Law firms are complex businesses requiring skilled leaders and managers to plan and implement the business strategy. Not only are today’s lawyers required to be good technical practitioners but they must be effective managers of their own time, their team, their clients and, ultimately, the business.
In the past, successful partners emerged as good managers through a combination of strong interpersonal and financial skills, common sense and the ability to follow strong role models within the business or elsewhere. Learning on the job has the advantage of allowing those naturally talented and interested to come to the surface of their own accord. The disad-vantage is that your next generation of leaders and managers will emerge slowly and erratically.
