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Why Cultural Competency Should Matter To Law Firms?

Mottershead Consulting — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:10:20 +0000

I have lived as an expatriate on four different continents and for more than 20 years. I have seen my fair share of intolerance and bias. Most of it has been unintentional. I have also made my own mistakes. I draw on this background – the good, the bad and the ugly – in my cultural competency training and coaching work with lawyers and law firms. What I say there and what I write here is what I have seen, what I have done and what I wish I had not seen or done!

It has been suggested that most US law firms are currently providing services to multinational clients. With law firms in the US merging in record numbers in 2011 (Altman Weil, April 2012) and probably in 2012, as well as the expansion of the global reach of many, many US firms in Asia in 2011 (The Asian Lawyer 2011, 2012) and Europe (Legal Week 2011, 2012), it seems this statement will continue to be true. Likewise within law firms, international secondments from the US to a firm or client’s overseas office and from that office to the US are increasingly common.

Working in another country is different. Work practices, policies and laws are different. Attitudes towards work and play are different. When and what people eat and drink is different. How, when and where business meetings are conducted is different. Pop culture references and colloquialisms are different. English words are spelt differently. Religion and politics are different. Humor is different. Negotiations are different. How a deal is done and what it really means regardless of how it is recorded, is different. When and how people socialize is different. How people dress for work is different. How you present yourself and your business card is different. What gifts to give, what color they should be and when to give them (or not), is different. It is all different but, much is also the same. It is the obvious and but also very often the subtle differences that can make or break a situation.

Overwhelming? Too much to worry about? Not that important anyway? People expect you to make mistakes so what’s the big deal? Wrong! Cultural competency matters! People will forgive much if it is a genuine mistake but keep making it, and it quickly turns into intolerance and insensitivity.

Cultural competency is good business. There are plenty of lawyers who are technical equals, what makes the difference, why I choose you and not someone else, is because of the personal and professional relationship I build with you. The relationship is built on trust and confidence based on the legal advice you give me but, also, because your get me, get my industry and have an interest in me and commitment to me, your client – you are my trusted advisor. These sort of relationships, the ones that last over time, are built meeting by meeting, matter by matter and in these meetings and in these matters identifying, understanding and incorporating cultural differences is key to building and sustaining the lawyer-client relationship and…relationships between colleagues too!

Corporate America understands the importance of cultural competency. Some law firms do too. Many multinational companies require employees and senior management/leadership to demonstrate a high level of cultural competency as part of their day-to-day work performance and/or before they can be elevated to a senior role. Some companies go so far as to require a successful international posting (international being relative to where you are in the world!) or a “home office” posting (likewise relative) as a pre-requisite to promotion to senior management. Increasingly few multinational companies would send someone overseas without:

A comprehensive briefing on differences (cultural, employment terms, housing, schools and tax advice to name a few);
International/host country language training;
A mentor in the host office to settle the person in;
A detailed business plan to enhance business ties with key clients while there; and
A comprehensive repatriation plan for when the person returns to their home office.

After all, an international secondment is supposed to be a career enhancer not an example of the set-up-to-fail syndrome, right? (Manzoni and Barsoux, HBR, 1998)

Most law firms have much to do if they are to catch up to their corporate counterparts….and in many cases, their counterparts will also be their clients. Cultural competency should matter to law firms because it makes good business sense. It makes good business sense because it builds long-lasting relationships that celebrate difference and result in the sort of partnerships that are GFC resistant. If cultural competency is not one of your law firm’s strategic and talent management/development priorities, the time has come to include it right now!

Are Law Firms Global In Name But Not By Nature?

Mottershead Consulting — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:13:07 +0000

I have been working in the cultural competency space recently. My place in this space has been forged over more than 20 years living and/or working in five different continents. I have certainly made my share of mistakes; I know the feeling of learning the hard lessons by experience and growing up in international business at a time when preparing someone for an international secondment was not considered essential. Times have changed but, I wonder, if they have changed enough. How “global” is “global”?
Being global, a global anything, be it a law firm, organization, government agency or whatever, is much more than placing the word “global” or “international” in front of a title or a name. It is a different way of thinking. It fosters a different culture. It demands an unwavering ability to lead, manage and navigate change. It is much more than tolerating differences, it means celebrating them. And, this stuff really does matter – it can make or break all kinds of relationships!
My consultancy practice and research suggests many law firms still have a long way to go before they can truly call themselves global. Here is a quick checklist (not exhaustive) that may prompt you to determine whether your firm is global in name AND by nature:
1. Values and Culture:
a. Do global initiatives reflect core values or are they really driven by one country, reflect the values of that country, and are rolled out with a few tweaks here and there in all other countries?
b. If you ask any one in your firm if it is “global” will they respond positively AND….are they able to give you examples?
2. Structure:
a. Does your firm have a global business strategy and plan AND…have you implemented global initiatives?
b. Does your firm have a global and local talent strategy?
c. How many global leadership/management positions does your firm support?
d. Are global boards, committees etc. dominated by one country or does membership track, proportionally, the multi-country make up of your firm?
e. How often do your global leaders meet?
3. Business:
a. Is doing business with your firm seamless across countries from the client’s point of view?
b. Do you have a globally recognizable and consistent approach to business?
c. Do you have a globally recognizable product?
d. Are global work projects managed globally and locally?
e. Does your firm pitch for global business as a global team?
f. Does your firm represent clients in all countries or does it only follow clients to different countries?
4. People:
a. Do your employees know their global counterparts?
b. Does your firm have global core competencies for staff?
c. Does your firm also have local competencies to reflect local differences?
d. Are your global core competencies part of your recruitment outreach in every country?
e. Does your firm encourage international secondments?
f. Does your firm prepare its employees for international secondments?
g. How successfully has your firm repatriated its international secondees?
h. Is an assessment of cultural competency part of your performance review process?
i. Is spending time AND being successful in an international office a pre-requisite for promotion in your firm?
j. Do you have a comprehensive database of multi-lingual colleagues AND…does everyone know about it?
There is no magic score, no threshold, no judgment attached to these questions. However, if your firm has positioned itself as a global firm but has not considered most of these questions or responded “No” to most of them then, I am probably not going out on a limb when I suggest you may be global in name but NOT by nature. Where you go from here is all about recognizing where your firm is placed on the continuum of local to regional to global, making a decision about where you want to be, and then aligning all that you are and all that you do behind that decision.

The Changing Role of Professional Development (or Is It Talent Management?) in Law Firms

Mottershead Consulting — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:25:56 +0000

Mottershead Changing PD Role (PD Quarterly May 2011)

With the legal industry undergoing so much change, it is not surprising that the management of attorney talent is evolving as a key area of focus. For too long the legal industry has adopted a “hit and miss” rather than a planned, monitored, and integrated approach to identifying, engaging, leveraging, developing, evaluating, compensating and promoting attorney talent. It has cost time, money and careers. Talent management has now finally emerged as a pivotal strategic focus in the more progressive law firms. These firms have “connected the dots” between the pipeline of client work and a pipeline of talent ready, willing and able to service the work and thereby support the firm in achieving its business performance goals. In the attached article, bearing the same title as this Blog, I have discussed the connection between talent strategies, talent strategy metrics, competency-based development models, and the new and emerging role of Chief Talent Officer (CTO). The article highlights the critical importance of the CTO role and how it differs from professional development and human resource roles in law firms. My thanks to Gaye Mara and PD Quarterly (May 2011 at profdev.com) for the kind permission to re-print this article here.

Law School Curricula Under Scrutiny Around the World

Mottershead Consulting — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:45:52 +0000

In an industry undergoing so much change, it is not surprising that the microscope law firms have found themselves under has resulted in a knock on effect in law schools. Many law school Deans have formed, revived or changed the agenda for their curriculum committees. Some of these committees have progressed beyond talking. Much of the talk and outcomes have centered around infusing existing curricula with skills training and beefing up clinical legal education programs. Broad-based competencies have often acted as the guide or blueprint for the changes in what to teach, where to teach and who should teach. What we have yet to see in the US is the sort of comprehensive and collaborative review of legal education that is taking place in other parts of the world or a governance structure with the authority to implement the changes. By comprehensive I mean the bringing together of all relevant stakeholders in legal education – practicing lawyers, law firm professional development/talent management specialists, CLE providers and regulators, law schools and law students. By authority I mean stakeholders who have the gravitas to insist that outcomes are embraced.

The most recent and closest thing to achieving this has been the Critical Issues Summit -Equipping Our Lawyers: Law School Education, Continuing Legal Education, and Legal Practice in the 21^st Century co-sponsored by ALI-ABA and ACLEA (October 2009). There have been subsequent examples and iterations of this sort of collaboration like the events held by The Southern California Innovation Project Building Better Lawyers Conference (May 2010) and Harvard and New York Law Schools Future Ed: New Business Models for U.S. and Global Legal Education (April and October 2010). There is also the current review of the standards for approval of law schools by the ABA through the Standards Review Committee (a committee of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar). While laudable and important, the sort of wholesale change that law schools like law firms are currently confronting needs more, it needs a wholesale discourse, debate and eventually commitment to nation-wide reform. The good news for law schools is that there is no need to reinvent the wheel; they can draw on international experience when customizing their own best practices.

To take one example, Legalweek.com reported today (November 19) that in the UK, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Bar Standards Board and the Institute of Legal Executives Professional Standards announced that a “full-scale review of legal education and training” would begin in February 2011.The impetus for the review was noted as being in response to “mounting criticism of the disparity between the number of students entering the profession and the number of available positions – both with law firms and at the Bar”. The objective of the review was reported as “to ensure the ethical standards and levels of competence of those delivering legal services in regulated law firms are sufficient”. Not dissimilar initiatives are currently underway in Australia.

As I reflect on this and also the fact that with an increasing number of large law firm global mergers, multi-law firm alliances, international secondments, ABA approval being sought for law schools located outside the US, and generally the increasing globalization of the legal profession, I wonder if this is not the right time for the profession to think a little further out of the box and hold the first global summit for the reform of legal education. Could this be a job for the International Bar Association or perhaps, given the critical importance of the rule of law, the United Nations?

Hello World – Mottershead Consulting Has a Blog!

Mottershead Consulting — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:43:30 +0000

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