“Data Driven”: In a Car, Is the Driver a Bug… or a Feature?

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:03:00 -0400

Driver: Bug or Feature?

"The fact that you're still driving is a bug," [Google's Anthony] Levandowski says, "not a feature."

I'm sure there'll be the inevitable responses about computer crashes vs. auto crashes, but Levandowski has a point. Read the sentence again, not as "the driver is a bug" but as "the fact that you still have to drive is a bug."

Once upon a time, driving was the reason for getting in a car. Sometimes it still is, but most of the time driving is simply something we have to do in order to get the car containing us from

Facebook IPO | A Take-away Idea for Law Firm Strategy

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:07:00 -0400

Required Viewing: Paddy Ashdown on the “Global Power Shift”

nkclark@walkerclark.com (Norman Clark) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:28:00 -0400

My colleagues at Walker Clark and I frequently stress the critical importance of informed strategic planning. Part of that information should include an in-depth understanding of the major trends that are shaping our changing world. Although global in scope, such forces have powerful effects on national and local law firms, even on those who do not currently have a single "international" client.

I highly recommend that every law firm manager view and consider Paddy Ashdown's December 2011 talk "The Global Power Shift," which he gave at the TEDx Conference in Brussels, and which has just been released. Click here to view the video on the an 18-minute talk by (nonpracticing) lawyer Dan Pink. He frames it as an argument to the jury of the audience.

In this 2009 talk, he describes the science of motivation, which is fairly well known. He reports that for professional or knowledge-work task, intrinsic motivators work better than extrinsic motivators. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose beat money as a motivator.

This result has been shown repeatedly, in numerous studies across multiple fields and far-flung cultures.

He's limited to 18 minutes by the format of the TED conference, so he can't go into some important qualifiers on that statement. (The most important qualifier is that a perceived inequality in extrinsic rewards can destroy motivation. If the worker next to you is getting paid twice

Can Lawyers Learn From Best Buy?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:17:00 -0400

"2012 CFO Outlook" - A survey by Merrill Lynch and Bank of America - What does this mean for law firms?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:06:00 -0400

Inspiration for the New Year | Bringing great projects to life

jln@lawgravity.com (Jayne Navarre) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:29:00 -0400

There are two fatal errors that keep great projects from coming to life:

Not finishing

Not starting

-Buddha

A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE

Early last year I took a yoga class at Florida Keys Community College. While I was far from a good student, having missed more than half the classes, the small investment I made paid off in a BIG way. At the end of each class the instructor read from a book, which I eventually bought and became an extremely positive force in my life, my relationships, and my work. The book, written by

A Lesson in Leadership from Aon’s Litigation Counsel

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:59:00 -0400

Mark Herrmann, Chief Litigation Counsel for Aon, writes about his first 360 review here.

A 360 review is common in many corporations for mid-level and senior managers. An HR consultant (usually) helps you map your self-assessed strengths and weaknesses against those defined by your manager(s), your team, and those on other teams who are your client/customer or with whom you partner. (Don't confuse a 360 with the annual performance review; a 360 exists solely to point out strengths and areas for improvement so that you can continue to improve in your work or prepare for the next level.)

These surveys are very

The Hobgoblin of Foolish Consistency

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:52:00 -0400

(I should have posted this yesterday, when hobgoblins were out and about in the neighborhoods. And the first half wanders far afield before returning to project leadership concepts. You can skip the intro and jump right to that point.)

I was working on some slides when I noticed that PowerPoint breaks a "rule" maintained by (I think) all other Microsoft applications. The rule is honored, in fact, by most Windows and even Macintosh applications.

If you have something selected, such as a word, and you select Paste, the pasted material replaces your selection.

Try it. Copy some text to the clipboard (Edit -> Copy or Ctrl+C), select some

“Dead files” — but do they need to smell bad?

nkclark@walkerclark.com (Norman Clark) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:30:00 -0400

One of the best sources of entertainment about professional ethics is the monthly newsletter of the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania (USA) Supreme Court. Because I cannot begin to approach the wittiness of their writers, I beg their pardon for quoting this month's example of bizarre professional responsibility issues.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' Files

The legal profession owes a debt of gratitude to conservators, who undertake the review and distribution of the files and records of former attorneys who are suspended or disbarred, die, become disabled, or disappear (disappearance happens). The work is often hard, tedious, unappreciated, and done for little or no compensation.

Everything you need to know about legal business development (in seven words)

jhassett@legalbizdev.com (Jim Hassett) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:20:00 -0400

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post called "Everything you need to know about legal marketing and sales, in nine words." (The nine words were: identify prospects, get meetings, listen, get advances, don't stop.) But lawyers don't have time for nine words, so I then cut it to seven: meet the right people, advance the relationships.

Think first about the clients you already have. These are the people who pay for your office, your car, and your kids' shoes. If your clients are taken away by a hungrier, more aggressive competitor, things could get ugly fast.

Steve Jobs, Teamwork, and Legal Project Management

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:14:00 -0400

Jonah Lehrer writes in Wired and The New Yorker about Steve Jobs using architecture to inculcate teamwork when he took over Pixar.

He insisted that Pixar's headquarters be designed so that disparate groups of employees were forced to come together for certain functions. He insisted on a large central atrium, in which he placed the mailboxes, and alongside which he located the meeting rooms, the cafeteria, the coffee bar, the gift shop, and even the central restrooms.

Good things happen when people on an extended team, or related teams, encounter one another in person

Everyone’s Trying to Get in on the Act

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:18:00 -0400

I saw an ad today for a university-sponsored legal project management¹ course for in-house counsel.

I checked out the instructors, figuring that a reputable university would of course engage one of the specialists in this area. In this case I assumed it would be one of my colleague-competitors, since the course was news to me.

I have great respect for a number of my colleagues in this area. While of course I believe that my organization delivers the best experience, I have no doubt that attendees will be in good hands with those colleague-competitors. We've spoken many times and even appeared on occasion on the same program, and I know that our core approaches are aligned even where our styles

The Steve Jobs of Law?

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:36:00 -0400

Larry Ribstein has a great short post over at Truth on the Market reflecting on the future of law, titled Waiting for the Steve Jobs of Law.

He notes, "Law is waiting for its Steve Jobs (or Bill Gates)."

Actually, the computer market needed both Steve and Bill. They goaded each other and yet supported each other. Both Apple and Microsoft were stronger for the other's presence.

Imagine a legal world in which a Steve Jobs defines a new standard of simplicity and aspiration. Apple was a master at creating aspirational goods, things that people wanted to own. These goods

Steve Jobs

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:33:00 -0400

I knew the day was coming, and I knew it would come for him sooner than for most of us, it's still a shock to hear of the death of Steve Jobs.

Apple was a love-it-or-hate-it company, and within the technology world there are many who fall into the latter camp. Still, even those most frustrated with some of the things Apple did remained in awe of Jobs himself - his vision, his insistence on visual elegance and stylistic excellence, and his ability to understand what consumers wanted - nay, aspired to - before they recognized it themselves.

For those who don't accept the "great man" theory of history, imagine Apple (or an Apple equivalent) without Steve Jobs. For that matter, imagine the whole microcomputer/high-tech

Can Project Managers Win by Being Annoying?

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:20:00 -0400

Some project managers lead successful projects by working well with the members of their team, their business partners/clients, and so on.

Actually, most successful project managers are successful because they know how to work with people. Sometimes, in difficult situations and get-us-out-of-this-mess projects, they can succeed even when they're brusque.

But downright abrasive? Self-righteous? I suppose it could happen, but I've never seen it. I've seen more than my share of project manager wannabes¹ who seem to work at being annoying, but I haven't seen any successful projects emerge from their teams.

First, a digression about being annoying in another context that contains

Specifications Failure!

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:15:00 -0400

Here's a picture of the field from Sunday's Jaguars-Saints football game, from NFL.com:

Look at the directional arrows painted on the field next to the yard markers. Compare the arrow on the 10-yard line at the top of the picture with that at the bottom.

(They're supposed to point to the nearest end zone. The bottom set is wrong.)

This points out an interesting (apparent) paradox of project management:

Specify that which can be misunderstood.

Keep the specifications as simple as possible, or you'll spend way too much time writing and reading them.

I call it an apparent paradox because the second statement has an "out." Understand that things can

Why sorry is the hardest word

mark.s.smith@lexisnexis.co.uk (Mark Smith) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:03:00 -0400

I had a very interesting conversation with a colleague yesterday around a workshop he was facilitating for a fairly sizeable group of lawyers. As part of the discussion he asked the question "how many of you have ever been the subject of a client complaint".

Our subsequent discussion centered around the fact that the solitary hand that was raised did not seem representative of the either the statistical probability of the number of complaints from the group (there was probably well over 150 years of cumulative PQE in the room) or the amount of unspoken discomfort in the room.

I've Managing Partner magazine. To download a PDF of the published version of my article, click here.

Firms that are looking for more affordable solutions sometimes start by focusing on the role of non-lawyer project managers. Many law firms already have project managers in-house in IT and other departments and their roles are expanding to include planning legal work. Others are hiring new project managers specifically for that purpose. We predict that some of these

Legal Project Management by another Name

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:56:00 -0400

Jay Shepard has an interesting post today at Above the Law where he talks about the need for partners to teach associates to be future partners.

He lists seven things a teaching partner should do to strengthen the firm for the future:

Be consistent.
Share the whole picture.
Provide client contact.
Give the associate a chance to "think on his feet" where it matters.
Teach legal writing.
Discuss strategy (and listen; don't just expostulate).
Teach rainmaking.

I think it's a great list

Intellectual Property Considerations For Online Business Owners, Part 2

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:14:00 -0400

Intellectual Property Considerations For Online Business Owners, Part 1

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:12:00 -0400

Essential Considerations When Drafting Your Website’s Terms of Use Policy

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:09:00 -0400

By David A. Wheeler, Greenberg Traurig

One of the questions that I often hear from online business owners is "why can't I just copy someone else's terms of use off their website and use it on mine?"

My answer is, why would you want to invite someone else's liability into your own front yard? It's just not a good practice. It's not something I would ever advise doing.

What you really want to do though is go back and analyze the type of business that you are. And it's a broad spectrum. Are you an online business that simply provides information? Are you a passive site that doesn't collect information and you simply provide a service with regard to the information? Or are you a fully interactive site where products and services are actually being bought

A Terms Of Use Policy Is Essential For All Online Business Owners

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 15:06:00 -0400

By David A. Wheeler, Greenberg Traurig, LLP

For online business owners, there really are no exceptions, in my view, as to whether or not you should have a website terms of use. You want it to protect your intellectual property, you want it to protect your proprietary information and you want to use it as a shield from liability. You want to make sure to lay out that there are certain limited warranties with regard to the site-not necessarily the products you're selling through the site, but limited warranties with regard to activities conducted on the site.

For example, you want to make sure that you're not responsible for any damage to computers or laptops or PDAs that may be used to connect with the site. This could happen in many forms. It could be a virus lurking when you connect to

How Dumb Is the Pointy-Haired Boss?

steven.levy@lexician.com (Steven B. Levy) — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:29:00 -0400

Scott Adams and Dilbert regularly ridicule management, usually represented by the pointy-haired boss, or PHB.

Over the many years Adams has been drawing the strip, he's certainly found plenty of targets for ridicule. Many of them have struck home with workers and bosses alike.

I thought today's strip was interesting for a slightly different approach:

Often we see Dilbert wrestling with the limited knowledge of the PHB, making ridiculous simplifications or silly analogies both to show his frustrations and to try to find a way to explain a concept. To many employees at all levels, that approach rings true.

To many employees at all levels... including the PHB.

Today's strip indeed shows the PHB doing exactly the same thing for his own

Legal Business Blog

“Data Driven”: In a Car, Is the Driver a Bug… or a Feature?

Facebook IPO | A Take-away Idea for Law Firm Strategy

Required Viewing: Paddy Ashdown on the “Global Power Shift”

Can Lawyers Learn From Best Buy?

"2012 CFO Outlook" - A survey by Merrill Lynch and Bank of America - What does this mean for law firms?

Inspiration for the New Year | Bringing great projects to life

There are two fatal errors that keep great projects from coming to life:

Not finishing Not starting -Buddha

A DEEP BREATH OF LIFE

A Lesson in Leadership from Aon’s Litigation Counsel

The Hobgoblin of Foolish Consistency

“Dead files” — but do they need to smell bad?

Everything you need to know about legal business development (in seven words)

Steve Jobs, Teamwork, and Legal Project Management

Everyone’s Trying to Get in on the Act

The Steve Jobs of Law?

Steve Jobs

Can Project Managers Win by Being Annoying?

Specifications Failure!

Why sorry is the hardest word