Source: Connect the Dots
Connect the Dots has been named a winner at the NZ Lawyer Service Provider Awards 2025 in the Growth and Productivity category. The recognition signals a shift in the profession itself.
When Glenn Marvin first stepped inside a law firm as a consultant eight years ago, he expected to talk marketing strategy. Instead, he walked into something deeper: a quiet crisis happening behind the scenes of many of New Zealand’s growing firms.
Lawyers who were exceptional practitioners were being pulled into a role they had never been trained for: running a business.
They were leading teams, managing finances, driving growth, and carrying the weight of staff who depended on them, all while trying to maintain their own legal practice.
“The more senior they became, the greater the expectations and the less support they had,” Marvin recalls. “I kept seeing brilliant lawyers drowning in responsibilities that had nothing to do with practising law. That is where it clicked for me. There is a very big difference between the practice of law and the business of law.”
This realisation became the foundation of Connect the Dots, the consultancy he built to give law firm leaders something they rarely receive: practical guidance, trusted decision-making support, and structures that free them to be better lawyers, not reluctant business managers.
The impact has been profound. One partner texted Marvin after a strategic planning day with a message he has never forgotten: “You may have just saved the firm’s partnership.”
For Marvin, it was a moment of clarity. This was not just consulting. It was easing the pressure on leaders who had been carrying far more of a burden than the profession ever acknowledged.
The award reflects what many mid-sized firms are quietly admitting: growth comes with complexity, and trying to navigate it alone is no longer sustainable. Firms are now seeking ways to simplify how they scale, build high-performing teams, and recapture something that is often lost in the pressures of leadership: enjoyment.”What this award represents,” Marvin says, “is that firms finally see there is a better way. You can grow without burning out. You can make more money while building a culture that people love being part of. You can create time to do the work you actually enjoy.”
Connect the Dots’ approach blends strategic clarity with hands-on execution. Firms are not handed a plan and left to figure it out. They are guided, supported, challenged, and equipped to make change stick. Many have doubled their consultation volumes, strengthened leadership alignment, and built cultures where confidence and direction replace stress and uncertainty.
For law firm leaders, the recognition of Connect the Dots at this year’s awards offers something powerful: proof that the business side of law does not need to be a burden carried alone.It can be structured. It can be supported. And it can unlock the freedom to lead well, grow well, and enjoy the journey again.Connect the Dots provides business strategy and marketing support for law firms across New Zealand and Australia.
