Senior partners buy-in

How do you get more senior partners to buy in to legal tech investments and change?

Basically mid-career partners are "own" the problem of firm renewal and change. Why? Because, unlike senior partners, they will be with the firm long enough to enjoy most of the fruits of the investments and change efforts (or will experience the majority of the pain if the firm does not renew itself).

Appeals to senior partners based on "legacy" (i.e. contributing to the ongoing viability of the firm) can work if combined with strong firm leadership and clarity from the mid-career partners about what change is required.

The fundamental problem is that many law firms do not have any pension system which would give retiring partners a stake in the firm remaining economically healthy following the partner's retirement. The big accounting firms solved this problem some time ago.

So, in short, the firm needs:

• Visionary and strong firm leadership
• Concerted and co-ordinated effort by mid-career partners to understand and propose changes
• Developing a strong "legacy" commitment amongst the senior partners
• Mechanisms providing retiring partners with a stake in the ongoing success of the firm