Make More Rain : technology, firm culture

Eight Legal Technology Trends For 2008

Admin — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:00:56 GMT

Dennis Kennedy, in an article published February 27, 2008 on llrx.com, writes of eight trends in technology that will impact the legal industry this year. Although he predicts a "sleepy year for legal technology", Kennedy believes "[f]irms that are good at technology will take advantage of opportunities to widen their technology advantage over their competitors and position themselves well for the time when economic recovery comes."

The trends for 2008:

Making Better Use of What You Already Own.
Expect budgets to tighten and firms to look at what is on the shelf and spend more effort in making what they already have work better for them.

Lawyers Win Round 1 in the E-discovery Battle . . . by a Wide Margin.
E-discovery isn’t going to be nearly as big a hit inside law firms as it is inside of tech shows in 2008. "Electronic discovery remains a trickle rather than a flood in today's litigation world."

Security Begins to Matter . . . Really.
Kennedy expects clients, particularly in healthcare and finance, to press firms on security. He notes the lax policies at law firms related to sensitive data (something I too have observed). Hot topics include drive and folder encryption, remote access, and more stringent password policies. Email encryption is notably absent from this list. Speaking of email . . .

The Death Throes for Email?
Email has proven an unreliable mechanism for communication, says Kennedy. Because of the problems inherent with email (spam for example), communication tools like instant messaging and file transfer protocols will increase and use of email for quick communication and file transfer will decrease. In my opinion, the same security concerns are present in other online communication protocols, not just email. I am not betting on widespread adoption of more secure standards in the legal community in 2008, however.

Going Mobile.
For those who haven’t already moved to blackberry devices and other mobile devices, Kennedy predicts the productivity gains by those who already use the technology will lead others to adopt them. He also notes the widespread use of tools such as remote access that many attorneys now take for granted. I will add that I believe more and more firms will demand web-based applications to expand their mobile workplace.

Opening Audio and Video Channels.
In addition to the increased use of blogs and RSS feeds, Kennedy predicts a higher use of podcasts and streaming video by law firms in 2008. Several companies that cater to the legal market, including Martindale Hubbell, are implementing use of social networking tools such as this into their offerings. I think it is still a few years away before more widespread adoption by law firms, but it will certainly be something to watch.

Dancing with a Recession.
Sometimes you can talk yourself into a recession. Enough has been said about it ~~(though the media has been curiously silent lately)~~ and the indicators are still pointing downward. Kennedy predicts that firms will want to delay large investments and will look into ways to meet their needs without costly hardware upgrades. Kennedy expects Software as a Service (SaaS) and Open Source software use to increase in 2008 as cost effective ways to upgrade their technology.

Smart Ways to Work Together – Collaboration Tools.
When it comes to productivity tools, Kennedy writes, “2008 will see the growth of ways for lawyers to use technology to work together with clients, colleagues, courts, opposing counsel and others.” Kennedy, along with Tom Mighell, co-authored a soon-to-be published book called The Lawyer's Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies: Smart Ways to Work Together. The book can be pre-ordered by clicking here.

Read the entire article by clicking here.

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Law Firm Profitability-Culture vs. Compensation

Admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:06:00 GMT

Both Larry Bodine and David Maister have written about the firm of Levenfeld Perlstein PC and its creative chairman Bryan Schwartz. I haven’t met Mr. Schwartz, but if you are looking for someone who has modified their compensation approach away from an emphasis on individual production to one designed to promote team work, I would give Bryan Schwartz a call.

While morepartnerincome stresses the importance of balanced financial management, we have also emphasized the importance of law firm culture. I define that as a common set of beliefs. It comes from the partners getting together and agreeing on the things they believe in. Then they must communicate those beliefs to the entire team and they must do it repeatedly and often. It goes without saying that the partners have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

Let me use Bryan Schwartz’s own words. “...and most importantly, firm leaders must create a culture that energizes the lawyers and gives them a reason to stay with the firm. It makes a big difference in profitability. An inspired group of people can make a lot more money than people who are trying to bill a lot of hours." ….. "Our lawyers are the most competitive people, but it’s a culture where everybody helps the other person, they don't compete against each other."

Back to the compensation issue: David Maister reported on a communication he had from Schwartz describing some of the discussions at the firm’s recent retreat. Maister had apparently spoken earlier at the same event. Schwartz wrote, “We talked about compensation and our subjective plan. You set that up beautifully. We spent 10 minutes on that - a miracle for a law firm. I believe people are realizing that in the absence of subjectivity, which we currently employ, we become a mercenary firm, which we do not desire to emulate.”

I could not say it better and it is worth repeating:” …in the absence of subjectivity…. we become a mercenary firm”.

I encourage you to read or reread my earlier post How to Fix Your Compensation Plan.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

Blended Rate and Utilization Model for Law Firms

Admin — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:21:18 GMT

Managing partners use simplified models as management tools. Without them, one can get lost in numbers. One tool is the firm-wide Blended Rate and Utilization model. Using it, the firm’s managing partner can quickly see the impact of price increases, changes in productivity targets, and variations in the mix of fee earners.

Click on the above for a downloadable excel spreadsheet of model. Modify the attachment for your particular firm and you will have a useful tool for quickly estimating the impact of various changes. When modifying the attachment for your firm, you could list each individual fee earner or, alternatively, you can group them in similar categories as shown in the above example. Exceptions can be listed separately as I did in the above example for Partner James Martin. The key with any model is to make it easy to work with and that means keep it simple! You will find that simplified models often are better than detailed analyses and worksheets when it comes to predicting the future.

The Blended Rate and Utilization Model is particularly useful in assessing the estimated impact of price changes on fee revenue. However, it is important to note that the firm’s attention should be on more than just its published rate list. Look for measures to increase the effective blended rate being realized by the firm.

Firms with a standard rate schedule can overlook opportunity to price higher-value services at a higher rate. Another issue is that standard rate schedules are not always followed consistently. Existing discounted rate deals are often the key to a low effective rate. With the above in mind, I have listed below steps the firm should consider in addition to its periodic review of the firm’s standard hourly rate schedule,

Increase low negotiated rates extended to existing clients to their higher competitive level
Introduce separate (higher) rate schedules for selected areas of specialization and expertise
Identify new specialty areas and train or acquire expertise, thereby increasing value and the potential for increased billing rates. Market for better clients—those willing and able to pay more
Tighten and enforce case acceptance standards that emphasize the value of matters undertaken
Upgrade the quality of service, presentation of work product, technology, efficiency and responsiveness to create higher value
Take advantage of opportunities for alternative billing (value based) pricing
Invest in a better business system for pricing flexibility, easier price changes, improved anniversary date tracking, etc.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

Law Firm Managing Partners Need a C Drawer

Admin — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:31:00 GMT

Every managing partner needs a “C” drawer. What is it?

It turns out the old advice about time management just doesn’t work in our fast-paced world. You know what I mean…the A—B—C prioritizing system. Try doing the “A” list first, the “B” list second, and then the “C”s, and you never get back to all the new “A” items or you spend most of your time majoring in minors working on “B” and “C” issues.

Time management is more about what you spend your time on and less about the order in which you spend it. So as you go through all those items that make their way to your desk, put the Cs in your C drawer. Most will take care of themselves. If not, you can deal with them when they return as “A” items later. Of course, there is always that problem when your “C” is someone else’s “A”, but that is the way the world turns.

As for “B” items, go back through them and decide if they are really “A” or “C” issues. There is no place in this world of “not enough time” for “B”s.

Here are a few other time management concepts I rely on:

M&Ms: Remember to do the main things your success depends on and do each with the minimum resources required to achieve the objective (minimum doesn’t mean inadequate).

Majoring in minors: We all prefer instant gratification. It is easy to fall into the habit of shuffling paper--doing those things that can be done quickly. Don’t major in minors.

Count the teeth: It is a long story, but the essence is, don’t waste your time and the time of others speculating on the determinable. If you want to know how many teeth are in a horse’s mouth go count them.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

Manners and Kindness in the Law Firm

Admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:07:16 GMT

Lydia Ramsey is a business etiquette speaker and trainer and the founder of Manners That Sell, a firm offering keynotes, seminars and workshops to corporations, professional associations, government agencies, and colleges and universities. As Lydia explains it, “My business etiquette presentations are designed for organizations that want their people to be at ease in any business situation and to represent them well in the marketplace.”

A number of managing partners have indicated a “lack of polish” among some Generation Y associates entering the law firm. But etiquette is not just about introductions and table manners. Manners do sell. People do want to do business with people they like, and people like nice people. Etiquette is about being nice and, we might even say, kind.

If improving etiquette within your firm interests you, sign up for Ramsey’s free Business Etiquette Newsletter.

In her January 2007 newsletter, Lydia Ramsey wrote on the importance of kindness in business referencing Ed Horrell’s new book, The Kindness Revolution: The Company-Wide Culture Shift That Inspires Phenomenal Customer Service. She wrote the following:

“From the rampant indifference that we all encounter on a daily basis, he recommends that companies, large and small, switch to an attitude of kindness. He's not suggesting that the boss simply tell everyone "to be nice." He states that kindness starts at the top and penetrates every level of the organization. When everyone within a company treats everyone else with courtesy, respect and compassion, that attitude automatically gets passed on to the customers.”

How true that is. I have always lived by the rule the Common Courtesy is a job requirement. The notion of kindness kicks it up another notch.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

Parkinson's Law in The Law Firm

Admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 20:09:00 GMT

Simply put, Parkinson's Law states that, left unchecked, “work generates work” and “expenses rise to meet income”. The counterpoint for the managing partner is that he or she has to be constantly at work eliminating and simplifying—reallocating resources to the right things.

In a sidebar item appearing in the Law Practice magazine some time ago, Patrick J. Mckenna wrote about “routines”:

“Your routines represent all of those memoranda, reports, e-mails and trivial matters that conspire to sap you strength and smother your ability to focus attention on activities that really are the highest value-added use of your time. Routines will get you into ruts, dull you senses, stifle your creativity, constrict your thinking, remove you from real-world stimulation and destroy your firm’s competitive vitality”

The word “management” implies accomplishing things through others. Thus, when I say the managing partner should be constantly at work simplifying and eliminating, what I mean is that he or she should build a cultural basis within the firm for doing so. As Mckenna wrote, constantly question the way things are done and never rest on your laurels. As the managing partner, make it everyone’s job to simplify and eliminate—to preserve the firm’s energy and attention for the main things the firm’s success depends on.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

Law Firms Should Avoid the Tyranny of the OR

Admin — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:36:10 GMT

Dennis Kennedy in making his 2006 Blawggies Awards selected morepartnerincome.com as the Best Overall Law Practice Management Blog with David Maister's Passion, People and Principles and Bruce MacEwen's Adam Smith, Esq as runner-ups. To be selected as the best blows me away; just being in the company of Maister and MacEwen is an honor in and of itself!

While the name morepartnerincome attracts the attention of most managing partners, there are some who are put off by the name. What they miss is its core message. More partner income is the result of “doing the right things and doing them right”.

You do not have to make a choice between higher income and better client services. Higher income is the result of better client services. It is not a choice between placing the interest of clients first or driving income higher. Higher income is the reward for serving the client’s interest. It is not a choice between higher margins and the proper concern for treatment of the firm’s talent. Higher income comes from the quality of the team and their environment.

To think of those alternative choices is to have fallen victim to what Jim Collins refers to as the “Tyranny of the OR”. Excellent organizations practice “And Thinking” rather than “Or Thinking”. For example, how do we provide exceptional services to our clients and exceptional compensation to our legal professionals and employees? These are not incompatible choices. To the contrary, the very process of “And Thinking” leads to breakthrough innovations. The genius of “And Thinking” is that greater success results from the effort to achieve both rather than limiting an organization’s efforts based on the belief that we could only have one or the other.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

What Law Firm Partners Need To Agree About

Admin — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 17:23:01 GMT

David Maister was prompted to write Guns for Hire when he started to think about the actions of a leading PR firm that transgressed many people’s sense of ethics – creating a blog consistently favorable to Wal-Mart® without disclosing Wal-Mart’s (or the PR firm’s) involvement. This led him to question why people in an organization take on work (or make decisions) that they would have rejected if they had been on their own. He hit the nail on the head when he wrote the following:

“If I knew that all my colleagues, bosses, partners, owners, etc., shared a common set of standards, then I would have the courage to make selective decisions based on those standards.”

I have written quite a bit on the importance of law firms having a core set of beliefs. Partners need to know what they agree about and they need to communicate those beliefs firm-wide. By doing so, the “If I knew” portion of Maister’s remarks would be satisfied and individual partners and others on the law firm team would be in a position to deal with many issues as if the organization was their business (law firm). Without a core set of beliefs, enterprises are left without a moral and sound business compass.

It isn’t difficult—the partners need to talk, agree, and communicate to the organization the common set of beliefs that guide the firm. It is empowering for the partners to do it. It is inspirational to the entire team to know that their organization believes in a guiding set of principles and sound business beliefs. An organization’s culture develops around those common beliefs. They become the glue that tends to hold a firm together through bad times as well as the good times. Without that culture, firms take on a strict “eat-what-you-kill” mentality where everyone is out for No. 1. When what you can eat takes a downward turn due to temporary economic or competitive reasons, loyalty goes out the window.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

Courage, Law Firms, Life, and the World

Admin — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:27:11 GMT

Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear. It would be far more appropriate to say “the act of facing difficulty, danger, pain, etc, in the face of fear.” And there isn’t enough of it around. But it is an essential quality of leadership.

When advising a young lady who had just been promoted to an important management position several years ago, I told her that she needed to pick three to five principles to which she should unwaveringly adhere. The second piece of advice was more important. I told her, the minute those principles were understood by others, some people would began an all-out effort to get her to compromise those principles. For some, it is merely their way of testing you. Are your principles really entrenched, or are they like the Pirate’s code, more guidelines than actual code? There will be others with lesser minds who nevertheless consider themselves intellectually superior. For those, the concept of absolutes, standards, and right and wrong are an anathema. Against such an onslaught, it takes courage to stick to what is right—your beliefs.

Davis Maister talks about Passion, People, and Principles. Passion, people, and principles are the ingredients that make a successful law firm. Numbers and metrics are simply the measuring stick. It takes people with a passion (a common sense of direction) guided by a common set of principles (core beliefs and culture) to make something great.

It takes courage to maintain those principles against the efforts of those who don’t want absolutes. For them, each situation, each event, and each decision can be dealt with intellectually without the constraints of principles or the absolutes of right and wrong. Such relativism can show an absence of courage—a way of subconsciously or consciously rationalizing our actions and inactions to avoid dangers that we fear. In business, those dangers can be the possible loss of clients or the fear of confronting others about their unacceptable behavior or performance. In both our personal and professional lives, peer pressure can lead to compromised principles. Going along with the crowd—doing what is politically correct, intellectually in, what the cool people do, what smart people think, etc.—is motivated by the fear of not being accepted. Without ample courage, we compromise our principles a little here and a little there. With enough compromise, the moral compass is lost altogether.

Even greater courage is required on the world stage. The dangers can be deadly, and thus, fears are far more real. Sometimes courage is all that stands between civilization and madness. It takes courage to say that some things are not acceptable. Consider the recent reaction to the Pope’s remarks about Islam or the similar reaction to cartoons offensive to Muslims. Those reactions are not acceptable, period. There is no gray area here. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian, Jew, or Muslim. It doesn’t matter if you are a young black man or an angry white man. It is not acceptable to riot, destroy property, and murder people because you are offended.It isn’t acceptable. It makes no difference what was said or what was drawn. Why don’t we hear more people saying that? Where is courage?

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.

A Fresh Take on the Work/Life Issue in Law Firms

Admin — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:09:36 GMT

Stephanie West Allen is a very clever lady, lawyer, author, trainer, etc. Her blog idealawg is both insightful and recreational. Back in May of this year, she took a look at the work/life balance issue and found it off-key. For a fresh look at this politically hot issue, read Allen’s post Hot Worms and Workaholics: Let the Workers Be!

She found a way to make a point that I struggled to communicate in my earlier post, Law Firm Culture and the Work/Life Issue:

It isn't more "balance" that is needed, but more flexibility in accommodating lawyers with different "balancing acts" in their daily lives.

Morepartnerincome.com is sponsored by Juris, Inc. For information about Juris® products and services for increasing law firm performance and partner income, go to www.Juris.com.