amazing firms, amazing practices, Gerry Riskin

A recent op-ed piece in The New York Times by Northwestern University Adjunct Professor Steven J. Harper explores the challenges and drawbacks – both to law firms and their clients – of determining legal fees on the basis of hourly rates. The article is interesting, and well worth your consideration.

Despite what Harper refers to as “the tyranny of the billable hour,” I do not believe that all law firms can stop using this method of calculating fees as of tomorrow morning. However, I do think that lawyers need to be able to communicate – one client at a time – how they internally ensure that their billing process is not abused, and that clients are always treated fairly.

I invite you to let me know your thoughts on this subject by way of a comment on this blog post, or by contacting me directly.
 

 

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.

 

Inc. Magazine Geoffrey James Effective Emails

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.
 

In the most recent issue of Edge International Communiqué, I point out that most lawyers need only take one simple step to generate more business. That step is the one that takes them away from the opulant chairs behind their desks, and out the door of the office.

Here is the article:


Gerry Riskin, Law Firm ConsultancyBusiness 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.

 

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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.

law firm management article in CNN Money Fortune 

 

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.

EIR, Fall 2012I am pleased to present you with the latest Edge International Review. 

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 October, 2012 issue of Edge International Communiqué is now available online.

 

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.

 

The latest issue of Edge International Communiqué is now available online. I am pleased to be associated with the wisdom and insight into legal practice that this publication offers to its subscribers every month, as the Edge International partners contribute their particular knowledge and expertise on a rotating basis.

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.