covid and technology made it easier for underperforming fee-earners to ‘fly under the radar’ and avoid supervision. It is more difficult for managing and senior partners to tackle these problems.
Divided into four parts, this book looks at: the causes of underperformance; its effects on the wider firm and others; how to deal with partner performance issues; and how to manage a firm to achieve better performance.
Underperformance, or poor partner performance, is difficult to challenge. Solicitors are often good at advising other people but not so good at managing themselves. Underperformance is not only about poor profitability, but also risks when cases go wrong or when incorrect decisions are made.
This book is very good at encouraging us to analyse these issues and to do something positive to confront them. The writers encourage firms to look at the whole picture and possible causes of problems without being judgemental.
The challenges and advantages of partnerships are nicely summed up: ‘Finding the right balance between the wants and needs of the individual partner and the wants and needs of the wider partnership and firm is very difficult... yet the concept of partnerships (even if it might be packaged within different legal forms) remains the default choice…’ There is a lot in this practical book that is useful.
