After I posted my Q & A about lawyers blogging, I received a copy of the ABA’s Law Practice Today with its lead article being a well-written piece by Greg Siskind on lawyers and blogging.
Another article in this edition concerns the changing landscape of the legal profession and outsourcing, written by me.
Q:
Ed, you’re an avid blogger—I read LawBiz® Blog all the time. I’ve even contemplated starting my own blog. What could blogging do for my private law practice? (more…)
Peter Brusso, CEO of Infocard.cc, works with service businesses to create small CD-ROM business cards. He interviewed Ed at Ed’s State Bar of California annual conference booth in September, 2007. Peter is also CEO of podcastingforlawyers.com.
In this first interview Ed discusses the importance of a business plan. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Interview 1
13 minutes, 50 seconds
3.2MB
In this second interview Ed discusses the power of coaching and mentoring and the importance of learning how to run a business.
Interview 2
11 minutes, 28 seconds
2.7MB
In October, managing partners from across the country gathered at the Canadian Bar Association’s third annual high level conference created to focus specifically on their issues. They came together in Montreal to exchange ideas and discuss best practices. The Lawyers Weekly wrote about the conference and, particularly, my remarks.
Rees Morrison observed, "Certainly no law firm can hazard more than a guess on the worth to a particular client at a particular time of its 10 paralegal hours, 20 associate hours, and 8 partner hours on a revision of a major sublease. For much that law firms do, value and cost are incommensurable."
I agree with Rees when one looks backwards. However, if one reviews the matter with the client before the engagement actually begins, the client generally will be able to assess the value to him/her/it. At that point, the law firm and client, together, should evaluate whether the anticipated service can be delivered for a fee that is commensurate with the value delivered as perceived by the client.
Budgeting for the matter, with the involvement and concurrence of the client, will go a long way to establish both the value to the client and likely fees the law firm will charge.
In this discussion, we must be careful not to equate the result for the client with the value because no law firm can guarantee the outcome.
The State Bar of California’s Board of Governors narrowly voted to amend the current proposal to require lawyers who don’t carry malpractice insurance to disclose this fact to their clients. The amendment would require such disclosure only in those situations where a lawyer is required to have a written engagement agreement pursuant to Business & Professions Code §6147 & 6148.
That amended proposal, then, was defeated; a subsequent sense of the Board was to send this issue to its own committee (Regulations, Admissions & Discipline Committee, not the original task force that was submitting the proposal) for further study. Two issues were uppermost in the Board’s mind. One was whether the amended proposal could be adopted by the Board without further public comment and, second, whether the full ramifications of the original proposal were completely understood by the Board.
It is hoped that the RAD committee will be successful in addressing the issues that face all of the stakeholders involved, the public and members of the Bar, without the perception of self-interest or financial gain for the Bar … and with the interest of all lawyers in mind (including the 30,000 not currently insured). (more…)
In his latest post, Peter Darling pays me the ultimate compliment: "… in his usual elegant, lucid way, Ed is making an incredibly important point (about thinking "beyond the norm"). As marketers, our whole job is to innovate.
There are benchmarks in life … and in our law practices. Benchmarks might be as significant as a marriage, a birth or a death. In law, it might be graduating from law school, opening one’s own practice, winning a significant case, or in today’s world of Baby Boomers, moving into our "second season."
The Airstream trailer (see my earlier posts on this subject) has taught me and confirmed many lessons I’ve learned over the years. Here are just a few that our current trip has triggered:
Change is part of life, and we must learn how to manage change to be successful
Change requires that we be flexible
Life involves continuous improvement
Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity
Sometimes, in today’s very competitive legal environment, lawyers and law firms must think "outside of the box," beyond the norm. Creating a strategy for your future is mandatory for success, for knowing whether you’ve arrived at "success." Obviously, that is not a "given," not automatic. We must first create, then implement, to be successful.
Other fields of endeavor often provide us with examples of this type of thinking. See below for one example in the art world. I’ve seen this type of approach only twice in my life, once by Salvador Dali in possibly my favorite works of art of all time and once by my sister (also an artist).
See the Cochrane Mural
For those people that live in another part of the world, Cochrane is a community just west of Calgary, Alberta . (Not the one in Northern Ontario.)
This mural was unveiled at the Cochrane Ranche House July 1, 2007. Each tile is 1 foot square, is it’s own individual picture, and each is by a different artist. All of them together form this huge mural. You can click on each of the tiles to see them in detail. Check out the horse’s eye and nostril and anywhere else on the mural. Also the two below it.
In an article written by Richard Gary (Firm, Inc., March/April 2006), he says that "… the principal message that compensation decisions affecting the managing partners should send is: ‘The qualities that will make our firm successful over the long term are superior lawyering, client service, teamwork, and fairness.’ In practice, that means that the (full time) managing partner should not be the firm’s highest paid partner …"
Agreed that the compensation system must appear to be fair. If not, the whole infrastructure of the firm will collapse. But, one must realize the importance of the position. As Gary concurs, managing partners preside over businesses whose revenues are in the millions, even hundreds of millions, of dollars. This is not a position to be taken lightly or to be appointed to just because "you were out of the room at the time of the vote." This is a demanding position, requiring the trust of everyone (lawyers, staff, etc.) in the firm to be successful. This is the CEO of the firm and should be compensated accordingly.