WHAT WE DO
With more than 20 years of experience in more than 250 consulting assignments, we have become the leading law firm management consulting company for law firms (lawyers, patent attorneys, auditors, tax advisors) and legal department consulting in Continental Europe.
Today we serve clients in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
We work for large law firms to further develop their strategy, firm management and the organisation and culture that supports them.
Our customers
We advise law firms of various sizes and orientations. The associates are typically demanding lawyers who have entrepreneurial goals or wish to expand them.
Our core target groups, in which we know more about consulting than anyone else, are:
These are typically characterized as follows:
- Partnership-based national or regional leading law firms which, due to the intensity of competition, need an external consultant’s view in order to pursue common strategies and improve their management and systems
- Law firms in market niches with market leadership potential, who want professional support on their way
- Specialist law firms which, due to their exceptional structure/business area, would like to better implement innovative ideas (this also includes patent law firms, multidisciplinary law firms, insolvency and reorganisation consultants, …)
Projects we are currently working on
We advise law firms and legal departments on an ongoing basis and accompany them in the processes of change, usually also on a long-term basis.
In the following, we describe a few of our current projects that we are currently working on:
One of the top 10 WP/StB/RA law firms in Germany, which wants to develop its business model, organization and strategy in order to grow, has to deal with Legal Tech. However, the consequences for the organization are not considered enough from the IT perspective; here we help to reflect on these consequences and initiate changes.
One of Austria’s major law firms in the further development of its strategy and improvement of success factors as prerequisites for growth.
Business development project with a leading law firm in Switzerland, which aims to offer a completely new range of services in this market, which no competitor has offered so far.
A law firm that is recognized as a leader in its field in Germany would like to take advantage of this reputation advantage. We help to develop a business model, including profit distribution and governance, in order to set up a completely new law firm that operates the existing business in a fundamentally new way.
This large German law firm had made all the decisions, but nothing moved. We are helping to bring the practice groups to life and to make cross-location cooperation successful.
Support in a branding process of a leading national law firm in other European countries: including qualitative interviews with the legal counsels of leading global banks and industrial companies.
In this smaller but very demanding commercial law firm, 5 years after its foundation, it is obvious that the acceptance of equal contributions in economic terms (and entp. profit sharing) did not apply. Therefore it is a matter of how to deal with the discrepancy without losing internal cooperation culture.
Optimization of personnel development in a leading national law firm in Germany by revising the understanding of the process of developing outstanding legal personalities and professionalism in the profession as well as the way to get there.
We advise several law firms on how to further develop their profit distribution system. In doing so, we take a holistic view not only of the regulation but also of the practice, including reporting, knowing that the perceptibility of the performance has a major influence on the evaluation.
We accompany the small partnership of a highly specialized boutique, leading in its market and on an equal footing with all major law firms, in the upcoming change of generation, including the question of the transition of mandates, securing income, etc.
One of the top medium-sized law firms in Germany is supported in the design and implementation of controlling and management reporting, with the aim of securing its further development both economically and strategically.
As well as running:
Coaching of managing partners, performance coaching of young partners or senior associates, advice on consulting, revision of partnership agreements (only by Attorneys at Law Vaagt and Dr. Gross), client surveys in the context of strategy or marketing projects.
Restructuring to strengthen the legal department
The logistics company is owner-managed and belongs to the upper middle class. The legal department was only involved in parts of the management. This was due on the one hand to the traditional role attributed to the legal department and on the other hand to the performance of its tasks. With the appointment of an external managing director, the call for restructuring became louder. We analysed the situation by means of interviews with all parties involved, including the internal clients of the legal department, and discussed their wishes. This resulted in a jointly developed concept, which is now being implemented. As a result, the legal department was redefined in terms of its responsibilities, capacity was increased and service orientation was strengthened. The visibility in the company was significantly increased and the legal department is now involved in all relevant legal matters of the company at an early stage.
Offer optimization
In this German group, the aim is to optimise the IP department. We analysed the processes and coached the management so that the management tasks can be carried out more efficiently. We identified the changing requirements with the help of interviews with internal “customers”, and on the basis of these interviews the department is currently being restructured and the range of services is being expanded. This also includes the establishment of a globally active product piracy department, which is to prevent product piracy on site.
Review of the resource situation
In this large group of companies, the question is what resources should be allocated to the central legal department. In addition to defining the core tasks and analysing processes, it is also a question of embedding the legal department in the company’s activities.