The Challenge of Leadership in the Legal Industry
Law firms face a multitude of challenges in the competitive legal market:
- Limited growth in legal demand and competition among firms to retain (or take) clients
- Increased client service demands and pressures on pricing
- Attorneys and staff with varying levels of engagement
- Workflows and processes that lag behind technology and skills of the new generations
- Shifting expectations of new generations in the workplace
- Attorneys who need business development knowledge and skills
- Demographic shifts putting pressure on development of next generation leaders, as well as shifting legacy knowledge (and clients)
We’ve learned rainmaking is not a prerequisite for leadership. And practice groups and committees led by naysayers appointed to silence dissension will rarely lead to good results, if any results at all. Leadership is about vision – seeing the future of your firm, and finding and employing opportunities along that path that enhance success. Leadership is about behaviors and skills, not titles. It includes expectations and feedback, strategy, tactics and accountability.
The future success of firms depends on well trained leaders, both business managers and lawyers. The business of law requires more leadership skills and knowledge of the business skills that differentiate successful firms from the rest. In short, successful business practices are required to overcome the challenges of a competitive legal market.
The LLI Approach
Leadership cannot be developed by reading books or attending a webinar or seminars. While these serve a purpose, and can help provide foundational knowledge, the best learning environment is created with experiential lessons built with personal connection. We design content to be practical and specific, so you have immediate application in your firm. We deliver content with hands on learning that is tied to the business challenges law firm leaders face today. And, all of our work is built around execution and accountability.
Legal Leadership Institute was founded in 2015 to serve the legal industry in developing and advancing leadership skills. Our facilitators are organizational development experts who understand the complexities of our industry. Our core values of partnership, accountability, respect and integrity guide our offerings and our classroom interactions. We create environments where the greatest human potential can emerge.
The LLI Vision
We inspire and educate current and future leaders through relevant experiential programming.
The LLI Mission
Our core values of partnership, accountability, respect and integrity guide our offerings and our classroom interactions. We create environments where the greatest human potential can emerge.
Our Faculty
Judy Hissong
Judy Hissong is a Certified Legal Manager, a Professional Certified Coach, and a lifelong leadership learner. Judy has two decades of professional service management and leadership along with nearly a decade as a professional athlete. This foundation is your benefit as she is adept at understanding conflict and challenges and brings an uncanny focus on the future, and finding the solutions for your firm. Judy is a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Legal Administrators, an international organization dedicated to the business of law.
Judy holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting, and a Master’s Degree in Sport Management. She is a licensed provider of the Personal Strengths Publishing suite of emotional intelligence tools, and also for the Living Your Vision process to uncover your path to living from the inside out.
Beth Cline
Beth Cline works with her clients to create awareness in the body. Together we explore how you move through the day, both physically and energetically – from the breath, to the hips, to the core and feet. Beth is a Certified Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach and Reiki Practitioner. Check out these free 30 minute mini-Movemeant sessions and explore how you move today!
Rhodes Perry, MPA
Rhodes Perry is an award winning social entrepreneur, sought after speaker, podcast host, and a nationally recognized LGBTQ thought leader.
Media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, and The Huffington Post have featured his powerful work as a diversity, equity, and inclusion expert.
Rhodes believes in the power of bringing authenticity into the workplace, and as Founder & CEO of Rhodes Perry Consulting (RPC), he helps leaders, change agents, visionaries, movers and shakers cultivate workplace cultures of belonging.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Gender Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master of Public Administration from New York University.
Rhodes is the author of Belonging at Work: Everyday Actions You Can Take To Cultivate An Inclusive Organization, which empowers inclusive leaders, change agents, visionaries, and those on their way to joining them, with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to build belonging at work. His new book Imagine Belonging: Your Inclusive Leadership Guide to Building an Equitable Workplace will be available February 2022.
About Nesso Strategies
Nesso Strategies is the parent company of the Legal Leadership Institute and the creation of Judy Hissong. Nesso is the Italian word for connection, and Nesso Strategies connects the people, processes, and performance of both the financial and human capital in your law firm. Nesso Strategies coaches, consults, speaks, and trains in professional service and non-profit climates around the globe.
For more information about our specific services, find us here.
