With her English-language book “Leading Transformation in Law Firms”, Prof. Dr. Madeleine Bernhardt (Co-Director, Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession) positions transformation as an unavoidable prerequisite for a firm’s competitiveness and future readiness, and places particular emphasis on the role of leaders and how they must approach it.
Given her research and publications in change management and transformation, Bernhardt is uniquely qualified to address this topic. She builds on the well-known thesis dating back to Charles Darwin: It is not intelligence, but adaptability and the willingness to change that ultimately determines survival. Bernhardt rightly draws a nuanced distinction between change – which typically involves a limited number of predefined adjustments – and transformation, which unfolds through a wide range of fundamental, sometimes experimental initiatives, including the development of new business models and an overall redesign of the organization.
AI as a driver of transformation
Artificial intelligence is having a massive impact on the traditional business of law firms and is currently the main catalyst behind the need for transformation. This requires fundamental reflection on the future substance of legal service delivery and consistently acting on the resulting implications.
What makes the book particularly distinctive and immensely valuable is that the author provides concrete guidance on how leaders should act in a complex transformation, which demands far more leadership than typical change efforts. She captures this in one sentence: “Leading transformation requires skills far beyond ‘leading change’.”
According to Bernhardt, the central pivot point of transformation is the human factor. Consequently, leadership must strengthen human performance on three levels: The organization, team, and individual. Beyond cultural change, this includes mindsets, behaviors, roles, and responsibilities, as well as decision-making processes.
New: The ACT-to-Transform Framework®
To develop her approach, Bernhardt draws on her many years of experience in the legal market as well as her study “The Future of Leadership”, conducted by the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession in collaboration with Egon Zehnder, and on 35 interviews she conducted with managing partners of international law firms and with experts from eminent business and law schools. On this foundation, Bernhardt developed the holistic ACT-to-Transform® Framework.
ACT stands for Acknowledge, Challenge, Transform, and describes a three-step process to unlock and strengthen human performance. In Acknowledge, performance and opportunity gaps that block transformation success are brought to the surface. Challenge involves rethinking strategy, balancing competing goals, and developing innovative future options while taking current capabilities into account. Transform, finally, is about aligning day-to-day operations with the strategic goals of the transformation. Bernhardt argues that strengthening human performance is essential because transformation success depends decisively on the ability to unlock human performance.
The ACT approach is applied across the three relevant levels – organization, team, and individual – and is translated into practice throughout the book’s chapters.
At the organizational level, ACT is used to create the conditions for cultural change. In this context, the key levers of transformation – tasks, people, structure, culture, and metrics – are explained, and it is shown how cultural change can be achieved through different measures and building blocks (emotions, role modeling, storytelling, alignment).
At the team level, the book explores how transformation capability and capacity can be developed. Team emotional intelligence and psychological safety play an important role. Performance and quality are strengthened through challenging assumptions, feedback, reflection, learning loops, diffused responsibility, team agreements, structured collaboration, problem-solving, ownership, and buy-in. A coaching leadership style multiplies learning and adaptability. Practical relevance is demonstrated through cross-functional transformation initiatives in AI applications, creating products, and new go-to-market models.
At the individual level, it is crucial to overcome a frequently observed aversion, or even immunity, to change. Only individual change enables organizational change, and only when leaders change their own patterns does collective change become credible. This ultimately requires shifts in mindset and behavior, especially in overcoming hidden competing commitments (for example, using delegation pilots instead of defaulting to control).
Applying the three-stage ACT methodology across these three levels establishes a highly robust foundation for a successful transformation process.
Conclusion
This work is a hands-on guide that consistently addresses transformation success in law firms across three levels: The firm, the team, and the individual. The strong integration of these levels makes clear that strategy, culture, team performance, and individual performance can only create the conditions for transformation success when they work together, thereby positioning the firm sustainably for the future.
Building on extensive practical experience and the ACT-to-Transform® Framework, Bernhardt delivers concrete guidance and a wealth of actionable recommendations. For leaders who want to build a future-ready, high-performing firm in the era of AI and shifting business models, using this guide can make a decisive difference.
For law firm management navigating transformation, Bernhardt’s book is quite simply a must-read.
Editor’s note:
Madeleine Bernhard: Leading Transformation in Law Firms. How Top Leaders Unlock Performance to Win the Future. Springer 2026 (Law for Professionals).
