
226 See Yourself as a System
Conflicting Purposes at an International Law Firm
A successful lawyer, head of a big practice at a major international law
firm, was passionate about several different purposes with respect to the
firm’s future. These included identifying and training the next generation
of lawyers to make his department among the best in the world, increas-
ing productivity by rewarding lawyers for collaborative work rather than
largely for their own entrepreneurship, and helping his partners see that
in a rapidly changing, highly competitive environment, the firm was
going to have to overhaul its governance culture and its reward system ...