Make More Rain : disaster recovery, operations

More Ideas in Disaster Recovery For Law Firms

Admin — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:00:08 GMT

Last week I wrote a post on planning for business continuity during unexpected interruptions in operations. Ari Kaplan of Ari Kaplin Advisors wrote an article on Law.com that also addresses disaster recovery. He tells of a miserable experience trying to recover data from a cracked hard drive when his child pulled his laptop to the ground when tugging on the power cord (an experience I have narrowly escaped many times with my children).

He shares some tips he received from Jeffrey Brandt on protecting yourself from what he terms "data armageddon":

Centralize Contacts - Keep all critical contacts on your person (ie, on a mobile device).
Remote Data Housing - Host your data remotely. ** I personally don't think this is required so long as you have good, reliable backups that are kept offsite. However, for business continuity, having your data accessible from anywhere has its merits. **
Duplicate Or Near Duplicate Systems - create redundancy in your servers. Replicate them so that if one goes down, another comes online.
Secure Your Backups - keep backups offsite at a secure location. Preferably in a fire-proof vault.
Map and identify your information - this is good advice to corporate clients as well - "in every subsequent litigation [it will have to explain] what happened and why it could not produce data for that specific date range".
Test Regularly - this is one that will bite if not followed. Test your backups regularly to make sure your backup software is working properly.

There are several technologies that take advantage of "universal access" capabilities. For example, LexisNexis has a product called NetDocuments® that hosts and manages email and documents offsite that allows access even from a mobile device.

Kaplan has an answer to those who balk at spending such time and money to protect their data: "Although planning and preparing is not cheap, contact someone who has lived through disaster recovery and he or she will convince you that it is priceless."

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Recommended Blogs for Those Involved in Law Firm Management

Admin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:00:51 GMT

Tom Collins hasn't exactly taken to the "retire" part of retirement. Working on his second book, he took time to send a list of blogs he recommends for law firm managers:

I’m in the process of preparing my handout materials for a presentation I will be making at the 2008 ALA Annual educational Conference in Seattle. The session title is The Business of Law—Best Financial Practices for Partners and is scheduled for Wednesday May 7 at 10:45 am. One of things I will leave with attendees is my recommended list of blogs for anyone involved in the management of a law firm. There are others in addition to those I have listed below, but the sites I have listed are those that I follow most closely. It is worth making a comment or two about a few of the blogs I have listed:

Adam Smith, Esq. stands apart from all the rest. It is unique in that it is written from the eye of an economist. It provides a more studied view of the business of law that contributes an otherwise missing sophistication in the teachings of firm leadership and management.

Cotterman on Compensation is unique in that it fights the ongoing battle to convince partners that “leaving money in the law firm” is essential to its good health and for the protection of the partner’s future income. He does so with the eye of an expert on the subject of law firm capital structures.

What can you say about Dennis Kennedy.blog other that it is a must read. Dennis is always on the cutting edge of law firm technology essential for the competent and competitive practice of law. Dennis is about the techno lawyer.

Larry Bodine's Law Marketing Blog is top on the list for a practical guide to marketing and business development in the law firm.

Rees Morrison's Law Department Management lets you listen and look over the shoulder of corporate clients as they contemplate and deal with the issue of reducing the size of your bill and the uncertainty of outside legal cost.

Passion, People and Principles is the site of the law firm management guru who gave us the Law Firm Business Model. David Maister's blog is a clear expression of his belief that the metrics, the numbers in that model, do not drive performance. It is the behavior of the people in the law firm that drive the numbers. The numbers only measure behavior. The best law firms have passionate people who believe in and practice sound principles.

The globetrotting host of the blog What About Clients? sets an uncompromising standard of excellence with an understanding that excellence can only be earned through the eyes of your clients. It’s not your standards that count; it is your client’s.

All of the other sites listed below have their own particular strengths that make them worthy of being on your regular read list. Those above are in a class all their own.

Adam Smith, Esq.	http://www.bmacewen.com/blog
Adventure of Strategy	http://www.robmillard.com/
Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices	http://www.gerryriskin.com/
Creating Blue Oceans	http://blueoceanstrategy.typepad.com/creatingblueoceans/
Cotterman on Compensation	http://blog.altmanweil.com/
DennisKennedy.blog	http://www.denniskennedy.com/blog/
Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog	http://jimcalloway.typepad.com/lawpracticetips/
Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog	http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs
Law Department Management	http://lawdepartmentmanagement.typepad.com/
Law Practice Management	http://www.pa-lawpracticemanagement.com/
Legal Ease Blog	http://legalease.blogs.com/
Legal Marketing Blog	http://www.legalmarketingblog.com/
MorePartnerIncome	http://www.morepartnerincome.net/
the legal thing... by Mike Dillon	http://blogs.sun.com/dillon/
The Marcus Perspective	http://themarcusperspective.typepad.com/
Thoughtful Legal Management	http://www.thoughtfullaw.com/
Passion, People and Principles	http://davidmaister.com/blog
Strategic Legal Technology	http://www.prismlegal.com/wordpress/
Stark County Law Library Blog	http://temp.starklawlibrary.org/blog/
What About Clients?	http://www.whataboutclients.com/

Economic Climate Impact on Law Firms

Admin — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 19:18:00 GMT

Increasing competition for clients and talent will squeeze margins and put downward pressure on profits per equity partner. The legal marketplace and overall economic climate has changed since the late 90’s. American businesses have exited a growth and investment cycle marked by record levels of deal making, research and development spending, geographic expansion and hiring. During the 1990’s, revenue and market share growth was king while the bottom line wasn’t important in the quest for growth. Now, earnings and cash flow are back in vogue. Increasing productivity, increasing cash flow, reducing debt and getting a strong return on investment (“ROI”) for technology investing is the name of the game. What this means is most mature companies are driving earnings growth through productivity initiatives, cost cutting and pricing pressure on their vendors. Also, the current political and regulatory environment has greatly curtailed risk taking and investment for growth. We think these economic forces are set firmly so that the pressure to cut costs and squeeze vendors, including legal services providers, is a trend that will continue for some number of years. In addition, we believe that companies will look more critically even at long-term service relationships as they evaluate ROI, and they will ask, “Can’t we get some or all of our legal services at not only a better price but perhaps at a higher level of quality, too?”

Outsourcing IT

Admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 18:20:45 GMT

There is a lot of hype about outsourcing, but what are law firms really doing?

Andrew Adkins III, Adkins@law.ufl.edu, is director of the Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law. In his article appearing in the June 2005 issue of Law Technology News, Andy gives us a dose of reality. He points out that according to the 2004 ILTA survey on Legal Technology, “outsourcing is not ‘in’. The use of outsourcing for performing IT functions is wide but not very deep.’’ It appears that less than 2% of law firms outsource as much as half of their IT work.

Andy Adkins points out that mid-size firms, typically, have one full time IT staffer for every 20 to 35 users, depending on how much technology is supported in-house. Virtually, all law firms look outside of the law firm for some portion of IT operation. Areas noted by Andy include:

Computer and printer repair

Substantive software systems

Web design and development

Data backup and storage

E-mail service and storage

Training

Training is particularly important. The number one reason for failed technology implementation is lack of training. Too often, law firms shortchange training to reduce initial cost of implementing new systems. My favorite saying is “It only costs a little more to go second class". That is certainly true with training. Training is people-intensive and that means training sometimes costs more than the software itself, but it is the one thing you should not try doing on the cheap!

Growth Trends for Corporate America

Admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2005 18:36:28 GMT

Growth trends in corporate America have changed. To maintain their own growth, Law firms must also change.

There are plenty of lawyer jokes that emphasize the advantage of being a lawyer when things are good and when things are bad. Lawyers make money when you are a start-up, when you go public, when you get sued and, then, when you go bankrupt. True enough. But we know growth prospects in the 90’s were realized with little effort other than riding the growth wave in corporate America. Even though we’re coming out of a mild recession and experiencing solid growth, it’s not the sort of 90’s speculative activity that characterized an economy in which the law firm had only to “answer the phone to get more business". Growth is being achieved through disciplined management of assets and selectively pursuing business opportunities while, at the same time, paying fine attention to the bottom line with efforts to enhance productivity and reduce operating costs. So, even if your firm is finding plenty of growth opportunities, you should be taking a cue from corporate America and engage in disciplined strategic planning and management practices to ensure your growth is sustainable and profitable. At a minimum, you will be leaving significant money on the table if you fail to plan for profitable growth. Operational discipline, strong leadership, systematic measurement of results and a commitment to strategic planning are prerequisites for achieving profitable growth or growth at all. This is especially true in today’s environment.

Patron Saint of Lawyers

Admin — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 17:25:35 GMT

Did you know there is a Patron Saint of Lawyers?

In April, 1534, Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535) refused to swear to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy, and was committed to the Tower of London on April 17. More was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on July 6, 1535. As the executioner made ready, the old man was offered a pardon if he would accede to the King's supremacy. His final words on the scaffold were: "The King’s good servant, but God’s first."

More was formally beatified by Pope Leo XIII, in the Decree of December 29, 1886. He was then canonized by the Catholic Church as a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1935. St. Thomas More has long been identified as the patron saint of lawyers, and on October 31, 2000, Pope John Paul II signed a proclamation making Sir Thomas More the Patron Saint of Lawyers.

St. Thomas More’s day occurred on June 22nd, while I was in Los Angeles attending the West Coast edition of Legal Tech. My youngest brother, the attorney, Steve Collins (Burroughs Collins & Jabaley partner), reminded me of my oversight by sending me the above bit of lawyer history.

More information can be found on Thomas More at:

www.apostles.com/thomasmore.html

www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm

Ethics in Billing

Admin — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 17:54:00 GMT

I spoke to a group of managing partners last week on the subject of ethics in billing, particularly as it relates to mobile technology.

Most of us know the ABA pronouncements regarding reasonableness, etc. But, did you know there is a growing body of decisions and rulings that indicate that time worked must be measured and recorded contemporaneously to meet the ethical test?

Consider the Washington State Supreme Court's decision: In re Discipline of Dann, 136 Wn.2nd 67 (1998). Barrie Althoff, WSBA Chief Disciplinary Counsel writes “The Court's opinion in Dann also makes it clear that if you bill on a time-spent basis, you must keep contemporaneous and accurate time records. It is not acceptable to attempt to reconstruct your actual time by relying on memory, on miscellaneous unorganized scraps of paper, on comparisons to the time expended by others working on the project, or by evaluating the complexity or extent of the work-product ("I usually take one-half hour to write a letter," or "This is an excellent brief, it must have taken me at least eight hours to write.") to jog your memory.

This need for accurate and contemporaneous records may be most important to lawyers who traditionally bill on a time-spent basis, but it can also be important to others. For example, lawyers who enter a contingent-fee agreement with clients may find that, for whatever reason, they do not complete the representation, yet believe they are entitled to some compensation. If they seek compensation, it will likely be on a quantum merit basis and they will likely need to be able to prove the time they actually spent on the matter. Unless they have kept accurate contemporaneous time records, they are unlikely to be able to do so.