**丨Zeyuan Law Firm.
Author丨Liu Jing Deputy Director, Senior Partner, and Head of the Standardization Department of Beijing Zeyuan (Yinchuan) Law Firm, there are no rules, and Chinese have paid attention to rules and standards since ancient times. Based on this, we can see that many small and medium-sized law firms in China, especially those with less than 10 employees, usually do not have a complete and clear management system, but they still carry out their business and daily management normally. On the one hand, it may be due to the particularity of an organization such as the self-regulatory law firm, which mainly takes "human resources" as the core of economic value creation (lawyers are only responsible for the business and parties they handle first, and have strong legal expertise and risk prevention capabilities - strong autonomy).On the other hand, it is due to the principle of Fangyuan (strong self-discipline) that is rooted in the hearts of intellectuals such as lawyers.
With the continuous differentiation of lawyers' business fields and the intensification of competition, the survival and development of small and medium-sized law firms are facing more and more severe challenges, and the management deficiencies and personnel stability problems that are common in large law firms are becoming increasingly prominent. If managers still stick to the rules and do not want to break through, it is easy for excellent talents to be attracted by large firms and lose them, and the scale and business undertaking capacity of small and medium-sized law firms are destined to not be easy to attract "phoenixes" and obtain large-scale non-litigation projects through bidding and bidding. In this way, it is easy to fall into a vicious circle of lack of talent and low business revenue, and it is difficult to make great achievements. As a practicing lawyer and manager of a small and medium-sized law firm, the author is fortunate to participate in the construction of the pilot project of the firm's management standardization. According to the common management status and difficulties of small and medium-sized law firms, combined with the work experience of the project, the following points are understood on the construction of law firm management standardization** for the reference of interested peers.
Whether it is necessary for small and medium-sized law firms to standardize their management
Standardization refers to the unification of repetitive things and concepts through the formulation, issuance and implementation of standards in economic, technological, scientific and management social practices, so as to obtain the best order and social benefits. Some people say that the implementation of management standardization in the lawyer industry is a fallacy in itself. The reason is that lawyers are born to make profits by providing differentiated legal services or selling professional knowledge, and their "personalized service" and self-productivity characteristics determine that the implementation of standardized management is likely to erase individuality and suppress creativity. But is that really the case?In fact, those who hold this view confuse "the standardization of the results of legal service products provided by lawyers" with the "standardization of law firm management".
The standardization of law firm management is different from the standardization of lawyers' simple provision of legal services, and it is obvious that the connotation and extension of the concept of the former are greater than that of the latter. In fact, the standardization of legal services provided by lawyers is only a part of the law firm's management standards, and the management degree of a law firm's administrative management, finance, human resources, cultural construction, etc., is undoubtedly the basic guarantee for individual lawyers to provide legal services to customers. Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of the risk caused by the "absence" of the management of small and medium-sized law firms, or from the perspective of the forced situation of legal service demanders for the standardization and specialization of the lawyer industryAt present, it is realistic, necessary and urgent to standardize the management of law firms.
From the perspective of the external environment, the gradual expansion of standardization construction from the industrial field to the service industry, and then to the legal service industry is an inevitable requirement for social progress and development. For example, McDonald's employees may not have a high degree of education, but how can they quickly master the ability to make "fries" and "fried chicken legs" with the same taste after short-term training?The reason lies in the company's control of the standardization process and the procurement and processing of raw materials. In the same way, lawyers who provide legal services can standardize their practice and conduct business by learning and applying law firm management standards as soon as they enter the law firmFor individual lawyers, they can grow rapidly and improve their professional skills and professionalismFor law firms, it not only saves the cost of human resource training, but also improves management efficiency.
From the perspective of the industry, if the managers of law firms can keenly "discover" the beauty of the standards of the lawyer service industry, thenIt will be of great benefit to enhance the competitiveness of the firm. In terms of law firm business management alone, if a law firm can achieve a clear and standardized operation of the whole process from the lawyer's case acceptance, case handling, case closure, filing, return visits, etc., the whole process is supervised, comprehensively traced, and can be consulted at any time, it can not only improve the efficiency of individual lawyers' case handling, but also greatly reduce the practice risks of law firms and lawyers, which is conducive to establishing a stable and good customer relationship and improving efficiency.
Difficulties and countermeasures for small and medium-sized law firms to carry out management standardization
In the author's opinion, there are the following difficulties in the standardization of management of small and medium-sized law firms:
First, it is difficult to unify concepts.
First, the understanding is not in place. As we all know, the lawyer industry has high requirements for entry thresholds, and a bachelor's degree or above is usually required to pass the legal examination. In the course of their practice, lawyers are more or less exposed to business knowledge such as corporate compliance that is similar to standardization but different, so their understanding of law firm management standardization is varied, and often eight lawyers can have ten kinds of ideasIn addition, most of the same law firm has three echelons of old, middle and young at the same time, some old lawyers have a strong sense of subjectivity and are unwilling to easily change the existing work mode, while young lawyers lack in-depth understanding and experience of corporate management. For some novices who have stepped into the "workplace" of law firms after graduation, they have been immersed in the working environment of law firms, which is generally loosely managed and has a certain degree of humanistic feelings, and many young lawyers have not even fully established basic workplace rules at the end of the internship period.
Faced with such a situation, managers are askedIt is necessary to do the work of mobilization and persuasion from the ideological roots. Managers of law firms must have a clear understanding and firm belief in the construction of standardization, and constantly unify their thinking and improve their understanding through various forms such as publicity, training, and exchanges and discussions in their daily work management.
Second, the standardization results are slow, and the degree of individual cooperation of lawyers is low. Just as parents complain that primary and secondary school students generally do not like to study and are addicted to playing games. The study found that one of the main reasons is that the positive motivation feedback cycle brought by learning is too long, which means that children need to work hard for a long time to see an improvement in their gradesVideo game rewards, on the other hand, can be cashed out at any time, and when children complete a small goal, they will immediately receive advancement or encouragement, so that children can achieve achievement and feel happy. In the same way, the standardization of law firm management is the same, law firm managers and standardization representatives after a large number of standardized learning and training, system construction, standard writing, post-trial operation, operation, self-examination and summary and then improvement, etc., and finally it is possible to gradually show the economic or social effects brought about by management standardization, this process is obviously long and cumbersome!In contrast, it is easy for an individual lawyer to obtain financial value and personal fulfillment when he or she accepts a client. Therefore, from the perspective of individual lawyers, what they want to obtain is the fastest and simplest management service of the law firm. There are even some lawyers in the industry who violate the practice norms in order to compete for the source of cases, such as exaggerating promises, charging fees privately, and vicious competition, and law firms are often unable to detect or effectively supervise them in a timely manner due to various loopholes in management. On the surface, the lawyer has obtained financial benefits for a short period of time, and the law firm has also obtained benefits, but the hidden risks behind it may appear at any time, which may affect the lawyer's personal practice at least and may cause the "job bowl" of the whole lawyer to be smashed.
In this regard, the managers and standardization representatives of law firmsIt is necessary to adhere to the established standards, and not to reduce the requirements and intensity of the implementation of the standards due to fear or fear of individual personnel loss or reduced business revenue. Since we have chosen management standardization, we must identify the goal and adhere to it for a long time, so that we can finally "fry the fries that belong to the lawyer industry with a consistent taste" and improve the experience and satisfaction of law firm customers.
Third, law firms generally focus on business and neglect management, and the implementation of standards is prone to distortion. The particularity of the lawyer profession determines that lawyers must work non-stop, undertaking one business after another to survive, and at the same time maintain a state of lifelong learning and learning at any time. "The Bottom Line" says: "There are two kinds of judges' hair, white hair and no hair. This sentence is also self-consistent when applied to lawyers, and peers often joke: "It's good to be a lawyer, but it's easy to have less hair and the top of your head is easy to get cold." Therefore, under the current situation that lawyers are generally faced with the current situation of doing business while looking for business and constantly learning and improving every day, it is not only unrealistic but also meaningless to require lawyers to clock in and out every day like employees of enterprises and abide by the rules and regulations of similar enterprises. According to the author's observation, almost all law firms in Ningxia have the following situations: some people come to work every day;Some people come to the end of the month when they are paid or need to be issued by a law firm;Others seem to exist only in the law firm's WeChat group or annual meeting activities forever. Interestingly, the "bigwigs" who only get a glimpse of their face in these months generate higher income than the "chosen workers" who seriously abide by the law firm's policies.
In this situation, how to promote the implementation of management standardization and how to make these freedom-loving lawyers actively and voluntarily cooperate with the management of the law firm is indeed a difficult problem. Our experience only:Hope for the excellent management skills of the law firm managers!Managers need to strengthen management, improve the artistry of management, patiently guide and tolerate lawyers with different personality levels, gradually take the standard of law firm management as the minimum requirement for lawyers' daily behavior, integrate it into their practice process, and cultivate their "public spirit" and sense of honor for the construction of law firms. Through the positive feedback mechanism, lawyers are constantly allowed to see the effectiveness of management standardization, and then a virtuous circle of individual lawyers and law firm management is formed. Because we always believe that:Although self-discipline can make lawyers free, adhering to standardization can bring lawyers more long-term freedom and more stable income.
The focus of the construction of the management standardization system of small and medium-sized law firms
System construction is the key work of the construction of law firm management standardization projects. It can be said that without a set of systems that conform to the characteristics of the lawyer service industry and the current situation of law firm management, no matter how many standards are formed, it is easy to be out of touch with the actual operation.
Scientifically set up a standard system that conforms to the management of small and medium-sized law firms
In the specific construction process, we can combine the current situation of the industry and the actual situation of the law firm, and further scientific, systematic and standardized some working methods suitable for the long-term accumulation of the firm. Focusing on the attributes of public legal services in the lawyer industry, the whole process of law firm services and daily affairs processing, work coordination, human resources, and file management are incorporated into the standardized construction system, and a full-chain service standard system from business entrustment acceptance to case closure and filing is constructed, and a full-chain service standard system is formulatedService basic standard system, service guarantee standard system, service provision standard systemand the comprehensive legal service standard system standardizes the work content of the links involved in the whole process of law firm services.
Highlight key management areas and build with the help of information technology
Combined with the management characteristics of small and medium-sized law firms, the construction of a standardized system for small and medium-sized law firms can adopt a combination of technology-driven and standardization, focusing on the business processes, human resources, file management, service quality supervision and evaluation of law firms, etc., and highlighting the management characteristics on the basis of comprehensive construction. In the author's opinion, it is indeed important for the standard of lawyer service provision to be the core of the law firm's management standard system, but the reality that must be faced is that large law firms, especially excellent law firms with a national layout, have more advantages in this regard, so the standards in this part are clear, concise and easy to operate. On the contrary, it is important for the management of small and medium-sized law firms, but it does not account for a large proportion of the entire legal service industry standard systemSuch as:Information security, human resources, file management, cultural brand building, etc., can be carefully built as characteristic standards.
As far as the lawyer industry as a whole is concerned, the main reason why small and medium-sized law firms lack market competitiveness is that it is difficult or impossible for them to overcome the spontaneous "single-handed" model formed in the operation of law firms, and form a joint force of business competition like large law firms. Therefore, if we can coordinate the personnel management of the law firm through the establishment of a standard system, and guide and establish the business contracting cooperation and distribution mode between individual lawyers and the law firm as a whole, we can undoubtedly concentrate on doing big things and play a wonderful effect of "four or two thousand pounds". In addition, in view of the general characteristics of the lawyer industry of "heavy handling of cases and light files", as well as the objective status quo of law firms such as the loss of files, the large volume of files, the difficulty of keeping, and the large amount of space occupied by law firms due to personnel turnover, it is bound to explore the path of standardized management of files suitable for the development of law firms and the lawyer industry, which is bound to greatly improve the management efficiency of law firms and even make up for the shortcomings of the industry, and promote the development of the entire lawyer industry.
Experience in the standardization of management for small and medium-sized law firms
"Nowhere else in the world is the professional services market growing as fast as China's, and this presents a huge opportunity for Chinese professional services firms to learn from the rest of the world and to be the trendsetters of new business models," said management guru David Mester. Therefore, whether the adoption of a standardized management model by a professional service organization such as a law firm can become a new path for small and medium-sized law firms to break through their own development bottlenecks still needs to be further tested in practice, but as the conclusion of the survey of the Internet celebrity fruit "Sunshine Rose" by Sanlian Weekly said: "China's fruit consumers have bought standardized fruits like commodities", "Standardization makes the consumption stratification clear, and can clearly convey the preferences of consumers to the planting end". In order to be able to access the new market system, a large number of fruit producing areas are being modernized in terms of infrastructure, production concepts, etc.".As even the oldest traditional agriculturalists and farmers begin to change their perceptions and adopt new ideas, cost-based inputs and technologies to increase fruit pricing and generate more revenue, why can't law firms and managers that provide professional services try to actively embrace new management models that can improve lawyers' work efficiency and law firm customer satisfaction?
As explorers and practitioners of the standardization of management of small and medium-sized law firms, although the standardization representatives of Zeyuan Law Firm have more clearly understood the unique charm of standardization after the end of the pilot project, we understand:Standardization is always on the way!In order to explore a path suitable for the sustainable development of small and medium-sized law firms, we will unremittingly and continuously conduct in-depth research and practice management standardization, so as to contribute to improving the management level of the legal service industry and boosting the development of the lawyer industry.