Change Management for Lawyers: What Legal Management Can Learn from Business Management

Abstract

The market for legal services is undergoing radical change which also impacts in-house legal departments. A number of chapters in this book address change that is already ongoing or imminent for legal departments, but how do you best go about managing this change? Lawyers are notoriously skeptical when it comes to change, and this is true for both in-house lawyers and their private practice peers. Practically no law school teaches change management, so most lawyers in management roles have only the management training offered by their respective corporations as basis for managing change in their legal departments—and many struggle with change. The most career-defining questions for many lawyer managers are simply: “Will the change I’m planning succeed? Can I overcome the inherent resistance to change among my lawyers? What can I do to improve the likelihood of successful change?” Fortunately, change management theory and experience exist which can be leveraged, and this chapter will help you estimate the likelihood of success for your change project—before you get in too deep.