If 51 percent of a corporation’s product lines or departments functioned at a fair to poor level, what would a CEO do? That’s the situation my colleagues at Altman Weil and I found with law firm practice groups in our latest survey on practice group performance.
Our survey asked managing partners in U.S. law firms to assess their practice groups in a variety of areas. Eighty-one firms responded. Of those, 7.4 percent were firms of 500 or more lawyers, 12.3 percent were firms of 250–499 lawyers, 45.7 percent were firms of 100–249 lawyers, and 34.6 percent were firms of 50–99 lawyers. Only 49 percent of respondents rated the overall performance of their practice groups as very good or excellent. Even fewer rated their groups as very good or excellent in generating new business (42 percent) or cross-selling (41 percent).
