Leadership development
and coaching for law firms
Technical excellence does not produce leadership.
Most firms discover this only when it starts costing them people. The partner who was the best litigator in the building is now responsible for eight attorneys and a support team, and nobody trained her for that. Deadlines are met and the work is good, and underneath it the juniors are quietly looking, two departments are not speaking, and the managing partner is carrying more than one person should. Firms come to us when technical brilliance has stopped being enough.
The billing pressure, the partner who cannot delegate, the junior who has stopped asking questions, the culture that rewards endurance until the day it does not: we have seen it from the inside for 27 years. Maryke has found what actually changes leaders in this environment, and it is practical, human and built for this profession only.
What we do
This is a working relationship with a firm rather than a product. It has four movements, and the last one is the point.
A conversation
You tell us what is happening in the firm: the people, the pressure, the thing that keeps coming up at partners’ meetings. No forms, no proposal yet. Half an hour on the phone or over coffee.
A day at the firm
Maryke works with the leaders in the morning and, where it helps, the whole staff complement in the afternoon, support and administrative teams included. We train, and we listen. By the end of the day the firm usually knows more about itself than it did at breakfast.
What surfaced
Within a week you receive a short written read-back: what we saw, what is driving it, and what would help. It is written for the managing partner, in plain terms, and it is yours whether or not you go further.
The continuing work
Coaching for the leaders. Sessions for a team. A structured programme over several months. Conflict work between two people or two departments. It is designed around what the day surfaced, so it is different for every firm, and it stays practical: every session ends with something to do back at the office.
Burnout and the cost of sustained pressure on concentration and decisions. Unresolved conflict between individuals or between departments. Leaders who have become bottlenecks without intending to. Communication that breaks down under deadline pressure. Senior professionals promoted on technical excellence and never developed as leaders. Support and administrative staff who feel separate from the professional team. Client experience that suffers because internal coordination is poor. These are what we find, and the response is designed around what is found.
The programmes
Three shapes of work, used on their own or in sequence. For a single talk or a session of an hour or two, see talks and short sessions.
One Purpose.
TEAM STRATEGY
Every session comes with its own printed workbook and, for the leadership group, a course manual. The workbook is written for that firm and that day: the reflections and discussion activities are the work of the session, and the team strategy templates at the back are the firm’s to complete and keep. Shown here is the cover of a recent whole-firm session workbook. The exercises themselves stay in the room.
Full-day and half-day sessions at the firm
For the leadership group, for a team, or for the whole firm. The day described above is usually the first of these. Each session is written for legal work, delivered by a behavioural specialist, and ends with a workplace assignment.
The Applied Leadership Development Programme
Seven three-hour virtual modules for the leadership group, every two to three weeks over several months. Each module introduces one leadership capability with practical tools, and closes with an assignment to carry out in the firm; the next module opens with what each leader did, what changed and what needs adjusting. Learn, apply, reflect, report back, refine. The ground covered runs from leading people rather than managing work, through communication under pressure, conflict, coaching and accountability, decision-making on a real problem the firm is facing, and performance management, to the leader’s own self-management. It moves the emphasis from knowing about leadership to leading differently in practice.
One-to-one and team coaching
For the individual leader, or for a relationship or a team where the issue sits between people. Sessions of an hour to ninety minutes, online or in person, typically three to six per person, every two to three weeks so there is time to apply the work between sessions. Every coaching engagement includes preparation before each session, a self-assessment before and after, a report per person setting out the development areas and the planned path, a mid-point progress report where the engagement runs beyond three sessions, and a final report with recommendations for the road ahead. An optional assessment of individual leadership style and strengths is available where a firm wants greater depth.
What it costs
Three figures a managing partner can take to the partners’ meeting.
The first conversation: free
An hour on Teams or the telephone, no proposal required. If we cannot help, we will say so.
A day at the firm: R46 500
Preparation, a morning session for the leaders and an afternoon session for the whole firm, a printed course manual for every leader and a workbook for every participant, the written read-back afterwards, and a debrief with the directors. Travel and accommodation outside Gauteng are added at cost. Half days are priced on request.
The continuing work: quoted on what surfaced
Coaching, team sessions and the applied programme are scoped after the day, on what it showed. The day is the commitment; the rest is a conversation.
PMRI is not registered for VAT.
How an engagement begins
With a conversation. The continuing work is scoped and quoted after the day, on what the firm actually needs.
Who delivers it
Maryke Swarts, Neuro-Coach · Behavioural Specialist · Co-Founder, designs the frameworks and delivers the sessions and the coaching. Sonja Cilliers, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa with 27 years in practice, writes the programmes and keeps every example grounded in what a law firm is actually like from the inside.
Start with a conversation
Tell us roughly what is happening in the firm and how many people are involved. We will reply within one business day to arrange a call.
If this was useful, there is one like it every month.
One idea, one practical habit, and the month's articles from the PMRI Library. Written for legal professionals under pressure.