In full honesty, law firm growth consulting doesn’t work for all law firm owners or partners, so I’m now buying law firms.

By ‘it doesn’t work,’ I mean that when I speak to certain law firm owners and partners, often those who have practised law for many years, are unable to understand how learning to lead and manage others instead of doing billable work can make their law firm so much more successful.

So, even though they are exhausted by their situation, they stop studying to find a solution and return to surviving.

They continue doing what they’ve always known because it feels safe and predictable, and this simply involves churning out billable work.

The problem is that they continually build a law firm that relies on them.

Such a law firm is highly unattractive to buyers because if they leave, the firm must close, so they can’t sell it unless they are willing to earn less while on a salary but keep working as usual as part of the sale.

So, because they never invested time in finding a solution to how their law firm could operate profitably without them, they can’t see how a new, younger partner could take their clients' work off their hands.

So they carry on as usual for many more years.

Next, many in this situation discover that they can’t afford the firm's run-off insurance cover, and so they are stuck with no idea of how to get out or benefit from the firm they’ve spent years working in.

It’s sad to see them in this situation, as it doesn’t need to be this way, but often, there’s nothing I or anyone else can do to help them because they are stuck in patterns that are too deep.

So, what is behind these patterns, and how can a law firm owner or partner ensure they don’t end up in this situation or break free from it?

Let's look at what a lawyer does on a fundamental level. They protect their clients' relationships, assets and money while also ensuring that they don’t get into trouble (or at least as little as possible) with the law.

All this is simply calculating and avoiding risk for their clients.

Over the last nearly ten years of working with lawyers and partners, I've observed that this consistent ‘risk analysis’, if left unchecked, starts to dominate our thought patterns, not just in our workplace but everywhere.

Why is this?

In our brains, we have an area called the amygdala. The amygdala is the part of our brain that consistently looks for and protects us from danger.

This part of the brain is often active when we calculate risk and consider ‘what could go wrong’.

This analysis then becomes dominant or default in most other thought processes, but subconsciously.

To understand what I’m about to say, imagine weightlifting with one arm daily and ignoring the other.

Eventually, that arm builds muscle and strengthens, whereas the other stays the same. After years of such one-sided effort, when we lift something heavy, naturally, we’ll put our strong arm to work much more often, making it stronger still. Thus, it will continue dominating the other arm when lifting heavy objects is required.

I’ve come to sense that this is what has happened to many experienced lawyers I’ve spoken to: Their amygdala, the part of our brain that calculates risk, gets stronger and starts to dominate and override their other functions, such as creativity and problem-solving.

This causes them to continue doing only what feels safe (even if it limits profits and is exhausting) and avoid trying anything new or studying to find a solution.

So, how do you ensure your risk aversion patterns are kept in check?

This isn’t something that can be learned overnight and can only be achieved by daily, incremental effort.

You need to seek out people who’ve achieved the results that you want and make an effort to spend time with them. Take them out for lunch and ask them for advice on how you’d achieve similar results.

Then, if you feel confronted by implementing what they suggest, get more advice and do whatever it takes to take those new actions you know you need to take.

It’s not easy, but we must take new actions if we are to create a better future.

Also, read books that show you new ways to run your law firm. If you haven’t yet, my book, which you can buy here, is a great start.

Above all, be aware of this innate mechanism we all have as human beings: we tend to avoid challenge and seek what is easy. Ensure that you are not letting it make you play small and stay stuck.

There’s no easy answer to this, but all the breakthroughs I’ve had in my life have come from conversations with more experienced people and specialists.

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