Seven Commitments that define Teams within Law Firms

In an increasingly competitive, globalized, and demanding legal market, the true differentiating advantage of a law firm no longer lies solely in its brand, access to technology, size, or geographical coverage. Today, the difference between firms that merely survive and those that truly transcend lies in the quality of their teams. More specifically, it rests on the solidity of their work groups, their practice areas, and their genuine capacity to collaborate. Technology can be replicated. Structures are copied. Talent moves. But the culture, especially the culture of team and collaboration, is unique.

In Latin America, this challenge is even more evident. The region is experiencing a process of consolidation, internationalization, and sophistication of its legal services as never before. A growing number of operations require regional coordination, multidisciplinary transactional teams, complex litigation involving multiple jurisdictions, and fluid interaction between areas. Various industry studies indicate that more than 70% of relevant transactions in the region today involve two or more practice areas, while the turnover of young talent in Latin American firms remains structurally higher than in mature markets. The equation is clear: without collaboration, there is no efficiency; without efficiency, there is no sustainable profitability.

A recent book by Jon Gordon on leadership and teamwork proposes seven commitments that turn a group of professionals into a high-performing team. Although it originates in the world of sports, its message is extraordinarily applicable to the internal functioning of law firms, especially the daily dynamics of practice areas, transactional teams, litigation groups, and the multidisciplinary projects that dominate the Latin American legal market today.

The first commitment is to a shared vision and mission. Many firms have well-written strategic plans, but few manage to ensure that this vision truly filters down into the daily functioning of their areas. In Latin America, this is accentuated when there are offices in several countries or practices with distinct internal cultures. When every partner, every team, or every jurisdiction pursues only its own billing objectives, the firm loses coherence. Collaboration becomes rhetorical, not operational. Great teams are not the sum of brilliant individuals but groups aligned around a common purpose that incentivizes sharing clients, capabilities, and opportunities both locally and regionally.

The second commitment is to stay positive together. The Latin American legal environment operates under constant pressure: increasingly sophisticated clients, changing regulatory environments, economic volatility, and, in many cases, political instability. In this context, internal pessimism, chronic complaining, gossip, or distrust are highly contagious within teams. The areas that thrive are not those that avoid crises, but those that approach them with a collective attitude of construction. Where distrust dominates, collaboration dies.

The third commitment is to always give one’s best. Not the minimum required to comply, but excellence as the standard. In a firm, reputation is not built abstractly: it is built in every team, in every transaction, in every litigation, and in every regional transactional project. International clients investing in Latin America compare services globally and expect a homogeneous experience, free of internal silos or friction between areas or countries. Collaboration between practices is only possible when a shared standard of quality exists.

The fourth commitment is to continuously improve. This involves having difficult conversations within work groups: about performance, leadership, workloads, efficiency, and quality. Many teams in the region stagnate not due to a lack of talent, but by avoiding these conversations. In Latin America, such conversations are particularly complicated, especially due to a cultural issue. We don’t like to say things directly or straightforwardly. Continuous improvement is the silent engine of profitable collaboration. Without self-criticism, teams become encapsulated; without measurement, collaboration becomes empty rhetoric.

The fifth commitment is to connect. Disconnection between partners and associates, between offices, between practice areas, or between generations is one of the greatest silent risks in law firms today. Virtuality has enabled the integration of regional teams but can also weaken human bonds. Recent studies show that teams with high levels of internal connection are 20% to 25% more productive than those with fragmented structures. In Latin American firms with a multinational presence, connection is the true strategic glue.

The sixth commitment is to others. The purely individualistic model—where each partner protects only their own client portfolio—is exhausted, especially in Latin America, where the growth of many firms depends precisely on their capacity to operate as regional platforms. Law firms that build solid long-term practices are those where there is a genuine logic of collaboration between areas and countries: sharing clients, co-investing in talent, developing mixed teams, building internal leadership, and viewing succession as a collective, not individual, project. Furthermore, collaboration multiplies the value per client and reduces reliance on isolated personal relationships.

And the seventh commitment, perhaps the most powerful and the most overlooked, is to value people. To listen, acknowledge, thank, understand, and empathize. In a profession characterized by extreme demands, burnout, and constant pressure, feeling valued within a team makes the difference between committing or emotionally disconnecting from the project. In Latin America, where talent mobility has significantly increased over the last decade, this factor is now one of the main determinants of retention.
The Latin American legal industry is undergoing a structural transformation: artificial intelligence, new service delivery models, more sophisticated international clients, more flexible structures, and increasingly multidisciplinary and cross-border teams. In this environment, collaboration between areas and a culture of teamwork within firms is not a "soft" component of the business: it is a critical factor for competitiveness, profitability, and sustainability.

The law firms that best face this new era in Latin America will not necessarily be the largest, but those that manage to build cohesive, collaborative, committed, and regionally aligned practice areas. Because, in the end, great firms are not built only with contracts, clients, or rankings. They are built, above all, with teams that know how to collaborate and believe in something bigger than their individual results.

David Gutiérrez Swanson
BLP Legal
December 7, 2025