How To Run a Law Firm: Part Two – Don't Do Politics

The following is an extract from the second instalment of Managing Partner John Hayes’s monthly Substack series “How to Run a Law Firm”.

You can subscribe to John’s Substack and read his latest article in full here:

https://substack.com/@johnhayescl/note/c-312413757?r=7vb3nc&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web

In my first article, I spoke passionately about how business leaders often fail to invest generously in the founding architecture of their businesses (IT, support staff and compliance services) and, as a result, miss out on opportunities to grow.

Reflecting on this prompted me to consider the other mistakes businesses make in trying to scale, such as the failure to create a congenial working environment and the allowance of undue interference from senior management. It also got me thinking about the reasons why individuals sometimes feel encouraged to leave their firms.

Push and Pull Factors

Whenever anybody leaves one business to join another, there are always “push and pull factors”. Businesses such as mine spend a lot of time refining the “pull factors” which may entice new joiners to our firm. We develop ever more sophisticated sales ploys and often engage the services of trusted recruitment consultants.

Businesses will pride themselves on distinguishing their offerings from other competitors in the market, and on persuading candidates that their “unique” firm is the best one to join. However, we are kidding ourselves if we think that our “pull factors” alone are sufficient to entice candidates to join.

We have successfully scaled Constantine Law and have recently recruited our 29^th lawyer. Most of the people we recruit are Partner Consultants who are leaving competitor firms. I am effectively in a bidding war against other firms to attract these key people. However, in each of the conversations I have had with our joiners in recent months and years, there have been clear “push” factors which have encouraged (sometimes they would say compelled) a person to leave.