Gary Porter embraces change. With degrees in mechanical engineering, management and law from MIT and Harvard, he is a multi-hyphenate consultant with cross-disciplinary experience focused on transformation everywhere from the courtroom to the boardroom.
He also knows law firms – and he knows lawyers. A former lawyer himself – and married to one – he understands that his enthusiasm for diving into change is often at odds with how many law firms operate. Motivated by precedent and tradition, many law firms can be hesitant to disrupt established ways of working.
But as the legal industry undergoes seismic shifts from hybrid workplaces to AI implementation, law firm leaders are realizing that change is not only inevitable, but imperative. As a Senior Principal Consultant at renowned full-service consulting firm P&C Global, Porter guides law firms through the process of implementing vital, bespoke new tactics – spearheading digital transformations and full-scale strategy shifts that not only modernize firms, but help them revolutionize the way they fulfill their missions while keeping their core values at heart.
Porter sees those changes through to the finish line. He and his team act as trusted partners to law firm leaders through every stage of the program implementation process until they see results.
“As unsettling as the current era may feel to managing partners and other attorneys, I believe that it is a great time to be practicing law,” he says. “As impactful as the profession has historically been to society, it is now on the cusp of being able to do even greater things.”
Lawdragon: As a former attorney who transitioned into high-level consulting, what drew you to the consulting side of the legal industry? What do you find most rewarding about driving change as an outside advisor to law firms versus working within a firm’s four walls?
Gary Porter: Throughout my career, I’ve sought out leverage points where I could provide maximum value to my clients and society overall.
Two formative experiences for me early in my career were back-to-back summer associate roles during law school, where I first interned at Ropes & Gray as a lawyer, and then at Monitor Consulting as a management consultant. As a consultant, I developed M&A strategies that ultimately developed into term sheets, while as a lawyer I translated term sheets into definitive agreements. Upon graduation, I decided to join McKinsey, choosing the “upstream” role of consulting and corporate transactions as potentially allowing for more creativity and an opportunity to add value. In hindsight, I now appreciate that professional services organizations along the entire value chain can deliver tremendous impacts.
Being able to serve as an outside advisor to law firms enables me to integrate these twin passions for consulting and law. As a consultant, it is especially fulfilling for me to optimize law firms as holistic systems and organizations. Drawing upon my firsthand knowledge of the day-to-day experience of individual lawyers, I can have a multiplicative effect by honing strategies, streamlining processes, and fostering collaboration at scale across both the front and back office.
LD: You’ve led broad modernization programs for major law firms – for example, spearheading a transformation that nearly doubled profits per equity partner at a premier plaintiffs’ firm. When you embark on a law firm transformation, what areas do you target first, and how do you orchestrate such significant performance improvements?
GP: The foundation for all our transformation programs at P&C Global, including law firms, is a thorough understanding of each client’s unique aspirations, capabilities, competitive environment and opportunity set. To this end, we launch each new client engagement with a comprehensive discovery phase encompassing recent financial results, business process maturity, IT platform robustness, organizational design, effectiveness and culture. This enables a heat-seeking identification of the firm’s greatest opportunities as well as the development of a logical, sequenced roadmap to capture them. For example, we ensure baseline capabilities such as robust practice and knowledge management systems, along with requisite administrative talent, are in place before embarking upon advanced use cases such as AI applications.
As important as the appropriate strategy may be, execution is essential – without tangible impacts in financial results and KPIs, the effort is wasted. Unlike many other consulting organizations that stop at slide decks, we are fanatical about driving program implementation until benefits are fully realized. Typically, this involves completely reengineering business processes, redefining roles, and only then implementing specific tools such as leading software and analytics engines to drive efficiency and effectiveness. We complement this with rigorous program plans, agile project management, change readiness assessments, change management tools such as communications and training programs, and targeted recruiting for key roles. Throughout, we measure progress against target metrics and do not rest until those objectives are achieved.
We align incentives so that everyone in the broader organization stands to benefit from program accomplishments.
LD: Law is a tradition-bound field that can be resistant to change. In one engagement, you worked with a new generation of firm leadership to modernize core practices like document management and eDiscovery. How do you build a culture of innovation and buy-in among lawyers and firm leaders who may be cautious about change?
GP: I empathize with those who may be reticent to change. Lawyers have a strong tradition of stare decisis and following precedent. Equity partners in particular have typically excelled in the practice of law but had comparatively less exposure to best practices from other industries as well as technology developments which often enable legal sector innovation. Similarly, law firm administrative leaders frequently come up through the ranks with long tenures at individual firms but may be less familiar with modern approaches already proven elsewhere.
P&C Global addresses this hesitation through a series of techniques. First, we anchor transformation programs in thoughtful phases, each with its own concrete objectives – nothing breeds enthusiasm for the next effort more than demonstrated success with the last one. Leadership alignment at the outset is key: We spend significant amounts of time upfront collaborating with Executive Committee sponsors and administrative leaders to ensure that they agree with program vision and objectives and are personally committed to helping it succeed. We align incentives so that everyone in the broader organization stands to benefit from program accomplishments. Working in concert with our expert organizational psychologists, we craft change management programs that help participants recognize the need for change as well as the value it can deliver. For example, we convene Transformation Task Forces, teams of highly credible client employees, to act as advisory panels helping to shape the transformation programs and ultimately acting as change champions to pilot new approaches and demonstrate their value to peers.
LD: Drawing on your engineering and tech background, how do you help law firms leverage digital transformation – say, replacing legacy systems with modern solutions – while also addressing risks like cybersecurity and data privacy? In an age of AI and escalating cyber threats, what are the biggest tech opportunities and safeguards law firm leaders should be considering?
GP: AI is clearly in the midst of revolutionizing the practice of law. Whereas just a generation ago, core practice areas across litigation and transactions involved essentially manual document review, legal research and drafting. These are now being largely automated to become orders of magnitude more efficient.
These opportunities, unfortunately, simultaneously involve a host of threats for law firms. One key concern is business model disruption: For an industry historically based upon hourly fee arrangements, the prospect of significantly fewer billable hours can be daunting. Another set of well-publicized stumbling blocks involves lawyers who have over-relied on this developing capability to their subsequent embarrassment. A more subtle risk that we commonly see is the danger of law firms becoming enamored with certain features and pursuing high-publicity efforts without fully thinking through monetization.
We anchor our AI engagements in solid financial “North Star” objectives from the outset. Our mantra is that if the CFO can’t see impacts within the financial statements, the program didn’t happen. Where AI-enabled use cases impact legal practice, we work proactively with law firms to ensure that they continue to be compensated fairly for the value that they are then able to deliver for their clients. We preserve humans-in-the-loop so that AI amplifies rather than replaces their judgment. Across all these programs, we embed ethical AI governance practices and pay strict attention to managing considerations such as data privacy and cybersecurity.
LD: As a consultant working closely with managing partners and law firm executives, what leadership qualities do you believe are most crucial for guiding firms through turbulent change? How do you help law firm leaders develop the vision and management skills needed to drive innovation and growth in their organizations?
GP: The same attributes which make leaders effective during normal times become even more important during periods of flux. Having strong abstract reasoning capability coupled with an idea orientation is essential to see the big picture, anticipate developments, and map out logical approaches to navigate the organization forward. To effectively drive change, leaders must be assertive and self-confident – fragile egos do not survive the inevitable pushback and emotions stirred by major transitions. They must be rigorous and detail-oriented, with a strong sense of urgency to accomplish results. At the same time, they should be empathetic, enabling them to truly internalize the perspectives of other stakeholders. With empathy, they can chart a course that simultaneously accomplishes key business objectives, recognizes the contributions and sacrifices of others and truly honors the values of the firm.
We measure progress against target metrics and do not rest until those objectives are achieved.
P&C Global helps law firm leaders maximize these attributes and skills throughout the course of our engagements. As part of our initial standard discovery processes, we place a significant amount of focus assessing organizational dynamics and key leadership roles. Our Human Capital experts pinpoint organizational development opportunities which in turn help inform our implementation plans. We provide extensive coaching for key individuals, demonstrating best practice techniques and engaging in developmental exercises such as role playing. Where leadership teams can benefit from complementary skills, our Talent Acquisition capability defines those roles, identifies and recruits candidates, and then onboards them effectively. This emphasis upon organizational development is one of the key reasons behind our track record of successful program execution and long-term capability building for clients.
LD: Your wife’s career as a telecommunications attorney keeps you attuned to the day-to-day pressures legal professionals face. How does this personal insight influence the guidance you give law firm leaders on issues like managing stress, preventing burnout and creating a supportive firm culture in a high-pressure environment?
GP: My wife’s career indeed provided me a close-up view of the crucible in which many lawyers live today, particularly at Big Law and mid-market firms with incredibly high reputations to uphold. I received an early taste of that lifestyle even when we were dating in Washington, D.C. For a Saturday night dinner, I would book reservations at the restaurant on the ground floor of her firm’s K Street building, just north of the White House. She would ride the elevator down from her office, meet me for dinner and then head right back up afterwards, frequently spending all night completing various assignments for delivery on Sunday. We had friends who experienced even more challenging events, such as an associate who felt compelled to keep working with her case team to complete an urgent brief, even as she waited for news about her father’s recent heart attack while sitting in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a local hospital.
Recognizing the high-pressure nature of the legal profession, firm culture and camaraderie become all the more important. Here, leaders serve an essential role. By being empathetic and personally demonstrating the values they want to inculcate in their organizations – acting as true servant leaders – they actively shape the broader community. They can reinforce and scale these efforts through structured mechanisms such as mentorship programs, advisory councils, and allowing junior associates to provide input regarding matter assignments. Vibrant cultures are crucial, and they don’t just happen by chance.
LD: Looking ahead, what emerging trends or disruptions do you believe will most impact law firms in the next five to ten years? Whether it’s the rise of AI-driven legal services, new law firm business models, or changing client expectations, how should firm leaders be preparing now to stay ahead of the curve?
GP: To prepare for this brave new world, law firm leaders first need to ensure their organizations have the proper foundations: strong practice management, efficient administrative processes, a robust technology platform and an agile organization infused with a strong performance culture. With these basic ingredients in place, those firms with sufficient scale and resources can then embark upon pilot programs, grounded as always in financial North Star objectives that guarantee returns on investment. As these early initiatives free up resources and accumulate know-how, firms can then accelerate their overarching programs and pursue even more ambitious targets.
LD: You’ve remarked that working at P&C Global is “the toughest job you will ever love,” surrounded by colleagues with unmatched ambition, values and urgency. What motivates you to tackle the complex challenges of law firm consulting every day, and what do you find most personally fulfilling about helping legal clients achieve excellence?
GP: I truly love working with legal clients. Whether by consummating a merger, enabling counterparties to come together and agree upon win-win transactions or defending the interests of aggrieved litigants, law firms add tremendous value. Helping law firms scale their impact has a multiplicative effect given this vital role that the legal system plays in enabling our modern economy and society.
Beyond the fulfillment that stems from feeling like I’m making a difference, it’s just enjoyable working in law firm environments. The issues are complex and challenging, client leaders and team members are earnest and thoughtful, and I’m able to apply the totality of my experience as both a lawyer and consultant. In a professional sense, I have found my tribe.
