The Hidden Leadership Challenges Inside Law Firms
How do you scale a law firm in an industry built on risk-avoidance?
In this episode, David Kent sits down with Margaret, award-winning consultant and strategic advisor to law firms, to unpack the leadership challenges leaders face inside the legal industry — from culture and change management to time tracking, operational bottlenecks, and the rise of AI.
In this episode, David Kent sits down with Margaret, award-winning consultant and strategic advisor to law firms, to unpack the leadership challenges leaders face inside the legal industry — from culture and change management to time tracking, operational bottlenecks, and the rise of AI.
With decades of experience working in firms and now with firms, Margaret shares:
- Why law firms resist change more than other industries
- The three SOPs every growing firm needs: billing, client onboarding, and new-hire onboarding
- How to manage underperformance without harming culture
- The #1 habit that successful hybrid teams share
- Why most managing partners unintentionally become the bottleneck
- How to track non-billable time realistically
- What AI adoption actually looks like inside firms (and why some are banning it entirely)
- Her most important advice for any new managing partner on day one
Margaret also reveals the biggest lessons she’d tell her younger self, the leadership books she recommends ("Buy Back Your Time"), and what she’s building next inside her consultancy.
If you lead a team — legal or not — this conversation will change how you think about time, people, and scaling.
