Reservoir of trust: Build trust and confidence in your leadership

Key takeaway points:

1. Break down silos and share information. Structure teams and communication systems so that knowledge can flow.

2. Connect people to the firm’s leadership. Be open and authentic in all communications and be available and responsive. People need to feel they are a part of what is happening, not that something is happening to them.

3. Be principled and consistent in making decisions that are in the best interests of the firm. Avoid making exceptions or giving special treatment.

4. Do not try to be all things to all people. Know your firm’s focus and strengths.

 

In 2006, I stepped into the leadership ?of a law firm that had a new name, ?an expanded geographic footprint, ?and a mix of lawyers adjusting to a ?new partnership.

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman was the product of two successive mergers in 2001 and 2005. The mergers created a greatly strengthened United States platform with global reach.

Our immediate challenge was to integrate the formerly independent firms and tap into the newly-created synergies. We were figuring out how to foster the collegiality of a partnership within a worldwide organisation and were purposeful about making decisions that would position the firm for long-term success.

The measures we took as a merged firm helped us to weather the financial crisis. When the storm hit, we were a much more transparent, fiscally strong firm. Our partners were aligned and part of the firm’s direction. Not only were we equipped to withstand the shocks of the downturn, but we emerged stronger.

Building trust, inspiring confidence and elevating performance have been our guiding principles. We have cultivated an open, collaborative and dynamic firm by:

• integrating people, practices and offices into a single firm;

• connecting people to the firm’s leadership and direction; and

• bringing transparency into operations and consistency to decision-making.?

When a firm has these things in place, it is easier for the leadership to implement strategy and for lawyers to focus on their practices and clients.

The past four years have been transformational for the world, and no less so for the legal industry. It is no longer enough to have great clients and great lawyers – the recent demise of some prestigious and eminent law firms has demonstrated this. A winning formula requires more.

Warren Buffet once said that, when the tide goes out, you learn who is swimming naked. For Pillsbury, the downturn was a true test of the choices we made and the culture we had in place long before the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Strategic industry focus

As we sought unity within our partnership, we knew we could not be all things to all people. Our answer was to focus on key industries and to choose them in a purposeful way. We looked at client ?needs, the strengths of the firm and the industries that would be the drivers of the global economy.

The result is our sector focus on four ?core industries: ?

1. energy and natural resources;

2. financial services;

3. technology; and

4. real estate and construction. ?

By sharply narrowing our focus, we ensured that no single region, practice or office was dominant, which in turn broke down silos and encouraged multidisciplinary and multi-office teams.

As we sharpened our strategic industry focus, we also pursued a client service strategy oriented around client teams. From our first-year lawyers to our senior partners, all Pillsbury lawyers belong to both a practice section and one or ?more of our 42 client teams. The ?teams serve a range of clients, from ?the most longstanding to the fastest growing, and allow us to better ?coordinate our efforts to provide responsive client service.

The vast majority of our lawyers are ?in the United States, but nearly a quarter of our revenues come from serving clients outside the United States. We have a Japan practice, a China practice and a Middle East practice, each comprised ?of lawyers in offices and practices ?across the firm.

A client relationship is not constrained to one lawyer, practice or office. A lawyer in Houston can work with a lawyer in London on an energy infrastructure project in Central Asia for a Japan-based client. A financial services client can instruct us for a complicated structured financing while we handle its global IP portfolio or manage a business process outsourcing arrangement.

Taking the industry focus and client focus a step further, we built multidisciplinary teams around emerging trends. These teams anticipate the risks and opportunities around the corner ?– what keeps a client up at night or ?what will give them an advantage in the next month or next year.

Today, we have six firmwide multidisciplinary teams devoted to emerging areas in which clients have or ?will have needs and where, by virtue of ?our strength and experience, we can be market leading.

In fact, we are not afraid to jump on issues before we have sizable work. Our two newest teams, water resources and public-private partnerships, are set to take off, driven in great part by the growing scarcity of water and the tightening of government budgets.

The success of our other teams – including privacy and data protection, crisis management, clean technology and social media – shows that when you build teams at the right time and devote resources to aggregating your expertise, the work will follow.

Our crisis management team was only launched two years ago and is now in strong demand. Clients are proactively putting in place crisis response protocols and our lawyers have been called on for industrial accidents, data breaches and criminal and regulatory investigations.

Building confidence

In my first year as firm chair, every decision management made was widely questioned. We needed to inspire confidence in the ?firm so that lawyers could focus on clients and collaboration.

I place great importance on internal communications. Successful integration works in an environment of open and authentic communication. That tone is set at the top, by putting in place channels that connect people to leadership and to the firm’s success. People need to feel that they are a part of what is happening, and not feel that things are happening to them.

We have a disciplined internal communications programme. I send emails each week to partners on Monday, associates on Tuesday, staff on Wednesday, practice section leaders on Thursday and the firm’s board on Friday.

I travel to a different office each week. My travel calendar is posted on the firm’s intranet and my door is always open. Members of my executive team, the chief operating officer and the chief human resources officer visit each office twice a year to meet with lawyers and staff for lively and candid discussions.

When you have a protocol for open communication, it allows for a much smoother experience when executing big changes. Our decision to open a new operations centre in Nashville, Tennessee is just one example. The centre is the headquarters for the firm’s support services, optimising efficiency and supporting our lawyers around the world.

It is not all transmit and no receipt: we are looking to engage people. If you find people who are bright, ambitious and forward-thinking and give them a growth opportunity – even if it is before they are quite ready – they will rise to the challenge.

For example, a component of our succession planning has been to engage partners who are early in their careers in the direction of the firm. We have identified partners who we want to take a greater role in client relationships and in building a profile for themselves and the firm. The programme is board approved and has its own budget and director.

Also in play are efforts to connect associates to the firm. We have set up an online chatroom where they ask questions (anonymously if preferred) and I answer them in real time. This year, we followed up with ‘future forums’ – associate-led dialogues, held in each office, discussing how they can take a greater role in the firm’s future and how the firm can support their greater engagement.

Equal if not more energy goes into connecting with clients. Many firms talk about client focus or being client-centric, but we live it. In early 2009, we launched a call to action, asking every lawyer to meet face-to-face with clients to learn about their needs in the wake of the economic crisis. We conducted 1,800 meetings in a span of eight weeks. Every partner is expected to sit down with clients once or twice a year to discuss budgets. I meet with one or two clients a week, 50 to 70 a year.

We are in the position to be dynamic and responsive because our partners no longer second-guess leadership. There is still a healthy amount of dialogue and debate, but it is productive rather than obstructive. Overall, the partnership is confident in our strategic direction, allowing us to be more ambitious and forward-thinking.

Fiscal management

It was important, as a merged firm, for us to win confidence in our fiscal management. We decided to be very transparent. Any partner, at any time, can access the firm’s performance metrics – whether they are the fees we billed yesterday, our year-to-date collections or our monthly performance against budget.

We did away with aspirational budgeting and no longer carry long-term debt. Transparency and principled decision-making have helped us to weather the downturn and freed us to make investments in our future.

Last year, we opened an office in Abu Dhabi, followed by the support services operation centre in Nashville. In that same year, we launched a sweeping talent development programme, a new pro bono programme and signed a new lease in San Francisco. This year, we have hired 17 new partners – all while taking on no debt. We have not borrowed anything since 2008.

Some of the business practices that destabilised many law firms – things ?like offering side deals to different partners or not putting all partners under the ?same compensation scheme – are not done at Pillsbury.

The same disciplined and principled decision-making is at work in our partner hiring. We only make offers to practitioners who are a good fit with our firm. Are they team players? Do our values align? Does their practice fit our sector focus, client base and practice base? We want them to benefit from our platform and client relationships so that they can thrive here.

New joiners must also fit within our compensation scheme. Our offers tend to be conservative in base compensation and bonuses are time limited. We reach an agreement on where the individual or group will slot into our compensation system only after they have settled in. We would rather be conservative in making ten offers to ten people who successfully integrate than to make 20 offers and have only ten succeed.

We foster a collaborative partnership dynamic by making sure that every partner has a share of equity and that profitability is a shared concern. We are careful about managing expectations and moving the conversation away from profits-per-partner to the investments we want to make in the firm. Partners appreciate the longer view, which creates a willingness to pull together.

 

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Building trust and confidence in firm leadership

Do

• Communicate, communicate, communicate – put in place channels that connect people to the firm’s leadership. Be open and authentic.

• Anticipate who will be affected by your decisions and involve them early.

• Practice consistency in how decisions are made or rules are applied, whether it is compensation, hiring or promotions.

• Bring transparency into financial structures.

• Recognise and reward firm-first behaviour.

• Give opportunities to people who are bright and determined, but not necessarily the most seasoned.

Don't

• Make ad hoc decisions.

• Give anyone special treatment or allowances, like entering into special side-deals, giving battlefield rewards or making mid-year adjustments in compensation.

• Divide leadership responsibilities – it dilutes accountability and ownership of failure or success.

• Give more weight to the most vocal opinions. They often represent a small minority within the firm.

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The next big challenge

Law firm models are continuing to be tested, but if you build trust and collaboration throughout, you end up with a stronger and more stable firm.

Sometimes you make decisions that are roundly criticised, but that may be from the most vocal ten to 15 per cent. It is tough to get past these, but you cannot change course for a handful of critics or naysayers. If you have built up trust and involved people in the decision making, it is easier to make decisions that may be unpopular to some or that move the firm in a new direction.

Strengthening our platform for serving clients in the global economy is our next big challenge – growing in each of our ?existing markets and expanding our key practice areas. As an example, the nexus between London and the Middle East is just one area in which we are focused. Once again, our decisions are being driven by our sector focus, client focus and the firm’s existing strengths.

We have been in London since 1972, and our presence has become acutely important to clients who use us for global finance, cross-border transactions and international energy projects. Investing ?further in our English law capabilities is just one path we are on. The opening of our Abu Dhabi office in 2011 answered a longstanding need of our Middle East practice to have a presence in the region.

As a leader intent on change, you need to be able to move people towards untried strategies. Lawyers are often more interested in precedent – what has been done before. You must lead by example, be inclusive and engaged, authentic and open, and stay true to decisions. When you have trust, you have the freedom to stay focused on what you need to do to be competitive in an industry and economy where no assumption is safe.

Jim Rishwain is the chair of US law firm Pillsbury (www.pillsburylaw.com)