Letterman White Consulting provides expert knowledge of law firm business model changes in successions.

When generations turn over, particularly in a professional services organization, the roles and responsibilities that affect key aspects of the business model require particular attention.

Some common questions are:

• How will we maintain and strengthen relationships with existing clients when the client management partner leaves ?  

• How will we continue to bring in new business if our most important rainmakers leave? 

• What do we do if our managing partner leaves?

Letterman White Consulting helps professional service providers design and implement a strategic plan for successions.

There is no one-size-fits-all recipe for succession planning in professional service provider firms. That means, you need a consultant who can help your leadership team understand how and why your business model is working well right now to do what it must do: bring in business opportunities + develop and deliver outstanding work products and advice to keep clients happy and coming back + billing and collecting fees efficiently and effectively. They must do all this and still make decisions about the firm operations from people to technology. Letterman White starts by collecting and analyzing data about the current status of your business model and how it will be impacted by specific changes due to succession. Only then, do we move to helping you make the decisions of what to do to maintain marketplace strength. We do that by:

• Closing the gaps between present and future roles and responsibilities;

• Identifying the action plan steps and challenges to effective succession planning in your firm;

• Identifying critical success factors; 

• Developing strategies for overcoming roadblocks; and

• Identify areas for critical Talent Cycle adjustments to make sure your firm has the bench strength to continue bringing in new business and developing excellent work products without any interruption in cash flow.

Letterman White Consulting is a top leadership consulting firm with deep experience in the management of law firms and succession planning.

In the last year that Susan White was a consultant with the Massachusetts Law Office Management Program (LOMAP), for the first time ever, LOMAP was voted by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly readers as the best management consulting firm. During her time with LOMAP, Susan worked closely with many firms on succession planning, one of the most frequent challenges facing professional service providers. Susan brought her approach back into Letterman White and it includes a deep focus on the leadership skills needed for succession planning including:

• Understanding the professional service business model and strategy;

• Running effective and efficient meetings that inform meeting members of their next steps; and

• Emotional intelligence to better manage the strong emotions with the significant changes that accompany succession planning.