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Feb 26, 2025

Law Firm Management – How to Keep Branch Offices From Becoming Fiefdoms

Question 

I am the sole owner of an estate planning firm in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have one branch office and are contemplating acquiring another practice that would give us a third office. We have a total of four lawyers plus myself working in the firm, 5 paralegals, and five administrative members including the firm administrator.

We acquired the office office via an acquisition five years ago. At first we had a paralegal that we inherited from the prior firm as the only permanent employee at the office and we would send up lawyers from the main office for client appointments on an as needed basis. (The two offices are a 45 minute car commute from each other) This worked reasonably well for a little while but after a year I decided that we needed more permanency in the office and we hired a full-time experienced lawyer that was assigned to that office. A year later the paralegal retired and we hired another paralegal for that office as well as an administrative staff member. All went well for a couple of years but now we are having the following personnel issues:

  1. Infighting between attorneys and staff between the two offices.
  2. The lawyer and staff at the branch office act as if they are in a separate firm.
  3. The lawyer and staff at the branch office will not follow main office protocols regarding client acceptance and fees, document preparation, document storage, dress and appearance, client relations, or anything else.
  4. The remote office has become a separate fiefdom and the firm is becoming an unpleasant place to work.

I am having second thoughts as to whether I should have acquired this practice and whether I should go forward with another acquisition. Any thoughts that you have would be appreciated.

Response:

While opening a branch office can be tempting there can also be pitfalls. Typically reasons for opening a branch office include:

  1. Additional geographical coverage
  2. Access to additional clients
  3. Potential revenue increase
  4. Access to a wider talent pool

A branch can bring prospective additional clients and access to a wider talent pool but money has to be spent on office space, salaries, and other operating expenses which can negatively impact the profits and earnings of the firm if the branch office does not generate sufficient business and revenues. Even if the branch office is successful in terms of revenues and profits there are the additional management challenges that can arise such you are experiencing. Often the most difficult challenge is replicating your philosophy, norms, and practices – culture if you will – in the branch office.

In larger branch office plants the office is usually staffed by at least one attorney – usually partner level – that is transferred from the main office. As the office grows additional attorneys and staff are hired for the local area. This helps in transplanting the main office culture to the branch office.

In your situation due to your small size you options may have been more limited but you might have considered:

  1. Encouraging one of your other attorneys to work at the branch office.
  2. Requiring the paralegal that was acquired from the acquisition to work at the main office for the first month.
  3. Requiring the new attorney that was hired for the branch office to have worked for a time in the main office.
  4. Requiring the new paralegal that was hired for the branch office to have worked for a time in the main office.
  5. Weekly team meetings via Zoom including attorneys and staff from both offices.
  6. Quarterly face to face meetings with attorneys and staff from both offices.
  7. Consequences for behavior such as you are experiencing.

You must take a strong hand on this or the situation will only get worse. Your firm administrator should also play a key role in this.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

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