When McCarthy Tétrault LLP’s chief operating officer was hired by the firm four years ago, her job description was brief and far-reaching: to drive significant change in the organization.
Such change doesn’t happen quickly, and it doesn’t happen by thinking like a traditional law firm, said Crook, who is based in Toronto.
“We truly try to operate more like a corporation.”
That approach to running the firm comes from within and without. Like most law firms in the current economic climate, McCarthy Tétrault is looking at ways to become more efficient, productive and profitable. The need to see the world in a new light is also being driven in large part by clients who want law firms that are both affordable and that understand their business.
“Our clients really want us to reflect more the way they work,” noted Crook.
As chief operating officer, Crook developed a blueprint for change that spelled out how the 150-year-old law firm would move to a new service-delivery model, more readily adopt technology solutions, and redesign processes to drive collaboration, innovation and efficiency. That high-level thinking has translated into concrete changes.
Gone is the mainstream model of running a legal practice that calls for one lawyer and one assistant. Now the ratio is about one assistant for every three or four lawyers.
There is also a national IT platform that provides lawyers and their assistants with document support 24/7. This might involve sending out a more complicated contract for formatting, having a dictated brief typed, or having a PowerPoint presentation prepared.
“We are no longer expecting our legal assistants to be jacks of all trades,” said Crook, who is also president of McCarthy Tétrault’s services division.
Additional administrative support also comes in the form of clerks who float throughout an office to do filing, photocopying, “whatever admin work needs to be done,” said Crook.
The role of billing clerk has also been introduced to ensure clients always have one point of contact. As well, additional training for assistants was provided.
The changes have paid off.
“At the end of the day, we’ve actually reduced our head count by over 22 per cent,” said Crook. “The efficiency has improved dramatically.”
To pre-empt resistance, address concerns and encourage ideas from lawyers and staff, Crook established a steering committee to act as a sounding board for proposed changes. All ideas were run by this group for feedback.
“We brought them along the journey,” said Crook.
That journey took two years. Speed was not essential. In fact, it would have hindered the process, Crook believes. Taking time to put the new system in place, she noted, “gave us the flexibility to make changes as we needed.”
Nowhere perhaps are those changes as marked as for the lawyers and staff in McCarthy Tétrault’s new Quebec City office. After interviewing 150 people in the firm at every level and age group to understand how they were currently working and how
they would like to work, Crook and her colleagues went on the hunt for a company to transform the Quebec City office.
They found that team in BVN Architecture, an award-winning design firm headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.
“We worked to create an environment that is truly collaborative,” said Crook.
The result is believed to be unique in Canada, certainly for a law firm. Corner offices with doors that close lawyers off from the rest of the team are a thing of the past. In their stead are open-space work stations.
“For the first time, every single person has the same size desk,” said Crook. “In the legal industry, it was all about prestige, the bigger desk, the bigger office.”
Some offices do come with walls, glass, of course, and a sliding door to ensure everyone is visible and welcome. An open staircase allows clients to see the entire office working away. That same staircase is narrower than most, so colleagues passing each other are more likely to speak. And everyone has access to light.
“There are no inhibitors,” said Crook. “It makes it so much easier to collaborate.
There is a connectivity.”
“People move around the space instead of just sitting at their desk.”
Privacy rooms are available for anyone who needs to meet with a client or colleague to discuss an issue and there are boardrooms as well, but everything is glass. When necessary, the glass can be frosted to allow for confidential and sensitive conversations.
The idea for the office did not initially go over well, Crook said.
To engage lawyers and staff in the process, samples of the furniture were brought in. People could sit in them and test them out. Office areas were taped off so individuals could get a sense of the size and shape of their workspace.
“It brought down anxiety,” noted Crook. “People were part of the process.”
Fully engaging the firm’s 600 lawyers and its other staff is at the heart of Crook’s job and a cornerstone of the blueprint for change she developed shortly after joining the firm in 2011. Her number one priority, she said, is making sure people feel like “true owners in the firm.”
Flexibility helps attain that goal. McCarthy Tétrault, for example, now offers lawyers a catalogue of technology to choose from to meet their needs.
“Lawyers pick the tools that work best for them,” said Crook. “It’s allowed people to be much more mobile in the office and outside.”
Choosing from a menu of technological options, at least in part, has also resulted in one unexpected change: a 35-per-cent reduction in printing of paper. Instead, people are talking to one another and using the new technology, she said.
If there is one thing Crook understands it’s how to transform operations to enhance productivity. As president and CEO of ResMor Trust Company, a federally regulated mortgage provider, she took the firm online, grew its financial lending products, increased business by 30 per cent and pushed customer retention to over 65 per cent.
For other law firms looking to change the way their legal teams work and even the way their offices look, Crook has three pieces of advice. First, have a strong plan for change that will set a clear direction. Second, listen to people, their ideas, their feedback and their concerns. Finally, engage people in the process.
At McCarthy Tétrault, implementing a collaborative model has led to associates and senior partners working together more effectively, and it has enabled teams to work more easily and efficiently, Crook said.
“It starts to glue together that team and there is greater accessibility.”
For McCarthy Tétrault lawyers in Vancouver, there will soon be additional impetus to collaborate. They’re moving to a new building in April, and it will be modeled on the office in Quebec City.
Such change doesn’t happen quickly, and it doesn’t happen by thinking like a traditional law firm, said Crook, who is based in Toronto.
“We truly try to operate more like a corporation.”That approach to running the firm comes from within and without. Like most law firms in the current economic climate, McCarthy Tétrault is looking at ways to become more efficient, productive and profitable. The need to see the world in a new light is also being driven in large part by clients who want law firms that are both affordable and that understand their business.
“Our clients really want us to reflect more the way they work,” noted Crook.
As chief operating officer, Crook developed a blueprint for change that spelled out how the 150-year-old law firm would move to a new service-delivery model, more readily adopt technology solutions, and redesign processes to drive collaboration, innovation and efficiency. That high-level thinking has translated into concrete changes.
Gone is the mainstream model of running a legal practice that calls for one lawyer and one assistant. Now the ratio is about one assistant for every three or four lawyers.
There is also a national IT platform that provides lawyers and their assistants with document support 24/7. This might involve sending out a more complicated contract for formatting, having a dictated brief typed, or having a PowerPoint presentation prepared.
“We are no longer expecting our legal assistants to be jacks of all trades,” said Crook, who is also president of McCarthy Tétrault’s services division.
Additional administrative support also comes in the form of clerks who float throughout an office to do filing, photocopying, “whatever admin work needs to be done,” said Crook.
The role of billing clerk has also been introduced to ensure clients always have one point of contact. As well, additional training for assistants was provided.
The changes have paid off.
“At the end of the day, we’ve actually reduced our head count by over 22 per cent,” said Crook. “The efficiency has improved dramatically.”
To pre-empt resistance, address concerns and encourage ideas from lawyers and staff, Crook established a steering committee to act as a sounding board for proposed changes. All ideas were run by this group for feedback.
“We brought them along the journey,” said Crook.
That journey took two years. Speed was not essential. In fact, it would have hindered the process, Crook believes. Taking time to put the new system in place, she noted, “gave us the flexibility to make changes as we needed.”
Nowhere perhaps are those changes as marked as for the lawyers and staff in McCarthy Tétrault’s new Quebec City office. After interviewing 150 people in the firm at every level and age group to understand how they were currently working and how
they would like to work, Crook and her colleagues went on the hunt for a company to transform the Quebec City office.
They found that team in BVN Architecture, an award-winning design firm headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.
“We worked to create an environment that is truly collaborative,” said Crook.
The result is believed to be unique in Canada, certainly for a law firm. Corner offices with doors that close lawyers off from the rest of the team are a thing of the past. In their stead are open-space work stations.
“For the first time, every single person has the same size desk,” said Crook. “In the legal industry, it was all about prestige, the bigger desk, the bigger office.”
Some offices do come with walls, glass, of course, and a sliding door to ensure everyone is visible and welcome. An open staircase allows clients to see the entire office working away. That same staircase is narrower than most, so colleagues passing each other are more likely to speak. And everyone has access to light.
“There are no inhibitors,” said Crook. “It makes it so much easier to collaborate.
There is a connectivity.”
“People move around the space instead of just sitting at their desk.”
Privacy rooms are available for anyone who needs to meet with a client or colleague to discuss an issue and there are boardrooms as well, but everything is glass. When necessary, the glass can be frosted to allow for confidential and sensitive conversations.
The idea for the office did not initially go over well, Crook said.
To engage lawyers and staff in the process, samples of the furniture were brought in. People could sit in them and test them out. Office areas were taped off so individuals could get a sense of the size and shape of their workspace.
“It brought down anxiety,” noted Crook. “People were part of the process.”
Fully engaging the firm’s 600 lawyers and its other staff is at the heart of Crook’s job and a cornerstone of the blueprint for change she developed shortly after joining the firm in 2011. Her number one priority, she said, is making sure people feel like “true owners in the firm.”
Flexibility helps attain that goal. McCarthy Tétrault, for example, now offers lawyers a catalogue of technology to choose from to meet their needs.
“Lawyers pick the tools that work best for them,” said Crook. “It’s allowed people to be much more mobile in the office and outside.”
Choosing from a menu of technological options, at least in part, has also resulted in one unexpected change: a 35-per-cent reduction in printing of paper. Instead, people are talking to one another and using the new technology, she said.
If there is one thing Crook understands it’s how to transform operations to enhance productivity. As president and CEO of ResMor Trust Company, a federally regulated mortgage provider, she took the firm online, grew its financial lending products, increased business by 30 per cent and pushed customer retention to over 65 per cent.
For other law firms looking to change the way their legal teams work and even the way their offices look, Crook has three pieces of advice. First, have a strong plan for change that will set a clear direction. Second, listen to people, their ideas, their feedback and their concerns. Finally, engage people in the process.
At McCarthy Tétrault, implementing a collaborative model has led to associates and senior partners working together more effectively, and it has enabled teams to work more easily and efficiently, Crook said.
“It starts to glue together that team and there is greater accessibility.”
For McCarthy Tétrault lawyers in Vancouver, there will soon be additional impetus to collaborate. They’re moving to a new building in April, and it will be modeled on the office in Quebec City.
