工商管理毕业论文外文文献
1 Problems arise
During this past year, a number of well established law firms of various sizes and specialties that reported "better than average" economic results experienced rapid and unanticipated reversals. These reversals occurred because partners who controlled significant amounts of client business departed to pursue "more lucrative long-term opportunities in other law firms" due to the real or perceived lack of appropriate leadership by lawyer management in their former firms.
Every law firm, regardless of size, needs leadership. Good law firm management cannot be achieved until all the partners agree to subordinate some degree of independence to a managing partner or an executive managing committee. The partners must strike a balance between their rights as owners and their responsibilities as citizens of the firm. They must relinquish some personal prerogatives in order to achieve the overall results that they would not be able to attain on their own.
In theory, all partners are created equal. By dint of partnership status they are accorded the same rights and privileges. As many firms discover, though, this is not the case in practice. Invariably, each partner has his or her own idea about how to perform the job, and partners exercise their authority accordingly.
If the firm is to establish a form of governance that will satisfy all of its members, the attorneys must first acknowledge the need for leadership. The designated leader, whether an individual or a management or executive committee, will not succeed until all attorneys in the firm recognize that the impetus for successful management is derived from the willingness of all firm members to be governed. The partners must also recognize that managing a firm, either as the managing partner or a member of a committee, is just as important and as difficult as performing client work.
In some firms, the leadership role is assumed easily and naturally, because the individual is either a founding partner or controls a significant client base. In firms in which the partners are relatively young and inexperienced, the process of "natural selection," as it were, may be somewhat more difficult, if not virtually impossible. In situations in which no partner surfaces as a natural leader or no one wants the job, the firm must take aggressive action if it wishes to grow and satisfy the professional, economic and personal objectives of its members.2 Cause Analysis
In any case, the firm must make some hard decisions about the kind of leadership that is required and what the members of willing to live with. Should the general partnership elect a managing partner? Should this individual be appointed by the management committee?
Sometimes the size of the firm will preclude this dilemma. The smaller firm is in a position to establish a democratic form of governance that includes all the partners in a leadership role. If this is not practical, the partners face a difficult choice. They risk setting up two power centers if the general partnership elects both the management committee and the managing partner. This will create great potential for dissension and divisiveness. To avoid this debacle, selection of the managing partner by the management committee is the preferable course of action.
What kind of person makes a good managing partner? Generally, lawyers are not recruited to a law firm on the basis of their interest or skills in management. They are rarely trained by the firm in management skills. Consequently, lawyers' skills and levels of interest in management are greatly varied.
Any management committee will include some attorneys who are good managers and some who are not. This should not be viewed as an obstacle. Management skills are not necessarily the only factors that qualify an attorney to serve on a management committee. It may be equally important to provide equitable representation on the committee to each of the groups of lawyers that constitute the law firm.
The requisites for leadership are, in this day and age, well known. The leader must garner respect and support, have clout and wield it when necessary. The leader's skills must combine judgment, timing and vision.
The managing partner must keep the objectives of the firm in proper perspective. The managing partner must be able to rise above the "self" and understand that the good of the firm must come first. The managing partner must be able to make decisions and have them stick. Perhaps most important, the managing partner must want to manage the firm.
Many partner want a great deal of "say” in firm operations, but stop short of following up on their advice or opinions with recognizable action. Such "management by debate" leads 1225
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