The headlines heralding shrinking first-year associate classes, law firm downsizings and reduced lateral employment opportunities have attorneys thinking about career options outside the practice of law. Often these lawyers are drawn to explore a new role within law firm hallways. While a juris doctor may convey credibility and an innate understanding of how lawyers think and what motivates them, landing a role within the law firm managerial structure is neither easy nor is it sure to be the anticipated panacea.

The landscape of law firm management is changing, with ever increasing profitability pressures, spiraling associate salary costs and clients disappearing from the radar screen, creating both drama and uncertainty. Lawyers setting their sights on potential roles in this leadership circle need to do so with 20/20 vision and with resolution.

No one map can guide every lawyer in exploring career opportunities within law firm management. There are, however, things to consider before embarking upon such a path. To avoid potential land mines, lawyers should:

• Understand the nature of the work in the new role.

• Contrast the performance criteria needed to be successful in the new role versus those required to be a good lawyer.

• Recognize that existing relationships may change.

• Determine what new networks need to be forged.

• Ensure that one has the proper mindset to stay the course.

• Develop a plan of action.

Much of the nature of management work conflicts with the very things that make practicing law so appealing. Lawyers, historically high achievers, are attracted to their work because it gives them rapid and measurable results -- they win or lose cases and close deals. They enjoy the intellectual challenge of the work measured by hours billed. In contrast, managerial goals often are long term, difficult to measure and require the support and input of others to achieve expected results. Moreover, managers must involve themselves in details that can seem -- and are -- unglamorous.

Managers are decision-makers who often have to resolve an issue quickly, even when information is incomplete. Lawyers schooled in precedents and past practices can be uncomfortable with this degree of risk taking and ambiguity.

Most lawyers are consulted only when a client needs a specific transaction or when something in the business has gone wrong. For that reason, most lawyers see controversies or negotiations as a linear projection: something with a beginning, middle and an end. Whatever the resolution of a matter, it is eventually completed and the documents filed and stored. One way or another, most matters achieve a degree of closure.

Managers have ongoing and seemingly endless responsibilities. Managing is not a decision or an event but a continual process of planning, implementing, evaluating, revising and replanning. Lawyers expecting to make decisions and then move on to something else may become frustrated when issues -- like bad checks -- keep getting bounced back.

In seeking managerial roles, lawyers need to understand how the demands and rewards of the new position may differ from those offered by their legal workload. The expectation that the hours worked may be shorter is often unrealistic, and lawyers must recognize that pay will no longer be dictated by a lockstep compensation program.

Most law firms evaluate the performance of their lawyers based on a set model of those skills and abilities that predict success at that firm. Certain characteristics of what constitute excellent performance -- such as self-confidence, oral advocacy and written communication skills -- are required for both lawyers and managers. There are, however, marked behavioral differences in what constitutes successful performance in these different roles.

Lawyers are apprenticed to become specialists, striving for autonomy to work on a client's deal. Managers, conversely, spend much of their time influencing or making decisions. Strategic decision-making requires the manager to step back and see the big picture. This may be an especially difficult task for lawyers who, over the course of their careers, generally seek to refine their focus in order to develop a unique specialization to call their own.

Lawyers are rewarded for their expertise and for focusing on the task at hand, while managers -- particularly as they become more senior -- are rewarded for their breadth of knowledge and ability to multitask. An acute attention to detail, which can result in high marks on lawyer evaluations, may be recalibrated as "micromanaging" or "getting lost in the details" for the manager.

High-achieving lawyers, refusing to tolerate less driven colleagues and measuring themselves against high standards, are usually the hallmarks of law firm success. Lawyers as a breed strive for excellence. Accomplishment is a natural high, an innate value. Moving into a managerial role, lawyers need to maintain the same unrelenting concern for excellence while channeling this driver into more finely honed behavior. A lawyer-turned-manager needs to be aware of this overachievement drive and understand how and when it can harm relationships with his or her team and colleagues. Listening as well as challenging colleagues and asking open-ended questions rather than dictating the next steps lead to greater participation, stronger interpersonal relationships and often better results.

While both lawyers and managers lead teams, managers must focus on the development of their team members, while being viewed as credible leaders -- walking the walk and leading by example. Lawyers may delegate work without thinking about how that assignment contributes to the junior lawyer's career progression and satisfaction. Conversely, simply allotting tasks and ensuring their delivery is not enough when managing. A manager must assess the capabilities of team members accurately and work to develop them to their fullest potential, while ensuring that the work is completed on schedule and within budget.

Lawyers seeking to move into managerial roles need to audit their skills honestly and compare their strengths to what will be needed in the new role they are seeking. If the skills don't fit, they shouldn't commit.

Lawyers who have managed multiple relationships -- within and across practice areas and geographies -- will have an easier time adapting to a managerial role that requires networking and collaboration. Managers share the information and resources they need to develop and deliver a realistic business agenda, looking for cooperation rather than competition. The normally skeptical lawyer who prefers autonomy may find it difficult to forge these critical new relationships.

Although the similarity between managing inside relationships and dealing with clients may not be clear immediately, lawyers who can draw parallels will have a better vision of how to behave. They will understand what superiors, colleagues and staff members need and deliver it within the confines of their new role. Colleagues and subordinates often feel obliged to meet the manager's expectations, just as they would a client's. Once a lawyer-turned-manager understands this, he or she can adopt a management style that feels comfortable and works well within the flat structure that typifies most law firms' organizational charts.

Lawyers, particularly those who hope to find opportunities within their current firms, must recognize that their relationships with fellow associates and partners change when they no longer are responsible for client work. Just as administrative team members tolerate the designation of being "nonlegal," lawyers moving to managerial roles add the subtext of "nonpracticing" to their identity. At the beginning of the transition, moving from generating fees to being an overhead expense affects both financial statements and relationships in ways that are not always clear.

The quality of these working relationships, however, will be more important than ever. Of all the challenges of a managerial role, people problems are generally the toughest to confront and resolve. Lawyers need to understand what behavioral scientists have known for years: Most of the general population differs from the typical lawyer profile -- they think differently, decide differently, communicate differently and handle emotions differently. Not necessarily worse. Not necessarily better. Just differently.

Understanding these differences and how to manage them effectively is a critical asset for a manager who has to achieve results though others. As a lawyer, the individual could accomplish a great deal because he or she was the authority, often as an individual contributor. For a manager, accomplishments come from empowering others, encouraging participation and effective teams and forging strong, interdependent collegial relationships.

After contemplating the above, if the desire to leave the daily practice of law remains as enticing as the breezes of Bali Ha'i, demonstrating the proper mindset becomes essential. Coaches often instruct their players to ''get your head in the game'' -- stay focused, devote their energy to the task at hand. This advice also holds true for lawyers preparing to change careers. Developing and maintaining a positive frame of mind requires flexibility, humility, resiliency and good humor. Flexibility is essential.

Humility is important for anyone learning new skills, taking a pay cut when no longer a fee earner and adapting to being the new kid on the block. Lawyers, having spent three years in law school and at least another three to four years in the apprentice/associate role, recognize and accept that practicing law is a life-long learning experience. In looking beyond the daily legal practice, lawyers must devote this same intellectual energy into preparing for the new managerial role. It is critical to remember that their potential counterparts in the business world typically earned MBA degrees followed by years of apprenticeship in the private sector.

Resiliency strengthens the resolve of lawyers to pick themselves up and move on even when it appears that they have reached a dead end.

Transcending all of this is good humor -- a trait much needed in maintaining perspective and a positive outlook even on days filled with confusion and frustration.

The early days of any career transition are filled with challenges and potential stumbling blocks. Lawyers who decide to take the plunge into managerial roles would do well to follow the same advice they would give to their own clients seeking a new business opportunity -- namely, to conduct due diligence. Taking the time to investigate the new position will greatly increase the likelihood of a seamless transition.

The last piece of advice is to remember that the key words in most managing partners' and executive directors' lexicon are productivity and profitability. Lawyers who can demonstrate that their special skills, including both legal and managerial talents, can help a firm meet these objectives, will considerably improve their chances of landing this new role, particularly in these economically turbulent times.

Maureen M. Reid is the founder of Maureen M. Reid LLC, a management consulting firm in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Previously, she was human resources director for Clifford Chance's U.S. offices and for New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell.