Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices

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.

FOOTNOTE:  Perhaps this is the reason Lovells has been awarded Best Website at the 2007 annual Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) awards, in the category for companies recruiting between 30 and 100 graduates.  Read more...

Here are some teasers/excerpts:

"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."

If you want existing clients to like you as much as possible and even more so prospective clients then use proper names in conversation.  Now there's PROOF if you need it.  

Most probable reasons you may not be using proper names in conversations:

• You are not completely certain you remember (or pronounce) the name right so why risk it
• There is a group and you can’t remember all their names so feel you shouldn't use any
• You are afraid of sounding patronizing
• It’s a discipline you simply have not mastered.

“The brain lit up with activity when proper names were used, including areas that are not associated with language,” Almor said. “We saw considerable activity in areas of the parietal lobe that involve spatial processing that was absent when pronouns were used.”

Read the full story “Names Disrupt The Brain”.

Winners:

• touch parts of their clients brains that others ignore
• are liked and remembered much much better than their competitors

• Write the names down (if a group – make a seating chart – at least first names)
• If hard to pronounce, ask and practice (they will love you for it)
• Practice using the names (starting right now)

WARNING:  My post above may lack veracity according to Stephanie Allen West's post "Anatomy of a telephone game applied to a neuroscience study" in her "Brains on Purpose" blog - I respect her enough to reference her post here - Stephanie's admonition is deserving of consideration and reflection.  Thank you, Stephanie.

“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.

Thank you to LAW.COM for its post Firm Kills Billable Hour for First-Year Associates

(Click on image to see original enlarged version)

I was fascinated by this piece at the Consumerist:   How To Beat The Stock Market: Buy Companies With High Customer Satisfaction Scores

If the same phenomenon occurs in the legal profession, there would be a tremendous return on investment from enhancing client satisfaction.

The story is that a portfolio comprised of “companies at the top 20% of the the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)... greatly outperformed the stock market, generating a 40% return.

“From 1996-2003, the portfolio outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 93%, the S&P 500 by 201%, and NASDAQ by 335%.”

How would you like to out perform the average law firm by somewhere between 93% and 335%?  More importantly, how much should you invest in order to reap a return of that nature?

Don’t bother disseminating this information to your people in order to encourage them to focus on enhancing client satisfaction.  Their consequential improved knowledge on the subject will do little.  It takes results (client satisfaction) to get results (improved profitability).  SKILLS rather than knowledge with be essential to achieve the desired outcome.

PUNCHLINE:  In my opinion, there is an overabundance of information in law firms and a dearth of client-relations training.  If you are a Managing Partner, you may want to balance this disparity.

Note:  I admit that this post is an act of unbridled extrapolation.  I cannot prove that the empirical research referenced would apply to the legal profession per se but my view is that it probably would.

(Thank you to my son, Daniel, for bringing this to my attention.  Daniel (Riskin) is a PhD and a renowned expert on bats - he discovered Vampire bats run - check out his site.)

Thank you Michelle (of Golden Practices) for mentioning my email etiquette post and taking the thought further to embrace phone calls:

Michelle goes on to say:

Another rudeness that Gerry's post makes me think of are abruptly ended phone calls. The failure to say "good-bye," or even "thanks," and simply ending a call by dropping the phone onto its base--often loudly--is more common with lawyers than accountants. And it happens a lot...usually by men.

When did people become too busy (or important?) to say "Good-bye," "Hello," or "Be Well"?

I am asked very frequently by wonderful lawyers how to they might raise client satisfaction and attract better work.  As Peter Paul and Mary sang (and Bob Dylan wrote):  "the answer my friend, is blowing in the wind..."  May we all improve our listening skills - Thank you, Michelle!

Here’s a quote from an article called ‘Yours Truly,’ the E-Variations in today’s New York Times:

Many e-mail users don’t bother with a sign-off, and Letitia Baldridge, the manners expert, finds that annoying. “It’s so abrupt,” she said, “and it’s very unfriendly. We need grace in our lives, and I’m not talking about heavenly grace. I’m talking about human grace. We should try and be warm and friendly.”

I will add that many do not add a “sign on” like “I hope this finds you well” or “It was nice seeing you at the conference.  You will recall that I promised to send you a…” or even, “I hope you are having a pleasant day in San Francisco”.

If you want a quick preliminary test of your email etiquette, go to www.netmanners.com and take the Netiquette Quiz.

PUNCHLINE:  You work so hard to attract and satisfy clients – make sure your emails are not crafted in a manner that undermines your good efforts.

The Secret Step:  Asking the delegatee for ideas regarding the assigned task. 

Four reasons why your delegatee may have an unanticipated but valuable contribution to make

1)  Your delegatee may have performed a similar task in the past for someone who knew something different (and valuable)
 
2)  Your delegatee may be just creative enough to originate a valuable suggestion that you had not thought of

3)  Your delegatee sees the task from a different vantage point than you do and may have a better sense of how to tackle the task in the most efficient manner

4)  Your delegatee will be motivated by the respect you show in asking, whether you accept a suggestion or not.

Caveat:  It’s OK to say no.  Asking for suggestions does not mean you must accept them.  Your delegatee will appreciate your asking (and your consideration) even if you decide in your particular circumstances to proceed differently (perhaps as you originally intended).

Try it – our (Edge International) research indicates it works!!

I have included "delegating" as a client relations skill for 23 years - with it comes increased client satisfaction - without it comes client and associate dissatisfaction - you choose.

Thank you to Rod Boothby of innovation Creators (whom you will find on my blogroll)

Lovells has more than 1600 lawyers in 26 offices worldwide and according to RollOnFriday "the firm has signed a deal with Cass Business School and from next month, lawyers who've been at the firm for around two years will take a two year business foundation course in the evenings. Once this is completed, they'll spend three years studying three MBA electives. Some lawyers will then be sponsored to complete a full MBA"

Lovells joins several other major law firms in obtaining significant supplementary education for their lawyers either in house or by arrangement with a prestigious school.   While this behavior may not be commonplace, it is certainly a trend to watch.

Food for thought:  Ask yourself why a law firm would make this kind of investment.  I suspect it has to do with profession-wide declining client satisfaction scores and the number one concern of top clients that law firms simply don't understand their business.  You have to give credit to Lovells for this initiative – I hope it pays off for them and will therefore be emulated.

The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.  Mark Twain

Rajesh Setty of Life BEYOND CODE in his post "Ways to distinguish yourself #153 - Use humor right!" has some importanmt rules for the use of humor that we have long subscribed to in Edge.  Check it out!

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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.

PUNCHLINE:  For many years thereafter, we had a legendary receptionist whom clients loved on the phone and in person.  I personally received an average of two positive remarks about her every week.   Many of my partners and associates reported similar experiences.  She created the "positive experiences" that Seth blogged about.

I remember a call from New York one day and the lawyer started by saying: "before we get to the business at hand, I just have to tell you...".  I did not have heart to tell him "yeah, I know, you are the 100th person this year to tell me". 

By the way, I told that receptionist about every single positive comment I heard, personally or second hand (and no, that did not lead to extortion - she appreciated the recognition and the credible praise). 

Cynics - who are tempted to guess that she was the winner of a beauty pageant – don't go there –  she got the job as the best applicant and got her praise on merit - her performance was awesome.

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".

But my mind went to another topic - the plethora of recent press about gender diversity in our profession (or, to be more accurate, the shameful lack thereof).

Track with me here.  My mind then went to that delightful Dolly Parton comedy (or was it a comedy) called Nine to Five. 

(Does your mind ever just take you somewhere whether you've decided you want to go there or not?) 

The next thing I was imagining was a young (mild mannered by day) female lawyer in the office of a middle-aged-white-male managing partner and she's asking about the firm's part time and family leave policies and he is describing the arcane and the anachronistic gems that were passed down to him from the son of the founder a generation ago.

OK - here's where I completely lose control - It's a daydream, you can't censor my daydream!

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.

Now, remember what Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda did to Dabney Coleman (Parton's boss) in the Nine to Five movie?   (Hint:  a lasso and some rope were involved.)  I imagine Supergirl could look after the situation without any assistance at all (barring the presence of kryptonite).

OK, that's where I was when my wife, Bethany, walked in on me and asked what the heck I was doing looking at a picture of Supergirl. Thanks to Suzanne Lowe, I had a bulletproof excuse.  (if you haven't already, check out Suzanne's post.)

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:

Bulletproofing your crown jewel clients – Part 1

Bulletproofing your crown jewel clients – Part 2

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

Making Retooling Successful

Check it out.

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 — she transformed an abstract thought into action… she breathed life into her idea.

The Misty Hills Country Hotel outside of Johannesburg