Cost-Sharing Partnerships: an Illusion?

Isn't it always fun to ask partners in a law firm why they belong to a partnership? Why not alone? Why this partnership?

A common answer is cost sharing.

As long as you share the costs of a copy machine, of a subscription to legal periodicals, and the salary of a receptionist, or similar items, no problem. You are indeed sharing costs.

But what about the website? What about the name of the firm? Most cost-sharing partnerships do indeed share a name and a website. This is about identity, not just costs. So, partners who think they are sharing costs (they share the cost of the web designer) end up sharing an identity (a name, an image, etc.). 

The problem is that managing costs requires some basic administrative skills and managerial common sense, but the effective management of identity requires far more than that. It requires a vision, a strategy, a focus, a culture, enforced quality standards, and other sweet things lie that.

Many cost-sharing partnerships are therefore only managing the cost dimension of their identity. There is no real strategy behind the identity, beyond finding a common denominator between partners with each their own focus and practice (and the result is a vague, cliché and fuzzy identity).

Who can blame them? They signed up for a cost-sharing arrangement, and identity comes in from the back door! It was not part of the deal, and none is ready to take responsibility for that.

So, as soon as the shared costs include the domain of visibility and identity, the idea of a partnership limited to sharing costs is indeed an illusion, whether you want it or not. And partnerships that ignore and neglect to get their vision and strategy in place get a floppy identity and blurred image. 

Antoine Henry de Frahan

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