In-House Counsel

Leadership Actions and Corporate Cultures

By Hanna

Actions speak louder than words.  Yet how many business leaders try to change corporate culture with policy pronouncements and mission statements while conducting business as usual?

I was reminded of that old adage today when I read Office Culture Can Determine Firm?s Success.  The story is about a two Philadelphia-based law firms who realized some years ago that increased competition and declining fee structures would negatively affect long term growth in their practice specialty.  If they wanted to keep their income levels high they needed to diversify their practice with lateral hires that could bring with them a profitable book of business.  Unfortunately, the entrenched habits that defined the firms? culture sabotaged multiple attempts at diversification. 

Change was given lip service.  It was not genuinely embraced.

If business leaders aren?t careful, legal risk management can suffer a similar fate.  Employees will follow leadership?s cue. What gets rewarded gets done. That means if meeting a quarterly target at any cost gets kudos, then compliance will take a back seat. 

Businesses serious about doing the right thing need to step back periodically and evaluate whether they are sending mixed messages to their employees that keep firms from being as successful as they can be.  This is especially important for small and medium sized companies who may feel they’re not big enough for ”legal reviews.”  While their legal needs may be modest in comparison to their larger counterparts, their needs will grow as their business does.  Periodically checking the legal pulse will help keep bad habits from getting too entrenched and more difficult to change later on when the stakes are higher.   

Full post as published by Legal Literacy on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).