Law Firms Should Ditch the Rigid Mindset for a Disruptive Model

The catalyst to transformation in the legal industry will be more radical than adoption of artificial intelligence or other trendy technologies. Practice disruption—a project management-centric approach—can replace a law firm’s top-down structure and rigid mindset. Firms that don’t embrace it risk being left behind.

Legacy Model

The centuries-old law firm model is essentially a scheme that has partners at the apex and overworked associates forming the base.

Associates often find themselves reporting to multiple partners—a recipe for stress as they complete 60-plus-hour workweeks. This contrasts industries where a project manager is the first line of defense between producers and new work.

Non-lawyer staff could theoretically bridge this gap, but those professionals are generally viewed as back-office staff, not vital leaders. It’s no surprise that hungry, business-minded college grads aren’t lining up to apply for jobs at law firms.

The burnout caused by the traditional model isn’t just a problem for lawyers; it’s also a problem for clients. When lawyers are spread too thin, they can’t devote the attention necessary to deep legal work, so quality suffers.

When lawyers oversee workflow management, client matters languish. And when overextended lawyers are the primary contact, clients find themselves saddled with the responsibility of repeatedly asking for status updates.

A Better Way

During my first career in advertising, in my first week at a 200-person ad agency, senior management picked me to join a brainstorming meeting for one of the biggest brands in the country. I wondered at the time why leadership cared what a newly minted college grad had to say about a national advertising campaign.

I realized over time that this creative culture generated the best ideas for clients and energized young professionals to step up and be leaders. That’s why, as a 21-year-old, I was sitting around boardroom tables advising executives on marketing strategy instead of toiling away in a cubicle.

When I entered the legal profession and experienced its top-down structure, rigid mindset, and operational inefficiencies, I knew it didn’t have to be this way. Inspired by this vision, my law partner and I later set out to create a different kind of firm.

Practice Disruption

In the business world, disruption occurs when a nascent company takes down incumbents through an innovative business model. Similarly, with practice disruption, the old paradigm is flipped. We have rejected the toxic culture of elitism, elevated non-lawyer staff, and replaced organized chaos with carefully crafted processes.

At our firm, we have project managers instead of paralegals. Lawyers are organized into project manager-led teams, not lawyer-run practice groups.

Our PMs lead weekly team meetings to get everyone in sync, align on client priorities, and determine who needs support. They also meet one-on-one with attorneys weekly to dive deep into that lawyer’s matters.

This structure makes us much more agile than a traditional firm organized by practice groups because the PMs can facilitate fluid cross-team collaboration. To make sure PMs are well-equipped, we’ve developed a comprehensive process manual, which enables quick onboarding and gives PMs the confidence they need to lead their teams.

Some naysayers may argue that elevating PMs into a leadership role is incompatible with a lawyer’s duty to supervise. But this is just an excuse to perpetuate a culture of ego and classism. Encouraging non-lawyer staff to exercise agency and leadership doesn’t undermine a lawyer’s duties to clients. Instead, treating PMs as leaders facilitates lawyers doing their jobs because they can focus on their highest and best use: deep legal thinking.

Disrupt or Die

Given that lawyers have always been in high demand, firms might assume that practice disruption is optional. But the talent pool and customer base—who make or break a firm’s success—will disagree.

Burnout pervades the legal profession, with a 2023 Bloomberg Law study finding that lawyers feel burnt out almost half the time, unable to disconnect from work. Associates are tired of grinding away years of their life without operational support, all for a slim chance of one day becoming partner. Asociates increasingly see this path as a futile pursuit. The pyramid won’t stand if its base crumbles.

Clients are affected by the poor communication and lack of progress that is typical of some lawyers. According to the American Bar Association, poor communication is one of the top two reasons clients file complaints about their lawyers.

Early adopters of practice disruption are showing the market that there is a better way—one that positions PMs as internal advocates for clients. Clients no longer have to resort to being their own PM. Lawyers and clients shouldn’t settle for the traditional law firm paradigm. Instead, they should lead the charge in practice disruption rather than get left behind.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Jordan Teague is founding partner at Campbell Teague and focuses on emerging technologies and complex disputes.

Write for Us: Author Guidelines