A post on the Hildebrandt Baker Robbins LawVision blog explores the trepid relationship between law firm leaders and innovation.
In “The Innovation Paradox,” Lisa Rohrer explains that law firm leaders are apprehensive about innovation because of potential risks, despite their belief that innovation is extremely important to a firm’s strategic goals.
Rohrer asserts that this caution is quite common in law firms, due to the fundamental nature of the profession:
“I hear all the time from our law firm clients: ‘We do not tolerate mistakes.’ And that’s probably the right attitude when it comes to client work. Add to this that lawyers are trained to minimize legal risks and it’s understandable that law firms are more risk averse.”
She also considers whether the solution to apprehension is embracing mistakes:
“People trying new approaches to solving difficult problems are going to make mistakes. If they’re not making some mistakes, they’re probably either not being honest with themselves or they’re not trying hard enough. The prevailing view there is that you learn a lot more from failure than you do from success.”
Lisa Rohrer leads research on the changing management models and structures in law firms as Hildebrandt Baker Robbins’ director of research and is based in Washington, D.C.
You can read her full post on the LawVision blog.
Posted by Anne Lawver in:
In Practice | Practice trends |
