Many law firms invest significant time defining values around collaboration, teamwork, and shared ownership. Yet those same firms often struggle to see the behaviours they want emerge in practice. The reason is rarely a lack of intent. It is structural.

Do tougher partner expectations help firms perform at their best – like elite teams in sport – or quietly undermine the culture that makes high performance possible, asks Moray McLaren

India’s legal landscape is undergoing an institutional shift as top law firms move away from individualistic "eat-what-you-kill" compensation. Moray McLaren is quoted on how Indian law firms are rethinking profit-sharing.

With the clock ticking toward Winston Taylor’s merger vote and two more ballots on the horizon for Hogan Lovells-Cadwalader and Ashurst-Perkins Coie, experts break down the high-stakes strategies at play. Moray McLaren is quoted on the complexities of Big Law mergers.

The results of Latin Lawyer’s inaugural Law Firm Support Function survey reveal that law firms prefer to keep accounting and finance services in-house, but outfits are less unanimous in their strategy towards how much staff and budget the department needs. Read on to benchmark your firm and learn what consultants advise.  

As law firm partnerships head into another remuneration season, Moray McLaren reflects on why disputes about pay are rarely really about money, and what partner reviews reveal about trust, judgment, and governance inside the firm

As legal power shifts from London to New York, Europe’s law‑firm elite is being rewritten

In the first of seven episodes on Culture and Performance, Jan Thornbury and Moray McLaren discuss how culture is the foundation that underpins how organisations actually work and perform. Using Edgar Schein’s well-known model, culture is explained as a system with three connected layers: Beliefs and assumptions at the core – what the firm really believes is the “right” way to do things (often described as values). Behaviours and norms – the everyday actions that those belief

At 2025 Leadership Circle hosted in Toronto, a selected group of over 100 law firm leaders explored how law firm can navigate today’s inflection point — where technology, talent, and trust intersect

When we talk about culture and high performance, these are often framed as opposites, culture being about being nice to each other, performance being about driving harder. In reality, the best teams show us they are two sides of the same coin.

This is the introduction to a three-part series by Moray McLaren, Professor at the LawAhead Centre on the Legal Profession, IE Law School, and consultant with Lexington Partners, on the two-tier partnership system many law firms are now employing

Legal departments are undergoing significant change, though much of it remains invisible as it takes place behind the scenes. invisible as the work takes place behind the scenes. Artificial intelligence is a major driver of this transformation. As legal departments push forward on their transformation journey, they are increasingly confronted by an uncomfortable question: Is the traditional legal service model still fit for purpose?

Partner Performance. As law firms get more sophisticated in evaluating lawyers and partners, there is a growing frustration amongst leadership about underperformers (in particular senior associates or junior partners) as they are the future of the firm.

The challenge for law firms is to take these seven levers, reflect on them, and implement changes that drive sustainable profitability. Although profitability is a key concern across all businesses, it can be particularly complex in law firms where factors such as recording hours, pricing models, partner compensation structures, and operational efficiency require careful strategy and ongoing management. The following Podcast series, led by Lexington's Katie Dignan and Paul Br