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Of Jerry Maguire and mission statements

By: dmc-admin//December 18, 2002//

Of Jerry Maguire and mission statements

By: dmc-admin//December 18, 2002//

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Thomas R. Streifender

Everyone scoffs at Jerry Maguire when he unveils his grand mission statement. In the lesser-known Office Space, the movie’s twenty-something hero leads a revolt against his bosses, in part because they are constantly "cramming mission statements down my throat."

Mission statements were great comic fodder for Hollywood in the 1990s. Does that mean they’re irrelevant to real-life law firms in the 21st Century?

Absolutely not, say several law firm leaders in Wisconsin.

A Rose by any Other Name

The phrase "mission statements" has become clichéd and definitely has negative connotations for some. So perhaps avoiding that term — but not the process of strategic planning itself — is wise.

According to Thomas R. Streifender, the managing partner of Milwaukee’s von Briesen & Roper, s.c., his firm has a "vision" and "a statement of beliefs and values."

Meanwhile, Michael P. May, a partner with the Boardman Law Firm in Madison, says, "We tend to think of it more as the ‘guiding principles’ for our law firm" — referring to the "Our Approach" verbiage on the firm’s Web site.

Whatever they’re called, going through the exercise of drafting them and putting them into action is definitely worth the effort, they agree.

"Our Approach" is designed to bring consistency within the firm, and to communicate where Boardman’s leaders are trying to take the firm, May explains. "I think it’s important for a firm to know who they are, both internally and externally. Within the firm, you need something for people to identify with, and externally, it gives guidance — when you’re trying to recruit attorneys, and when you’re dealing with clients and other law firms."

Mission in action

"We don’t have a mission statement. That’s because I think that if you took 10 law firm mission statements, mixed them up and assigned them to different firms, nobody would know the difference," says Stuart R. Schroeder, founding partner of the Schroeder Group S.C. in Brookfield.

The closest his firm comes to having a mission statement is that they’ve recently become a member of Primerus, an international network of attorneys that accepts firms on the basis of six "pillars:" 1) integrity, 2) excellence of work product, 3) reasonable fees, 4) continuing education, 5) civility to bench and bar, and 6) community service.

Primerus, labeled by the Wall Street Journal as "The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" for law firms, is a referral source for attorneys and the public.

Primerus also works to restore the public’s confidence in the legal system.

Schroeder says his firm has been dedicated to the Primerus pillars from its very beginning.

In addition, Schroeder notes that his firm’s Web site does contain verbiage that sets the firm apart from its competitors, and describes what they’re all about.

The home page of www.tsglaw.com provides, "Our clients and staff would characterize us as professional, but not stuffy, serious and ethical, but able to enjoy our practices and our personal lives. The unconventional firm name exemplifies the manner in which the individual attorneys and staff members work together efficiently as a group to provide sophisticated legal services to clients in a relaxed and informal environment."

In addition, in an interview with Schroeder on the site, he states, "In essence, what we try to do is offer downtown Milwaukee law firm experience and quality at lower prices than would be charged by lawyers with the same academic and experience credentials downtown. Our per lawyer overhead in this firm is less than the average downtown Milwaukee firm overhead per attorney. Yet we try not to compromise on quality or capability, and we pride ourselves on the
prompt turnaround of projects and the service to our clients."

Isn’t that, sort of (gulp) a mission statement?

"If I had to say what my ‘focus’ is, it’s that — client service," Schroeder concedes. "All lawyers talk about service. We try not to spend time talking about it, but actually doing it."

"We’re not so doctrinal that we bash people over the head with our vision and values," Streifender says. "But they do provide an aspirational standard of conduct that we hope has an impact on our environment, morale and sense of family. And it’s a touchstone, for when we’re dealing with an employee, a client, or taking advantage of a business opportunity — really, for just about everything."

Streifender’s predecessor in the top management spot at von Briesen for 25 years was Warren L. Kreunen. He agrees the vision and value statements are especially helpful in decision-making.

For example, a few years ago, von Briesen needed to pare its staff-to-attorney ratio, like most other firms were doing as well. They were reminded that the vision statement calls for "unparalleled client service." They then concluded that they must make the changes more slowly than the other firms were, because they were concerned that clients would feel the impact.

Merger, Web Site Spawned Strategic Planning

von Briesen’s "vision" and "beliefs and values" date back to 1993, when the firm was under Kreunen’s direction.

The firm had gone through a merger in 1987, and while the transition was going well, the differences between the two predecessor firms were still evident. So management decided to do something drastic.

Opposition immediately surfaced. "A lot of lawyers are hard-line, pragmatic people, who like to get things done in a hurry and who don’t have time for a ‘hearts and flowers’ kind of thing like this," Kreunen says. "Getting them to talk about the very core of what they do wasn’t easy."

With the skeptics in mind, the firm hired Joan Lloyd, a Milwaukee-based management/career consultant and syndicated newspaper columnist, to facilitate the process. They thought she would be strong, credible and persuasive. She didn’t disappoint.

Lloyd began by interviewing individuals at all levels. Then the lawyers went on a retreat to come up with the vision statement and a draft of the statement of beliefs and values.

Upon their return, they announced that everyone — attorneys and staff — would break into groups to draft their own statements of beliefs and values.

Barbara Sager, von Briesen’s human resources manager, recalls, "It was interesting because we found there were many similarities among the lists. In fact, the shareholders’ and secretaries’ lists were almost identical."

Then a committee of lawyers and staff finalized the statement of values. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the group incorporated them into the firm’s processes. For example, they revised the employee recruiting, orientation and evaluation systems.

It’s almost 10 years later now — but the vision and value statements are still very real, Kreunen, Streifender and Sager agree.

Boardman’s "Our Approach" is younger — only two years old. It was drafted when the firm was launching a Web site.

The firm had always had descriptions in pamphlets, but they decided they wanted something shorter and simpler, that would differentiate them from the hundreds of thousands of other law firms on the World Wide Web, May says.

So a committee met with a consultant, brainstormed and ultimately drafted it, with input from everyone in the firm. "Our Approach" took on several iterations before it was finalized.

Skeptics and Small Firms

von BriesenThose who saw Jerry Maguire, and even those who didn’t, are bound to voice skepticism about mission statements and strategic planning (or whatever it’s called).

May observes, "There are people in any law firm who think, ‘Just practice law.’ But we were able to convince some of them that the world has changed from what practicing law was like 20 or even 10 years ago. And going through the process convinced some of them."

Streifender echoes those sentiments. "In any organization, there are nay-sayers. We don’t have many of them. But even those who say,
‘I don’t conduct myself each day in accordance with a set of pre-printed directions,’ in reality, the way they act is consistent with this. And if it isn’t, we let them know; we take that very seriously."

Moreover, some of the critics might be afraid that it will lead to expectations that they can’t or won’t reach.

Kreunen observes that, since von Briesen decided customer service was its reason for existence, "Some people said, ‘My God, you mean you want me to return all client phone calls within two hours?’ Well, we can’t always do that, but we try."

von Briesen did lose a few people who wouldn’t go with the program. But ultimately, the vision and statement of beliefs and values were accepted, and even embraced, because the firm had involved everyone in the process.

Further, the statements had enough enthusiastic supporters, especially among the firm’s most highly respected individuals. "You can’t lead a parade if no one’s going to follow. The managing shareholder or the board can’t do it alone," Kreunen says.

Every firm, whatever its size, can benefit from having some kind of mutual understanding about what they’re all about, Sager contends. Even solos usually hire staff at some point, and they’ll want people who are a good fit with their culture.

While May isn’t certain that a solo needs it, he says that once a firm grows to five or more lawyers, it’s advisable to have a conversation about where the firm is headed, and put the results in writing.

BoardmanThe good news? Small firms don’t necessarily need to spend thousands of hours of a committee’s time, nor do they need to spend thousands of dollars on a consultant.

Says May: "You don’t have to make it into a huge overblown ordeal. Make it short. Make it descriptive. See if people buy into it. And you’re done. Then if a year later, it isn’t right, you can change it. It doesn’t have to be like drafting a 600-page acquisition agreement."

There’s great beauty in simplicity. Overly ambitious strategic planning is doomed to fail.

"Most plans get stuck on the back shelf, because they’re too long, too detailed, and there’s no accountability," Kreunen says. "It really needs to be more of a direction rather than a plan. Because outside events change so rapidly these days, that you can’t see very far ahead. But you can sense strategic directions and then create an operating plan each 12-18 months that accomplishes certain goals toward those directions."

Jane Pribek can be reached by email.

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