Presentation Materials from the Good to Outstanding, it's all about your people" conference in Hong Kong
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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.
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.
Read the full NYT article "At Well-Paying Law Firms, a Low-Paid Corner" here.
All of the Managing Partners with whom I work are devoured by their "multitasking work environments". "Recovering from information overload" (McKinsey Quarterly, January 2011) authors Derek Dean and Caroline Webb have succinctly laid out their take on the problems and solutions:
Problems (multitasking):
slows us down,
hampers creativity and
makes us anxious and it’s addictive)
Solutions (Coping with the deluge):
Focus,
Filter and
Forget
Perhaps the most valuable part of the article lies in an exploration of how to hit the "reset button".
If you are the Managing Partner (or have any leadership responsibilities in your firm) I suggest you read this article twice, once to assimilate it and next to make your action plan for the parts or pieces you want to implement. Download the PDF or read online.
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:
27 simple ways to become a better negotiator
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.
I am honoured to be in the esteemed company of the publishers and advisors of Attorney at Work that promises “One Really Good Idea Every Day”
There is no cost to subscribe and the ideas will flow starting in January.
I recommend that you subscribe now
Congratulations in particular to my long time friend, Merrilyn Tarlton who conceived this idea with Joan and Mark Feldman
Download by clicking on image or HERE Registered participants were provided with Password in session.
Sorry for offering the punchline in the title… but Yoda would be so proud (of Seth Godin)
Extract from Seth Godin's blogpost: Won't get fooled again
If you catch yourself making a promise that's been made before, stop. Don't spend a lot of time and effort building credibility with this sort of promising, because it doesn't pay off.
Make different promises, or even better, do, don't say.
Law firm leaders, if you don't know who Seth Godin is, subscribe to his blog and/or read his books. He offers a perspective that you won't get at bar association meetings.
Download by clicking on image or HERE Registered participants were provided with Password in session.
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.
Stay tuned.
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.
Start by reading their blog post today Law Firms and Recorded Future. Then sample their video explanation on their home page.
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.
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.
(You can also check out our Edge International web site at Edge-International.com)
Law Professor William D. Henderson (click on photo for bio)
Managing Partners and law firm H.R. Executives should contemplate the meaning of Indiana University School of Law's Prof. Bill Henderson's post: "How the 'Cravath System' Created the Bi-Modal Distribution."
Professor Henderson builds on the work of NALP (The National Association for Law Placement®, founded in 1971) who published this graph in 2007 referencing 2006 salaries their article called "A Picture Worth 1,000 Words":
Note how meaningless the Median is in helping any form set associate salaries.
Professor Henderson asks, among other things: "Are We Selling Results or Résumés?" which is the title of one of his papers in this area. Here is a related excerpt:
"The Results or Résumés paper draws upon two pieces of market data to demonstrate that a large proportion of large corporate law firms have to re-evaluate their business models: (1) stunning uniformity of associate entry level salaries amidst large, growing disparities in profits per partner; and (2) evidence that firms are becoming stratified by premium versus non-premium practice areas."
Professor Henderson also draws our attention to the unbelievable burden taken on by firms that are not the most profitable by showing a comparison between associate salaries and per partner profits as you move up the profitability curve:
Professor Henderson then explores the lateral partner mobility within the Am Law 2000 and in his words "teases out a relative hierarchy of practice areas" According to Professor Henderson, the table below, which covers the 2000 to 2005 time period, orders legal specialty by differential profits per equity partner (PPP) between the firm a partner left and the firm he or she joined.
I strongly recommend that you read Professor Henderson's entire post but I think the best is yet to come as evidenced by the final paragraph in his post:
"Fortunately, the Results or Résumés paper lays out a solution for any law firm willing to try something new. The psychological barriers, however, are much larger than the logistical or financial. I will blog on this topic in a subsequent post."
Thank you also to my friend Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith, Esq. for his excellent post on this topic: THE BI-MODAL STARTING SALARY DISTRIBUTION and the ABA post: ‘Cravath Model’ that Created Have and Have-Not Law Grads Could Implode
PUNCHLINE: The legal profession resists change for good reasons and bad. As always, it won't be the legal profession initiating the change - our clients will do that for us. The fundamental question is whether your firm will be among those to first respond to these issues and from that gain well-deserved competitive advantage. Stay tuned.
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.
Allow me to transpose one of Susan’s comments for Managing Partners and CIO’s in the legal profession:
- 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>
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.
Lovells offers a “try out” Critical Thinking test which you can take right now, anonymously.
Lovells is one of the largest international business legal practices, with over three thousand people operating from 26 offices in Europe, Asia and the United States.
It is amusing to hear Americans debate the non-constitutionality of asking applicants to submit to testing while the rest of the world has absolutely no problem with it and in fact sees significant benefits. I will leave that debate to others but thought you might have some fun with a sample test.
Take Lovells' Critical Thinking test HERE.
PUNCHLINE: Enjoy!! I’ll tell you my score if you tell me yours!
NOTE The test is no longer accessible
"Attacks on the competence of Indian lawyers and law graduates are about as valid as saying that Indian software engineers are incapable of handling sophisticated IT (information technology) work. To the contrary, the Indian IT industry is a world leader, and the same will be the case with offshored legal services."
"A recent study conducted by Harvard Law School and LexisNexis reveals that 75 per cent of US law graduates admit they do not have the necessary skills to practise law."
"So you would expect that these deficiencies would be met by rigorous training programs undertaken by Western law firms. Guess again! The Harvard-LexisNexis study reveals that 64 per cent of young lawyers receive no organised, on-the-job training."
"By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India provide rigorous training to their lawyers, and the hours spent on training do not appear on invoices to clients."
"…at least in the US, law graduates for the most part are notoriously incapable of writing effectively in English. The problem is so severe that some large US law firms now assign a writing coach to each incoming associate. However, most lawyers in the West never receive this kind of training. By contrast, reputable legal services offshoring companies in India train all their attorneys in English writing."
"The future of the legal services offshoring industry in India appears very bright."
"Corporations, not Western law firms, will drive the market in the years ahead."
"Another way that corporations will drive the market, indirectly, is by obtaining flat (or fixed) rate billing from their outside counsel, instead of hourly billing. For example, the mega law firm, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, now handles all of the litigation for Cisco Systems for a fixed annual fee."
"Every sector of the legal offshoring industry will grow dramatically, including lower end services, such as document coding and legal transcription. Ultimately, however, the biggest impact, the long-term mother lode, will be higher-value services such as legal research and drafting – services that constitute the bulk of the legal work now done in the West."
"Long-term, India’s enormous, mostly untapped population of over one billion citizens will continue to make India competitive in relation to other offshore destinations… ultimately it will not only decrease poverty, but increase the number of law graduates."
"On the most positive note, the growth and development of the legal offshoring industry in India will help bring about a major change in the way legal services are delivered in the West."
“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.
Michelle goes on to say:
Here’s a quote from an article called ‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations in today’s New York Times:.jpg)
The Secret Step: Asking the delegatee for ideas regarding the assigned task. 
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Seth Godin's blog post on Receptionists is 100% correct. When I was a managing partner, my firm required a receptionist for our largest office. I personally reviewed 215 applications myself and created my "A list", about 42 applicants, whom I invited for interviews late one afternoon. I asked 6 of my partners to help me and we interviewed 6 applicants each. Any WOW applicant was interviewed separately by at least two partners. Were we insane to take so much partner time on this? You decide..jpg)
Suzanne Lowe of The Expertise Marketplace Blog belongs to a group of which Superhero Trainer Adam Marx is a member. In her blog post today, "Become a real live Superhero!", Suzanne opines that "[Adam's] points have tremendous relevance for the leadership of professional services marketing". .jpg)
The young lawyer pops out into the client phone booth (you know, the one just off the reception area) and twirls around at blurring speed and then stops suddenly revealing her tights and her logo..jpg)
Bruce Allen adds some essential thoughts about mentoring in his recent post, Mentoring Works.... In its Own Way
His first bullet point is:
The mentoring relationship IS a relationship. It requires a chemistry between two individuals not found in a spread sheet or personality profile. Not every senior attorney in your firm will be selected as one, and not every person that needs one can find it within your firm.
See the remaining four bullet points at his blog.
By the way, do you believe that Bruce is a grandfather? He provides evidence - see "Future Blogger" by scrolling down at his site.
Jim Hassett
Thank you to Jim Hassett at his Law Firm Business Development Blog for continuing the conversation about Bullet Proofing Crown Jewel Clients with his new post regarding my thoughts on the comments of Steven Bell, Director of Sales at Womble Carlyle. See his post To Sell or Not to Sell in his Law Firm Development Blog today.
Jim's two part story on my recent presentation to the Marketing Partners Forum can be found in his recent posts:
The introduction of Female Mentoring at Freshfields (London-based global firm) is to be congratulated and condemned at the same time - perhaps King Solomom would have a different take on this but here is mine.
I applaud:
- the motives (diversity - attracting and keeping more women in a firm that lacks the degree of gender balance that it desires)
- instituting a mentoring program
I am concerned with:
- the sexist notion that only women can mentor women
- the exclusion of men from the program - many men desperately need mentoring also and can offer it as well. In fact, in firms where I am asked to offer special sessions dealing with special challenges faced by women in dealing with clients, I insist on participation by at least some of the firm's men. This is not token. They offer invaluable insights.
FASTFORWARD: If you do not have a mentoring program, you should consider starting one. The benefits are too abundant to list here, not the least of which is better performance and lower turnover both leading to greater profitability.
See the original post at Roll on Friday.
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?
Patrick McEvoy's has another 90 Minute TeleSeminar scheduled for February 2nd and tomorrow is the deadline for a reduced registration cost. The full name of the seminar is:
How To Create a Precision Niche Marketing Campaign That Will Start Bringing Results in 21 Days or Less"
His headings look pretty cool:
The "Gigantic 4 Part Obstacle" you face in your niche marketing efforts that will NEVER go away.The ten biggest mistakes ALL law firms make in their niche marketing efforts.
The difference between "tactical" and "strategic" marketing and why it's killing your niche market development plans.Just how much a new niche client is really worth to you--and the answer will surprise you.
Seven things you MUST do in your niche marketing and sales efforts to get results quickly.The real problem with law firm niche marketing that no one wants to talk about and--how you can solve the problem simply and mathematically.
How to use "Relevancy Based Marketing" in your niche.
The five step formula for getting niche prospects to call you.
Follow up tools that massively increase niche penetration rates.
How to attain your 2006 marketing goals with absolute assurance using the "Execution Imperative."
For more information about Patrick McEvoy and his TeleSeminar, click here.
My colleague Ed Wesemann has a very interesting piece on using retooling as an option to terminating the underproductive partner. He notes that the termination option is often used because: "they simply don't have the confidence that any other option will work".
In this post, Ed covers:
Selecting Partners for Retooling
The Retooling Process (Five Steps)
Making Retooling Successful
The legal profession is extremely fragmanted. There is no IBM, Ford or even Price Waterhouse Coopers in the legal profession - the mega law firms are tiny. I believe that explains why there has been so little R&D and innovation in the profession. That may be changing.
According to Bruce Macewen's Adam Smith Esq. post titled: "Of Counsel"? "Non-Equity Partner?" Column C?, Allen & Overy has taken a step that may make them unique, at least temporarily, by creating a new category of lawyer called "Managing Associates".
"Managing associates will have increased responsibilities and some access to partnership information and will be viewed as likely partnership material."
Many large firms have created a category of associates who are on track for partnership but I have not heard of anyone using the title: "Managing Associates".
Maybe the Allen & Overy's of this world and their mega counterparts are beginning to be a size where they will begin to modify the profession, hopefully for the better. I will be watching (both while on assignment with large firms and through the blogosphere).
Mandi Fleiser
If esprit de corps in your office is so fantastic that you are looking for ways to suppress it, then skip this post. However if you want to see a brilliant, simple and time efficient way of enhancing it, then treat this as a mini case study. (Esprit de corps is "a feeling of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty...")
Mandi Fleiser is a partner in Grant Thornton's Johannesburg office Ā she transformed an abstract thought into actionĀ she breathed life into her idea.
The Misty Hills Country Hotel outside of Johannesburg
During a recent retreat that my Edge International partner, Robert Millard, and I facilitated for her partnership at The Misty Hills Country Hotel outside of Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of a more comprehensive strategy process, we encouraged participants to describe specific actions that might move the firm closer to its objectives.
Grant Thornton is in great demand but with everyone working so hard, predictable challenges arise. This is further exacerbated by greater regulation and more rigorous processes in the accounting profession. The bottom line is a palpable strain on the firm's most precious resource, its people.
Partner Mandi Fleiser suggested that all the firm's personnel needed an upbeat frequent reminder of what they could be "proud of" and "pleased about" and she conceived Mandi's Monday Memo, the first installment of which I am honoured to replicate here (with permission).
I know the print will be too small for you to read it and I have x'd out sensitive information but you get the idea. I have extracted her chosen Zig Ziglar quote:
"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing-that's why we recommend it daily." Zig Ziglar American Sales Trainer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Mandi's headings include Marvelous Moments (firm accomplishments including jobs well done and clients attracted) What I love about GT (excerpts from a five minute exercise at the retreat when we asked partners to write on a slip of paper and submit what they loved best about the firm) and Quote of the Week (this week's highlighted above).
FASTFORWARD: THANK YOU Mandi for the inspiration to partners in all professional firms. Here is what every partner can emulate: Mandy:
a) conceived the idea,
b) converted the idea on her own initiative,
c) did not delegate it but rather preserved the gravitas that comes from a partner doing this herself.
This post was published with Grant Thornton's permission.
Thank you to Larry Bodine for so fairly and effectively summarizing an exchange of differing views (between me and Neil Witmer) in his post: Neil Witmer Responds: It's Wishful Thinking to Try to Convert Non-Rainmakers. Also hats off to Neil Witmer, Ph.D. for his willingness to complete the exchange with his fair-minded comments.
My original post (where you can see Neil's comment as well as lawyer Johannes Schenk's) was Witmer thinks some lawyers just fertilize the queen which followed Witmer's original comments in Larry's post called Marketers: Forget the Grinders and Drones.
Here are some of the participant comments:
[This is] where the theoretical meets the practical.Could not have spent the two days doing anything better on behalf of my firm.
A must for any new or experienced managing partner.
The small group interactive format was great.
Very useful program filled with practical, 'how to' tips.
An A-Z of those issues that every managing partner will confront during his or her tenure.
The vision is reflected right in the firm's name - Edge. The tremendous competitive advantage that comes from slight improvements in important areas is something that should appeal to every law firm. Once you attend, they deliver.
The dialogue among managing partners at similarly situated firms promoted invaluable, otherwise inaccessible, information. Edge International representatives led insightful and provocative discussions.
Our MP Boot Camps are not advertised and enrolment is restricted to ensure that participants at each two-day event have an opportunity to fully participate and learn from each other as well as our faculty. If you are a Managing Partner and interested in a future session, please let me know. (Sessions are held several times a year and are organized by firm size so those in attendance can relate to each other's challenges.)
After finishing a full day workshop yesterday with some major law firms, accounting firms and some other professional service firms at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) of the University or Pretoria (Johannesburg, South Africa Campus), I was reminded yet again that professionals face the same fundamental challenges regardless of geographical location. The skills involved in courting prospective clients were not part of the educational package of any of the professionals in the room but there was a universal eagerness to learn and hone those skills. Thank you to all those who attended and to GIBS for allowing me to participate as a Visiting Professor.
Also, congratulations to GIBS for moving to 36th in the world for Executive Education in the UK Financial Times Executive Education survey this year.
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