Tejas Khurana is Consultant, at Legal League Consulting, India’s first management consultancy for the global legal industry. At Legal League Consulting he works extensively towards designing and implementing cost-effective on-demand solutions in diverse areas and managing end-to-end business functions, with an aim to be a catalyst in transforming how the legal industry works. Key areas of his practice include helping firms with brand identity review, developing brand projection strategy, brand identity creation (ideation & designing of website and other collaterals), and web presence optimization. During the period of last three years, Tejas worked with some prominent law firms of the country, assisting them in all managerial and strategic aspects of organizational management, from top-level strategy to brand enhancement, practice management, human resource development, IT and infrastructure overhauling, finance management and knowledge dissemination initiatives. Prior to joining Legal League Consulting, he worked with United Lex and Ernst & Young, organizations that shaped his formative years after pursuing law from Amity University, Noida. 

Here’s the conversation between Tejas Khurana and Anuj Kumar, Founder at Legal Desire about Tejas’s journey from Law school to his current role and insights about this field:

While everyone is enticed with the litigation practice and aiming to become renowned litigators, you being a Law graduate chose to build your career in the field of “Law Firm Management”. What made you take this decision?

Back in my college days I often felt like everyone around me has everything figured out, friends talking about fancy internships and PPOs they’ve secured. The only thing that I had figured out, however, was that attending court hearings is not my cup of tea. I was a man without a plan, but sometimes that works out to be the best because it opens the door of several options and lets you think beyond what meets the eye. This is exactly what happened with me. While pursuing my internship with a reputed litigation firm, I met the team of Legal League Consulting (LLC), management consultants to legal fraternity, and became fascinated with the work they were doing. I was also aware of the exemplary journey of Ms. Bithika Anand (Founder and CEO of LLC), who is a visionary in the true sense and there is hardly someone in the legal fraternity who isn’t aware of her illustrious professional journey. While I was curious about the work they did, we are attuned to look for traditional and ‘safe’ career choices in life. I had short stints with globally renowned consulting companies and LPOs, but something about law firm management kept me attracted to learn more about it. Fortunately, I had the chance to discuss with the team of LLC and got to learn more about the work that they’ve been doing. As luck would have it, they were also looking to grow their team at that time. There was alignment in what I was seeking and what they were looking for, which set the base for my journey in the field of law firm management.  

For the readers who are still unaware of this profession, can you give a brief idea of what comprises ‘Law Firm Management’?

Law Firm Management or Legal Practice Management is an umbrella term that encompasses all areas that are required to be taken care of, in order to run a successful practice or manage a firm successfully. At a macro level, this would include strategic planning, partnership/equity structuring, law firm mergers and synergies. At an implementation level this would include all operational areas like human resource development, finance and receivables management, knowledge management, information & technological developments, compensation structuring, practice development, grand enhancement and corporate communication. If you ask me personally, I believe that the term is ever-evolving with new dimensions of running a successful practice being added to it with the passage of time. What features on the list of inclusions may become redundant tomorrow and more innovative inclusions may make it to the list!

Having reasonable experience in the field of law firm management, what piece of advice do you have for someone planning to begin their own small firm?

Entrepreneurial spirit is the most important factor to start a law firm. Establishing a practice is not as glamorous as it looks from the outside. My foremost advice to all those who intend to develop their own practice would be to have a thought-through business plan. Having a strategic business plan will definitely help you in identifying key areas of growth, target clientele, geographical locations, recruitment planning, and most importantly, financial projections of turnover and profitability. The other important aspect is to keep the plan achievable. Being goal-oriented is fine, but writing ways to achieve that goal is what you should focus on. Reducing your plan to black and white is just half the work done. While it helps you to visualize the milestones, the real obstacles always surface when you’re in the execution stage. Factor what could be the possible impediments, decide the ratio of time you would like to spend in fee-earning and managerial aspects, which would help you get a realistic estimate of time allocation. Another important area would be to focus on creating a brand identity. A brand identity would define how you want the firm to be perceived within and outside the fraternity, which will pave the way for the brand to resonate well with the ones engaging with the firm, or planning to engage with the firm in the future. 

While assisting various law firms with different services, is there any common area you see where the law firms need to pay most attention at?

I believe firms must pay most attention towards staying ‘relevant’. The legal and economic scenarios in the country are continuously evolving. Firms must find ways to stay relevant in order to be on top of their game as service providers. Many firms are now venturing into setting up dedicated research and knowledge management teams because they must keep up with the changing commercial environment. Firms that can stay relevant is this flux always embrace change rather than fear it. There are live examples of how firms have reinvented themselves through investing time and efforts in technology and upscaling the skills-set of their resources. The ability to learn, unlearn and relearn is required to consistently upskill and press the reset button every single day. This is not to survive, but to thrive. For times to come, the brands that are driven by top-notch client servicing and value addition to clients through dissemination of quality knowledge will stand tall against others. 

While managing a law firm you may also be required to deal with a large section of students, either for hiring or internships. What advice do you have for students who are willing to send their applications?

As someone who has closely observed students during their internship or going through the internship search process, I personally believe that it’s not always just about interning at a renowned Law Firm. If your sole purpose is to fill resume gaps or obtain a certificate, you are on the wrong track. An advocate who is offering you internship is always looking at how they can benefit from the new perspectives and fresh energy you bring to the workplace. Always try to be proactive. It is common for interns to work on a monotonous task but always be ready to take on any task irrespective of the type of work. Students looking for Job are usually so causal while sending their applications. I often come across some odd applications. The whole exercise of applying to a firm becomes futile if email correspondence is not up to the mark. Communicating effectively through email is an art not many know about. If you are not enthusiastic enough while applying for a job, don’t expect a recruiter to be enthusiastic even to review your application.

As we know Legal league Consulting provides different services across all facets of ‘Law Firm Management’. Is there any specific service area which you like the most to deal with?

I personally enjoy interacting with people, as much as I love research-based work on brands. Two of my most favorite areas would be – Law Firm Client Feedback Surveys and Reputation Analysis. In Law Firm Client Feedback Surveys, we speak to law firms’ clients as an independent third party (of course, under the authorization of the client) to seek feedback about the areas where the firm and the partners could do better. In Reputation Analysis, we have worked mostly with international firms to develop a research-based service area where we ascertain a firm’s market standing on the basis of factual information.  

Has the outbreak of Covid-19 affected your practice?

My answer to that would be in the affirmative, though the outbreak of Covid-19 has affected our practice in a positive way.

I personally feel that adversity pushes human beings to test their survival instincts. Reverse psychology sometimes kicks in and we try harder to achieve all those things that we would otherwise have not. A classic example of this is the commencement of virtual hearings at the courts. We’re all aware that but for circumstances brought by the pandemic, we would’ve never pushed ourselves towards this progressive step. 

Similarly, in our case, there was a heightened demand for our services concerning equity/partnership structuring, augmenting brand perception of the firms, and most importantly, discharging the human resource development function through evolving circumstances. Firms also reached out to us for developing ‘Disaster Management Programs’ and ‘Business Sustenance & Continuity Plans’. The only silver lining I’ve seen during this period is that law firms and lawyers have become more aware about aspects like a web presence, streamlining best practices, etc.