TOP 10
PATENT LAW FIRMS: TOP 10
Challenge
Patent law firms often accept mandates from any client without questioning whether it makes economic sense. This is because large law firms have a cost apparatus that demands the sensible use of the time of the professionals, especially the partners.
When working with patent law firms, we focus on the 10 success factors that make them sustainably more successful than the competition (see above)
Most larger patent law firms have a partnership model that has not been adapted to their size and where most decisions still have to go through the big round of all partner meetings. On the one hand, this leads to a high degree of transparency and participation by all, but is also increasingly cumbersome. The faster the markets change, the faster the law firm must have answers ready.
The ability to make decisions has a direct influence on competitiveness. Our method involves all partners in the question of optimal organizational design so that changes can be adopted and implemented by consensus.
The partnership is relieved of many meetings on small administrative procedures and can concentrate on consulting and market development. The employees experience leadership and guidance, but also care. The economic results improve, as the processes of information and control are also optimised.
We can name the following cases from the last 20 years of our law firm consulting, with many examples overlapping; at the core, it is always about culture change:
- Clarification of requirements for the management of large law firms; consensus building among partners and ‘amendment of partnership agreement
- Strategy processes to clarify the future positioning of a medium-sized patent law firm
Our range of customers
Example of our “Real Time Change” consulting approach
One of the top 10 patent law firms, with several locations, lacked coordination and leadership, especially with regard to its accounting, human resources and marketing staff. In order to manage these, uniform management bodies are required. In one meeting we succeeded in passing the partners of this organisational form by consensus without perceiving the loss of control as such.