Rick Borstein (Adobe Systems) Podcast

Admin — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:48:39 GMT

Rick Borstein is a Business Development Manager specializing in the Legal Market for Adobe Systems Incorporated. Rick is a veteran of 20 years in the software business, the last fourteen with Adobe. During his tenure at Adobe, Rick has had broad exposure to all of Adobe's products including intelligent documents, digital imaging, publishing and digital video.

Rick is an Adobe Certified Expert in Acrobat and a member of the American Bar Association and International Legal Technology Association. Over the years, Rick has presented hundreds of talks targeted to the legal industry.

He has been a featured speaker at the American Bar Association’s annual Techshow, LegalTech East, LegalTech West, the National Solo and Small Firm Conference, International Legal Technology Association Conference and a variety of state and local bar conferences including the California Bar Association Conference, Missouri State Bar Solo and Small Firm Conference and many others.

Rick’s AcroLaw Blog is a popular destination for those interested in the legal application of Adobe Acrobat. The blog may be found at http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw and contains more than sixty illustrated how-to articles. Rick has contributed articles to Legal Technology News and various legal-focused websites.

Headquartered in San Jose, California, Adobe Systems Incorporated is a $3B, Fortune 500 company with over 6000 employees. The company's popular Adobe Reader software is installed on over half a billion PCs around the world.

To listen to the podcast, click on the player or download link below.

Firm Profitability - Best Industry Practices

Admin — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 23:33:43 GMT

Sat in on Thomson West's presentation on Firm Profitability. The attendance was relatively light, which from the perspective of someone who writes a blog on financial management was disappointing. It was later in the day so it may have been a bad time to talk money.

The panelists discussed the importance of leverage to profitability, except one noted that clients demand the most skilled to run the trials which typically fall to the equity shareholders.

They talked about the use of client satisfaction surveys as a way to ensure clients were happy with their work.

When it came to how they determined profitability, the discussion immediately went to cost allocation. There were some interesting ways the panelists allocated costs to timekeepers in their firms, but it came down to allocating the direct and indirect costs and determining a cost per hour from which to compare to the timekeeper rate. One panelist went into detail, explaining the 150 line items tracked per timekeeper to determine costs. Another panelist didn't track timekeeper cost at all (part of a smaller firm) but rather determined profitability on a matter-by-matter basis.

The panelists also talked about FTE analysis - (full time equivalency) - One uses historical average to project into future, another tracked in two ways: if the timekeeper was only there for part of the year, they credited for length of service. For part timers, they allocated for the entire year since the office, secretary and liability insurance among other costs remain throughout the year even though when the part timer isn't there.

I sat in for about 30 minutes, which was longer than the other ones today, but I couldn't sit any longer. I am not a big fan of the panel discussion for a CLE track. It isn't focused enough and goes in many directions, sometimes leaving the audience confused (could have just been me - it is hard for me to sit still too long).

No surprises in this discussion - except I would have focused more on the metrics to increase profitability - which they might have done in another format.

Make More Rain : legaltech 2008, subscriber content

Rick Borstein (Adobe Systems) Podcast

Firm Profitability - Best Industry Practices