Our consulting approach

Consulting for law firms is about understanding

• What can the consultant do and what can’t he do? What is his training that shapes his understanding of the world?
• How does he organize the consulting process (focus on technical issues, or on people, or both?)
• What is his or her assumption of a “successful” law firm? Does this correspond to the image the partners have?
• How does he work? Is he an expert, the customers layman? Or can he moderate? What are his competences and where did he/she acquire them?
• How is he cooperating? How can you tell? What does your gut tell you?
• How does he bill? What is his understanding of “value” for the customer?

Consulting is one of the least researched areas of business administration. Research in this area has only been conducted since the mid-nineties. Consulting is very complex, as it depends not only on the necessary professional competence but also on the social competence of the consultant and the process competence of the consulting company.

This is all the more relevant in complex change processes because (in contrast to the lawyer, for example, who can be clearly identified as a specialist) the ability to bring about change must take many aspects into account.

The only explanatory approach that can do justice to these aspects so far is the systemic consulting approach, as researched and tested in practice by the Neuwaldegg (Vienna) consulting group and other consulting innovators (e.g. Heidelberg, St. Gallen Management School, Tavistock/ London, etc.).

This consulting approach is based on the self-control of systems, as we can observe it in biological and social systems. Systems only react to stimuli from the outside world if the information corresponds to a need inherent in the system.

Law firms, respectively their subsystems, especially the group of the social, are units that can be described as social systems (more on this: Nikolaus Luhmann).

We use this knowledge to support partnerships in change projects. Our consulting method is strictly systemic, both in terms of observation perspective and methods.