But where do you begin? There is an impressive group of
next-generation administrators taking the reins in law
firms today. What role should your new administrator
play in your firm? What competencies are important for
success? What sort of educational background and
professional qualifications does your firm need? Do you
want someone with prior law firm experience, or are you
inclined toward the fresh ideas that a professional from
another sector might bring?
To help you identify the ideal administrator, here are
practical solutions and ideas to guide you through the
process of designing the role to best serve your firm.
The Business Case for Tailoring: Management versus
Leadership
Legal administrators can contribute to many areas of a
firm’s success: strategy, marketing and business
development, client relations, financial management,
people management, merger initiatives, and
technology purchases and implementations. Of
course, the impact of any senior business
professional will depend very much on the
individual’s background, experience and interests,
and the scope of responsibilities you afford.
The key is to be proactive and precise about what
you need before you make the new hire. Many
law firms share characteristics that are both
strengths and weaknesses in this regard. First, law
firms tend to be somewhat patriarchal in culture.
They care for their people and, consequently, a
firm often feels like a family. In tandem with that,
law firms are usually loyal to their people—and
sometimes too loyal. Particularly when
considering the wheels of administrative staffing,
firms will often let roles and their parameters
evolve as their people grow professionally. This is
a good thing. The weakness, however, arises when
firms let roles form around given employees
rather than continually assessing the firm’s
business needs and identifying the best person to
fill a role from a wide pool of candidates.
Since the administrator is typically the most
senior non-lawyer employee in a law firm,
building the business case for designing a role that
will help you lead your firm into the future should
be clear. Three considerations that will give you a
starting point are:
- The firm’s strategic goals over the next
three to five years
- The depth and strengths of the firm’s
existing administrative team
- The leaders and future leaders within the
partnership
In terms of the latter, the managing partner’s position is
particularly critical. Consider that in all but the largest law
firms, being managing partner is a voluntary role, with
different shareholders elected to serve a certain term and
managing partners changing over time. The firm
administrator—who over the years acquires a great wealth
of institutional knowledge—can have a steady influence
and be an invaluable resource through those changes.
So the question becomes, in addition to what it needs in
terms of administration and management, does your firm
need leadership from the new administrator? To be clear,
it is the managing partner’s role to lead the firm.
However, the administrator’s management and leadership
skills and competencies will be key to the success of the
managing partners that come and go from that role over
the administrator’s tenure.
To help clarify the difference between the
distinctive but complementary concepts of
leadership (the role of the managing partner) and
management (the role of the firm administrator),
see below, which is inspired by a John Kotter
article that appeared in the December 2001
Harvard Business Review (one of Kotter’s HBR
series on the topic of “What Leaders Really Do”).
What’s in a Title: Many Hats and Multiple
Roles
There are as many titles for “administrator” as
there are firms and people in these roles. From the
firm’s perspective, though, the title reflects the
scope of responsibility and authority the partners
assign to the role. Common titles in midsize firms
include executive director or director of administration and finance. As firms get larger, there is a
trend toward “C-Suite” roles and titles such as chief
financial officer, chief marketing officer and chief
administrative officer, all of whom might separately
report to the managing partner. But in firms that favor one
senior administrative role so that the managing partner
has a single point of contact, the more appropriate title is
chief operating officer and all functional areas report to
the COO.
In their book Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO
(Stanford Business Books, 2006), Nathan Bennett and
Stephen A. Miles identify seven kinds of COOs as
defined by their relationship with the CEO in corporate
environments. Some of these roles may apply in your law
firm while perhaps others will not, but as you continue to
define the administrator role that will best serve your firm
in the near and long term, you might consider the roles
that Nathan and Stephen identified in their research.
Executor
When administrators play the role of executor,
they pursue the strategic objectives and deal with the
complexities of getting things done, establishing timelines
and working with leadership and practice groups with an
execution mind-set. The executor understands and
monitors the metrics that measure success and can
translate strategic goals into actions, and then nurture
members of the firm at the practice group and office level
to help them achieve both group and firm goals.
Change Agent
Given that all firms go through life
cycles, you might need a change agent in your
administrator. This is someone who can work the firm
through turnaround situations, make tough decisions, and
help leaders create and communicate the burning platform
necessary to inspire change. A change agent can help the
firm through rapid expansion and mergers without getting
overwhelmed.
Mentor
Where the partnership and the managing partner
are relatively young, you might consider a mentor role for
your next administrator. This is someone who adds
experience and wisdom to the entrepreneurial exuberance
of a young partnership and a youthful leader.
The Other Half
An additional role from Bennett and
Miles’s research is the other half. If, as a managing
partner, you are self-aware and know your personality and
your strengths, you might look for someone in the
top administrative role with the personality,
competencies and style that will balance your
strengths and style.
How the senior business role fits in your firm will
depend on the firm’s culture and the senior
partners’ views of the value an administrative
professional brings to the firm. But in all firms,
one factor is an undeniable constant: Buy-in
among all the partners is key; otherwise, some
will invariably set the new administrator up for
failure. (See the Law Practice Case Study
beginning on page 39 for detailed advice in this
critical area.)
Fine-Tuning Further: Core Competencies
Competence comprises a combination of
knowledge, skills and behaviors that qualify a
person to perform a given role. All firms, large
and small, have similar business functions that
make up the firm’s operations and will determine
the type of competencies you seek in an
administrator. The Association of Legal
Administrators (ALA) sets out a summary of firm
business functions in its Sample Job Description
for a Legal Administrator. The
functions for which the
administrator may be responsible include
financial, human resources,
systems and facilities management, as well as
aspects of marketing and practice management.
And in addition to the business-specific
responsibilities, the most successful legal
administrators often wear other hats. For example,
they may serve as the firm’s official reader,
gathering and generating ideas; as the firm’s
diplomat, in building and nurturing networks and
resources; and even as the firm’s conscience, by
making sure that you do the right thing in
challenging situations.
Yet another area to think about—and one in which
many firms make missteps when they select an
administrator—is the ability to manage change.
There are myriad reasons for this, involving the
sophistication and pace of change that touches every
functional area of a law firm. Technology changes
rapidly; human resources, professional development and
associate affairs require keeping ahead of the changing
needs and values of new generations; finance and
marketing, too, are increasingly strategic and complex.
The knowledge and experience to handle these kinds of
multiple functions can come from many different
educational and work experiences. However, as you
define the role that will best serve your firm, you will do
well to consider the following competencies and evaluate
them in your candidates:
- Analysis and problem-solving skills
- Business acumen
- Business writing abilities
- Communication and presentation skills
- Creativity
- Judgment and decision-making abilities
- Capacity to develop others
- Emotional maturity
- Sense of humor
- Ability to influence and persuade
- An inquiry mind-set
- Listening skills
- Teamwork approach
- Trustworthiness and integrity
- Time management skills
Lastly, many of the most successful legal administrators
exhibit the rare combination of having lots of confidence
while removing personal ego from the equation. As one
highly successful administrator confided to me, he
astutely shares ideas with partners, nurtures both the idea
and the partner, and succeeds through a combination of
leadership and support that is highly effective.
Finding Candidates: Search versus Recruitment
Options
So you’ve carefully thought through your firm’s needs
and designed a role that’s built to suit. Now you need to
find a pool of qualified candidates. Based on your market
and budget, there are several resources you can access.
However, it’s important to know the risks and
benefits of each before you begin.
You can work with an executive search firm that
specializes in senior executive search. These
search firms attract a retainer in the range of 30
percent of the first year’s compensation for the
role. Executive searchers are the true “head
hunters” who do fresh research of the market for
each engagement after they have a clear
understanding of the opportunity and the ideal
candidate. Targeted search is about finding square
pegs for square holes. It is also about finding
excellent candidates who may be happy in their
current positions and firms but who also might be
intrigued by a very interesting opportunity at your
firm. Executive search firms should provide you
with a short list of candidates designed to save
you time. Your search consultant sifts through the
long list and does the heavy lifting and
interviewing.
Another option is the many legal recruitment
firms that also do management recruiting. These
firms typically charge fees of 20 to 25 percent
contingent upon finding a successful candidate.
Some use a combination of retainer and
contingent fees. Some legal recruiters will
interview candidates and provide you with a short
list. Others will interview candidates and send
them all to you for you to filter into your own
short list. Note that legal recruiters who’ve taken
the time to get to know your firm might pitch a
candidate who may appear to be a round peg for a
square hole—but it might just be the right person
for your firm.
You can also do the recruiting yourself by
advertising in local and national newspapers, in
legal publications, and on the ALA job site and
other recruiting sites and job boards. Be warned,
though, that this is a very time-consuming
process. And you must be extremely careful about
due diligence, whatever recruitment method you
use: Firms can mistake provenance (the firm
names that appear on a resume) with competence
and capability. (This happens in lawyer recruiting
with alarming regularity.) For the most senior
business position in your firm, you might consider the balance of time, money and recruiting expertise that a
professional brings to the task.
Integration: Set Up for Success
When a firm hires an administrator after a long-tenured
incumbent departs, it can be a bit choppy. Often firms try
to hire a replacement that is either very similar or very
different from the incumbent. After a few stops and starts,
the executive committee then takes the time to define the
firm’s needs, redesign the role, and identify competencies
and the elusive characteristics that would enable success
in the particular firm.
If, on the other hand, you take the time to define your
needs at the outset, you have a much better chance of
finding the right business leader for your firm.
