Management Consulting

To achieve market leadership, law firms must align their structures, go-to-market strategies, and systems with their strategic vision. From governance, compensation, and partnership structures to expansion and client and leadership succession plans, these critical elements must support and strengthen each other.

We work with firms at all stages of their evolution and across a broad spectrum of challenges and opportunities, including increasing revenue and profitability, defining and implementing performance metrics, and identifying and facilitating combinations. Yet our goal is always the same: to help our clients attain preeminence in their areas of focus by adding breadth and depth in key practices, industries, and/or geographic markets.

Our Approach

We tailor our services to your specific circumstances, and they may include assessment and strategic enhancement of:

  • Client and leadership succession planning
  • Compensation systems
  • Domestic and international growth
  • Financial performance
  • Firm governance
  • Firm leadership roles and responsibilities
  • Insourcing/outsourcing strategies
  • Leadership development initiatives
  • Management of outside counsel
  • Organizational structure, policies, and procedures
  • Partnership admissions
  • Partnership structures
  • Performance metrics
  • Programs to identify and enhance relationships with clients of strategic importance

Relevant Experience

  • Advisor on groundbreaking mergers and combinations for market-leading national and international law firms, including the largest transatlantic law firm industry merger in history and the first combination between an Am Law 100 firm and a Chinese law firm
  • Advisor to global law firm with a presence in more than 40 countries on multiple combinations
  • Trusted advisor to numerous Global 50 chairs and managing partners, including the leadership of the preeminent law firm of the People’s Republic of China
  • Advisor on reorganization of tech giant’s 1600-lawyer global legal department and succession planning for the company’s chief legal officer
  • Convener of Zeughauser Group Chair Roundtable and other roundtables (20 years)

State of DEI Content: What Clients Expect from Law Firms and Professional Services Providers

Greentarget and Zeughauser Group’s latest State of Digital & Content Marketing Survey — our first in three years — revealed that clients of professional services firms see diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a key business priority.

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2022 State of Digital, Content and DEI Survey

Mary K Young, along with John Corey and Betsy Coag, will discuss a recent survey of consumption behaviors, attitudes, and preferences of in-house counsel and executive decision makers. This research pairs client consumption behaviors with practical guidance for law firms and professional service providers on how to break through to these difficult-to-reach audiences. The session will provide an opportunity to learn about the content formats, platforms, and channels that clients frequent and value most, to understand the top reasons content “misses” for clients, and to decode what clients are really looking for in terms of DEI-focused content.

12:00 p.m. CT, November 15, 2022

For additional details and registration information, visit 2022 Survey

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Cravath Salary Raises Pressure Rivals Who Can’t Afford Match

Cravath Swaine & Moore’s move to raise associate salaries beyond the scale set by its rival Milbank pressures less-profitable firms to ponder pay bumps they can’t afford. While firms in the top tiers of revenue and profitability are likely to follow Cravath’s lead - and several already have - others in the industry are ill-positioned to do so. Peter Zeughauser observes that the prospect of Cravath-type raises will stress a lot of firms. Some will avoid such raises and suffer the fall-out of “more poaching” from firms that can pay top compensation.

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