Successful Transitions: The New Managing Partner’s First Days

Can anything really prepare you for those initial days in your new role as managing partner? Just when you feel that you have reached the peak of your career by building a successful practice, you may realize that you still have some things to learn. You also may face some real challenges settling into your new role.

How can a new firm leader make the most of this important transition period and avoid the potential pitfalls that can affect their ability to be successful over the long term? To find out, we interviewed a collection of new or soon to become managing partners of firms from across the country.

We talked to them about the importance of those first days, their priorities and challenges, and the advice they would give to someone taking over just such responsibilities. We chose firm leaders from a variety of firm sizes but were surprised to learn that in each and every case these leaders were partners in their firms for a minimum of 17 years and had served in some prior management capacity (practice group leader, office managing partner, executive committee member) for at least 5 years.