Peter Zeughauser

Full Narrative

Peter Zeughauser is one of the legal industry’s premier strategists. A broadly skilled trusted advisor, he counsels leaders of top-ranked global, international, national, regional, and boutique firms on the challenges and opportunities they face as a result of the internationalization, consolidation, and segmentation of the market for legal services. His consulting practice includes significant work in China, where he maintains a Zeughauser Group office and advises a number of leading Chinese law firms.

Peter developed the Zeughauser Group’s now widely used framework for law firm strategic planning, and its approach to merger and acquisition work (both described below).

Clients benefit from Peter’s extensive background in both consulting and legal practice, including over a decade as senior vice president and general counsel of The Irvine Company. Under Peter’s leadership, the company’s legal department was ranked by the National Law Journal as one of the country’s top ten and cited for being in the vanguard of a powerful client-led legal industry reform movement. He served for ten years on the board of directors of the Association of Corporate Counsel, which he chaired in 1991.

The National Law Journal has also recognized Peter as one of 50 Legal Business Trailblazers and Pioneers who have “truly moved the needle in facilitating the changing ways that law firms conduct business.” He was lauded for sparking the use of alternative fee arrangements and for being the first general counsel to use RFPs to hire outside counsel.

Peter is the author of Lawyers Are From Mercury, Clients Are From Pluto (ClientFocus Press, 1999).

As a legal analyst, Peter is frequently quoted and featured in publications as diverse as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Business Week, The Washington Post, The American Lawyer, the ABA Journal, Corporate Counsel, and the New York Law Journal. He is a sought-after speaker at law firm retreats and industry gatherings and has shared his insights on law firm management as a contributing editor and columnist for The American Lawyer magazine since 1996.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Saint Louis University School of Law, where he was elected to Alpha Sigma Nu, the national Jesuit Honor Society.

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Areas of expertise

Strategic Growth Planning

Lead, manage and facilitate firmwide, practice group, industry sector, and office strategic planning with a process that builds consensus around management led, partner driven change
Analyze firm performance data to set the stage for planning
Interview partners to identify shared goals and disparate views that need to be bridged in the planning
Assistance forming a planning group and facilitation of its meetings
Assessment of the firm’s competitive environment with the planning group and facilitation of a SWOT exercise
Facilitate planning exercises to develop an aspirational vision statement and high-performance goals, strategies, and action items
Ensure alignment of firm structure and systems with strategy
Keep the planning process on track
Strategic plan roll-out to the partnership

Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Alliances

Leadership and partner consensus building around accelerated growth strategies for achieving market leadership
Identification and assessment of merger and acquisition opportunities on behalf of equals, acquirers, and targets
Building consensus around value propositions for clients and talent
Formal and informal design and facilitation of phased internal and bilateral discussions
Facilitation and analysis of confidential data exchanges
Facilitate design and assessment of alternative collaboration structures (including cross-border strategic alliances and “best friend” and private network relationships)
Advisor on deal terms, including development of and integrating disparate governance and partnership structures, compensation systems, capital accounts, unfunded liabilities
transaction structures that facilitate accelerated client and market penetration, including in multiple jurisdictions the name of the combined firm,
Advisor to the deal when desired by the parties
Media strategy and relations related to the transaction

Management Consulting

Trusted advisor to leadership
Developing leadership roles and responsibilities
Leadership succession planning
Partner compensation systems
Partnership governance and structure
Partnership admission and retention criteria
Profitability strategies
Pricing strategies
Performance metrics
Go-to market strategies
Insourcing/outsourcing and flex-time strategies to reduce fixed overhead and the cost of leverage
Consensus-building among partners and other law firm leaders

Retreat Planning and Speaking Engagements

Frequent speaker at law firm partner retreats, industry and managing partner gatherings for over thirty years on legal industry and macroeconomic trends driving change and opportunities, and challenges in the legal industry
Partner retreat design
Design and moderation of panel discussions at partner retreats

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Selected recent engagements

Insights & Ideas