This hard-hitting and ground-breaking report, which includes an abundance of benchmarking data drawn from two MPF surveys conducted earlier this year, serves as a wake-up call for leaders and owners of smaller and mid-size US law firms. We strongly maintain that to be successful in the future, law firms must be run more like a business and less like loose confederations of sole practitioners. For most firms, this involves change and accountability. And lawyers don’t like either. Leadership and planning are required. Here are some of our report’s major themes:

• Firm owners must accept the fact the profession is undergoing unprecedented change and that your law firm must adapt if it wants to survive and prosper.
• Strategic planning is no longer optional. Firms need a vision for the future and a plan to get where they want to go. “Hope and pray” is not a good strategy in a rapidly changing marketplace.
• Firms must invest in the leadership and business development skills of their young lawyers. They are the future of your firm.
• Importantly, law firms must proactively address issues involving problematic partners. They are affecting the culture and profitability of your firm much more than you realize.
• The time has come for firm leaders to exercise “more leadership” and “less management.”

You need to review this report. You need to share it with your partners. Importantly, your firm must respond to the changing marketplace. Otherwise, you may find yourselves selling buggy whips when the rest of the world has moved beyond them.