Here is a snapshot of the results some of my clients have got from learning how to delegate effectively:

• Kate Burt (Solicitor & CEO at HiveRisk) went from working on three laptops at once, exhausting herself to keep up with client work, to growing her team by twelve new members and delegating away all her fee-earning work and admin while increasing her firm's revenue by 392% in one year.
• Carlos-Cruz Abrams (Managing Partner at CAS Law) in six months, went from exhaustion, working over 100 to under 50 hours per week, grew his team by five new members, created time with his family and skiing regularly while gaining USD $707,794.65 (GBP £596,734.00) extra profit, 89.15% increase compared to the same six months of the year before.
• Vanessa Challess (Founder and owner of Tiger Law), in one year, went from exhaustion, working over 80 to only 30 hours per week by effectively delegating her workload away, and her Tiger Law firm went from averaging £13K to now over £80K per month.

However, even though many law firm owners are fully aware of how much more profitable they could be if the client work were effectively delegated and completed reliably by their firm's team members instead of them, I constantly discover the same blocks that stop even these wise law firm owners from investing their time in learning the art of delegation.

When I led a series of round table discussions attended by law firm owners and partners at The Great Big Legal Offsite event this year, I asked what the reasons are as to why most law firm owners don’t delegate, and I took these notes listing what they said:

• Law firm partners always think they can do better.
• The work is too difficult for someone else to do.
• The work will end up with a toxic biller.
• If they palm the work off, they’ll lose the client.
• Only I can do this work.
• They don’t rate the competency of their colleagues.

Do you have such thoughts?

As a result of such ways of thinking, most law firm partners, owners and MDs don’t even think of trying to find a solution and start learning and practising delegating effectively.

This causes them to stay overwhelmed and exhausted, working long hours as they try to continue doing the work their long-term clients expect of them and manage everyone else.

It’s a vicious circle because the associates don’t get to learn from the firm's owners and feel ignored. They don’t feel valued or useful and don’t have the opportunity to prove their abilities, so they can't achieve the career progression they yearn for.

Soon enough, they often want to leave and break their employment contract, hoping the next firm will treat them differently.

At some point, after many years of this exhausting cycle, when the firm owners or partners want to stop working such long hours, they can’t; they have to keep going because their firm relies on them to be profitable and to continue working for their clients.

So what’s the solution?

If you are in this situation, you must first schedule one-on-one weekly meetings (or video calls) with each of your most senior associates or department heads.

Then make this time non-negotiable, and commit to ensuring you both attend these weekly meetings.

If need be, share leading these meetings with other equity members so they are easily manageable for everyone.

Next, find out what each senior associate or department head wants to succeed at from participating in your firm, then agree on targets they need to meet to fulfil what matters to them and you.

Then, each week, mentor them to hit their targets.

As you do this, you’ll have time each week to make new requests for them to take on more work and ensure they have everything they need so that they and those they manage can continually hit their targets.

If you do this correctly, you’ll notice that these team members are much more capable than you realise and can handle much larger volumes of work.

If you keep mentoring them continuously, and as they slowly gain your trust, you can delegate more of your workload to them. Soon enough, you’ll see how much more profitable your firm is while your workload is reduced.

In regards to delegating work you’ve done for the same clients you’ve personally had for many years, this doesn’t happen overnight.

You need to involve each senior associate or head of department on 3-way calls with the client and have them participate in doing more and more of the work you usually do.

It’s a gradual process that only starts when you give your associates a chance to be trusted and when you invest some of your time in them.

If you don’t mentor your key associates regularly, as I’ve noticed with many other law firm owners, you’ll one day be trapped trying to sell your firm for a sum of money you simply can’t attain because you can’t leave the firm.

Or you’ll end up on some long, painfully slow merger scheme while your current dividends disappear, and you’ll be forced to leave without anywhere near the sale total you deserve.

Today, free yourself of such a predictable future and start by scheduling those one-on-one meetings to mentor your associates.

Once these are in place, use that one-on-one time to delegate more of your workload to them, bit by bit, while continually providing them with the support they need to succeed.

Today, while you still can, start the work that truly matters, the work that will build that highly profitable law firm that you'll one day soon love owning.

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