Using Outside Transition Coaches

One of the ways law firms can adjust to today’s high-risk culture is by actually expanding one-on-one mentoring through the use of professionally trained coaches. With the number of “baby boomers” entering retirement age, these senior lawyers may become the talent pool you will need to enhance personnel development within the firm. For our purposes, coaching can be described as, “a process of helping someone enhance or improve their performance through reflection on how they apply a specific skill and/or knowledge.”[1] Coaching in the business setting is a one-on-one relationship to help people better use existing knowledge and skills to maximize performance. As a general rule, coaching is both person-centered, and system-centered. Successful coaching achieves positive change for both the individual and the system; i.e., the law firm.

According to the 2007 MIT Sloan Management Review , instilling a coaching culture led to improved productivity and performance in a multinational manufacturer. It stands to reason that law firms, like multinational manufacturers, also will improve productivity by instilling a coaching culture.

 According to a recent article, Coaching Lawyers to Attain Leadership Roles that appeared in The Legal Intelligencer, (January 13, 2009) autor Susan Letterman White writes that, according to a research report by Diane Coutu and Carol Kauffman in the January Harvard Business Review, coaching is a business tool that is most often used to develop the capabilities of high-potential performers or facilitate leadership transitions. The median hourly cost is $500, with some coaches commanding much more depending on experience.

[1] Sara Thorpe & Jackie Clifford, The Coaching Handbook: An Action Kit for Trainers & Managers (London: Kogan Page Limited, 2003), p. 1.