Rise of the Legal COO

Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

About the authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Part 1: Role of the Legal COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1: Horses for courses - the spectrum of chief operating officer roles in law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
By Chris Bull, principal, Edge International
COO models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Model 1 - "Riding shotgun" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Model 2A and 2B - The chief finance and operating officer . . . . . 9
Model 3 - The internal service and procurement head . . . . . . . . . . 10
Model 4 - The infrastructure head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Model 5 - The shared service head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Model 6 - The practice COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Model 7 - The operational transformation leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The corporate legal operations head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 2: Shaping change: the rise of the COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
By Laura McNair, head of people and operations, Totum
Defining leadership - why COOs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Makings of a modern COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Stepping-stones - the business manager role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Structure and remit of the COO role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
What makes a great COO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Recruiting your COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Into the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Writing a COO job description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Chapter 3: The three flavors of law firm COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
By Stephen Allen, chief scout, Trampelpfad, and Mark J. Masson, managing partner, Lotis Blue Consulting Chief operating officers' changing roles,
Role #1: "head of back office" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Role #2: "chief efficiency officer" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Role #3: the strategy driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The empowered client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
When to make a change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Where does a firm go from here? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Chapter 4: The role of the chief operating officer in a law firm - post-pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
By James G. Perkins, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer at Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Pandemic preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
The comforter, managing uncertainty, and a Black Swan event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Strategy and uncertainty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Concluding thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter 5: Habits - are they your COO superpower or holding your firm back? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
By Paul Bennett, solicitor and partner, Bennett Briegal LLP
What is a habit? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Habits matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Business habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Your habits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
What positive habits should you adopt to discharge your COO duties? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter 6: When a new firm leader takes the reins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
By Patrick J. McKenna, internationally recognized author, lecturer, strategist, and seasoned advisor to the leaders of premier law firms
1. Be clear on the new leader's specific goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2. Be honest and candid in identifying those areas that the firm leader may regard as a weakness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3. Sort out the reporting relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4. Determine boundaries and division of responsibility . . . . . . . . . . 62
5. Identify expectations and the specific behaviors you want to see . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6. Determine your preferred communications protocols . . . . . . . . . 63
7. The COO needs to know how to best read and interact with the firm leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8. Determine how you need to operate in order not to undermine each other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The bottom line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Chapter 7: Factors that impede effective firm leader-COO relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
By Patrick J. McKenna, internationally recognized author, lecturer, strategist, and seasoned advisor to the leaders of premier law firms
1. You need to have respect for one another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
2. There should be role clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3. Have the ability to compromise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4. Provide candid feedback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
5. Beware of the divide-and-conquer ploy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6. Poor performance can overwhelm any relationship . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Chapter 8: The COO role in managing profitability and client engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
By Steve Nelson, executive principal, The McCormick Group
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Distinction between internal and external responsibilities . . . . . . . 73
Emphasis on profitability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Management of key categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Impact of the pandemic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
View of the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Chapter 9: Three roles the COO must play to enable innovation and digital transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
By Kate Boyd, COO, Sente Advisors
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
COO as culture keeper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
COO as technical strategist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
COO as metrics maven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Chapter 10: The chief operating officer and the use of data in law firm management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
By David S. Schaefer, managing director, Calibrate Consulting, Inc.
Maintaining competitive advantage in a digital market . . . . . . . . . 89
The power of KPIs for law firms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
What are the right number of KPIs? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Presentation of KPIs - dashboards and scorecards . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Changes in KPIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
The need for accurate and clean data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Create a data-driven culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
How can you boost data literacy to support your KPI strategy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
The future of data analytics in the legal industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Annex: list of possible KPIs and metrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Chapter 11: The New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
By Kiran Scarr, counsel - transformation, Support Legal Limited
The emerging dominance of New Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
The business of New Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
The New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
The leadership behaviors of a New Law COO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Collaboration for growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Part 2: Interviews with Legal COOs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Interview 1: Peter Blair, chief operating officer of Quadrant Chambers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Interview 2: Kimberly A. Gardner, chief operating officer of Holland & Knight LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Interview 3: Ricarda Hauke, chief operating officer of Taylor Wessing Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Interview 4: Andrew Keith, chief operations officer of DAC Beachcroft LLP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Interview 5: Jennifer P. Keller, president and chief operating officer of Baker Donelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Interview 6: Darren Mitchell, chief operating officer of Simmons & Simmons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Interview 7: William Robins, operations and compliance director, Keystone Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

About Globe Law and Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159