A Note from Shireen Hilal
I love this topic because so much of what happens inside a law firm comes back to the people. These are people businesses. Your workforce is your biggest cost, asset, and risk, and a lot of the issues that show up in profitability, client service, retention, and execution start there.
I wrote this article because firms usually respond to performance pressure with short-term pushes (e.g., bill more, collect faster, etc.), but those efforts only go so far if the culture underneath doesn’t support the behavior leaders want to see.
In the article, I focus on a few ways firms can make culture more concrete:
- Move from values to promises: Vague values like “excellence,” “integrity,” or “client service” don’t tell people what to do differently on a busy Tuesday. Promises are more specific. They explain what the firm expects, what clients and colleagues can count on, and which behaviors should show up in hiring, onboarding, reviews, incentives, and daily decisions.
- Give people context, don’t control them: Firms don’t need to micromanage every decision, but they do need to be clear about what requires strict compliance, then give people enough information to use judgment everywhere else.
- Use transparency to create accountability: People can’t support firm priorities (e.g., better profitability) if they don’t understand how the business works. Sharing the right context helps them connect daily choices to the firm’s performance.
- Let culture be co-created: Culture isn’t built through leadership memos. But leaders can help create the right culture by involving others and then rewarding the right behaviors.
We help law firm leaders build more successful firms, and one piece of that is strengthening culture and accountability. If your firm is looking to level up and not sure how to get there, I’m happy to be a sounding board. Meanwhile, the full Law360 article is below.
As Published in Law360
From Short-Term Fixes to Sustainable Success
Billable hours, collections and profits-per-partner calculations dominate monthly management and practice group meetings, with discussions often sparking repeat campaigns to "do better" — bill more, collect faster, etc.
These sprints can offer short-term boosts. But, like crash diets, they aren't sustainable. Real improvement requires a law firm lifestyle change.
Most firms know a more sustainable solution is needed, but find it difficult to move past symptoms and identify root causes.
So what is the root cause? Culture. Strong financial footing comes from ecosystems where profitability thrives naturally, the accountability and commitment of your team becomes a competitive advantage, and client loyalty is enhanced with strong results and consistent value.
Culture is often dismissed as a so-called soft factor — platitudes on a website that seem disconnected from the bottom line. But law is a people business. Your workforce is your single biggest cost, asset and risk, and trusted relationships are the foundation of new business.
Firms with intentional cultures build engagement, accountability and connection into their DNA. The key word here is "intentional" — strong cultures don't happen by accident.
This article provides an actionable road map for embedding a thriving culture into your day to-day operations. It's time to take culture from a soft concept to a hard strategy — one that delivers measurable results for your firm and clients.
The Data: A Challenging 2025 Forecast
This year's financial outlook for law firms highlights upcoming challenges: Expenses are projected to stay at historically high levels, while demand for legal services is expected to shrink.[1]
Adding to these pressures are shifting client expectations. A study released in January by software company BigHand Ltd. revealed that 85% of firms saw "an increase in client demand for financial transparency, reporting, and additional discounting" last year, while 72% saw higher write-offs last year, and 75% expect the same this year.[2]
This dual squeeze — rising costs and client-driven pricing pressure — means firms can't
afford inefficiency. Thriving in this environment requires more than competitive fee structures or the right technology stack. It takes building a culture where doing the right thing — for clients, colleagues and the business — is second nature for your entire workforce.
Other industries have provided a road map. For example, the best tech firms are known for rigorously hiring for both cultural alignment and exceptional performance, selecting individuals who are likely to meet high standards within their unique environments. They then empower their workforce with transparency and agility, enabling them to innovate, scale rapidly and sustain competitive advantage.
Law firms, though different in structure, can adapt these examples while building on the nuances that build the best professional services firms.
Point being, the wheel has already been built, and your firm can (bank)roll faster.
Actionable Strategies for Transforming Your Firm
To transform your firm, you need a framework that ties culture, operations and client value. The following sections outline programs that build on each other, creating a foundation of operational strength and cultural clarity to drive results.
Excellence Over Expansion
Excellence is table stakes at any great services firm — driving client retention, employee engagement and long-term profitability. Without it, growth initiatives fail.
Too often, firms focus on expansion — new practice areas, locations or lateral hires — while neglecting the core question: How do we become the best at what we already do? This approach overextends teams, leads to uneven client experiences and squanders opportunities to build an enduring reputation for excellence.
By embedding high standards into every process, you create a culture where exceptional results are the norm. Here's how to make it happen.
Strengthen your strengths.
Double down on areas where you already excel. Sharpening strengths is far more effective than stretching resources to fix weaknesses that won't become competitive advantages.
Focus on one area at a time.
Don't try to fix everything at once. Each month or quarter, select one improvement area for the firm. Allow each function or practice group to tailor that focus to their specific workflow so the goal resonates across your firm.
Layer and build over time.
Every small improvement should become a permanent standard. Over time, these nonnegotiables create a well-oiled system of excellence that drives consistent results and earns client trust.
Here is an example of how a firm might approach this in practice, ensuring both client-
facing professionals and internal teams feel ownership: If client communication is a strength on which the firm wants to double down, its real estate group could create a framework for proactive client updates during transactions, while IT builds a dashboard to give clients real time insights into matter progress.
Moving From Values Into Promises
Choosing areas of excellence ensures you're starting from a position of strength, but it's not enough to rely on individual initiatives. Firms need overarching frameworks that guide decisions, behaviors and priorities at every level.
Values, as they're usually articulated, don't cut it. Vague statements like "integrity" sound good in theory, but fail to resonate or drive action.
Instead, transform values into clear, actionable promises that set the standard for success and create a compelling value proposition.
The goal isn't to appeal to everyone — it's to attract and keep the right people, while demanding excellence. These promises guide critical processes like hiring, promotions and compensation by defining the traits and behaviors that thrive at your firm. Some examples of reinforcing promises include:
- Balance flexibility and accountability. Associates should have control over where and when they work, but also be expected to log time daily. This ensures accurate budgeting, equitable workload distribution and visibility into capacity — no matter where they are.
- Invest in growth for a purpose. For instance, employees could receive a professional development budget to pursue certifications, workshops or courses. In return, they're expected to grow into new responsibilities, mentor peers or take on initiatives that directly benefit the firm.
This level of clarity is powerful. But promises only work if they are operationalized. Unlike abstract values, they should be embedded into policies, training and daily workflows. Here's how to make them a lived reality.
Train for real-life situations.
Show — don't just tell — employees how to live the promises through practical, scenario based training.
For example, a firm that expects personalized service should train teams on how to adjust communications based on client needs and risk appetite. A corporate general counsel may need concise and actionable recommendations, while a startup founder might appreciate more context and options.
Align incentives for employees.
Reward employees for behaviors that deliver on promises. For example, you might give spot bonuses to departments with high client feedback scores on factors they affect.
Bake promises into onboarding and reviews.
Make promises a central part of your new hire process and ongoing evaluations. Examples include (1) onboarding manuals, which can include promises and provide practical examples of how to meet these standards; and (2) review metrics, which can tie performance reviews to promises, helping employees see how their contributions align with the firm's commitments.
Create transparent feedback loops.
Use tools like client satisfaction surveys and anonymous employee feedback to monitor how well promises are being fulfilled. Act on this data to refine processes and build trust, both internally and externally.
Bottom line: High-performing firms create alignment between firm goals and daily actions.
Empowering Your People With Purpose Over Process
Delivering on your promises requires a culture of trust and empowerment. Excellence isn't achieved by micromanaging every detail — it comes from being clear about what requires rigid compliance, and giving your team the autonomy to make smart decisions everywhere else.
Top talent stay engaged in environments where purpose drives actions. They care less about perks like free lunches or happy hours, and more about making meaningful contributions, having the tools to succeed and working alongside other top talent.
Law firms thrive when so-called zero-defect processes — which leave no room for error, e.g., filing deadlines or trust accounting — coexist with purpose-driven flexibility in areas like client communication and internal collaboration.
In contrast to zero-defect processes, other areas benefit from empowering employees to use their judgment to meet client needs and achieve firm goals.
Here's how you ensure better decision-making.
Clarify decision-making authority.
Create frameworks that provide employees with clear boundaries, but allow flexibility where it matters most. For example, partners could be empowered to discount bills up to 7% without additional approval if predefined criteria are met, such as preserving a key client relationship.
Give every role meaning and autonomy.
When employees at all levels feel empowered, the firm benefits from their creativity and engagement. For example, administrative teams could have a small budget for client engagement, allowing them to proactively support relationship-building.
Sending a Starbucks gift card to a client who rescheduled multiple times or a bottle of wine to celebrate a promotion reinforces the firm's client-first ethos, while also giving staff a sense of pride over the part they have to play in maintaining client relationships.
Transparency to Drive Accountability
If you're going to give your team the autonomy to make decisions, you need to provide enough information for them to make the right calls. Without this visibility, attorneys and staff are left guessing, unable to fully support the firm's direction or connect with its success.
Law firms often create a so-called black box effect, where nonpartners operate without insight into the firm's financial health, strategic priorities or performance expectations. But professionals who don't understand how their work affects the firm's bottom line are less likely to think proactively about pricing, efficiency or long-term client relationships.
Transparency doesn't mean sharing every detail — it means providing enough context for employees to align their actions with firm goals. Here's how to equip your team with the right level of visibility.
Give better information.
Most firms hold quarterly or annual all-hands meetings, but too often, these are filled with generic updates that don't provide real insights.
Instead, use these meetings to share the firm's strategic direction. For example, instead of a vague statement like, "We're focused on profitability this year," provide specific insights, like, "Our realization rate dropped 4% last quarter — here's what's causing it and how we can improve."
Explain the "why" behind billables and profitability.
Many professionals, especially those early in their careers, don't fully understand how law firms make money beyond the billable hour. Educate them on profitability drivers, realization rates and how efficiency affects margins.
For example, explain the concept of realization — if billable hours are routinely written off, it signals inefficiency, misaligned client expectations or pricing gaps.
Pair this insight with tactical solutions, like contemporaneous and detailed time entries that reinforce value for clients.
Give compensation clarity.
Align rewards with behaviors that drive the firm's strategic goals. Recognize and incentivize high client-satisfaction scores, cross-department collaboration and proactive client communication.
Transparency around what's rewarded helps employees focus on what truly matters to the firm's success.
Cocreating Your Culture
Every section of this road map — excellence, promises, empowerment and transparency — ultimately leads here. Culture isn't dictated from the top down; it's built together.
Too often, firms try to shape culture through leadership memos, core values statements or one-off initiatives. But a firm's actual culture isn't what leadership says it is — it's the daily
experience of employees, the way decisions are made and the behaviors that are rewarded.
Firms that treat culture as a leadership directive often end up with disengaged teams who feel disconnected from the values they're told to embrace.
Here's how to bring employees into the process, so culture becomes something they actively contribute to — not just something they're told to follow.
Let employees shape firm initiatives.
Employees are far more invested in programs they've helped design. Instead of leadership deciding everything — from training programs to internal engagement efforts — give employees ownership over key firm initiatives. Examples include:
- Lunch-and-learn ownership: Instead of assigning training topics from the top down, let associates and managers select topics that address real knowledge gaps or challenges they're experiencing.
- Staff-driven social and professional events: Allow teams to take the lead in organizing firm events — whether it's mentorship circles, innovation workshops or social gatherings that reinforce firm culture.
Have collaborative town halls.
Firmwide meetings are usually one-way broadcasts. Instead, turn them into dynamic conversations. Examples include:
- Highlighting employee-led wins: Dedicate part of the meeting to employees presenting successful projects, efficiency improvements or client wins.
- Providing cross-department insights: Give teams outside of leadership a platform to present new initiatives. For instance, have your marketing team share how they're refining business development strategies.
Involve fresh perspectives in key firm decisions.
When firms revisit policies, processes or internal workflows, they often rely on leadership's perspective. But employees — especially those on the front lines — have keen insights.
For example, when evaluating processes, include input from those most affected, whether that's asking new hires to help shape your onboarding, or letting client-facing teams refine service delivery.
The firms that embed cocreation into their culture don't just get better engagement — they get better ideas.
Conclusion
Firms that operationalize excellence, align promises with actions and empower their people to act decisively build something unshakable: trust. Trust with clients, among teams and in
the firm's future.
Start small. Build intentionally. The results will speak for themselves.
If you have feedback or are identifying trends or challenges you'd like to see addressed next quarter, I'd love to hear from you.
Shireen Hilal is the chief executive officer at Maior Strategic Consulting.
The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employer, its clients, or Portfolio Media Inc., or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal advice.
[1] https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/legal/state-of-the-us-legal-market 2025/.
[2] https://www2.bighand.com/bighand-enhancing-profit-insights.
