Rise of the Legal COO () von Chris Bull

This second edition contains updated chapters from the first edition, and several brand new chapters. There are also all-new, exclusive interviews with legal COOs from a variety of national and international firms.

Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ixAbout the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviiPart 1: Role of the Legal COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Chapter 1: Horses for courses – the spectrum of chief operating officer roles in law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3By Chris Bull, principal, Edge InternationalCOO models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Model 1 – “Riding shotgun” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Model 2A and 2B – The chief finance and operating officer . . . . . 9Model 3 – The internal service and procurement head . . . . . . . . . . 10Model 4 – The infrastructure head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Model 5 – The shared service head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Model 6 – The practice COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Model 7 – The operational transformation leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15The corporate legal operations head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Chapter 2: Shaping change: the rise of the COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19By Laura McNair, head of people and operations, TotumDefining leadership – why COOs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Makings of a modern COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Stepping-stones – the business manager role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Structure and remit of the COO role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23What makes a great COO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Recruiting your COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Into the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Writing a COO job description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Chapter 3: The three flavors of law firm COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29By Stephen Allen, chief scout, Trampelpfad, and Mark J. Masson, managing partner, Lotis Blue Consulting Chief operating officers’ changing rolesRole #1: “head of back office” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Role #2: “chief efficiency officer” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Role #3: the strategy driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33The empowered client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35When to make a change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Where does a firm go from here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Chapter 4: The role of the chief operating officer in a law firm – post-pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39By James G. Perkins, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLPBackground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Pandemic preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40The comforter, managing uncertainty, and a Black Swan event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Strategy and uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43Concluding thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Chapter 5: Habits – are they your COO superpower or holding your firm back? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51By Paul Bennett, solicitor and partner, Bennett Briegal LLPWhat is a habit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Habits matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Business habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52Your habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54What positive habits should you adopt to discharge your COO duties? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Chapter 6: When a new firm leader takes the reins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59By Patrick J. McKenna, internationally recognized author, lecturer, strategist, and seasoned advisor to the leaders of premier law firms1. Be clear on the new leader’s specific goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 612. Be honest and candid in identifying those areas that the firm leader may regard as a weakness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613. Sort out the reporting relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614. Determine boundaries and division of responsibility . . . . . . . . . . 625. Identify expectations and the specific behaviors you want to see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 626. Determine your preferred communications protocols . . . . . . . . . 637. The COO needs to know how to best read and interact with the firm leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638. Determine how you need to operate in order not to undermine each other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64The bottom line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Chapter 7: Factors that impede effective firm leader-COO relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65By Patrick J. McKenna, internationally recognized author, lecturer, strategist, and seasoned advisor to the leaders of premier law firms1. You need to have respect for one another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662. There should be role clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673. Have the ability to compromise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674. Provide candid feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685. Beware of the divide-and-conquer ploy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686. Poor performance can overwhelm any relationship . . . . . . . . . . . 69Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Chapter 8: The COO role in managing profitability and client engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71By Steve Nelson, executive principal, The McCormick GroupHistory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Distinction between internal and external responsibilities . . . . . . . 73Emphasis on profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75Management of key categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Impact of the pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77View of the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Chapter 9: Three roles the COO must play to enable innovation and digital transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81By Kate Boyd, COO, Sente AdvisorsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81COO as culture keeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81COO as technical strategist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83COO as metrics maven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Chapter 10: The chief operating officer and the use of data in law firm management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89By David S. Schaefer, managing director, Calibrate Consulting, Inc.Maintaining competitive advantage in a digital market . . . . . . . . . 89The power of KPIs for law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91What are the right number of KPIs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93Presentation of KPIs – dashboards and scorecards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Changes in KPIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94The need for accurate and clean data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Create a data-driven culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95How can you boost data literacy to support your KPI strategy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96The future of data analytics in the legal industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Annex: list of possible KPIs and metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Chapter 11: The New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101By Kiran Scarr, counsel – transformation, Support Legal LimitedThe emerging dominance of New Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101The business of New Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104The New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107The leadership behaviors of a New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Collaboration for growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111Part 2: Interviews with Legal COOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Interview 1: Peter Blair, chief operating officer of Quadrant Chambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Interview 2: Kimberly A. Gardner, chief operating officer of Holland & Knight LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Interview 3: Ricarda Hauke, chief operating officer of Taylor Wessing Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131Interview 4: Andrew Keith, chief operations officer of DAC Beachcroft LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Interview 5: Jennifer P. Keller, president and chief operating officer of Baker Donelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139Interview 6: Darren Mitchell, chief operating officer of Simmons & Simmons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Interview 7: William Robins, operations and compliance director, Keystone Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159