Transformational Change of a Law Firm

TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE OF ABC LAW FIRM
Olga Piedra
Nyack College
Cohort 30

Transformational Leadership Course
Dr. Claire Henry, Professor
November 11, 2012

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
Project Overview 3
Scope of Work 3
Wake-up and Mindset 4
Change Management Model 5
Deliverables 5
Drivers of Change 6
Targeted Benchmarks for Success and Measures 7
Transformational Change as a Business Model 7
Chart of Transformational Change (Figure 1.1) 8
Transformational Change of the Law Firm 8
Change Leadership Style 9
Timeframe 10
Project Fees 10
Names of the Project Team Members 10
Questions to be addressed before the Transformation 10
Conclusion 11
References 12
Appendix A: Burke-Litmin Organizational Assessment Survey 13 Introduction

The organization selected is a mid-sized law firm located in the downtown section of New York City. This organization is in major need of personnel management transformation. Presently, the law firm has numerous challenges they need to transform specifically an effective personnel that can allow the law firm to operate effectively. This law firm needs to invest in personnel management that has prior experience running a law firm and/or a business.
Project Overview The purpose of this transformation is to incorporate a strong personnel in the law firm that will allow the office to function better on a day-to-day basis. There is a need to hire at least ten (10) new legal employees that will be able to handle the daily workflow in the law firm. The law firm needed an Office Manager to oversee the entire office and generate the work to each employee. The Office Manager is also responsible for making sure that the court calendar is kept orderly and up-to-date. Some of the transformation that needs to be implemented at this law firm are the filing system. The filing system needs to be re-evaluated and a more structured filing system needs to be put in place. The law firm also needs to invest in a legal software for all the computers so that all the support staff and attorneys can log into their computers and update new appointments, make changes to existing appointments, see the court calendar for the day and more. The legal software will allow the support staff and attorneys to make progress notes about each client on a day-to-day basis.
Scope of Work The process of the transformation is at its primary phase. The law firm just recently hired an Office Manager that has many years of experience managing in the legal field and owing her own business. This new Office Manager has plans to get the law firm running efficiently in a minimal amount of time.
Wake-up Call The wake-up call and drivers for the transformation was said once the previous Office Manager and Bookkeeper resigned due to relocation of their residence. The prior Office Manager and Bookkeeper were a husband and wife team that had been with the law firm for over five (5) years. Since the Office Manager and the Bookkeeper managed the law firm, once they resigned the Hiring Partner of the law firm decided to seek a new Office Manager that possessed many years of experience in management so that this Office Manager would assist him in hiring the adequate legal staff to effectively run the law firm. The law firm practices several areas of law: real estate law, landlord/tenant law, general practice and loan modification. It is very important to have the proper legal staff for each area of the law practice. The legal staff that is hired needs to have the experience in the area of the law practice assigned to them to insure that clients receive the best service from the law firm.
Mindset
The mindset is definitely set to hire the adequate amount of legal staff that have the experience needed to efficiently run the law firm. All future employees, both support staff and attorneys, have to bring in the mindset the Office Manager is seeking. The Office Manager seeks future employees that haven inner awareness and know-how to continuously grow within the law firm. The Office Manager will also need future employees that are aware of the transformational change the law firm is undergoing to make sure that each employee contributes to the change in the timeframe allotted.

Change Management Models The model that is being used for the transformation of the law firm is the transformational change model. In transformational change model, we look at how the law firm will change. Transformational change leads the kind of change, the level of leadership and organizational investment needed which is the highest of all types considered so far. New skill abilities and ways of thinking are required to implement the change. This type of change requires a fundamental revision of one or more of the mission, strategy and organizational culture (Annan, 2009). The transformational change model is the actual path to the creation of revenue for the organization (Kubicki, 2012). That being said, in the transformation of the law firm, a business model is needed which will consist of the realities of the organization.
Deliverables
Typically, a business model will consist of the customers segments, value, channels, relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, partnerships and costs.
Customer Segments – Who are your actual customers and who are you targeting?
Value – What problem(s) do you solve for your customers? Why do customers use your services?
Channels – How do customers use your services? How often do your customers and you directly or indirectly interact?
Relationships Loyalty – perceived or real? How much does it cost to acquire new customers? How much does it cost to keep these customers? Is the relationship the type that your customers want versus what you want?
Revenue Streams – What are customers willing to pay for your legal services? Do the streams match the services offered? Are there any hidden streams?
Key Resources – When you make something, what are all the tasks and steps necessary to execute them? Is the process efficient? How do you train others to “make” things happen? What about quality control?
Partnerships – Do you need anyone else to assist with your legal services? Would you be better or worse with or without them? How exclusive are your partnerships?
Costs – What are all of your costs (not just labor)? What costs cannot be passed-through? What is the impact of scale and leverage in the practice? Without recognizing and following this business model, most organizations will grow stale, die off. To create a sustainable business model, an organization must build one, test it, measure it, learn from it and finally reapply the new knowledge to a new version of the business model. This is done until it works.
Drivers of Change In order for the law firm to be able to successfully undergo the transformational change, the law firm will require “Drivers of Change”. In order to utilize the drivers of change properly, an overall organizational assessment needs to be done. The law firm will need to look at their external environment, mission & strategy, leadership, culture, structure, management practices, systems, work group climate, task requirements/individual skills, motivation of the employees, individual needs & values and the performance of the organization as a whole. In making an organizational assessment, the law firm can make the necessary change by assessing the needs of the law firm. Assessing all the area listed as drivers of change, allows the Office Manager to target specific areas of the law firm that also need transformation to effectively transform the targeted areas of the legal practice (See Figure 1.1 on page .).
Targeted Benchmarks for Success and Measures The law firm will require that the present employees work together in this transformational process. There is also a need for employees that know what is needed from them in the law practice on a day-to-day basis and employees that are willing to go the extra-mile to obtain the goal of transformational change of the law firm. Having the prior Office Manager and Bookkeeper resignations, which caused the wake-up call of this transformational change, employees need to be kept happy to avoid employee turnover, especially after undergoing the transformational change in the law firm.
Transformational Change as a Business Model The transformational change that takes place at this law firm will be the result of a survey on organizational assessment by Burke & Litwin (See Addendum A). This survey is going to allow the Office Manager to get a clearer picture of the total organizational performance of the law firm. The organizational assessment survey is broken up into twelve (12) sections (See the chart in Figure 1.1). In order for the transformational change to be completed, an organizational assessment of the law firm must be conducted. This will allow the Office Manager to see clearly what other needs the law firm has to undergo the transformational change successfully.

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Figure 1.1

Transformational Change of the Law Firm The specific areas that will be targeted for complete transformational change will be: the hiring of new employees, investing in a new legal software, implementing a new filing system, developing law firm incentives (such as medical benefits, dental/optical benefits, offering direct deposit of payroll checks to employees, increased vacation time, competitive salary for new employees, promoting from within and year-end bonuses to all employees.
To enable the law firm to commit to implementing all the above noted changes, the law firm will need to implement a billing system, which will be part of the legal software, so that clients are billed higher rates for the time Paralegals and attorneys spent on their prospective cases. The Partner will bill clients hourly at $400.00; Senior Attorneys will bill clients hourly at $350.00; Attorneys will bill clients hourly at $250.00; Senior Paralegals will bill clients hourly at $150.00; Paralegals will bill clients hourly at $100.00. The implementation of the billing system will increase the law firm’s revenue tremendously. Presently, the legal staff is paid on a salary basis and not billing their time at the rates listed above which makes it hard to afford the transformational change the law firm is prepared to make. Once the transformation of the areas listed take place, the law firm will gradually see the benefits. Lastly, the Office Manager and the Hiring Partner are in the process of hiring ten (10) new employees: a Calendar Clerk, a Filing Clerk, a Law Clerk, four (4) Paralegals and three
(3) attorneys. These new positions all have specific job duties and job descriptions that will require the employee that is hired to perform which will require that employee have years of experience in that area of the practice. A major factor in a transformational change of the personnel management is to insure that the proper personnel is recruited for the law firm. Once the proper personnel is recruited and hired, maintaining the personnel will be an important factor for the Office Manager work on to ensure there is limited turnover in the law firm. Thereafter the business model needs to be reviewed and also implemented to ensure the transformational change of the law firm takes place effectively.
Change Leadership Style The change leadership style that will be used for this transformational change of the law firm will be from the prospective of a conscious change leader. The mindset needed to undergo this change leadership style requires that the leader, the Office Manager, has a conscious mindset. It is very important that the Office Manager have an inner awareness and a call to turn things in an inward introspect. Therefore, the Office Manager has to know that the transformation presented is feasible and be conscious of the skills needed to undergo an effective transformation of the law firm.
Timeframe
The transformational changes of the law firm is said to take place within the next twelve (12) months. The start of the transformation was October 1, 2012 and is currently in its primary phase. The law firm should have undergone a complete transformation by the end of October 2013. This is the timeframe the law firm is estimating will take to successfully undergo the transformational changes purposed.
Project Fees
Consultant Hrs. per week Hourly Rate Wages 2012 Wages 2013
Sr, Consultant 40 $50.00 $24,000.00 $80,000.00
Jr. Consultant 40 $25.00 $12,000.00 $40,000.00 Totals 80 $75.00 $36,000.00 * $120,000.00 *
Total Consultant Expense for the 12 Month period (Wages 2012 and Wages 2013 equals $156,000.00.
Name of the Project Team Members
Lead Consultant: Olga Piedra
Team Member: Ed Perry
Questions to be Addressed prior to the Transformation
1. What are the specific daily needs of the law firm?
2. What will make the law firm operate efficiently with minimal changes?
For Question 1: What are the specific daily needs of the law firm? This question allows the Office Manager to target the area of the law firm that requires the most attention to make it easier to implement the transformation for the needed area of the practice. The current employees need to give the Office Manager their input on this question.
For Question 2: What will make the law firm operate efficiently with minimal changes? This question allows the Office Manager the opportunity of making the transformation in the areas presented within a minimal timeframe of the transformational change of the law firm. The support state and attorneys in the law firm need to give their input on the changes needed to the Office Manager.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this law firm was in need of transformational change of their personnel management practices. This transformational change could only be possible if an Office Manager who had extensive experience in the legal profession was hired. Said Office Manager later provided the old and new employees of the law firm with an organizational assessment survey to be able to assess the immediate needs of the organization. Thereafter, the law firm, which supported its drivers of change, the business model was implanted to strengthen the law firm’s operational management skills. The transformational change of the law firm even though it is in its primary phase, is effectively operating and undergone the projected changes. Presently, the legal staff is being hired to fill the needed positions.

References Anderson and Anderson (2010). Beyond Change Management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership (2nd Ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer Annan, K. (2009). Transactional, Transitional and Transformational Change. Leading Space 2 (2), 67-77. Kubicki, J. (2012). Failing on the back of a napkin: An approach to business models for every lawyer. The Legal Transformation Institute: Achieving actionable value from the legal profession 1 (8) 1-4 Burke, W. W., & Litwin, G. H. (1992). A causal model of organizational performance and change. Journal of Management, 18(3), 523-545. doi: 10.1177/014920639201800306
Appendix A

BURKE-LITWIN ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT SURVEY
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References: Anderson and Anderson (2010). Beyond Change Management: How to achieve breakthrough results through conscious change leadership (2nd Ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer Annan, K Kubicki, J. (2012). Failing on the back of a napkin: An approach to business models for every lawyer. The Legal Transformation Institute: Achieving actionable value from the legal profession 1 (8) 1-4 Burke, W