Leading Change When No One Wants to Be Told What to Do

By Tiffany Perry

Most law firms don’t resist change because they are stubborn. Instead, they struggle with change because lawyers value independence and autonomy.

If you are a managing partner of midsized firm or a solo practitioner who has grown into a small firm, you may be trying to grow your firm in very practical ways. Take for example, implementing new technology. You may be: 

• Rolling out an electronic practice-management system to replace email threads and personal task lists
• Asking lawyers to use the firm’s document-management system instead of saving files locally
• Investing in AI-assisted research or drafting tools to improve speed and consistency
• Standardizing time entry policies, billing narratives, or processes to intake new matters so the firm has useful data

On paper, these changes make good business sense, and many are overdue.  Clients increasingly expect efficiency, transparency, and faster turnaround. Younger lawyers assume modern tools are table stakes, and managing partners know that running a firm on memory is not sustainable. However, adoption of those new systems is inconsistent.

Early adopters embrace the new tools. Other lawyers ignore them. Some may raise legitimate concerns, such as ethical issues, confidentiality, or accuracy. However, most resistance is quieter than that. Associates and partners around the table in meetings and attend training. Then later quietly revert to old habits when there’s pressure to meet new business development or filing deadlines.

What’s at Stake If Your Firm Doesn’t Change

In a small firm, partial adoption is often worse than no adoption at all.

Take a new practice-management system. If only some lawyers use it properly, staff need to maintain parallel systems. Attorneys miss deadlines because information is scattered across too many places. Partners and associates lose confidence in the data, so they stop relying on it altogether. The firm ends up with more inefficiency and complexity, not less. Complexity is expensive and creates additional costs for the firm.

AI tools are another common example. One partner may use them to speed up research and first drafts. A second partner refuses to use them and a third partner uses the tools inconsistently. Suddenly, there is no shared standard, collective learning, nor confidence that the firm is managing quality or risk consistently.

Over time, three things happen:

First, leadership credibility erodes.
Each “initiative” that fades, reinforces the belief that firmwide changes are optional or they’re just the “flavor of the month.”

Second, inefficiency becomes the norm.
Lawyers and staff spend time compensating for inconsistency, such as double-checking work, chasing information, and recreating documents that should already exist.

Third, the firm limits the types of changes it can handle.
Firms that cannot execute operational changes struggle with more complex changes where there is more at stake, including succession planning, alternative fee arrangements, or growth through acquisitions or mergers.

What Firm Leaders Think Works to Change Behavior

Most managing partners approach these changes carefully, with deference and respect to their peers. 

In the instance of increasing adoption of new technology, common tactics include:

• Selecting a respected partner to “champion” the change
• Piloting new systems with a small group and hoping adoption spreads organically
• Hosting training sessions or vendor demos
• Multiple emails or practice emails to explain the technology and why it’s important
• Letting each partner decide how far to go with integrating the technology in their team’s client work and matter management

These approaches are well-intentioned because in partnership cultures, heavy-handed mandates can backfire.

However, they often aren’t enough because they don’t take the time to move beyond agreement to actual alignment.

Partners may agree that a tool is useful in theory, but may have different opinions on its importance, the effort it requires, or whether it’s relevant to their own situation.  Those disagreements are rarely directly discussed. Instead, they show up in how people act.

Staff notice immediately. If one partner insists on using the new system and a second partner waves it off, the message is clear: It is not really a firm policy, but a preference.

Training, use cases, or communications won’t fix that. 

 A Different Way to Think About Adoption

New technology is not the only place where challenges arise in achieving consistent adoption.  The same dynamic appears when firms try to standardize how work gets done, such as intake, billing, or client communication, so the firm can scale for growth. These efforts fail for the same reason: leaders haven’t aligned on expectations, enforcement, or behavior in hard moments.

Before you roll out a new tool, policy, or process, it’s important to get partner alignment in a few areas:

Shared vision.
Why are we implementing this practice-management system or AI tool now? What problem are we solving that matters to the firm, our associates, or clients?

Shared message.
Can every partner explain the change in roughly the same way, without undercutting it or hedging?

Shared approach.
Are there clear expectations about what “following this new practice” means day-to-day? Can we explain a day in the life of an attorney using this new tool?

Personal accountability.
How will each partner model our new ways of working, especially when it’s inconvenient?

Agreement in hard moments.
What do we do if one of the partners refuses to support this change? How do we handle clients who push back on our use of AI or want to circumvent our policy? Are we comfortable with our new ways of working slowing us down before it speeds up?  

When these questions are answered privately among partners and firm administration, change becomes far easier publicly. When they are avoided, the firm drifts into silent negotiation – one matter or one exception at a time.

Three Actions Firm Leaders Can Take Now

If you are trying to drive adoption of new systems, processes, or practices, these steps drive adoption.

1. Get Partners Aligned on the Change Before You Announce It

Before announcing a new platform or policy, have “the tough” conversation among your peers about what success looks like, the barriers to adoption, accountability, and consistency. It’s better to get on the same page around those points in a conference room to prevent misunderstandings and conflict, or resolve those differences in a staff meeting.

•  Anticipate What Leaders Will Do Under Pressure

Adoption lives or dies during busy moments where we are juggling multiple priorities. If partners don’t use the new system or follow new ways of working as deadlines loom, everyone else will follow.  Modeling the behaviors you want to see is critical.  Upfront acknowledge the pressure points (e.g., billable work pressures, competing strategic initiatives, “but my practice is different” complaints, etc.) that will make follow-through hard. Then, discuss where there’s flexibility or other initiatives that you’re willing to deprioritize to improve adoption.

3. View Change Management as Risk Management

It’s tempting to believe that attorneys and staff will eventually embrace practices that are smart business choices, such as implementing a practice management system or tightening matter intake requirements.  However, firm adoption of these tools and practices is key to getting the return on your investment. Moreover, inconsistent use creates ethical, operational, and reputational risks. Taking the time to do steps 1 and 2, in addition to training and communications, is critical for proper governance and risk reduction.  

A Final Thought

Law firms succeed through judgment, trust, and a degree of professional independence. During times of change, these strengths need even more coordination. When partners come together and align their goals and vision, change feels more like a collective effort rather than an obligation. This is how firms modernize without losing what makes them special in the first place.

Tiffany Perry is a consultant, licensed attorney, and CEO of Amberus Partners, a boutique consultancy specializing in organizational change management for professional-services firms. Over the past 15 years, she has led change and organizational-effectiveness initiatives with some of the world’s most respected firms, including Deloitte and PwC. Her background gives her a practical understanding of the challenges firm leaders face – conflicting partner priorities, capacity constraints, culture dynamics, and the pressure to execute change while continuing to deliver client work. She practiced commercial litigation for several years before transitioning to a career as an organizational change management consultant.