160 year old McCarter & English, a firm of over 400 lawyers with offices in Boston, Hartford, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia and Wilmington is rolling out Vizibility QR codes on attorney business cards and printed biographies (with embedded patented SearchMeTM buttons).
A Vizibility Law Firm can determine which Google results clients and prospective clients see first by using a one-click access to a verified Google search.
“Adding tools that provide quick access to the online content of our attorneys just makes economic sense,” said Alitia Faccone, Partner in the e-Discovery practice group at McCarter & English.
“We know from website analytics that our professionals are being researched online extensively and that legal decision makers are less likely to hire an attorney if their credentials cannot be verified online.”
I had the opportunity to discuss Vizibility with its Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Oxford graduate James Alexander. His experience is nothing less than extraordinary including serving as Director of Product Management at Adobe Systems for 7 years. In my opinion, James has given Vizibility a clear vision coupled with extremely powerful technology.
If you can spare one minute and 51 seconds, watch James' bio and then you may understand why your law firm should become a Vizibility law firm and why I am going to test Vizibility's technology myself.
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
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.
According to NYT journalist, Catherine Rampell, in her May 23, 2011 story: At Well-Paying Law Firms, a Low-Paid Corner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, WilmerHale and McDermott Will & Emery are "creating a second tier of workers, stripping pay and prestige from one of the most coveted jobs in the business world".
Catherine goes on to comment on the increased challenge of debt repayment: Lower salaries make it even more difficult for newly minted lawyers to pay off their law school debt — like the $150,000 in loans that David Perry accumulated upon graduation from Northwestern University School of Law in 2009.
My Opinion: I understand completely why these and other firms need to cut costs in order to meet the demand from clients to reduce fees. In a way, this is eminently sensible — move the commodity end of the practice of law to lawyers well-equipped for the task at lower salaries. In my view, this is not nearly enough. Law firms must rethink how they do their work and must re-engineer their work in harmony with their clients. My Edge International partner, Pam Woldow, is working at an unprecedented level of sophistication with top corporate law departments (including some of Fortune's Top 10) and AMLAW 100 law firms to help them learn Legal Project Management and how to set (genuine) Alternative Fees . If the Partners think they can sit back and sustain their historic incomes indefinitely by lowering junior lawyer salaries or creating new classes they are sadly mistaken. They need to create sustainable new models that change how we think about the practice of law.
Most of the top law firms I deal with have armies of lawyers who negotiate all the time whether on deals or resolving disputes. So when I ask for a show of hands from anyone who has taken a course or read a book on negotiating, the responses suggest that fewer than 5% of lawyers have done so. Why? Are we that confident or has the idea simply been off our radar.
You might want to sign up for a two day course at Harvard but if you are too busy for that right now, here's a blog post that may whet your appetite for the topic:
Bottom Line: enhancing negotiating skills would provide immediate competitive advantage by helping you prevail on behalf of your client and even increase your client's satisfaction level.
September 24th, 2010
ADR Institute of Canada National Conference September 23-24, 2010
Plenary Session: Optimal Marketing for ADR professionals
Workshop: Effective Marketing for ADR professionals Calgary, Alberta
OCTOBER 2010
October 9th, 2010
Fordham Law School (for Prof Silvia Hodges)
Guest Lecture: Law firm management: Strategy New York, New York
October 14th, 2010
(with Nicole Auerbach a— Valorem Lw Firm))
Making Alternative Fees Work in Litigation: How to Approach and Craft AFAs
Virtual Program… webinar: Find out how to incorporate AFAs for your litigation matters, and how to avoid the many pitfalls that can arise along the way in this information-packed audio conference. During this 75-minute program, our expert faculty will present best practices for approaching, crafting and implementing these highly sought-after engagements. Information & Registration
October 22, 2010
ALPMA summit
Keynote address: Finding Success in a Global Paradox Sydney, Australia Information & Registration
NOVEMBER 2010
November 4th, 2010
Chief Legal Officer Forum, Public Sector Auckland, New Zealand
November 5th - 7th, 2010
Plenary Session: Future Firm Forum 2010
The Management Imperative Tongariro Lodge at the south end of Lake Taupo, on the North Island of New Zealand Information & Registration
November 11th - 14th, 2010
(with Edge partner, Juhi Garg
GROWTH STRATEGIES 2015
LAWASIA 2010 Conference
The session will describe how Asian law firms can prepare for a flourishing economy including strategies and processes required to fuel growth both organically and inorganically. New Delhi, India More Information
My Edge International partner, Jordan Furlong, has done a nice welcome piece on Pam Woldow already (at his Law 21 blog) but I thought I would echo that Edge International is so very proud and delighted to have her on board.
Also, thank you to friends who have joined us in congratulating Pam, like Valorem's awesome founder, Pat Lamb, who expressed delight in his In Search or Perfect Client Service blog post.
Those of you who know Edge International well can be assured that we are intent on growing in strength and capabilities.
Please make sure you follow Pam's new Blog, At The Intersection, for her continuing wisdom and counsel.
I met virtually with Recorded Future this morning for a close up briefing of how their Temporal Analytics Engine might be used by law firms. Firms who use this can better predict the needs of their own clients and prospective clients as well. There is so much more that this technology can do if used effectively, including monitoring the industries that a firm serves now and perhaps should serve in the future.
How often does a potentially powerful competitive weapon come along for the legal profession… and, more importantly, will law firms recognize it when they see it?
Recorded Future, the world's first Temporal Analytics Engine, is a new predictive analysis tool that allows you to visualize the future, past or present.
My Prediction: Very few law firms will do an exemplary job of exploring this technology. Those who do will likely meet considerable resistance internally from those who are slow to trust technology and especially revolutionary technology. I am completely OK with that.
What excites me: is that a few law firms that see the true potential of this technology and will use it in imaginative ways. At Edge International, our core business is helping clients who are committed to achieving competitive advantage. You can bet we will be exploring this with our clients, and maybe some prospective ones as well.
Punchline: CMS Cameron McKenna has 122 Equity Partners and employs over 1,000 fee earners in 10 offices. They are big enough and influential enough to be a tipping point in their own right. Those other law firms who ignore Alternative Fees and Value Pricing because "they just won't ever take hold" are in grave danger of playing catch up or even missing the boat altogether. You don't need your own pricing team today but what you do need is a team within the partnership to start exploring how your firm will enter this game and when (not if).
Thank you to Gavriel Hollander at The Lawyer for the original story
Greg George, Managing Partner of top security firm GTI Advisors Threat Management Practice Group has created a comprehensive due diligence report — among his many recommendations, he suggests that businesses consult a law firm - is your law firm ready to answer that call? SECURITY may be a lucrative future-oriented practice area awaiting your firm.
3) Note the section "Qualified Legal Counsel Is Worth Every Penny" on page 18.
4) Discuss this in your firm and explore an appropriate strategy before you are left in the dust by forward thinking firms that will.
Footnote: Determine if you are the cobbler with no shoes (when it comes to security) — perhaps your law firm could use a few of the amazing ideas in this document as well.
Note: For international clients, this piece is clearly written for American audiences but I believe the vast majority of the content will be useful regardless of your location.
My Edge International colleague and good friend, Ed Wesemann, has some fun providing tongue-in-cheek advice for new law firm associates on how to develop business.
Enjoy, and better yet have your associates look at this.
We are very proud of our latest Edge International Review. For a complete downloadable version (or just the articles you want) click on the cover or go to EdgeInternationalReview.com
If you have any questions , comments or suggestions, please shoot me a note.
(The video is 8 minutes - watch at least the first full minute then more if it grabs you)
Law firm leaders
You don't need to embrace social media or love technology or even be a gadget freak to have a peak at how we'll all read magazines and papers soon… I thought a second reason to show you this was to have you think about the publications your firm produces from articles to brochures.
I am not suggesting you blaze the trail but you had better have your design team monitor the progress of this technology and make it available to you as soon as it is affordable.
Gerry
PS I will be asking our own team to look hard at this for future versions or our Edge International Review which will be published soon.
This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future, presented by our design partners at BERG.
Take a few moments at the beginning of your next (executive, practice group, industry group, client team) meeting and watch this piece from Australia's George and Margaret Beaton (Beaton research and Consulting). They have been friends for a long time and not only built an amazing high end consultancy but have done it with panache and imagination. You will see some data that will act as a catalyst for the thinking of your leadership team.
It is a proud day for all of us at Edge to add such a distinguished partner. After law school, Jordan articled with one of Canada's leading law firms and then opted for a career in legal journalism culminating with more than 10 years as editor-in-chief of the Canadian Bar Associations distinguished well respected National magazine and executive editor of CCCA Magazine
Now Jordan joins us to offer both strategic and tactical advice to lawyers, law firms and legal organizations, centered around his very clear vision of a legal service marketplace undergoing massive and irreversible change.
Among his other accomplishments, Jordan is an award-winning blogger. He has been writing since January 2008 at Law21: Dispatches From a Legal Profession on the Brink, where he chronicles the extraordinary changes underway in the legal profession. He is an Honourary Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and Chair of the College's InnovAction Awards, which recognize and reward creativity and innovation in legal services delivery.
PUNCHLINE: If Social Media matters, then it matters to law firms because everything that matters to society in general must matter to law firms sooner or later. Watch this and make your own decision.
Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The week after Bernard Madoff was charged with running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, Proskauer Rose, a New York firm of 750 lawyers, offered a telephone briefing on the scandal for its wealthy clients. With only a day’s notice, 1,300 Madoff investors dialed in.
“This is a financial 9/11 for our clients,” said Proskauer litigation partner Gregg Mashberg, one of the lawyers on the call. “People are dying for information.”
You may not have anything on the scale of 911 that you can help your clients with but the principle remains valid:
Is what you have to say to clients relevant, timely and valuable?
If so, they will listen!
These extreme economic times are not the place for the long-term marketing-speak consulting-mumbo jumbo about branding and image.
Your clients (and prospective clients) need your help and they need it now. How can your firm help your clients with:
strategies to deal with slow paying customers (even potentially bankrupt ones)
employment strategies that allow for layoffs (if necessary) without retribution
renegotiating contracts of all kinds - including leases.
international assistance especially where foreign currency value fluctuation could hurt your client
PUNCHLINE: You don't need my list - you need to sit down with your practice group, industry group and/or client team and determine what your clients needs from you. By the way, don't hesitate to involve your key clients in this discussion - they will enthusiastically participate (remember to tell them the meter is off if you still bill by the hour).
Couple that with the wisdom of lawyer and legal profession provocateur, Patrick Lamb, in his post today: Silver Lining in Black Economic Cloud? in which Pat says among other things:
If you don't see the opportunity to restructure relationships in ways that produce savings for your clients while at the same time strengthening your relationship with that client, you need to open your eyes.
Punchline: My asking Managing Partners to treat the deterioration of the economy seriously is in perfect harmony with seeing the situation as a competitive opportunity. My view of Dynamic Resilience as an alternative to a traditional strategic plan is just that - exploiting the opportunity to be stronger than competitors in challenging times. (Remember the hiking joke when one hiker says to the other “I don’t have to run faster than the bear; I only have to run faster than you”).
Stephanie West Allen breaks a story that we will look back on in ten years as groundbreaking. Have a look (click on the image for Stephanie's post):
PUNCHLINE: I can relate having lived in a virtual world for many years. Lawyers in most firms seem to resist the virtual world in favour of the comfort of bricks and mortar and "proximity" - working with someone on the next floor seems easy enough but in another city? Many still have trouble with that one. Perhaps the virtual law firm model is decades away from being mainstream but large multi-office firms should take some lessons from this model now.
What is your initial reaction to the title of this blog post? I thought it was daft… until I read the complete post by Susan Cramm on June 25, 2008 on her Harvard Business Blog: Having IT Your Way.
Here is an excerpt from her blog post:
Over the past decade, IT organizations have worked hard to improve services and in turn increase IT’s impact on the business. But in the quest to deliver great service, IT actually may have been disabling rather than enabling the enterprise.
How? In two ways. First, continual hand-holding leads to a loss of precious time that could be devoted to more important activities. Second, helping others who can help themselves circumvents learning. It lets them off the hook and alleviates their sense of responsibility. And ultimately it slows down progress as communication is constantly being run through an intermediary. In delegation lingo, this is called taking on someone else’s monkey.
PUNCHLINE: Based on my observations in the firms I serve around the world, I would say that too many lawyers pride themselves on their IT incompetencies believing that it makes them somehow charming and brilliant. I say they might as well be sneaking into the firm at night and taking cash out of the safe. The costs associated with that attitude include:
poorer client service by failing to capitalize on the efficiencies technology offers
competitive disadvantage (clients do not find incompetency charming ever)
wasted IT personnel time
distracting and therefore delaying or discouraging the latest IT initiatives
<I’ll bet the IT folks out there can add lots to this list>
Allow me to transpose one of Susan’s comments for Managing Partners and CIO’s in the legal profession:
Pleasing partners shouldn't be IT’s ultimate goal (or that of the Managing Partner). Rather, the ultimate goal of the Managing Partner and the CIO is to ensure the success of the firm. Help IT serve you and the firm by making sure that IT isn’t doing anything for individuals that they can, and should, do for themselves.
As Nicole Nehama Auerbach joins Valorem, she says:
“I saw Valorem as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really make a difference in the way litigation is handled... I was captivated by the firm’s commitment to provide real value to business clients, and, in particular, its emphasis on alternative fees. Alternative fees are more important than ever to clients as the economy fluctuates and rates continue their upward march. Traditional law firms have been slow to recognize the need to satisfy their clients’ economic concerns."
Valorem Law Group represents a head on assault on the billable hour. Here's an excerpt from thier new web site:
The top ten list…
We are all refugees of elite BigLaw firms;
We are skilled courtroom lawyers, in practice and at heart;
We are revolutionaries and risk-takers, entrepreneurs at heart;
We bring a single-mindedness to the notion of client service;
We believe you are entitled to budget certainty, to a real and realized commitment to help you deal with the cost pressures you face;
We believe that the practice of law is an art, not a science;
We believe in collaboration and hold the team rather than the individual sacrosanct;
We love technology and efficiency -- the more red tape we hack through, the better;
We take our work very seriously -- ourselves, not so much;
We are real people, with supportive spouses and wonderful kids (who, at least today, appear to really like us).
They even have the audacity to say this:
We provide value or you adjust the bill. I recommend a thorough tour of their web site.
My Opinion: Don't bet against these people - they are proven champions as individuals and together they are going to disturb the peace of the billable hour. I say BRAVO!! The leader is Patrick Lamb (center in photo above) - learn even more at his famous blog: In Search of Client Service
The Logical Empathiser. The accepted wisdom is that anyone who possesses great reason and logic is quite devoid of humanity and warmth. The Logithiser is living proof that wisdom, in this case, is fallacy. Yes, Logithisers are capable of shutting down their emotional mechanisms to perform feats of objectivity and accurate thought. But equally, they have great powers of empathy.
Faced with a stressed colleague or a concerned client, the Logithiser readily sheds their tough exterior, listens quietly and offers sound, careful advice.
I did not (would not) make this up. This unique approach is used by the Eversheds firm (based in the UK) to attract recruits. If you liked Logithiser, perhaps you will like these:
KNOWLIVATOR The Knowledgeable Motivator INNOVATEER The Innovative Volunteer PERFORMIBUTOR The Performing Contributor PROACTILOPER The Proactive Developer PROFESSIONARY The Professional Visionary PRIORICATOR The Prioritising Communicator WINNOMAT The Winning Diplomat
The "Graduate Recruiting" portal at the Eversheds site features videos as well. The shooting approach is for us to view the video as if we are part of its production – take a look – see what I mean!
PUNCHLINE: In a profession based on precedent and tradition where few are willing to risk being unique, one firm has. Like it or hate it, give them credit for the courage to stand out. BRAVOEVERSHEDS!!
Is the UK's wealthiest man also its wisest? If you have about 1/2 hour to sit in on a fascinating conversation with Sir Richard, head over to Adventures in Strategy, my Edge colleague and friend, Robert Millard's blog post: Richard Branson on Life, Succeeding in Business and Everything
(Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 30:44.)
I am very biased - Richard Branson is one of my heroes - nevertheless I will risk exclaiming that there is no Managing Partner who could experience this discussion and not be inspired.
Indulge a father's proud moment as I celebrate the extraordinary work of my son Daniel Riskin (PhD Cornell - now doing post-doctorate work at Brown) along with the other scientists on this project. The sophistication of the analysis of the flight of bats is unprecedented and its rather poetic that a visualization should bring top prize.
The only link to law is the inspiration of breaking new ground through applied innovation - perhaps in our legal profession, we should simply be inspired to follow suit in our own ways.
“Ford & Harrison, a 190-attorney labor and employment firm, has tossed out billable-hour requirements for first-year associates. The program aims to close the practical-skills gap of law school education and increase value to clients. The firm also hopes it will enable associates to handle meatier matters more quickly.“ according to Leigh Jones of The National Law Journal.
I have the privilege of knowing C. Lash Harrison (pictured) and his remarkable stature within his firm. When I read about this bold initiative I was in no way surprised that it was Lash who had the gravitas to pull this off. It may be prophetic that the tag line on the Ford & Harrison firm’s website reads: “THE RIGHT RESPONSE AT THE RIGHT TIME”
"Everyone sits around and complains about the problems," said C. Lash Harrison, managing partner of the law firm. "I figured, what the heck, maybe we can try something."
Observation: The issue of newer lawyers recording time on files is a bit of a hornet’s nest in most firms. If the time is billable, it detracts from the billing partner’s realization rate and perhaps even hours billed. Carefully measured associates steer away from files where they can’t record billable time. This creates a tension that is based on economic reality but serves neither the associate’s training objectives nor the client’s desire to optimize value. Thank goodness for fresh thinking and bold initiatives. That makes C. Lash Harrison a hero to me.
Managing Partners and other members of law firm C suites had better look at Slater & Gordon’s prospectus – it’s a gold mine, (pun intended).
Have a look at how risks are described – the Wall Street Journal post quotes the passage balancing professional responsibility and shareholder profits.
"Lawyers have a primary duty to the courts and a secondary duty to their clients. These duties are paramount given the nature of the Company’s business as an Incorporated Legal Practice. There could be circumstances in which the lawyers of Slater & Gordon are required to act in accordance with these duties and contrary to other corporate responsibilities and against the interests of Shareholders or the short-term profitability of the Company."
I adored the "Key Risks" page (click on it to download pdf of this page):
PUNCHLINE: If this does not fascinate you, you should resign from your leadership position. I am not saying you should follow suit – I want you to know what your options are and what your competitors might be up to way sooner than you would like to think.
Science fiction movies adore time travel and ripples in the primordial fabric. We are witnessing a collision - the future has just exploded into the present. With Clemente in the UK just over the horizon, please fasten your seatbelts - this is a pivotal moment for the legal profession and for the Managing Partners within it. Like Dennis Hopper's famous line in the movie Speed, "what are you going to do, Jack"
"Law Seven" and conclusion from my article: "The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management
7)Turn a spotlight on your initiative and leave it on
Many firms have fabulous meetings, sometimes in retreat venues where everyone participates in the creation of the master plan that will make the firm the "be all and end all". All participants leave the process feeling a sense of pride and excitement that is palpable. It is only after the passage of a few months and the absence of any visible accomplishments that the disillusionment sets in. The cynics and skeptics have a field day they might as well all buy red tee shirts with yellow words emblazoned across their chests "I told you so". Well, Managing Partner, you must not allow this outcome. It is lethal and you cannot recover from it. Instead you need the lights that were on at the retreat to remain on. This is accomplished by not allowing the insects to crawl back under the rocks (out of sight, out of mind). Instead you need to design processes that keep your people (not insects at all) in plain view. You can decide for yourself what might work best for you, but here are some of the techniques I have observed or recommended:
a) Monday Morning Memos (as referenced earlier) giving weekly status reports to showing everyone's progress on the distinct steps (actions) that have been agreed upon. This creates healthy peer pressure and allows no-one to hide.
b) MBWA (Managing by Walking Around) coined by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in their business classic In Search of Excellence this means frequently dropping in, unannounced, to ask the right questions and to offer help "How is that list coming I see you are struggling to get this done in light of your particularly heavy case load at the moment let's explore some options to whom could you delegate some aspects of this I need you to make progress because others know you have an exceptionally heavy work load and if they see you getting your tasks done you will have effectively removed their excuses I need you to do that I will do anything to help short of doing your task for you "
c) Convene follow up meetings that exchange "learnings" that individuals have gleaned from their respective tasks, for example, how they worked with difficult people internally or how they overcame client resistance. This should not be a meeting where everyone reports progress progress meetings become meaningless exercises in seeing who can offer the most creative excuses for failing to deliver. This is a peer level training meeting where the objective is to become ever more effective at accomplishing quality non-billable tasks.
Conclusion: Fostering change in a law firm seems impossible because most Managing Partners treat the activities associated with such change as if they were component pieces of a legal transaction. Partners are so reliable when it comes to their substantive legal work that it seems unthinkable that they could not complete mundane simple tasks associated with management initiatives. Well, the real world is that the non-billable activities are not even on the same psychological map as the billable ones. Billable work means everything to a lawyer from income to professional satisfaction to garnering the respect of peers (internally and externally) to being respected in social circles. Non-billable work, no matter how important, and regardless of the value to our futures, will always take second place to billable work unless you, Managing Partner, manage for a different outcome. The score in many firms is billable work "100" and quality non-billable work "0". By following these seven immutable laws of managing change, you will change the latter score from zero and even if you only to "99 to 1", you and your firm will be the beneficiaries of the infinite improvement from "0" to "1". Further, in the legal profession, those who make continuous slight progress win the race, because most competitors are still tied to that pier.
"Law Six" from my article: "The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management
6)Tell the world
Do you know why betrothed people say their vows in front of friends and family to cement their commitment. It is the same reason a banker friend told me the bank does television commercials: "not just for our customers but for our own staff so that they can see the service promise we make to our customers and as a result they are more likely to live up to that promise".
Tell the world what you are shooting for, whatever that may be - in fact, you can say it before it is so: "striving to be the firm of choice for the wholesale industry". I am not advocating misleading or untrue advertising but I am saying it's OK to declare what you are striving for. Your current and prospective clients will hold you accountable but that's OK because it helps define the standard for your people and gives clarity to their target and therefore their everyday performance.
"Law Five" from my article: "The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management
5)Ask for commitment - not agreement
One of my most successful friends (and clients from my law practice days) has a One Sentence Journal and he posted the following wisdom one day:
"Commitment and Doubt": Commitment does not require the absence of doubt; often commitment means acting despite your doubt.
(From Larry Anderson's One Sentence Journal June 17 entry.) (Larry's success is not only financial it transcends to a long-term happy marriage and philanthropy.)
Think about it. You do not need your entire firm to agree with you and should not even ask for that. What you must demand, and accept nothing less than, is that your people commit to help you achieve your objectives even if they have doubts. At worst, someone who is not pivotal to the initiative may remain neutral and that means not sabotaging the effort in any way. But for that exception, those who offer passive or active interference must be confronted. If you don't have the support to pull that off, step aside. You are allowed to lobby for that support but it must be forthcoming or else your resignation should be tendered. This is not hypothetical - this is how the well-managed firms are run. Choose your initiatives carefully because you must succeed in attempting them. They don't all have to work but you have to be allowed to try them and give them the firm's best efforts. If not, call the election.
This is where your capable support professionals can shine. They can help you create imaginative ways to keep the initiative in front of your people. The internal trainer in a major firm showed me high gloss promotional announcements that were sent internally to remind audiences about various internal workshops. I asked about the "commercial nature" of the alerts and he responded that "I have to break through the noise" to get their attention. He's right, of course. It's like paying attention to your spouse. If you take your spouse for granted, you may not end up alone but you will not reap the rewards that would have been yours had you been more attentive.
Some firms use Monday Morning Memos to catalogue progress on the action checklist, person by person. Others celebrate to congratulate for achievements (compete with cake and silly hats perhaps tee shirts adorned by appropriate slogans).
"Law Three" from my article: "The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management
3)Paint "the first step" in vivid colours
"Take the first step, and your mind will mobilize all its forces to your aid. But the first essential is that you begin. Once the battle is started, all that is within and without you will come to your assistance." Robert Collier (1885-1950)
As leader, you are going to have to foster the taking of the first step by every individual whose participation is essential to your change initiative. This means that the first step must be crystal clear and painted by you in vivid colours so that no individual hesitates because of lack of clarity. The simplest way to do this is to facilitate a discussion that results in "to do" lists that include actual initial steps and time lines, and if necessary, methodologies. For example, the first step might be compiling a list of prospective clients in a particular industry that would have need of a particular service. The action may involve delegating internally (or even outside the firm) the task of creating the initial list and might include identifying precisely the parameters within the list, like numbers of employees, locations etc.
The punch line is to have a first step that is clear enough that you can ask if a specific thing has been done. For example, "is the initial list ready" is only a sensible question if it is clear that the first step was to create such a list and precisely what that list would be comprised of.
"Law Two" from my article: "The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management
2)Create a vivid picture (vision) of where this initiative leads
It is tempting to be vague because then you are not committing to anything. Not committing avoids scrutiny and criticism. But without certainty, your troops cannot get excited about your change initiative.
Be specific: "If we dominate the provision of X legal services to the Y industry, we will not only increase our revenues in both the A and B practice groups by at least 25% in the next two years, but we can also expect increases in the C and D practice groups of at least 10% attributable to cross selling initiatives from the A and B practice groups". Obviously the particulars are customized to the situation but the point here is to be specific. While quantifiable measures are essential to your firm's success, qualitative ones may be equally motivating to your people. For example, many of your people will work hard for the prize of having more work of a preferred nature or to do more work for preferred clients.
You will rarely be exactly right when it comes to strategy and tactics and that is OK. You will almost always do better or worse you're your forecast. Get comfortable with being wrong because that is what management is all about. If you meet your objectives all the time, you are way too conservative. You will learn from your performance and continually correct and fine-tune. This is not the practice of law it is the management of the business. In a real estate transaction, we expect to get good title for the purchaser on closing. This is not a guess or a hope or speculation. It is precise and we had better get it right it's what we're being paid for. But a percentage increase in revenues from a particular kind of work is a crap shoot. No matter how smart you are, there are some variables beyond your control and many that are beyond your capacity to predict accurately. Worse, even if serendipitously your strategy is perfect, your tactics may be quite imperfect, at least initially. Business winners constantly monitor outcomes and frequently change or at least fine-tune tactics in an effort to continuously improve results.
The punch line here is to create a vivid quantitative and qualitative description of a desirable outcome that everyone in your organization can relate to, knowing and accepting that it is not perfect.
"Law One" from my article: "The Seven Immutable Laws of Change Management (with thanks to Cameron Cooper of the Australian Law Journal where my article first appeared)
Managing Partners: Why is it that your intelligent (no, make that "super intelligent") lawyers seem to react to your change initiatives like you were asking them to drink a tankard of poison, even when they know full well that the brilliant changes you are proposing would be beneficial to them individually and collectively? When we get Managing Partners from various firms together, many of them want to commiserate with each other about the impossible task they have in managing the unmanageable - I suppose my Edge International co-founder Patrick McKenna, and I did not cure that perception when we named one of our books Herding Cats. Some Managing Partners with whom I have had the pleasure of working are exceptions to that rule and what follows is what I think I have learned from them over these many years.
Here are the seven immutable laws of creating change in your firm. I guarantee that if you respect these rules, you will get the cooperation you need to effect the changes that will catapult your firm forward.
YES, I said IMPERFECT and when you saw that word a feeling of anxiety overcame you and you were tempted to react as a lawyer and not as a change-agent for your firm. Let me be clear. As a lawyer, your job is to do "the right things, perfectly". That calls for unflawed effectiveness and efficiency. You probably hope your surgeon, if you ever need one, practices to the same standard. But face reality as the manager of your firm, you do not have the luxury of doing only "the right things" because nobody, including you, knows what the "the right things" are except in hindsight and hindsight is too late.
As a result, most good firms are paralyzed by the tedious, never-ending and totally ineffectual process of divining the perfect strategy accompanied by the perfect tactics. These firms are ships tied so firmly to the pier that no matter how well steered, they go absolutely nowhere. In fact, their biggest claim to fame is that they hit no icebergs few ships do from the pier. Such firms may do "industry-average" well, but they are not going to consistently break out of the pack. Temporary successes come from individual initiatives that the firm is likely unaware of and therefore does not impede with excessive policies and standardization.
In strategy, you must make the best decisions you can with what you know and what you can speculate about. I am not against a little market research - in fact I advocate it but I am against the notion that you can know enough to comfortably make strategic decisions with the confidence that you are most certainly right.
Most good collegial firms make the mistake of trying to convince the whole firm (at least the partners) that a decision is "right" before proceeding. There is no collection of competent lawyers exceeding one in number that can or will agree to any single course of action mainly because their training is not to find the wisdom and potential in an idea but rather to reveal the concealed risks within it. No idea will ever be good enough so looking for unanimous approval is antithetical to creating change.
You as Managing Partner and your close team (executive committee, board if necessary) must make a decision. You must choose what you think your best option is from among the available alternatives.
The punch line here is "abandon perfection in favour of action". Force the decision-making process within a reasonable time frame and then get moving. Release your ship from the peer. This will give you immediate competitive advantage. It will also contribute to the esprit de corps of your firm and that will literally add fuel to your change initiative. If you are going in the wrong direction, you can alter your course.
Please note that this is your initiative as Managing Partner not your approval of the initiative of a support professional (like the marketing director in your firm). You can work together with such support professional side by side, you can even give them most of the credit if the initiative is successful but it must be your initiative, at least in part, or you have no hope of succeeding.
Now imagine using this quote in connection with your law firm's legal work or business development efforts. It would take about a nano-second for the resistance to begin.
If you are the Managing Partner, or a Department Head, Practice Group Leader or Industry Group Leader, what are you doing to change all that?
Seth Godin provokes our thoughts with a very quick intellectual journey through service to expectations. In his post, What customer surveys measure, he teaches us not that serving and satisfying is impossible but that it is possible to do the former extremely well without doing the latter.
TRANSLATION FOR LAWYERS: Excellent legal work is not enough. Excellent work plus managing expectations plus exceeding those expectations is indeed enough. Is your firm doing enough? Are your individual lawyers and client teams doing enough?
The article features Iris Jones who breathed life into this concept at Akin Gump. Bruce speaks very highly of her and her achievements - click on photo for bio. Bruce does a nice job of describing the elements that had to be in place at Akin Gump to support their client team initiative.
Visit Bruce's newsletter regularly. Just click on The Marcus Letter logo below.
RollOnFriday is making fun of London based law firm CMS Cameron McKenna but do they deserve it - you be the judge.
CMS Cameron McKenna is no slouch. According to their web site, they:
* are the primary counsel to 20 of the FTSE 350
* acted for 107 of the FTSE 350 in 2004-5
* have over 55 offices and associated offices worldwide
* have over 130 partners and more than 700 other fee-earners
* employ 59% female staff
* are a founding member of CMS - the alliance of independent European law firms
So what does RollOnFriday find so amusing?
It seems that the CMS Cameron McKenna recruiting web site has a prominent flash animation banner that focuses on relationships. What kind of relationships? Ummm you decide. Just click the green banner at the top of this page and watch the animated version for a few minutes - then you tell me exactly how you interpret the information they are presenting to thier recruits.
PUNCHLINE: Those who conceived this idea (no pun intended) likely had the best of intentions hoping to demonstrate that if you join CMS Cameron McKenna you will not be operating in isolation. Somehow, I think the execution may have distorted the orginal vision. What do you think?
Follow me on a journey of logic skip a decade to 2015 when air travel may dramatically increase in speed to 30,000 km per hour or 18,000 miles per hour imagine a trip from Moscow to New York in 50 minutes or Moscow to Sydney in one hour and six minutes. (See reference to news story at end of post)
I contend that as the world continues to shrink, we will see a breed of global super lawyers who will go almost anywhere where there is a lucrative opportunity to bring unique skill and knowledge to bear on a legal problem.
What will this mean for competition especially for the global firms. One might argue that they will be best positioned to exploit the opportunity because they can move their specialists around the globe more easily. However, it may also represent a threat to the global firms because agile competitors will be able to send top guns in without having to establish expensive local offices. A third possibility (my favorite) is that we will see even greater industry specialization such that any member of that industry will hire a known dream-team law firm the bricks and mortar location of which will be irrelevant.
I propose this as a serious planning issue, if not immediately, at least in the not too distant future. Competitive advantage comes from thinking ahead of the curve not behind it.
My Edge International colleague in Johannesburg, Robert Millard, passed this along internally - I immediately sought his permission to share it with you.
You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could
only be one passenger in your car?
Think carefully before you continue reading........................
You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first.
Or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back.
However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.
The "out of the box" answer? Give the car keys to your old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. Then stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of your dreams.
Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations.
FASTFORWARD: What options are we not seeing that would accelerate our firms toward our vision of an ideal future?
Edward De Bono
FOOTNOTE:Edward De Bono is #20 on this year's list of the top 50 business thinkers. His books can be found at Amazon - if you are not already familiar with him, treat yourself to his book, Lateral Thinking - but warning, if you get addicted, you'll be consuming all his treasures (and perhaps choosing better strategies at the bus stops of your professional life).
Do you remember the "suggestion box" from the bricks and mortar days? Well, let me introduce you to the virtual suggestion box.
One of the coolest attributes of the virtual suggestion box that the wooden ones could not achieve is their accessibility to clients as well as members of staff.
(I have permission to share this idea that comes from a very high quality wholesale insurance brokerage firm, and client) THANK YOU California-based Brown & Riding!)
Bravo to Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice and Molden Holley Fergusson Thompson & Heard for their ingenious alliance to create and market diversity.
Molden Holley is a small and new African-American firm comprised of partners who came from major firms. In what appears to be a brilliant win-win alliance, this new firm will continue to be independent but will bolt on all of the resources of AmLaw powerhouse Womble Carlyle when and as required; meanwhile, Womble Carlyle gets to demonstrate to clients like Wal-Mart and Sara Lee that it is listening to their General Counsel who have been requiring all of their legal providers to make rapid diversity progress.
PUNCHLINE: While other firms may not yet have diversity on their radar screens and while those who do are likely progressing slowly and in a linear fashion, these two firms are hitting warp speed.
The most fascinating part of this story is yet to unfold. It's the marketing initiative (contained in this quote from the complete story in Small Firm Business referenced below):
"Regina S. Molden, the managing partner for Molden Holley, said members of the two firms will meet monthly to develop a marketing strategy targeted towards existing and potential Womble Carlyle clients seeking more diversity."
WOW! Imagine the potential here. This is not smoke and mirrors but rather a very real capacity to provide diversity to clients IF those diversity-demanding clients are prepared to accept that the alliance is genuine and truly fulfills the spirit of their diversity requirements.
Whichever firm initiated the idea, it is an illustration of strategic genius especially if it works. If it does, it will be a pattern worth emulating.
Richard Susskind is not short on credentials. Richard has a first class honours degree in law from the University of Glasgow and a doctorate in law and computers from Balliol College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society, and was awarded an OBE in the Millennium New Year's Honours List for services to IT in the Law and to the Administration of Justice.
that automates the process of drafting employment documents. The web-based system is designed for human resource professionals in large organisations
There is a link in the article that allows you to see a demo - incredible (see for yourself).
PUNCHLINE: For those who still think it's cool not to understand technology or tease that "that's something my kids do" maybe it's time to remove the cranium from the sand and stand erect as we move further into this new century. There will be two classes of firms soon which one do you think will be thriving over the next ten years?
Thank you to Monica Bay of The Common Scold for writing about this article by one of my Edge International partners, Robert Millard, from our latest issue of the Edge International Review. I am posting this article (in a single page format) at Monica's request so that you can view it in your browser or download it as you see fit.
Because every human makes this mistake and I argue that lawyers are human, therefore
OK, thank you ROCKETBOOM, July 6th edition, for this story and thank you MIT for being so brilliant (as usual) and humbling the rest of us by exposing our limited perceptions with this cool illustration.
The A square and the B square are the same shade of grey. Don't take my word for it, I'm a lawyer, too. Check it out!
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliff is a magnificent firm that had the courage to be innovative and create a Virginia based service center for itself.
and now, according to an article in The Lawyer.com:
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe is planning a new outsourcing services company for other law firms.
"The truth is that the global 100 are competing with each other, but most lawyers aren't in those firms. There's a whole universe of lawyers who are spending inordinate amounts of money doing their own finances and supporting their technology and we can do it for a fraction of the cost," said Baxter.
Fast Forward: There will be amazing challenges watching the outcome will be akin to NASA scientists watching Deep Impact. There will be surprises and perhaps more success than many will have the courage to predict.
Punchline: Whatever happens, keep an eye on this and learn from it we don't see too many clear transitions in the practice of law if this works, it will in hindsight have been a big one.
Metaphors and analogies help us understand and apply principles. In his post, "Market as Hospitals Do", Larry Bodine demonstrates the art.
Punchline: Transcending our context ignites our imagination - use this phenomenon with your colleagues and watch them find the magic that tries so hard to hide inside them.
Awards (by firm size) will be presented in four categories:
Client Service Virtuosos
Sponsored by ABA Law Practice Management Section
Those evidencing the best innovation in client service or delivery.
Market Disruptors
Sponsored by Greenfield/Belser Ltd.
Those who have displayed the best innovation in the creation of an entirely new revenue stream or market development.
Knowledge Stars
Sponsored by Baker Robbins & Company
Those who have made the most innovative advances in skill-building or knowledge-sharing initiatives.
Leader Ships
Sponsored by Astin Tarlton
Those who have taken the most innovative action toward improving their internal management or firm efficiency.
If you have any questions about the awards, kindly contact my Edge International colleague, Patrick McKenna, by email or phone him at 780.428.1052.
If you are curious, you can read about last year's winners here.
A HUGE thank you to Prism Legal Consulting for their reminder of the approaching deadline (June 14)
Awards (by firm size) will be presented in four categories:
Client Service Virtuosos
Sponsored by ABA Law Practice Management Section
Those evidencing the best innovation in client service or delivery.
Market Disruptors
Sponsored by Greenfield/Belser Ltd.
Those who have displayed the best innovation in the creation of an entirely new revenue stream or market development.
Knowledge Stars
Sponsored by Baker Robbins & Company
Those who have made the most innovative advances in skill-building or knowledge-sharing initiatives.
Leader Ships
Sponsored by Astin Tarlton
Those who have taken the most innovative action toward improving their internal management or firm efficiency.
If you have any questions about the awards, kindly contact my Edge International colleague, Patrick McKenna, by email or phone him at 780.428.1052.
If you are curious, you can read about last year's winners here.
I understand that for many it's too late for this year, so why not find out how to enter and get a headstart on next year.
In the newest issue of Fast Company, an article entitled The Interpreter starts out like this:
Claudia Kotchka is holding the secret to understanding design at Procter & Gamble in her palm. It's not a P&G product but a tin of Altoids, the "curiously strong" mints produced by Wrigley. As the scent of peppermint oil wafts out of the box, she points out the nostalgic typeface, the satisfyingly crinkly liner paper. "Even the little mints look handmade," she says. "It's not completely full. The whole thing is very authentic."
Then comes the twist. "Let's say P&G buys this brand. What are we going to do?" asks Kotchka, P&G's vice president for design innovation and strategy. "[Employees] always gave me the same answers. 'We're gonna cost-save on this tin. We're gonna get rid of this stupid paper -- it's serving no functional purpose.'" She plops the tin on the table and picks up another product, unable to suppress a mischievous smile. "And I go, 'Okay! Exactly! And this is what you get.' "
Kotchka reveals "Proctoids," a box made of cheap white plastic from P&G's baby-wipe containers. With uniform beige ovals jammed into the container, fewer colors on the lid, and no paper, Proctoids taste like Altoids, but they look as appealing as a pile of horse pills. Gone is the pleasure people get when they buy Altoids. Gone, too, is the up to 400% premium they pay. "That's what design is," she says of the look and feel. "That's what designers do."
Food for Thought: What Claudia says Proctor & Gamble would do to Altoids is exactly what most law firms do... Good lawyers believe that quality work should speak for itself and therefore be in high demand. But in the real world, people are attracted to the "crinkly liner paper"... the "experience"... In our highly fragmented profession, it's time for some law firms to stand out from the pack by creating an attractive experience that goes along with the high quality work. You've heard of practice management - but do we disciuss "Practice Design"? No, most will laugh off the idea - too new... too unusual... but a few will think about it and do something that creates competitive advantage. So, in your firm, who will you appoint as the Practice Design Manager?
SEPTEMBER 2010
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“Ford & Harrison, a 190-attorney labor and employment firm, has tossed out billable-hour requirements for first-year associates. The program aims to close the practical-skills gap of law school education and increase value to clients. The firm also hopes it will enable associates to handle meatier matters more quickly.“ according to Leigh Jones of The National Law Journal.
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So, how many stars does your firm have?
