Amazing Firms Amazing Practices : Gerry Riskin : Edge International

The iPad has become a formidable competitive weapon for law firms:

Quote from Fennemore Craig case study on Apple.com/business:

"If I didn't have an iPad as a lawyer, I'd be at a major disadvantage,"

Quote from Virtual Strategy Magazine article: iPad® Harnessed by Law Firm to Sharpen Client Service

Now, legal materials live on a fleet of iPads that Fennemore Craig pre-loads and loans to clients and adversaries.  Communication with lawyers occurs instantly through built-in FaceTime or Skype apps.

My opinion:  The worry over what kind of laptop to buy is fading because of the domination of the ubiquitous iPad.  If you have not acquired iPads for every lawyer in your firm, at least provide them to a subgroup in exchange for some serious exploration as to how the iPad can assist in your substantive practices as well as your relationships with your clients.  Every day that passes is increasing the relevance of the iPad to your competitive position.

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See Top iPhone and iPad Apps for Lawyers via Attorneys at Work and also download free bonus App List PDF

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If you want to compare Social Media perspectives with firms your size, this is a must have infographic - click on it to download (courtesy of Vizibility Inc.)

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Your law firm’s success in 2012 may require considerable ingenuity under extreme pressure just as it did from the crew of Apollo 13 for their safe return to Earth.

Apollo 13 was the third mission in the American Apollo space program intended to land on the Moon. The number 2 oxygen tank in the Service Module exploded en route to the Moon, approximately 200,000 miles (320,000 km) from Earth.  The developing drama was shown on television and depicted in the Apollo 13 movie based on the mission.

If you saw the movie, you may recall that the head of Mission Control assembled a team in a conference room and requested that the materials available to the astronauts in the Service Module be brought to the room because they had but a few hours to learn how to make oxygen to save the astronauts’ lives.

By contrast, when the senior leadership team in most law firms meets to explore strategy, there is no sense of urgency. Worse, after extraordinarily bright people come up with some amazing plans, in most firms they are doomed to atrophy due to a lack of execution.

As you consider 2012, I recommend that you:
 

• Take off the rose colored glasses… the apparent good economic news is at best an exercise in extreme optimism and at worst the willful concealment of the truth

• Clients have tasted economic power in the lawyer/client relationship and they are not going to give it up. In fact, if you are not exploring legal process management (LPM) in harmony with some of your most important clients, your firm is headed for rough seas.

• Make your plans as if they were a matter of life and death because they very well may be. In today’s perilous times, your firm’s fate may be as precarious as that of the 3 astronauts when the oxygen tank exploded.

I confess that I have framed this in a slightly melodramatic way in order to be provocative. The serious lesson I ask you to take from this is that your plans need a deadline and they must be executed as if life itself dependent upon them. That is why in Edge, we make no apology for being obsessed with action.

Your comments would be appreciated as usual.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for the image and details)

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An article in this month's Corporate Counsel Magazine has the spotlight on Valorem and for good reason. 

Author Susan Hansen says:

Valorem… now boasts a list of big, brand-name clients, including funeral industry giant Service Corporation International; national shoe retailer DSW Inc.; Veolia Water, a supplier of water and wastewater management services; and the online travel site kayak.com.

and later in the article reports::

…clients definitely like the fact that Valorem is more than willing to work out fee arrangements that are at least partially tied to the results they produce. Case in point: a major lease dispute that Valorem is currently handling for DSW that is headed for trial in Los Angeles this fall. As part of its agreement, the company has been holding back 20 percent of Valorem’s billings, with the final payout to be determined by how well the firm meets mutually defined success metrics in the case.

Punchline:  in a world where firms and clients are talking a lot about alternate fees (AFA), Valorem and its clients are innovating with imaginative fee and billing solutions that truly are win/win, and I say BRAVO !  Managing Partners of all firms intent on surviving would do well to analyze and understand Valorem's approach.

 For the full article, click on the image.

Disclosure:  I have the honour of serving on Valorem's Advisory Board

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Presentation Materials from the Good to Outstanding, it's all about your people" conference in Hong Kong

For the required PASSWORD, kindly email me. (Your email address must match your registration)

To download presentation materials, click on the relevant presentation.

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    Really ? (No.)

  Really ? (Yes.)

How refreshing for Forbes to offer us 26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO, Shama Kabani.  Her wisdom is well-suited for consideration by Managing Partners of the most significant law firms.  Her ideas are extraordinarily mature for her age which may explain her phenomenal business success.  Here are a few examples:

…planning (#1):

• A written vision of what you want your company to look like in 3 years is important. The pen (or keyboard!) has power. It isn’t enough to envision your goals in your mind. You must have a blueprint on paper. Every decision you make, ask yourself: does this help me get closer to my vision?
  

…listening (#2):

• Learn to listen to your clients. When we started, we were only offering social media consulting services. But, clients quickly demanded more. We eventually ended up serving as their web marketing department. The marketplace will tell you what it needs. You have to listen, and then deliver.
  

 …and #15 (who would expect a 26 year old to remind us to dress appropriately):

• Appearances matter. I just interviewed an intern who showed up in an outfit more appropriate for an 8 a.m. class. I had to wonder how he would represent us in front of clients. Whether we like it or not, appearances matter. Dress appropriately.

…and #26 (think "Managing Partner" rather than CEO and "firm" rather than company):

• Being a CEO means being a CVO. CVO stands for Chief Value Officer. Always ask yourself: How can I create value for our clients? Our prospects? Our internal team? The answers will guide you to building a better company.

My opinion: Except for #18 (decide for yourself), I think every single one of the 26 lessons is worthy of consideration by every law firm leader

Read all 26 lessons at Forbes: 26 Lessons from a 26 Year Old CEO

Shama Kabani is the award winning CEO of The Marketing Zen Group, a full service web marketing firm in Dallas. She is also the author of the best-selling, The Zen of Social Media Marketing; and hosts her own web TV show at Shama.Tv.  Her photo is courtesy of the Young Entrepreneurial Council.  Thank you to Annie Colbert of Guy Kawasaki’s ALLTOP for bringing this Forbes Blogpost to my attention.

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I received this correspondence from Hoshedar Wadia, a partner in one of India’s most sophisticated law firms, Juris Corp.  This firm deals in matters that range up to the hundreds of millions of US dollars in sophisticated areas like Capital Markets, Structured Finance, Securitization and so on.  In the spirit of disclosure, I have had the privilege of serving this firm.  Do you believe the protocol contained in the following correspondence could serve your firm as well?

"We just shared something with our new recruits as part of their orientation and I thought I would drop you a line cause you have used examples like this very effectively in the past with us.
 
"There is a game ‘Angry Birds’ that I have on my mobile that is available for PC download as well.
 
"You have to shoot birds at structures (and at a pig) and make points to go to the next level. Each level is tougher and there seem to be an unlimited number of levels. At each level, you can try any number of times. But in the version available on my phone, after 2 attempts (and failures), it asks me if I want to connect to the internet and see how it is done (on you tube). If you view the link, the task suddenly becomes easier (not easy – but significantly easier).

"Message:
"Like angry birds, in Juris Corp too:
"(i)         Please try for yourself to get the results – try once try twice but if you don’t get it by then then seek help (ego and stubbornness have little place in a knowledge-based industry);
"(ii)        The reason you must try yourself is because you may come up with a better way of doing something than the internet or ‘online help’ version will show you;
"(iii)       The reason you must take help after a few tries is because you owe the Firm and the Client, if any, (a) a quick turnaround (so it is not acceptable that you try and try and try till you succeed); (b) best costs (which means you don’t re-invent) – but always subject to you trying first on your own (the reason you are in Juris Corp is because somebody believes you may find a better way);
"(iv)      Look at the online version/precedents, even if you succeed – to see if it could have been done better?
(v)       Learn and adapt – the higher levels will always require you to draw from what you have learnt at the lower levels."

Punchline: Too many partners throw their associates to the research and protocol winds with a sink or swim attitude.  This policy deprives both associates and clients of what they deserve.  I think Juris Corp has it right and I am grateful to my friend, Hoshedar Wadia (Juris Corp partner), for granting me permission to share this with you.

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The irony is too delicious to pass up. Mark Zuckerberg has invented one of the most powerful communication tools ever known to mankind. Facebook has literally started revolutions.

Why, then, would the most successful communications entrepreneur in history regress to a pre-internet form of communication? For the same reason Jack Welch did as president of General Electric.

Not only is a handwritten letter more powerful than e-mail, but it’s horsepower is increasing exponentially. Why? Because it is ever rarer.

If you want to increase your influence and the impact of your important communications,  get some personal stationery suited for the purpose and use it.

You may not believe this, but in my experience with powerful members of the executive of many top law firms, personal notes they have received from their colleagues or clients are carefully saved for years along with other precious personal possessions.

Image of stationery from THE GRAPHIC WORKS OF BEN BARRY
 

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