Dealing with "maverick partners" is always a challenge. Of course they seem to always be the heavy hitters and this makes it that much more difficult as often there are major clients and large sums of money at stake - at least in the short term. Read on in re one firm' s frustration and our suggestions.

Often lawyers and their managers are too busy to take stake of where they are, where they have been, and where they are headed. Here is a self assessment that you can download and to use to obtain a sense of how the firm is performing.

Last month we introduced the topic of Charasteristics of Successful Law Firms and focused on partner relations as a core foundational building block. The second basic building block is leadership. Successful firms have good leadership in place. This may be a single individual or a core group of individuals. Leadership does not always come from the formalized management structure of the firm.

Leadership is one of the major problems facing law firms. Leaders are needed for managing partner posts, executive committee chairs, and practice group heads.

Question: I am a solo attorney and have had my practice for fifteen years. I have one secretary that has been with me fourteen years. I have heard you and others state that solo and small firm practitioners need to work on getting to the next level. What is the next level?

Answer: The next level is when your practice begins to build synergy - when one plus one equals three or four rather than two. It is when you have a sufficient consistent volume of work that you are able to add additional layers of attorneys and staff. When lawyers start out their practices most support themselves on their own work or time production. However, eventually there must be others in the firm who generate more profits than they consume and thus provide additional income to the owners. This is leverage. Leverage can come from junior level owners, associates, paralegals, and legal assistants. The important takeaway here is eventually a structure must exist within the firm whereby each owner can make a reasonable income but not have to provide all of it himself or herself. This must come to pass if the senior lawyers are to spend more time on firm investment activities (non-billable matters) such as generating new business, training and mentoring new associates, or managing the firm.

While the getting to the next level can improve profitability if done right - new challenges and frustrations come into play as well. You must now manage others - motivate them, hire and fire, and retain quality lawyers and staff. You are now a manager as well as a lawyer - like it or not!