Southren
Blog

Delegation isn't always an individual leadership problem. Sometimes, it's a firm capacity problem. When lawyers don't have visibility into who has the capacity, capability or interest to take on work, telling them to "delegate more" misses the point. We explore why effective delegation requires more than individual effort and what firms can do to create the conditions for better resourcing, development and ownership.

Does the work actually need to be redone, or is it simply not the way you would have done it? That distinction matters. Because when we confuse our preferences with professional standards, delegation can become an elaborate process in which someone else does the work and the senior lawyer then converts it back into something that looks as though they did it themselves.

No response doesn’t necessarily mean no interest. More often, it means the person you’re trying to reach is busy. Jane Southren explores why lawyers should resist the urge to interpret silence as rejection and commit to five thoughtful, value-driven follow-ups, even when they hear nothing back.

Delegation sounds simple: move work to the right level, create capacity and develop your people. But in law firms, the economics are more complicated. Billable targets, client budgets and the upfront time required to develop others can make delegation a harder choice than it appears. So perhaps the real question isn’t simply, “Why aren’t lawyers delegating?” It’s, “Whose economics are we optimizing?”