I recently came across an excellent article in Inc. by Geoffrey James about writing effective emails. Lawyers have not traditionally been known for economy of language, but that is a skill we all must hone and put to use if we want to get results from digital communication.

The Geoffrey presents six practical and clear steps that can help anyone to craft email messages that are direct and unambiguous, and which attract prompt and useful responses.

I encourage you to read it, and to put the six steps to use in your future emails. Geoffrey's suggestions may require a bit of thought and planning at first, but the benefits are likely to become apparent immediately – and soon this method of writing emails will become second nature.

I found the points about creating effective subject lines to be particularly useful.
 
I welcome your response to this or any of my posts.
 

Here is the article:

Business Development and the Comfortable Chair

You've worked long and hard to earn your comfortable chair. It is probably so well made that you can sit in it for the entire day. Clients probably like it. Maybe your staff does too.
 
But that chair is your enemy when it comes to the bottom line. It conspires to enfold you, thereby insulating you from both current and prospective clients. It has you thinking and planning and doing existing client work way too much - and generating business way too little.
 
I work with many firm leaders who want their partners to produce more revenue. The practice group, industry group and client group leaders want exactly the same thing from their constituents. Those leaders ask me, "How can we motivate behaviors that result in more business generation? What do highly effective leaders do to foster great results?"
 
There are answers to these questions, just as there are ways to coach golfers to make them incrementally better on a continuous basis. But those answers are about fine-tuning; what we are talking about here is getting out of the chair and into the game. There is no way golfers can improve their swings if they are sitting down.
 
When we sit in our chairs too much we "lose," and when we get out of them (for an appropriate portion of our time), we "win." Why? Think about how the lawyers for whom you are responsible would answer some of these questions if they were being honest (I have added typical honest responses in parentheses):

1. How many hours did you spend drafting your business development plan? (So many that I'm embarrassed to tell you.)
   
2. How many hours did you spend contemplating your strategic plan, in particular, with a view to maintaining or enhancing the respect of your peers? (Ditto.)
   
3. How many prospective clients have you seen face-to-face outside the office in the last week? (None.)
   
4. How many existing clients have you visited at their places of business in the last month? (None.)
   
5. Do you have a list that you could show someone right now that contains the names of the most important contacts you have - people so important to you that you would not want to lose contact with them for more than just a few months? (No.) Supplementary question: How many of those people have you seen the last three months? (Unless I have an active file open, none.)
   
6. How many of your clients have you introduced to another lawyer in the firm in the last month? (None.)
   
7. How many of your partners have you visited to impart the nature of the favorite part of your practice - including your passion for that practice area, your sensitivity to anyone who might transfer work to you with the greatest emphasis on satisfying the referred client as well as the referring lawyer? (None.) (Note: I have written elsewhere about why lawyers are so reluctant to refer work, including the behaviors they have observed in the past that are likely to deter them from ever choosing to do so again.)

I am not suggesting that you ditch your chair in a fit of anxiety. In fact, enjoy its comfort when you ought to use it. But do get out of it from time to time. I make you a promise based on my experience: if you marginally increase the time you, and those you lead, spend out of your comfortable chairs -- devoting your attention to some of the activities implied by the questions above - the business you (and they) will generate will increase substantially. I know that this works.
 
The very best business generators in your firm will tell you that you will not realize the benefit of getting out of that chair immediately. There is clearly a lag effect. While some opportunities take a long time to bear fruit, and some never do, a significant proportion will - and the healthy proportion of those will happen within months, not years.

______________________

I invite you to read three other interesting and informative articles in the February, 2013 issue of Edge International Communiqué.

I also invite you to subscribe to Edge International Communiqué by clicking on the link at the bottom of this menu of archived issues. EIC is published once each month and features articles by Edge International partners from around the world on a variety of issues relating to law-office management and governance.

Considering the money law firms invest in every newly hired attorney, it would make sense for partners to pay closer attention to lawyer satisfaction. But according to Gerry Riskin, founding partner of law firm consultancy Edge International, "most firms are oblivious" to attrition costs. "That expense is unacceptable, yet firms have been accepting it," Riskin says.

– "Why are lawyers such terrible managers?" CNN Money: A Service of CNN, Fortune & Money, January 11, 2013

I encourage you to take a look at this article that recently appeared in CNN’s online Money/Fortune magazine, to which I was invited to contribute. Among the important points it raises is a statistic with alarming economic implications for law firms: according to the National Association for Legal Professionals Foundation, in 2010 firms with 251 to 500 attorneys lost nearly one fifth of their associates.  

As the article rightly points out, “Aside from salaries and bonuses, law firms spend thousands of dollars recruiting and training each associate, often paying for bar exam preparation courses, moving expenses, and continuing legal education. So when a lawyer walks out the door, that investment walks out with him.”

As most of us know from personal experience, lawyers are not necessarily good leaders. Although leadership and managerial skills are easily acquired, few firms see the value in investing in professional development in this area. In my experience, this is because most law firms have not seriously considered the costs they incur as a result of poor management – the loss of an unhappy associate being just one example.

In short, leadership skills can have a dramatic effect on a law firm’s economic prospects. The costs associated with management training are a valuable investment in the future of your firm.

I welcome your feedback on this issue.

The focus of this issue of EIR is on law-firm growth and expansion, particularly in the international arena. Examination of this topic is timely, as we anticipate that the legal market generally is now entering another year of hectic consolidation activity on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this issue, my partners explore various growth alternatives that are available outside of the traditional merger model, including the Swiss Verein or "association," global alliances, non-merger initiatives and various expansion strategies.

In addition to the editorial overview, I have contributed an article that offers specific guidance and encouragement to those who find themselves facing the need to cross-sell internally in a non-profit-sharing, multi-office setting, such as a Swiss Verein.

I believe you will find this entire issue interesting and relevant. I would be happy to discuss with you the implications of alternative growth strategies on your firm.

Your comments are – as always – most welcome.

 Download Edge International Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, Fall, 2012, here.

I recently had the honor of being asked to participate in a post at Attorney at Work. Along with several other experts, I was asked to provide guidance regarding a theoretical situation in which a lawyer suddenly finds him- or herself with no work at all.  

I hope that such situations remain theoretical, but if that should happen to someone you know, or if the work agenda begins to look a bit threadbare, there are steps that can be taken.

My advice via Attorney at Work was this:

“Go visit some clients. Make a list of clients you have served and phone them to let them know you will be in their neighborhood (or city, yes, buy a plane ticket), and ask if you can stop by for coffee “to pay your respects on your dime.” Think about an article or preventative checklist you could leave behind that might be helpful to each client visited—customize and personalize … as if they were the only client in the world—like dating, remember? While there, ask questions about your client contacts personally (family, kids), their business and their industry. Your reason is simply to understand them better—and their needs—should they require your help in the future. Odds that you visit at least 10 clients and don’t get retained? Zero. Odds that you’ll get retained if you stay in your office and sulk? Also zero. You choose.”

You can read the entire article here.

Your comments are, as always, welcome.

The issue features timely articles by three of my partners at Edge International, and I am pleased to share their guidance with readers of Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices.

Ed Wesemann gives us five tips for putting on a law-firm partner retreat that will galvanize and inspire participants instead of putting them to sleep.

Douglas B. Richardson talks about how a law firm’s cultural texture is intrinsically connected to its bottom line, and explains how a professionally implemented program of cultural assessment can become a power tool that leads to improved practice and greater profitability.

Pamela Woldow discusses how legal process management has evolved in the past few years from being seen as a trendy innovation to its current status as a necessary skill set that must be acquired and deployed by firms who are serious about building more effective practices. She provides a road-map through the confusing range of LPM training programs available today, and offers essential strategies for maximizing investment of time and money in building LPM proficiency among law firms’ individuals and teams.

I invite you to check out the October, 2012 issue of Edge International Communiqué here.

Photo: Marilyn Shaw. Used with permission

Meet my friend James Patrick Guy II.

Jim Guy is chair of the Law Practice Management Division of the Virginia Bar Association, and energy industry team leader at the LeClair Ryan law firm.

He is also the lead singer of the Irish-American pub band, Uisce Beatha.

I have had the privilege of knowing Jim both professionally and personally for a number of years, and I have several times enjoyed watching his band perform at their regular haunt, The Rare Olde Times Pub, in Richmond, VA. Sometimes during a break, Jim and I get a chance to talk and he occasionally reflects upon the similarities between being a performer/ band leader and a lawyer/industry group leader – two complex roles at which he excels.

Now, thanks to the Virginia Bar Journal, I can share some of his reflections with you.

Five law practice management lessons I learned singing in bars

My favorite is number three, but all five of them are fantastic. I'm not going to let you see a summary here because I want you to read the article. It will take you two minutes to read it, 30 minutes to reflect upon it, and a lifetime to implement it.

Thanks, Jim, for your wisdom – and for being you.

My contribution this month focuses on business metrics, and how they can be used to attain optimum results for law-firm practices.

Clients often ask us to help specific individual lawyers to enhance their revenues and their rates of client attraction and retention.

It became clear to me long ago that unless some sort of meaningful metrics were put in place, assessing the return on investment to the law firm for such assistance would be couched in anecdotal evidence only.

There is a great temptation to set objectives in terms of billable hours, receipts, numbers of clients attracted, overall billings, supervised billings, and on and on... but these are only part of the story.

The most powerful metric is the contrast between the current and historic performance of an individual.

My article, entitled "Structuring Business Development Metrics for Optimum Results,” includes concrete suggestions for implementing metrics on an individual basis, and guidance on how to measure rate of change.

Highlights from the August 2012 issue of Edge International Communiqué also include Chris Bull’s thoughts on how law firms can combine legal process management with legal process improvement to create impressive results, and Doug Richardson’s list of ten ways in which the Edge Cultural Assessment can help your firm with its strategic planning.

I invite you to check out the August issue here.

Chris Bull – Edge International partner and author of The Legal Process Improvement Toolkit  – is worried. He believes that law firms everywhere are failing to take sufficient notice of recent massive changes to consumer attitudes and technologies – changes that are already having a major impact on the practice of law. Bull is convinced that if firms do not begin to overcome long-standing prejudices and start to face these challenges, they are going to be left behind economically and in every other way.

Bull reminds his readers that technology has given law clients access to a wide range of professional services at little or no cost – and forever altered consumers’ views of the relationship between price and value. Today, advice on a range of legal issues, not to mention access to templates for wills and other legal documents, is available to anyone with a computer. As professional processes are increasingly digitized, the trend toward self-service and the offering of “highly repeatable commodities” at reduced rates by online companies will continue to change consumer attitudes towards what they seek in professional expertise. Client expectations will, in turn, transform what services law firms offer – and how they offer those services in order to remain viable and profitable. 

Although lawyers have traditionally preferred to view their work as “intellectual and perhaps individual,” Chris Bull makes a strong case for the need for an immediate shift to towards a business approach that puts process management at the centre. He shows that legal matters have always had a process component to them, incorporating such characteristics as chronology, applicable regulations, the use of forms, etc. Now, he says, as computers take increasing advantage of those exact attributes of legal work, the need has become critical for lawyers to recognize the process aspect of the services they offer, so that they may “define, document and optimize” them.

Bull’s book is organized into three sections. In the first, he explains the factors that have led to a traditional disregard for the process components of legal work, and the bottom-line importance of law firms turning their attention to this crucial aspect of their work at this time. He demonstrates how firms should be working to attain the level of maturity in this field that are being attained by other professions and in other industries.

In the second part of the book, Bull offers solutions that are based on his years of experience in viewing legal work through a business filter. What he offers in this section is, he says, “a starter toolkit” in legal process improvement (LPI). He shows how each tool can be applied to improve process management in law-firm contexts, using strategies such as “unbundling” legal work so that less demanding components can be handled by less senior lawyers, implementing the Six Sigma methodology, and using such tools as process documentation and mapping. He concludes the section with a discussion of comprehensive plans for effective legal project management (LPM), of which LPI is a component.

In the final section, Bull offers readers case studies of firms that have implemented LPI and LPM programs to their advantage.

Chris Bull pulls no punches. He declares up front his fundamental conviction that all lawyers are involved in a business process, and his belief that what varies is merely their awareness of this truth and therefore how well they optimize the “systems” aspects of what they do.

Bull offers a diagnostic tool that every firm can put to use immediately: “Where your paper build up is,” he says, “that's an indicator of process inefficiencies.” He talks about the value of “disruptive technologies” and cautions against outsourcing problems. He shows how the move away from billable hours to fixed or capped pricing makes the need to do work in a process-efficient manner even more important.

Chris Bull acknowledges that the majority of his experience with law-practice management has been focused on the UK, which he refers to as the “the world’s legal laboratory.” However, he has also worked with law firms all over the United States, in Australia and other countries. It is my contention that no matter where your practice is based, you cannot afford to ignore the “tipping points” and warning signs that Bull has set out in his book ­– or to fail to take advantage of the toolkit he has developed to address them.

The Legal Process Improvement Toolkit ­is published by the Ark Group in association with Managing Partner and Edge International.

In his newest book, Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms, Edge International partner Nick Jarrett-Kerr addresses a highly sensitive issue that has faced nearly every law firm at one time or another: What do you do when one of your partners is not pulling his or her own weight?

In preparation to write the book, Jarrett-Kerr conducted a ground-breaking, in-depth survey of partner underperformance at 22 law firms of all sizes from around the world. He then examined pertinent academic research from various disciplines in light of his own unique, wide-reaching blend of knowledge and experience in the fields of law-firm strategy, governance and leadership development.

The result is a realistic and comprehensive – and always compassionate – exploration of the roots and causes of partner underperformance. The book also offers a spectrum of strategies and best practices that may be undertaken by law firms that are managing partner underperformance (or are working to prevent it), depending on their particular goals and circumstances.

Jarrett-Kerr defines underperformance as “the consistent failure of a partner to meet the firm’s reasonable expectations or standards for productivity, profitability, quality, technical proficiency, client service or interpersonal relationships.” Underperformance by a partner is a problem that firms often wish they could sweep under the rug for a host of reasons, but Jarrett-Kerr points out that ignoring the situation can lead to potentially serious conditions for the firm, including:

• diminished profitability
• loss of opportunity
• disaffection of high performers
• challenges to the firm’s values, and
• falling morale (p. vii)

Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms provides guidelines that firms can use to determine and assess critical areas of performance, and examines how a compensation system can be optimized "that will align with partner performance.” Jarrett-Kerr lists motivators for strong performance, and sets out the various causes of underperformance, including: stress and depression; burnout and boredom; failure on the part of the partner to keep up with the pace of change; internal office politics; personal problems; and several other factors.

Jarrett-Kerr’s wide-ranging and highly user-friendly book goes on to set out plans and approaches that can help firms to support partners as they return to productivity, and it also addresses the issue of how to terminate the agreement if a solution cannot be reached. Most readers will find it reassuring to learn that in the majority of cases, underperforming partners leave before they need to be asked to do so.

Nick Jarrett-Kerr’s background, which includes eight years as chief executive partner at a leading regional firm in the UK, and ten years as a consultant to firms in 22 different countries on three different continents, has made him an authority on management and leadership topics with an emphasis on strategic and business planning, as well as issues of governance and structure, partner compensation and strategy execution. He is the author of Law Firm Strategy – After the Legal Services Act published in November 2009 (Law Society Publishing) and he is a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University, where he leads the strategy modules for the Nottingham Law School MBA.

Edge International welcomes this contribution to the growing library of world-class law-firm resources that have been produced by our outstanding partners. We are proud to have been involved with Ark Group and Managing Partner in the creation of this book, and to have sponsored The Edge International 2011 Survey into the Management of Underproductive and Underperforming Partners which serves as its foundation, and which appears in the book as an Appendix.

Tackling Partner Underperformance in Law Firms is available from MP Managing Partner/ARK Group Publishing.

Mark your calendars! Nick Jarrett-Kerr will facilitate a web-based discussion on the subject of partner underperformance on July 18, 2012, 12 to 1 p.m. EDT. This Ark Group webinar should be attended by managing partners, senior partners, heads of practice groups and members of your firm’s C-suite. See agenda and register here.

'

“There is a significant difference among countries in what law firms take into consideration in setting partner compensation.” –  Edge International 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey

For the third time in six years, Edge International has surveyed the largest law firms in the world to discover how partner compensation systems are changing to meet economic challenges, non-equity partnerships and evolving young partner expectations. The result is Edge International’s newest publication, The 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey, co-authored by my Edge International partners Ed Wesemann and Nick Jarrett-Kerr.

In order to prepare this new, eminently useful and succinct report, Ed and Nick surveyed 263 major law firms in the US, the UK, Europe, Australia and Canada. They compared approaches to partner compensation geographically and historically in order to gain an understanding of differences based on the firms’ sizes, profitability and nationalities. The authors then deployed their extensive knowledge of law firm strategic planning, governance and leadership to analyze the data, summarize trends and predict future directions.
 

Some highlights:

• US and Canadian law firms tend toward significantly more subjective compensation systems than do firms in other countries;

• The use of non-equity partners is increasing in every country, and this trend is anticipated to continue;

• In the UK and Australia, business development and client management are the most highly valued performance criteria in compensation, whereas in the US and elsewhere in the world, the most commonly cited factor is the value of the legal work the partner personally performs.

Among their conclusions, the authors point out that “Everywhere in the world, the trend is towards greater and wider use of performance-related compensation systems for at least part of the compensation package for law firm partners.”

Edge International is pleased to be able to offer our clients this important document, and we will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have about it—or its implications for your firm.

Download pdf here: The Edge International 2012 Global Partner Compensation System Survey

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As you consider 2012, I recommend that you:
 

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

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

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

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

Your comments would be appreciated as usual.

(Thanks to Wikipedia for the image and details)

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

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

To download presentation materials, click on the relevant presentation.

  Really ? (Yes.)

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

…planning (#1):

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

…listening (#2):

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.