Governance – Harnessing your Might

Tutor: Nick Jarrett-Kerr  CPD Hours: 22 hours  Duration: 3 months

Course Cost: £1195

Law firms – along with every other commercial organisation – need to decide how best they should organise themselves to be successful. In addition, more and more external stakeholders – such as banks, insurers and regulators – are reviewing the internal management hierarchies and partnership structures of law firms to help them decide whether or not the firm is well coordinated and managed and employs a coherent governance structure.

This course will enable participants to review the structure, governance and organisation of their firm and adjust or transform it to meet current and future needs as well as to align it to the firm’s strategy. Corporate structures will be considered as well as the more traditional partnership and LP structures. Participants will also be able to chart their way through the various internal organisational structures necessary to achieve success, including the roles of the Managing Partner, Senior Partner, Senior Managers and department heads, together with the organisational hierarchies and ‘organigrams’ which may have developed within the firm. Participants will also learn about the transitional ‘tipping points’ which require a different management and structural approach and will accordingly be able to analyse what is the optimal system for their firm in its current state on the corporate life-cycle.

This course will help you to resolve these typical business problems:

• What is the most suitable governance structure for our firm in its current stage of development?
• What should be the roles of leaders?
• Should the Managing Partner be full-time or part-time?
• Should the firm employ professional managers, and if so, at what level?
• What level of consensus should prevail within the firm?
• What should the rules of the firm be and how far should such rules be enforced against partners?
• What committees should we have?
• What is the link between strategy, structure and culture?
• What are the organisational ‘silos’ and functional ‘chimneys’ that prevent the firm from being an integrated, coordinated and homogeneous operating unit?
• How should departments and teams be organised and what is the role of department heads?

This Governance course will give you the tools and know how to:

• Decide the optimal management and governance structure for your firm.
• Consider whether your firm needs to be run with a light touch or with greater control.
• Understand whether the firm’s management/leadership needs to be further centralised on one hand or decentralised on the other.
• Understand the way things are normally done and expected in the firm and how these organisational traits help or hinder the firm in its performance.
• Address and ameliorate the internal fault lines within the firm and its departments and between partners.
• Define the management roles and responsibilities of partners and senior managers.
• Plan the necessary Board, Committee and Departmental structures.
• Create a coherent and consistent (but fair) set of partnership/membership rules and disciplines which set fair performance expectations for partners.

Download an application form here