Question Mark.jpg Pop Quiz – What do these five law firms have in common?

Dierker & Associates, P.C. of Troy, MI Epstein, Turner & Song of Los Angeles, CA Gannon & Garcia, L.L.P. of San Antonio, TX Powers & Frost, L.L.P. of Houston, TX Rojas Law Firm LLP of Miami, FL

Hint #1: They are the newest members of an exclusive club Hint #2: Members of the club must meet the following requirements (among others):

significant corporate law practice Martindale-Hubbell AV Peer Review Rated At least three references from national and regional corporations, preferrably within Fortune 500 Excellence in quality of law practiced, as evidenced by corporate references, presence on outside counsel approved lists and panels for national or regional corporations, and other awards and memberships.

Hint #3: Collectively their clients include (among many others):

Columbia University, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, Boeing, Ace Hardware, McDonald’s Corporation, Commonwealth Edison, Sprint Communications, Travers Smith, McDermott Will & Emery, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft, Eversheds, Simpson Thatcher , Holland & Knight, Hunton & Williams, Wachovia Bank, N.A., Union Pacific Railroad, Coca Cola Enterprises, Daimler-Chrysler Corporation, Fed Express, Lear Corporation, Pfizer Inc., Shell Oil, A T & T, Home Depot U.S.A., Inc., NBC Universal Studios, Tommy Hilfiger USA, Inc, Accenture LLP, Alliant Energy, Bear, Stearns & Co., Chubb Insurance Company, Eastman Kodak Company, Greyhound Lines, Inc., Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Midwest Airlines, PepsiAmericas, Inc., Staples, Inc., Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., Target Corporation, Time Warner Cable, Wendy’s International, Toyota Motor Credit Company, American Airlines, Blockbuster Inc., CBS Broadcasting Inc. Denny’s, Inc., Hughes Electronic Corporation, Sara Lee, Tyco International Inc., The Procter & Gamble Company, Viacom, Inc., Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., America West Airlines, Continental Airlines, State Farm General Insurance Company, Volkswagen of America, Inc., Chevron Corporation, WebEx Communnications, Walgreens, Sears, Roebuck and Company, Cingular Wireless, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline LLC, PETCO Animal Supplies

I invite you to draw your own conclusions about what this all means to you and your firm. (Ignore this at your peril.) Give Up? Click here. (Download and have a glance at the law firm members brochure while you’re there).

You're fired.jpg When you fire a client, you might want to be a little more diplomatic than the title of this post (or the posture of the fellow above) implies — but, diplomatic or not, when it’s the right thing to do, DO IT! The primary purpose of marketing is to give you choices. Effective marketing allows you to improve your client mix and get rid of the ones who consume your life forces like voracious vampires — you know the ones, they don’t pay (or pay VERY slowly), they argue, they test your ethics and they demoralize you and your best staff — and they don’t wear watches, at least not when they call you at home at 11 o’clock at night. head-1.gif Read Seth Godin’s post “The Customer is Always Right” and simply substitute “client” for “customer” You owe it to yourself!

nr_AMM_2006AR_5x7-1.jpg Xerox Chairman & CEO Anne M. Mulcahy Patrick Lamb, in his Blog: “In Search of Perfect Client Service” delivers lessons learned from an interview with the Xerox CEO on NPR radio. The essence of his entertaining and thought-provoking post refers us to phenomena rarely seen in law firms: “Listening and Discipline”. Take a look (or follow Patrick’s link and have a listen).

Women in circle of men.jpg Freelance writer Sarah Doherty follows yesterday’s article “Flexible work schedules save money, research shows” about which I posted: (You Can’t Afford to Keep Losing Your Women Lawyers)with another offering: Room at the top – Big law firms are making an effort to promote women into more visible and prominent positions Here’s how the article begins:

“When Joan Clark applied to work at a venerable Montreal law firm, she was asked whether she was engaged to be married. Her hiring met resistance from lawyers who said clients would never accept a woman in the job. When she was eventually invited to her firm’s formal partner’s lunch at a tony private club, Clark, now 76, had to use a special entrance while her colleagues waltzed through the front door. “I eventually went through the front door, but I knew how black people felt when they had to sit at the back of the bus,” Clark said. “We don’t have that kind of discrimination now.”

My Opinion: This article is a useful supplement to the previous one… it is in some ways optimistic by citing some genuine progress for women lawyers but at the same time the article ends with a quote from Stephanie Jolin regarding litigation practices in particular that seems a wee bit pessimistic:

“Because of what the job demands, there will be a certain amount of limitation on how flexible you can be, especially in litigation,” she said. “The job description is tough.”

Read the full text and then tell me what is your take on the issue of big firms retaining women lawyers?

Catalyst studies show an associate’s departure costs a [Canadian] firm about $315,000 in recruiting, training, salaries, overhead, severance, outplacement and other costs – not including hiring a replacement. The stress of juggling work and family usually falls more heavily on female lawyers… So what can law firms do to be more flexible in the face of the notoriously heavy demands of a client-driven and increasingly business-like profession? kchown.jpg Kirby Chown hopes she can find solutions. The 59-year-old is managing partner for Ontario of McCarthy Tetrault, one of Canada’s largest law firms. Two years ago, Chown started a women’s network in her firm’s Toronto office to create a stronger community of women and brainstorm around issues such as mentoring and business networking, which help lawyers move up the ladder. Last year, she helped create a firm-wide women’s committee. “Very few women are taking advantage of flex-time arrangements,” Chown admitted. “There are concerns about being stigmatized.” No men have requested the option, according to Chown.

My Opinion: I grow weary of the stereotypical myth-riddled responses of the power people in many major law firms giving excuse after excuse as to why keeping women engaged is next to impossible. I do not believe it and neither should you. This challenge will be met by some firms who will gain enormous competitive advantage. They will lower their costs and see much higher productivity. Tom Peters (most famous business writer of all time) three days ago refers to the Economist in his blog post called Women’s World! The Economist article to which he refers has the following headline: “Forget China, India and the Internet: Economic Growth Is Driven by Women.” Tie these two together and put this on the agenda of your next executive meeting. (Maybe you should consider inviting Kirby Chown for a visit.) Note: According to the “Mission and History” entry on its web site, Catalyst is the leading research and advisory organization working with businesses and the professions to build inclusive environments and expand opportunities for women at work. See this information and more in today’s article in the Gazette (Montreal) called: Flexible work schedules save money, research shows

feed-icon32x32.png Can you define and differentiate among these terms:

Intellectual Capital? Human Capital ? Relationship Capital? Reputational Capital? Economic Capital? Structural Capital

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The immediate reaction may be “those things are too subjective to be valued” or “even if they could be valued, that value would be diminimous.” But anyone who has been involved in evaluations and appraisals knows that a value can be assigned to anything and usually with surprising accuracy. Consider the value of each area of capital independently…

For the answers, please read today’s post by my friend and EDGE INTERNATIONAL Colleague, Ed Wesemann, on his CREATING DOMINANCE blog: The Value of Partnership: Making the Hole Smaller WARNING: Watch out for a golf analogy or two – Ed lives with his wonderful wife Jan on a golf course in Savannah, Georgia — apparently the holes on that course are alive and can behave like camera apertures.

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“thinking first” may focus too heavily on the matter itself, interfering with deep understanding of the issues dividing people and actually preventing a good decision.

Millard.jpg This is all according to a fascinating post today by my South African friend and Edge International colleague, Robert Millard, called Logic Not Always Best For Real-World Decisions Robert discovered what he called a “startling conclusion“ in an MIT Sloan Management Review Article by famous strategy authors Henry Mintzberg and Frances Wesley (more details in Robert’s post). Sometimes there are better ways — instead of thinking first, we can see first or do first. PUNCHLINE: My take on this for Managing Partners (and others involved at the senior end of law firm management) is Robert is guiding us not to address problems in our old familiar patterns but to acquire the capacity to use diverse approaches depending on the situation. Check it out.

bjm-1.deutscheoper.jpg My post earlier today, The Wall Street Journal Blasts Law Firm Salaries Arms Race plus the comments of Larry E. Ribstein in his Ideoblog post “Why are law firm associates paid so much?” seem to have inspired a nice piece of analysis by Bruce MacEwen in his resulting post, Associate Salaries: The Great Debate. Bruce refers to Cameron Stracher’s analysis in his article in today’s Wall Street Journal as “economically flawed” and goes on to say that “he misses the fundamental economic rationale” that Larry identifies. Bruce feels compelled to “correct” Stracher’s comment about the profitability of an associate at the new starting salary. Wait no longer – enjoy Bruce’s post — let the discussion continue — this is getting interesting!!

BWM_Small.jpg BRUCE MARCUS See Bruce’s new article, How to Recruit in a Competitive World, at LAW.COM. Here’s a taste:

Recruiting advertising is like any other, in that telling people what you want won’t work. Offering people what they want, and how you’re going to give it to them, works.

Bruce goes on to give actual examples of what has worked for others. Also, visit Bruce’s newsletter regularly. Just click on The Marcus Letter logo below. udi1.gif Thanks to Ed Poll for the heads up on this in his blog: LawBiz