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Culture

Culture Integration & People Strategy Solutions for a National Law Firm

Industry

Law Practice

Company Size

1K-5K Employees

Culture Integration & People Strategy Solutions for a National Law Firm Case Study

The Results

A Unified Culture

That aligns people and purpose across the organization

An Aligned People Function

Built to support strategic goals at every level

A Scalable Framework

That powers growth, mergers, and long-term success

Client Background

 

The client is a top-ranked U.S. law firm with 800+ attorneys and offices in more than 20 cities nationwide. Known for its industry-focused legal services across healthcare, education, energy, and real estate, the firm has built a reputation for its distinctive approach to client service and culture.

Challenges

Following a period of rapid growth through mergers and strategic combinations, the firm faced significant complexity in shaping a unified people experience. With the arrival of a new Chief Executive, the firm recognized the need to assess and intentionally shape a unified culture that could support its continued evolution as an Am Law 100 firm.

Key challenges included:

  • Fragmented cultural identity across legacy groups and offices.
  • Lack of a shared Culture Code, leaving new hires without clear cultural norms or behaviors to align to.
  • Underdeveloped people infrastructure that lagged behind the firm’s progressive external brand.
  • Decentralized HR model with misaligned reporting structures, creating inefficiencies and inconsistent experiences.
  • Limited visibility into the employee experience, making it difficult to define a scalable, distinctive culture.

Success Metrics

 

As a result of livingHR’s engagement, the client gained meaningful insight into the current state of its culture and people experience, and made tangible progress toward building a more aligned, human-centered organization.

These efforts helped accelerate internal alignment, surface critical truths about the current experience, and build the framework for a more consistent, values-driven, and future-ready firm.

 

Key outcomes included:

  • Robust Culture Insights and Alignment: Conducted a full-firm cultural analysis through a comprehensive culture survey, 50+ in-person and remote focus groups, and 50+ 1:1 interviews—capturing feedback across all levels and regions of the firm within a 3-month discovery window.
  • Creation of Foundational Culture Tools: Developed and delivered core cultural artifacts including a firmwide Culture Code, culture narrative, and employee value proposition (EVP)—providing a clear and actionable foundation to guide behaviors, decisions, and communications.
  • Roadmap to Embed Culture in the People Lifecycle: Delivered a strategic People Experience Roadmap focused on embedding the Culture Code across the employee lifecycle—spanning recruiting, onboarding, performance, recognition, and more—leading to the approval of a Phase II implementation engagement.
  • Design of a Consolidated People Function: Recommended a restructured and more centralized People function, aligned by Strategic Business Units (SBUs), to improve consistency and better support timekeepers and client service outcomes.
  • Enabled Culture-Driven Growth: Designed a Culture Due Diligence tool to assess cultural alignment in future mergers and acquisitions—positioning the client to scale while protecting its distinct culture.

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Culture Integration & People Strategy Solutions for a National Law Firm Case Study