‘The Perfect Partner’ by Simon McCrum

A book review by Chris Marston, CEO of LawNet

Simon McCrum has recently launched the third book in his trilogy, following on from The Perfect Legal Business and The Perfect Lawyer. I’ll start by confessing that I’d already read the first but not the second, because as a non-lawyer I’m more interested in the business aspects.

I came to LawNet after a long career in banking, where my last role was as Head of Professional Practices at Lloyds Bank. In that role I often reflected that many partners in law firms had three roles, as a practitioner, a manager/leader, and an owner. Most of them, in my experience, were spending a large majority of their available time doing the first role, struggling to find time to devote to the second, and not really giving much thought to their role and expectations as a business owner.

So many law firm partners would tell me that they regarded themselves as accidental business people, having been promoted to that status on the basis of their ability as lawyers, and with little or no training having been received in leading people, managing teams or managing money.

In this book, Simon repeats much of the messaging from his first book, The Perfect Legal Business. This is understandable and entirely reasonable, in my view, as the aim is to focus on the contribution that partners must make if they wish their firm to be as perfect as it can be. I found the ‘Four C’s’, colleagues, clients, compliance and cash a very appealing and simple way of highlighting where partners should focus their attention and energy, chiming with the messaging that we champion in the LawNet community and the strong cash imperative that I always espoused as a sector-specialist banker.

LawNet members, through our Excellence Mark, have been measuring and improving the client experience for many years now and know the difference between what Simon calls ‘hot air’ versus ‘concrete’, as far as delivering for clients is concerned. And the importance of authenticity and humility in leadership is something that Simon is so right to identify as a success factor.

I’m a little old-school to feel at home with slightly hyperbolic expressions like ‘aiming for the moon and the stars’, but Simon’s sentiment is spot on; good leadership that nurtures talent, sees failures as learning opportunities, empowers people to do more, better, can be transformational – this is what he describes as the ‘magic ingredient’. And partners need to understand the difference between management and leadership, which might be summarised along these lines: -

‘On becoming a leader’ : Warren Bennis 1989

The differences between ‘bosses’ and ‘leaders’ is an important one, with the latter inspiring people to do their best and to give followership. And I certainly agree with Simon that leadership doesn’t only come from the top - support and positive energy from colleagues motivates all of us.

What shines through in Simon’s book is the need for firms to invest in preparing partners for the role. His proposal that firms should create their own ‘academy’, or learning regime is something else that chimes with our own People Development Programme for LawNet firms. Growing your future leaders and owners is good for business, and at a time when so many law firm leaders report that younger lawyers are less interested in ownership, firms who invest in developing their people will differentiate themselves and stand a better chance of retaining and recruiting talent.

As someone who operates in the legal sector as a non-lawyer, I am always pleased to see positive comments about the contribution that those who do not practise the law can make to a firm’s success. Like Simon, I have seen excellent leadership from lawyers and non-lawyers alike in successful firms.

Other books have been written about professional practices firm leadership over the years, and some have come at the subject from a purely academic standpoint, or from the perspective of very large firms only.  The strength of Simon’s book is that it is rooted in real-life experience within law firms, and it is to his credit that he draws upon the failures in his career as well as the successes. This is a real strength, exhibiting the kind of authenticity that he urges partners to display. He says he is no great reader of business theory books, but there is plenty of academic literature out there to support many of his ideas.

This is a book that any aspiring or newly appointed partner would benefit from reading.