ProfitAbility Business Simulations Clients - Case Studies - DLA Piper
‹ Back to Case StudiesHow DLA Piper is turning legal eagles into profit experts.
With a powerful vision to be a top five, global, full service law firm, DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary (DLA Piper) has a well-deserved reputation for being progressive and astute. The firm’s well-rounded service offering stretches across a number of core areas, including commercial, litigation and real estate.
As part of this global vision, the firm is keen to ensure that people at all levels of the organisation understand the financial workings of a law firm. DLA Piper is an organisation that essentially has several hundred owners, all of whom have financial responsibility. So it makes good sense to instil sound financial acumen, in addition to expert knowledge of the law.
Amber Moore, former Head of Development at DLA Piper, has pioneered this initiative, working with ProfitAbility Business Simulations to bring financial management for law firms to life for people in a variety of different roles across the firm.
Legal ProfitAbility—the board-based simulation developed by ProfitAbility specifically for law firms—was chosen as one of the methods of developing this financial management expertise within DLA Piper. Moore explains:
“It’s all very well standing up and giving a lecture about finance, but with Legal ProfitAbility, delegates can truly experience the highs and lows of the consequences of their financial decisions.”
The programme comprises a one and a half day workshop where attendees from DLA Piper are divided into competing teams, each running their own law firm. Time is compressed so that numerous business cycles play out over the programme. After each business cycle, teams have the opportunity to revise their strategy and try a different approach. “At first, some lawyers are sceptical—we’re talking about very bright, highly qualified individuals who are essentially being asked to play a board game at work! But the competitive element soon takes over and teams generate increasingly sophisticated management techniques, which deliver both profit and growth.”
“Most law firms face a similar challenge,” explains Phil Walsh, Deputy Sales Director at ProfitAbility. “The firm is a commercial business like any other, but focusing on cost and revenue can be seen as devaluing the professional client service they provide. It’s almost like ‘profit’ is a dirty word to lawyers. Legal ProfitAbility is designed to enable lawyers to clearly identify their personal role in the firm’s commercial success and to chase away any notion that conversations about money (both internally and externally) are uncomfortable.”
Legal ProfitAbility is now being deployed across far more than just the partner base at DLA Piper. Its adaptability means that it can be used to give more junior lawyers a great perspective of the levers that impact profit in a law firm early in their career. Similarly, business professionals at DLA Piper are now combining their specialist professional knowledge with sound principles for running a law firm.
Their ability to support the law firm effectively is increasing hand in hand. To date, business professionals from Human Resources have experienced Legal ProfitAbility and there are plans to include more functions, for example Business Development and other central services. The programme is also being used as part of the associate development centre activities prior to partner selection and at rising star events.
Anecdotal evidence of improved financial decision-making is strong, as is positive feedback from delegates themselves. But ProfitAbility and DLA Piper have a clear plan to measure the impact; each participant is assisted to leave the programme with a financial action plan to report back on. An individual’s plan might include commitments such as "reduce WIP by 10%", "improve pricing by 5%", "improve accuracy of time recording by 10%" or "decrease debtor days by 10 days"—the impact of which can be calculated financially.
Coaching is available to support lawyers as they strive to achieve their action plan. The principle is to help lawyers overcome likely obstacles. This coaching will be offered on a facilitated group basis in the form of action learning. For example a lawyer who has successfully reduced his debtor days can share experiences with a lawyer who has successfully increased his fees. By tracking the achievement of the commitments made in the action plans—plus measuring the influence of coaching/action learning in this process—the impact of DLA Piper’s commitment to expert financial management will be crystal clear.
So far, more than 150 partners, associates and business professionals at DLA Piper have experienced running a ‘mini law firm’ through Legal ProfitAbility. With more participants flowing through the learning process on an ongoing basis, DLA Piper looks set fulfil its Top 5 vision rather sooner than anticipated…
About DLA Piper
DLA Piper is a relationship-driven law firm, working to meet the ongoing legal needs of its clients wherever it does business. Operating across Asia, Europe and the US, DLA Piper offers more than 3,100 lawyers in 59 offices in 22 countries. It acts for enterprises across the full spectrum of business including local, national and multi-national companies in a wide range of business sectors.
‹ Back to Case Studies