From Running Operations to Strategizing, Law Firm Business Chiefs See Swelling Responsibilities
Whether they’re called executive directors, chief operating officers or directors of operations, law firm business leaders have become more central to the operations of these formerly lawyer-led business enterprises, as firms scale their operations across multiple practice areas and geographic markets.
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When Blank Rome chief operating officer Shonette Gaston arrived from Robins Kaplan, she was tasked with integrating many of the firm’s previously “siloed functions.” Gaston said this reorganization reflects growing demand from in-house legal departments for a more systematic approach to delivering value.
“Clients are demanding more and more of the analytical piece of the value they are getting,” Gaston said in a recent interview, noting how part of her role was the integrate the efforts of the firm’s IT and finance department. “It’s changing the way we report out to practice area leader, making it easier to see where their gaps are.”
A crucial part of this value-focused analysis for Gaston, she said, is how the firm approaches the staffing of any given client matter. “There are a ton of analytics we have to look at before we get that matter out the door,” she said.
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"From Running Operations to Strategizing, Law Firm Business Chiefs See Swelling Responsibilities," by Justin Henry was published in The American Lawyer on October 25, 2022.