October 27, 2006
Bruce MacEwen, author of the fascinating Adam Smith, Esq. blog, has written an interesting piece about CMS Cameron McKenna, the #13 firm on the UK 100. As described in this article, the firm has moved from a two-tier partnership to a single tier. Even more interestingly, to manage the firm’s intolerance for underperformance, the partners are reviewed quarterly with the use of three questions: What did you say you were going to do? Have you done it? What are you doing to do now?Â
The firm also conducts in-depth interviews with clients annually, asking for ratings of the services rendered on a scale of 1 to 5. Camerons’ commitment is to set itself apart with consistently excellent client service and its return (in process since 2000) to a lockstep partnership is designed to provide all partners with the same motivation and incentive to deliver quality.
I find it especially interesting that the firm is so proud of the fact that 71% of the lawyers made partner in the last five years have trained exclusively at CMS Cameron McKenna. Dick Tyler, the firm’s managing partner, is “most proud” of this statistic, and he pegs getting and retaining top-quality legal talent as a critical task for top firms. Given the huge amount of turnover that law firms are experiencing (on the order of 25% annually), it will be interesting to see what this approach yields. One thing appears likely: Camerons is a firm for “hot worms“!Â
(And further to yesterday’s post, visit the Adam Smith, Esq. blog entry addressing the changes at Allen & Overy.)
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