Turnarounds and Crisis Management

Unexpected events happen all the time to businesses, including law firms, and often these events have adverse consequences. Occasionally a law firm can experience a convergence of several unfortunate, unplanned events that can create a financial crisis. We have experience helping law firms successfully respond to financial crises and law firm “turnaround” situations; perhaps more than every other law firm consulting firm. These situations includes the loss of a key client, the loss of important partners, excessive dependence upon bank borrowing, and cash flow problems related to out-of-control overhead expenses or onerous unfunded partner retirement obligations. Regardless of the cause(s), we know what needs to be done and how to do it.

When a law firm is on the verge of, or perhaps even already in a “death spiral”, we know how to stop the bleeding and save the firm from dissolving. Overcoming a dire situation of this nature is not easy and there are no guarantees, but we have saved many law firms in a financial crisis where partners were panicked and feared their firm would not survive. In several instances we were told we had only two weeks to resolve a crisis or the firm would implode due to partner attrition and we succeeded in saving the firm. Time is of the essence in such situations, so don’t delay if your firm requires a crisis management team.

We can assume responsibility as Interim COO to immediately respond to a crisis. We will focus on stabilizing the firm, restoring trust in the firm’s leadership team, stop the financial “bleeding”, and restore the firm to a stable economic situation. This includes developing a comprehensive financial planning model focused on the future as the foundation of a Restructuring Plan supported by the firm’s partners. The goal is to save the law firm from dissolution.