Tag Archive: Management

Selling your law practice with a covenant not to compete

Where courts have refused to uphold a covenant not to compete given by one lawyer to another in the sale of a law practice, one of the primary arguments against validating the covenant is that clients have a right to counsel of their own choosing. And, the argument continues, saying that a lawyer cannot practice law in a given area for a reasonable period of time restricts that right.
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Social Capital – How to invest

“J. A. Barnes in the 1950s defined a social network as ‘an association of people drawn together by family, work or hobby.’ In the digital age, social networking websites amplify opportunities to associate and grow our social (personal and/or professional) capital.” (more…)


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Does disclosure affect strategy or competence?

Did you see the Tuesday edition of Wall Street Journal, Health section? David Armstrong discusses  the business interests of doctors — and their ethical responsibility to disclose their personal financial interests in any business that benefits from their prescribed medical treatment, whether that treatment be medicine, equipment or otherwise.

The bottom line is that it is the patient’s responsibility to ask the doctor if he/she has any financial connection to the recommended treatment. The suggestion is that if the answer is "yes," the patient should get a second opinion. Not bad advice, but still a matter of personal trust and interaction between the doctor and the patient.

If the doctor has a financial interest in a treatment modality, this may influence the doctor’s prescribed treatment. Note that there is no movement here to demand that doctors disclose whether they have malpractice insurance. Perhaps because the existence of insurance is not likely to influence the treatment modality to be prescribed.

Why is it that some lawyers misguidedly believe it is important for lawyers? It’s existence or absence does not affect the legal strategy advised or vigor or competence of legal representation. As a side note, however, it is interesting to note that most of the lawyers advocating that other lawyers make disclosure DO have a personal financial stake in the outcome of this discussion. Most represent insurance carriers who whose premium income might increase. Yet, there is no disclosure required by them in their discussions of this topic. Interesting, eh?


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Is pessimism prudence?

My wife would probably agree and say "yes." I have always said that she would have made a great law school professor because she can see every negative possibility, some I couldn’t even imagine, in every situation! The  "parade of horribles," as it was called in law school.

Her response is that by envisioning what could go wrong, she can prepare for it happening and be ready to overcome it if it does happen. Perhaps her attitude is where i got the title for my book Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Planning for Law Firms.

In today’s ABA email, there seems to be some vindication for her approach. An article by Debra Cassens Weiss said: 

"… Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, who studies positive psychology, says most optimists do better in life than merited by their talents alone.

But with lawyers, the opposite is true.

Seligman’s survey of law students at the University of Virginia found that pessimists got better grades, were more likely to make law review and got better job offers.

"In law," he told the newspaper, ‘pessimism is considered prudence.’ "


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Canadian lawyers share best practices

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.


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Lawyers fees compared to the value of those fees

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.


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Malpractice Insurance Disclosure Sent to Committee

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…)


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Lawyer Benchmarks Taught by Airstream

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

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