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This series looks at the conversations most leaders know they should have, and don’t. This week: the resignation conversation, what to say when a resignation letter lands and you want them to stay.
Your most reliable senior associate hasn’t raised a concern in two years. The work arrives on time, the clients are looked after, and nothing about how they operate suggests a problem. You rely on them, and you read that steadiness as loyalty. If something were wrong, you are confident they would speak up.
An expectation usually gets handed over as a shape, not a specification. "I need this turned around fast." "I expect a high standard on this one." "Use your judgement, but flag anything unusual." Each one feels complete to the person saying it, because the detail behind it is already fully formed in their head.
The intent is almost always good. Staying close to something that matters, checking the output before it goes out, being available if something needs adjusting, all of it comes from a genuine wish to protect the quality of the work. That's the intent, and it's a reasonable one.
If your numbers show inconsistent time recording, write-downs, or a resignation you didn't see coming, an operational blind spot may be why.
Someone stops by your office. "We've got a problem with this matter, can I get your thoughts?" You know it well, you have the context, and it's faster to just deal with it than to explain the thinking behind a solution. So you say, "Leave it with me, I'll take a look," and the problem moves from their desk to yours.
This is the first in a new series. For the past six weeks, we looked at the situations where the gap between how a leader reads things and how their team experiences them quietly costs the firm money. This series looks at the conversations that sit inside those gaps, the ones most leaders know they should have, and don't.
Every firm carries a cost that never shows up as its own line in your P&L. Instead, it shows up as movement in the numbers you already track every month. This week, that's realisation rate. This cost commonly comes from the gap between how a leader reads a situation and how their team actually experiences it. Each week, this…
Every firm carries a cost that never shows up as its own line in your P&L. Instead, it shows up as movement in the numbers you already track every month. This week, that's write-down rate. This cost commonly comes from the gap between how a leader reads a situation and how their team actually experiences it. Each week, this…
Every firm carries a cost that never shows up as its own line in your P&L. Instead, it shows up as movement in the numbers you already track every month. This week, that's write-off rate. This cost can emanate from the gap between how a firm reads its relationship with a client and how the client actually experiences that…
Every firm carries a cost that never shows up as its own line in your P&L. Instead, it shows up as movement in the numbers you already track every month. This week, that's your own chargeable hours and your leverage ratio. That cost comes from one place, the gap between how a leader reads a situation and how their team…
Every firm carries a cost that never shows up as its own line in your P&L because it's already sitting inside numbers you track every month: write-offs, lock-up, attrition, realization. That cost comes from one place, the gap between how a leader reads a situation and how their team actually experiences it. Each week, this…
The cost in your firm isn't sitting in a report. It's sitting in the gap between how you read a situation and how your team actually experiences it. Each week, one situation. One pattern. One operational cost.
The Law Society's latest Financial Benchmarking Survey 2026 brought good news. Average lock-up across UK law firms fell to 134 days, down from 146 the year before. Chargeable hours per fee earner rose too, climbing to 807. For firms that have spent years tightening billing cycles, chasing debtors, and reviewing WIP on a…
Freshfields has spent the last few weeks culling equity partners and downgrading others in London, Paris, and Germany after overhauling its pay structure at the end of 2025. The Financial Times reported the changes on 13th July 2026. On the surface it's a story about a magic circle firm getting more disciplined about pay.…
Founder at Thomas Telman – I help partners in law and accountancy recover revenue they don’t know they are losing.
One grew the client base with three new clients. Margin on her files sat comfortably above target. She brought in work the firm didn't previously have at rates the firm chose.
A senior associate's output has dropped and nobody can explain why. Down the corridor, a department head is working longer hours than anyone in her team but her own billing and business development have gone backwards. Somewhere in HR, a flexibility request has been sitting unanswered for months.
Mark is working through his approvals. He reaches a write-off on a corporate matter his team spent three weeks on. Good work. Careful work. The client even sent a thank-you email.
The legal sector just recorded its highest growth in fifteen years. Fees are up, demand is strong, and the P&L is pointing in the right direction. The sharper question, and the one worth asking while the numbers are strong, is this: how much of what we've earned are we actually banking?
On paper, the corporate team is the success story, instructions up, utilisation high, and the new partner is winning work the firm wouldn't have seen two years ago. Then the finance report lands, and two numbers are moving the wrong way.
Seven years at the firm. Technically excellent and trusted by clients. When the partnership decision came through, nobody was surprised, least of all James.
David walked into the weekly matter review prepared, professional, and on time. He covered everything on the agenda. From the outside, it looked like any other meeting.
Six months as a newly promoted partner. A team of six. A caseload she knew inside out. She had been the person colleagues came to when they needed something done properly. She was considered reliable, technically excellent, and well liked. The promotion felt like recognition of everything she had built.
Most managing partners know their KPI’s umber very well. Realisation rates, PEP, utilisation however what it doesn't show them is what is sitting behind it. The numbers look strong but strong numbers have a way of masking what is quietly building beneath them. The leadership blind spots that don't show up until the metrics…
This edition of the Leadership Blind Spot Brief was inspired by a recent Thomson Reuters Institute article on AI and the future of legal talent. I have tagged Norah Olson Bluvshtein and Thomson Reuters Institute whose research directly informed the argument here.
In 2019, I placed two solicitors into a mid-size city firm. Both were excited to join. The firm had interviewed well describing their culture, workload and growth plans. All the right things were said, however within their notice period both wanted out.
Scott‑Moncrieff & Associates’ failed appeal against a £68,000 anti‑money laundering (AML) fine has been widely framed as a technical compliance issue. Yet the deeper story is more revealing. The tribunal’s findings point not to gaps in AML knowledge, but to leadership patterns, assumptions and decision‑making habits that…
Last year I had the privilege of working part time in a school, not as a consultant, not running a workshop, just working alongside teachers and children in a classroom. I was able to appreciate how a room of people actually functions when nobody is performing for an audience.
Most employees don’t share the full truth when they resign, and lawyers are no exception. They want to leave on good terms, protect their professional reputation, and avoid uncomfortable conversations. So, they offer polite, neutral reasons: “new opportunity,” “career growth,” “better work–life balance.” However, beneath…
Leadership problems rarely begin with poor intentions. Most leaders I work with genuinely try to support their teams, deliver excellent service for clients, and maintain high professional standards. Yet even experienced leaders sometimes miss the subtle changes in behaviour that signal when a team is under strain or unhappy…
Perfectionism protects clients and upholds standards. Yet as a leadership blind spot, it can quietly pull leaders deeper into the detail than they intend, increasing their workload as more decisions and refinements flow upward. What begins as care can gradually change how work progresses and where responsibility sits.
Every fortnight, this briefing will highlight one of the most overlooked risks inside professional services firms — leadership blind spots.
How partner-led trust and everyday leadership behaviours drive retention, performance, and client loyalty in modern law firms
A practical next step
