You can run a flawless matter and still lose the client. You can deliver strong legal work and still fall behind. Why? Because today’s clients expect more than legal knowledge. They want speed, coordination, flexibility and a team that can work across practices like one unit.

Most law firms are not built that way. They rely on rigid structures, practice silos and slow approval chains. As a result, their teams are often well-meaning but misaligned, with each group working in isolation and competing for resources. That model worked when matters were simpler and expectations were lower. It doesn’t work anymore.

That’s where Team of Teams comes in.

General Stanley McChrystal’s book, Team of Teams, offers a blueprint for how large, complex organizations can operate with the speed and adaptability of a small, tight-knit team. He wrote it based on his experience leading special operations forces in Iraq, where he realized that traditional hierarchy was too slow to keep up with a decentralized enemy. His solution was to restructure the organization around shared information, decentralized execution, high trust and a common mission.

The lessons apply well beyond the military. In fact, they map surprisingly well onto the challenges law firms face today.

Here’s how law firms can apply McChrystal’s principles to build more connected, agile and resilient organizations.

Shared Consciousness: Create Cross-Practice Visibility

If people don’t know what others are working on, they miss chances to help, connect and contribute. That’s not just about lawyers. It includes staff, marketing, business development, finance and operations. Everyone.

You don’t need a massive reorg. You need to make it easier for people to stay in the loop. That starts with communication, access and trust.

Here’s how to do it:

  • Send a weekly internal update: Make it short and useful. Include what’s happening with clients, recent wins, upcoming events and internal moves. Add context so people know why it matters.
  • Use meetings to share more than updates: Add a few minutes to talk about what’s happening across groups. Bring in a guest from another team. Ask people to share what they’re hearing from clients or prospects.
  • Work across groups on real projects: Don’t wait for a retreat. Pair a lawyer with someone in marketing to run a campaign. Loop in finance early when pricing is involved. Ask practice group leaders to flag overlaps.
  • Make information easy to find: Create a shared folder for pitch content. Build a quick reference sheet for key clients. Set up a tracker that lets people know who’s doing what and where things stand.
  • Celebrate collaboration: When a lawyer and a business development colleague bring in a new matter together, tell that story. When two departments fix a process that slows things down, share the before and after. These examples matter more than any speech about culture.

The goal is simple. Help people see what’s happening so they can contribute. Visibility leads to smarter decisions and better results. It also makes your firm feel more like a team.

Empowered Execution: Let Lawyers Act with Clarity and Confidence

Many law firms slow themselves down by holding too many decisions at the top. That kind of control may feel safe, but it often leads to missed opportunities, delayed responses and frustration for clients.

The firms that move faster are the ones that trust their people to act. That doesn’t mean letting everyone do whatever they want. It means being clear about priorities, risk tolerance and what a good decision looks like.

When lawyers know where the boundaries are and what matters most, they can move faster. They know when to escalate and when to handle something on their own. That kind of judgment only develops when people are given space to practice it.

If your firm wants to move faster and serve clients better, start by making it easier for lawyers to act with confidence.

Here are a few ways to do that:

  • Be clear about what success looks like: Lawyers can’t make smart decisions without context. Make sure they know what the client cares about, what the business is solving for and what matters most on each matter.
  • Push clarity early in careers: Train associates to think beyond their task list. Give them visibility into how matters are staffed, how decisions are made and how different groups work together. That kind of exposure builds better instincts.
  • Build better internal playbooks: Don’t leave judgment up to chance. Create resources that explain how the firm approaches risk, service standards and client expectations. Make them practical and easy to access.
  • Reinforce shared goals in team meetings: If everyone knows the client’s main objective, they’re more likely to work toward it. Repeat it often. That keeps teams aligned even when things move quickly.
  • Reward initiative, not just execution: When someone solves a problem or steps in without being asked, say so. That sends a message that the firm values judgment and responsiveness, not just hours and output.

People don’t need total autonomy to be effective. They need trust, clear priorities and room to lead. Empowering them to act is what turns technical skills into real client impact.

Trust Across Units: Strengthen Internal Relationships

You can’t collaborate with people you don’t know or trust. And yet many law firms expect lawyers to work together across practices without giving them a reason to build those relationships first.

Trust doesn’t happen overnight. It’s built through shared experiences and consistent interaction. When people understand each other’s strengths and feel comfortable reaching out, they’re more likely to refer work and show up as a unified team for clients.

If your firm wants better results and deeper collaboration, you need to create more opportunities for lawyers to connect in ways that feel natural and useful.

Here’s how to make that happen:

  • Make collaboration easy and regular: Structure client teams so they include lawyers from multiple groups. Get people working together on pitches, presentations or events. The more they collaborate, the more trust builds.
  • Help lawyers understand each other’s work: Too often, lawyers don’t know what their colleagues in other groups actually do. If they don’t understand it, they won’t bring them in. Host short internal sessions that focus on real examples of how each group supports clients and partners with others.
  • Start early in lawyers’ careers: Give associates a chance to work on matters outside their immediate group. Encourage cross-practice mentoring. The relationships formed early on can pay off years later.
  • Address credit concerns head-on: Lack of clarity around origination credit is one of the biggest obstacles to collaboration. Be transparent about how it works. Make sure people know that bringing others in won’t penalize them.
  • Remove friction: If it’s hard to figure out who to bring into a matter or how to introduce them, most lawyers won’t do it. Create simple tools or internal directories that help people find the right contacts quickly.
  • Recognize when it works: If someone refers a matter or supports another group’s client, say so. Share those stories. Lawyers pay attention to what is rewarded. Make it clear that collaboration is part of how success is measured.

Strong client service comes from strong internal relationships. If you want lawyers to act like they’re on the same team, you have to give them time, space and support to build the kind of trust that makes that possible.

Common Purpose: Align the Firm Around Shared Goals

One of the core lessons in Team of Teams is that people perform better together when they understand what they’re working toward, and how their individual actions support it. McChrystal didn’t just issue commands. He focused on creating alignment, so everyone across teams could act quickly and decisively with a shared understanding of the goal.

Law firms can learn a lot from that. Too often, lawyers operate in their own lanes. Even when everyone says they care about client service, they define it differently. That leads to inefficiencies, duplication and missed chances to deliver more value.

The firms that perform better are the ones that take the time to define shared goals and make them part of the culture. Here’s how to do that in a real, workable way:

  • Be specific about what matters: Vague phrases like “client service” or “excellence” don’t give people direction. Spell out what success looks like. Is it faster turnaround times? Clearer communication across teams? Deeper client relationships? Define it, write it down and repeat it often.
  • Connect the dots for your people: Help every lawyer and business professional see how their work supports firmwide objectives. That might mean tying their work on a single pitch to a broader relationship strategy. Or showing how a behind-the-scenes project supported a client win. People are more invested when they understand the impact of what they do.
  • Align incentives with behavior: If collaboration and cross-selling matter, your systems should reward them. Otherwise, you’re sending mixed signals. Look at how you evaluate performance. Do you highlight individual wins or team results? Do partners get credit for sharing clients or only for controlling them?
  • Invest in the right kind of training: Business development training should reflect how clients buy today—through relationships, referrals and firmwide value, not individual rainmakers. Help junior lawyers learn how to support across practice areas and contribute to team success, not just their own matters.
  • Make purpose part of the conversation: It’s not enough to mention firm values once a year at a retreat. They should show up in practice group meetings, in leadership updates and in internal communications. Consistent messaging helps people internalize what’s important—and act on it.

When everyone understands what the firm is working toward, decisions get easier. People collaborate more naturally. And clients feel the difference. Purpose gives people a reason to look beyond themselves and focus on what actually moves the needle.

Make It Operational

The firms that put these ideas into practice don’t treat them like one-off initiatives. They build them into the way they operate. That starts with structure. Regular check-ins across practices. Clear roles and responsibilities on client teams. Shared notes and tools so information doesn’t get lost or stuck with one person. A process for following up that’s actually used, not just discussed.

It also means shifting what gets recognized and rewarded. If people are only measured by hours and originations, they’ll keep working in silos. If you want better collaboration and stronger client service, you need to show that those things matter. That might mean tracking cross-sell efforts, rewarding responsiveness or simply calling out great internal teamwork in meetings. It doesn’t have to be formal, but it does need to be consistent.

The strongest firms aren’t necessarily the ones with the most resources. They’re the ones that operate with clarity and trust. Where people know what’s expected, where they fit in and who to call when something changes. That kind of alignment doesn’t just improve efficiency. It improves the client experience. And that’s what drives long-term loyalty and growth.

These aren’t massive changes. They’re habits. And when they’re done consistently, they lead to better results for clients, for lawyers and for the firm.

Where to Start: Practical Steps That Lead to Real Change

Change doesn’t have to start with a firmwide rollout. It can start with one matter, one client or one opportunity. What matters is being intentional about how people work together and what happens after that. When you create a small success story, you give others a reason to try it too.

Here’s how to begin:

  • Build a small team across practices: Choose people who know the client well and others who bring something useful to the table. Start with a short conversation to align on the client’s goals, what’s at stake and how you can deliver as a group. Keep the tone practical and focused on getting things done.
  • Hold a quick check-in each week: It doesn’t need to be formal. Just create a space to flag updates, share asks and remove bottlenecks. When people know they have a regular touchpoint, it reduces the emails, delays and confusion that slow progress.
  • Make roles and decision-making clear: One of the biggest obstacles to moving faster is not knowing who’s responsible for what. Clarify what each person owns and what authority they have. That alone can remove friction and improve responsiveness.
  • Track what happens: You’re not doing this just to say you did it. You’re doing it to work better. So pay attention to how it goes. Did things move faster? Did the client notice a difference? Where did people get stuck? What would you do differently next time?
  • Create a simple debrief: Don’t let the learnings disappear. Write up a few observations and share them internally. When people see that the effort paid off, they’re more likely to try it themselves.

Once you’ve tested the approach:

  • Apply it to a similar matter: This helps you refine the process and make it easier to repeat
  • Use it to guide internal training: Share the habits that helped the most and the small things that made the biggest difference
  • Look for ways to scale: Identify key clients where this approach can add value. Get buy-in from partners who are open to trying something new
  • Build internal momentum: As more people see it working, it becomes less of a pilot and more of the way the firm operates

Consistency is what matters most. You don’t need sweeping change to build a stronger firm. You need people working well together every day. Sharing information. Communicating clearly. Staying focused on what matters. That’s what moves relationships forward. That’s what builds trust with clients.

Clients want to know their lawyers are aligned. That there’s no disconnect between teams. That communication is strong and nothing gets missed. When your people work that way, the client experience improves.

Team of Teams is a framework for making that possible. Not by changing your entire structure, but by helping people show up differently. It’s about creating the conditions for good decisions, quick action and open communication. That comes from trust, clarity and leadership that reinforces the right habits.

The firms that grow over time are the ones that reward collaboration, remove bottlenecks and help their people stay focused on solving problems together. Not just the ones with the biggest names or most rigid org charts.

Start with one matter. One client. Build the rhythm. See what works. Then apply it more broadly.

This is how firms get better from the inside. This is how good teams become great ones.

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