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Five Reasons Why Your Law Firm Needs a Retreat
In my work with law firms, I see far too many lawyers operate like sole practitioners who simply share office space. In today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, it’s more important than ever to behave like one, unified firm. A Firm Retreat, if done properly, can be an invaluable tool to build cohesiveness and improve quality of life for everyone. And recent studies show that a more cohesive firm focused on shared goals and objectives is also a more profitable firm.
Here are five reasons why your firm should institute a Firm Retreat:
1) To Educate
You might choose to use a firm retreat to educate lawyers about an important topic, such as best practices in law firm marketing, changes in legislation or economic trends. Outside speakers can offer credibility when speaking about such issues, but you might consider also using your own people to talk about an area of their own expertise. I also strongly encourage firms to bring in a panel of clients to educate the firm about the importance of client service. There is nobody better to teach you about what you’re doing well and how to improve client relations than the clients themselves.
2) To Motivate Action
In the day-to-day rat race, it’s hard to get the attention of all the lawyers in your firm. It’s even harder to motivate action. There’s no better place than a firm retreat to create energy around a given task and encourage people to do something about it. It could be something as simple as motivating lawyers to get involved in more organizations or to develop stronger relationships with their existing clients. The key is to sustain the energy you create at the retreat once you get back to the office. Give people clear steps to follow once they return and hold them accountable to take action.
3) To Announce Firm-wide Initiatives and Achieve Buy-in
Lawyers are inherently skeptical. It’s one of the things that makes you good at your jobs. But it also can create a challenge in getting everyone to support important firm-wide initiatives. Firm retreats are a great venue to announce and explain such initiatives, while everyone is away from the Blackberries and cell phones. Create a forum for discussion so everyone’s voice can be heard and taken into account in the plan for the future. In many cases, firms do not have these conversations simply because they cannot bring everyone together. If you make the effort to do this through a firm retreat, the buy-in is much more likely to develop naturally.
4) To Introduce Lawyers to Each Other
Mostly in large firms, but also in some small firms, people simply do not know one another. Ask yourself if you really know what the folks upstairs or down the hall do. It’s critically important to quality of life within your firm to get to know one another and build trust. It’s tough to do when you’re busy with daily activities, but it will happen inevitably over a game of paintball or an outdoor excursion. (And yes, I know firms that have done both of these activities at their retreats!)
5) To Build Camaraderie
It’s important to have fun together as well as work together. The more cohesiveness you build within your firm, the stronger your organization will be. A firm retreat lets you build the “glue” that will hold your firm together in volatile times.
Yes, retreats can cost a lot of money and require an investment of everyone’s time. But it’s money well spent if you develop clear objectives for your retreat and build the program accordingly. You might not be able to tangibly measure the results, but I can guarantee you will see positive changes from a well-planned and executed Firm Fetreat.
About the Author
John Remsen, Jr. is President of TheRemsenGroup, an Atlanta-based marketing consulting firm that works exclusively with law firms. Since 1997, he has worked with law firms of all types and sizes to plan and present hundreds of Firm Retreats.
