Law firm owners: you are not your law firm.
Your organization is made up of numerous players — not only the attorneys, but all the supporting legal staff, paralegals, intake specialists, marketing professionals, operations staff, receptionists, and everyone in between.
You are outnumbered, and your law firm is only as strong, aligned, and successful as the people who make up your staff.
It’s time to invest in them.
Law firm staff: whatever your position, you play a crucial role in the success of your organization — and you need to consider your own personal and professional goals too.
It’s never been more important to bridge the gap between law firm leadership and the staff supporting the work they do.
And the EVOLVE Virtual Summit will provide the tools you need to do it.
Keep reading to learn the top 3 factors that produce positive results for both law firm leaders and team members — and how the EVOLVE Summit will equip you to meet the needs of each:
- Finding the Right Fit [hiring]
- Making Staff More Valuable to the Firm [investing in growth and development]
- Making the Firm More Valuable to its Staff [aligning with a meaningful mission and vision]
If you’re still a one-lawyer show, never fear. These key takeaways will benefit you now, and they’ll be important to keep in mind as you continue to grow. Someday, you’ll have a thriving team — so start building your foundation now.
Find the Right Fit [Hiring]
The right people in the right positions will generate the growth your law firm needs to help more people and make a bigger impact than you ever thought possible.
At the root of nearly every business challenge is people.
And at the root of nearly every solution is people.
Think about it this way: Say you struggle to convert all the leads your law firm generates into signed clients, you regularly lose clients to competitors, and ultimately you feel you have an intake problem.
If you find the best possible intake coordinator who can transform your processes, train up other staff to provide a consistent experience, convert more of those leads into paying clients, and retain clients throughout their experience working with your firm, you no longer have an intake problem.
It’s not about figuring out how to solve your business challenges. It’s about figuring out who is the right person to solve them for you.
But it’s not easy to find the candidates who not only have the skills and experience necessary to meet your law firm’s needs, but also have the values and character traits necessary to align with the culture of your organization.
Established culture provides a blueprint for consistency and accountability within your firm. As legal marketing expert Harlan Schillinger puts it, culture is a tactical approach that shows through everything that is done by everyone in your firm.
Hiring is both an art and a science, and at the EVOLVE Summit, we’ll share our proven strategies and hard-earned lessons on building a truly game changing team for your law firm.
Conversely, a potential candidate applying for new opportunities is hunting for the right fit as well.
By incorporating meaningful core values as well as the mission and vision of your law firm into your hiring and recruiting process, you’ll attract the right people who are uniquely cut out to become part of your unique team. Check out the Crisp core values as an example of the types of team members we have and candidates we seek out:
- Vested in client success
- Results driven
- Solution focused
- Team first
- Better than yesterday
- Consistency
- Take ownership
Make Staff More Valuable to the Firm [Invest in Leveling Up Your Capabilities]
Cultural alignment and commitment to the overall mission of the organization are crucial to bringing on the right people and retaining them for the long term — but it’s only part of the picture.
Continuously investing in the personal and professional growth of each member of your team not only ensures they feel actively engaged in their work, but it also makes your staff more valuable to the firm by increasing their capabilities and staying competitive in the marketplace.
A growing portion of the workforce is made up of millennials: “By 2025, the workforce will be 75 percent millennials according to Forbes.com” (Wellmark). This generation “cares deeply about their development when looking for jobs and — naturally — in their current roles. An impressive 87% of millennials rate ‘professional or career growth and development opportunities’ as important to them in a job — far more than the 69% of non-millennials who say the same” (Gallup).
On average, companies that invest in training their staff experience 24% higher profit margin over those that don’t prioritize continuing education. Additionally, companies that provide their staff structured training programs generate 218% higher income per employee than those without formalized training.
While many law firm owners hesitate to invest when it doesn’t yield an immediate gain, get Crisp Founder & CEO Michael Mogill’s take on why that shouldn’t stop you.
Considering how quickly the market evolves — and how quickly the legal industry in particular has been innovating as courts have been closed and many legal activities move online in recent years — equipping your team with the tools they need to stay on top of trends and develop an agile approach to business growth can differentiate your law firm from competitors significantly.
A classic business joke involves two leaders discussing whether to invest in expensive training for their staff.
One asks, “What if we train them, and they just leave?”
The other responds, “What if we don’t train them, and they stay?”
But the benefits are not just for you as the law firm owner.
When team members feel heard, valued, and invested in, they will be more confident in the work they do and see a future for their career at your law firm.
“When your company takes the time to work with employees 1:1 to determine their current versus desired skill sets, their strengths and weaknesses, and even what fuels their passions so they feel empowered to bring their best self to work each day — the employee is more likely to succeed and grow” (Wellmark).
At the EVOLVE Summit, your law firm team members will learn all the top areas of expertise they should be mastering now to contribute to the organization at a higher level. They’ll see a clear path to achieve their own goals and aspirations. They will work with you to get your law firm to where you want it to go, and you’ll work with them to understand their individual goals, motivations, and passions.
Make Your Firm More Valuable to its Staff [Align with the Mission & Vision of Your Law Firm]
Bring your team to the EVOLVE Summit, and they’ll be part of developing, defining, and understanding your law firm’s distinctive culture — and how they fit into the picture.
Including your team members in the future goals and big-picture vision of your law firm helps them find meaning in their work. And according to a Harvard Business Review study:
“When people find meaning in the work, they also feel a sense of ownership. The work means something to them personally.
When people take ownership of the work, they are more committed to it, more intrinsically motivated, more engaged. And that makes for better performance on all dimensions.”
At Crisp, we rally around a clear and powerful idea: We’re on a mission to help over 1,000 law firm owners grow their revenues by $1 million ($1 billion impact) in the next five years.
According to ENGAGEMENT MAGIC®: Five Keys for Engaging People, Leaders, and Organizations, the factors most important to the people in your organization are
- Meaning
- Autonomy
- Growth
- Impact
- Connection
By thoughtfully developing and communicating a meaningful mission your law firm is working toward, you check many of these boxes. Your team is searching for meaning in their work, wants to make an impact in the world, and values connection with the community, colleagues, and clients you are committed to helping.
Factor in personal and professional growth opportunities for your staff and give them the autonomy to fulfill their full potential, and you’ll have a winning combination.
The EVOLVE Summit is specifically designed to equip not only attorneys and law firm owners with cutting-edge insights, but also to empower their teams to level up their capabilities, align themselves with the mission and vision of their organizations, and invest in their personal and professional growth.
You’ve leave the EVOLVE Summit with an actionable plan for how to attract the best talent, retain your game changers, and keep them engaged in the mission and vision of your organization — and your team will leave energized and empowered to take charge of their training, development, and personal & professional growth.
The EVOLVE Summit is for law firms, their teams, and anyone in the legal industry who wants to develop their skills, grow as a leader, and add value to their organization to help build the law firm of the future.
We encourage you to bring anyone who has a stake in the success of your organization: attorneys, paralegals, office staff, marketing team, and anyone else who plays a role in moving your law firm forward.
