The Forgotten Art Of Brainstorming: How To 10x Creativity In Group Settings - Above the Law

"Even when they lead a team, they often make decisions with little to no input from the team. Senior lawyers typically view their role as defining and determining the case strategy, leaving the rest of the team to implement their plan and ideas. They're the ones defining a win and concocting the roadmap to achieve it. The rest of the team takes that blueprint and constructs the case."

"This top-to-bottom approach, almost a military perspective, where generals decide on the war plans and foot soldiers take the hill, has the potential for poor results when those at the top create a flawed strategy, resulting in the execution of a flawed approach that produces poor results. There is value in having the entire team contribute input, ideas, creativity, and imagination to a plan before finalizing and implementing it."

"For those of us who bill by the hour, some clients are hesitant to pay for brainstorming sessions. You've been doing this for X years - why is collaboration needed? Don't you already know how to handle this case? Clients have historically viewed team sessions as billing blackholes, fueling senior partners to create a plan themselves and have their teams implement it, with little to no input from them. It looks cleaner and creates fewer line items on the firm invoice."

Many lawyers adopt a lone-wolf, top-down model where senior lawyers define case strategy and the rest of the team implements it. That hierarchical workflow often achieves desired outcomes but risks significant failure when leaders create flawed strategies. Broad team participation in planning adds input, creativity, and imagination, improving strategic quality and outcomes. Hourly billing and client reluctance to pay for brainstorming discourage collaborative planning. Tradition, custom, and senior-partner ego also reinforce top-down control. Overcoming these obstacles can unlock better results by leveraging the collective expertise of junior partners, associates, and paralegals during strategy formation.

Read at Above the Law