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Interview with Markus Hartung, Center on the Legal Profession

Markus Hartung, Director of the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession, answers our six questions:

1. Name two predominating trends in the legal profession that you’ve noticed this past year.

First, law firms are dealing with clients who expect firms to add value to their businesses.
In the 21st century, most businesses have thrived on a game plan of reducing costs while increasing quality of their products and/or services. For years it seemed that this trend didn’t apply to law firms, but now market expectations have caught up. Firms now are faced with huge challenges to provide their services for alternative fee arrangements, like large discounts, caps, project fees etc.

Secondly, leadership styles must change to reflect a competitive human resources marketplace.
Law firms have to offer a “new deal” to their associates. The partnership track no longer is the goal of all associates, so law firms have to develop attractive options in order to retain highly skilled associates. Today’s associates carefully monitor their work-life balance and have higher expectations of the leadership of law firm partners. Associates now expect to have responsibility early on in dealing with clients and legal work and to participate in demanding decisions that affect the firm. They also expect to work in firms with a cooperative leadership style and a transparent information policy.

Law firms must accommodate these revised expectations because the labor pool is so tight. And with a decreasing birth rate and a sharp decline in the number of law school students across the globe, the war for talent will be even more competitive in five to seven years.

2. What will heightened client expectations and a smaller work pool mean for the management of a global law firm?

From marketing and business development to efficient production and risk sharing, law firms need to focus on project management to ensure clients receive the required quality for smaller fees. In doing this, law firms must challenge their business models based on fee-earner leverage and cost-plus-margin pricing. Working against caps means a totally different approach to the way law firms do business.

The tight labor market means law firm culture and leadership style become more and more important in the war for talent.

3. What differences in these issues do you see working with firms on both sides of the Atlantic?

“More value for smaller fees” seems to be a global issue, which applies to law firms wherever they are practicing. The trends are the same, no matter where you are.

4. Who are the CLP partners in the U.S.?

The CLP cooperates with many universities like Harvard or Georgetown, companies like Deutsche Bank and law firms like Venable, White & Case, just to name a few. We always want to expand this net of informal cooperation to better serve the profession.

5. Describe the services the CLP provides.

The CLP provides leadership and management courses for lawyers both in private practice and in-house legal departments. To make sure these courses deliver cutting edge content, the CLP researches legal markets and best practices in leadership and management. CLP’s services are sought after by in-house legal departments and major commercial law firms.

6. What is the best way to work with the CLP?

Get in contact. The CLP has deep knowledge of the market and knows all the relevant players. Our research can directly impact the way law firms do business. In addition, the CLP helps in-house legal departments and law firms design in-house training programs for partners and associates.