♫ I would have lost it all,
But I now how I see how you were there for me and I can say
I’m stronger, I’m wiser, I’m better,
much better,

And I can say
Never would have made it,
Never could have made it,
Without you…♫

Words and Music by Marvin Sapp.

In discussing law practice management with lawyers and others in presentations, it has quickly become apparent that the process of sharing information is one of the most beneficial aspects of getting together and discussing matters of common interest. Accordingly, I would like to take this concept and apply it here - and make this forum a place where those interested in law practice management can email to me or post a question. I can take these questions and create a new posting based on the question and see the collaborative results from everyone then posting comments thereto.

So this is the invitation to all readers to post a question, comment or issue by either completing a ‘comment’ or by emailing your question to me at: info@thoughtfullaw.com. It is my expectation that the collection of questions and comments can become a repository of information that is practical and useful to others. I am hopeful that we can create an on-line community whose overriding interest is in sharing information amongst each other in order that all of us can say that we are all stronger, wiser and better!

♫ Here Comes the Night… ♫

Words and Music by Bert Berns, recorded by Them (Van Morrison).

ABA TECHSHOW

Here it comes – ABA TECHSHOW 2008! This is *the* legal technology program for lawyers and anyone involved in the delivery of legal services. For three days, Chicago will host the best of the legal technology crowd in offering over 50 legal technology programs and training sessions. Aside from the presentations, there is the exhibit floor that hosts 100+ exhibitors with products and services in the legal arena.

This year BC Crown Counsel Nils Jensen will be one of TECHSHOW’s new speakers, speaking on his innovative use of technology in the courtroom. Other Canadian speakers (full faculty listing can be found at: http://www.abanet.org/techshow/faculty/index.html will include Dan Pinnington of LawPro, recently appointed Judge Carole Curtis (who was until recently a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada), Dominic Jaar, a litigator with Bell Canada (and a fellow blogger: http://dominicjaar.blogspot.com - Wines and Information Management) and yours truly. There will be the Taste of Techshow Dinners (where you can sign up to go for dinner with your favorite Techshow speaker), receptions and other mingling opportunities.

If you are a Canadian Bar Association member, you can save $100 off the registration fee (the CBA is a program promoter of TECHSHOW). Techshow is March 13-15, 2008 at the Chicago Hilton Hotel.

You will welcome the opportunity to go to a Chicago Blues Bar just to relax by the time Saturday evening hits, and say: “Here comes the night!” For more information go to: http://www.abanet.org/techshow

♫ Come together right now over me ♫

Words and Music by Lennon-McCartney

I have been remiss in making a new post due to my scrambling to finish my papers for two presentations at ABA TECSHOW 2008 in Chicago in March. Papers are due this Friday!

This year’s rendition of the Worlds Premier Legal Technology Conference promises to be as good, if not better, than all past Conferences. I find the quality of the discussions between presenters and attendees, the first-class presentations and the ideas that crackle in the air to be a fairly heady mix! For anyone looking for new approaches, concepts, applications and inspiration, this conference is an extremely nutrient-rich environment!

I also hope to again co-host one of the Taste of Techshow dinners…so if you are coming to Techshow, sign up for my dinner and we can chat in person at one of the fine restaurants in Chicago!

Check out the schedule and hotel and travel information on the Techshow web site. Oh and come to my sessions: Records Management Technology: It’s a Small World After All and Drafting Bills Your Clients Will Rush to Pay.

See you there - March 13-15, 2008.

Come together..right now….over me!

♫ Only night will ever know
Why the heavens never show
All the dreams there are to know
Paint the sky with stars...♫

Music by Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, lyrics by Roma Ryan, recorded by Enya.

It is nearing the end of the year…time to look back on the year and reflect on what is past…and what is yet to come. You recall your earnest resolution at this time last year that “things were going to be different next year!” Reflecting for a moment you realize that not much has changed, people are more or less performing as they were last year. Your own performance has fallen into a predicable range – or rut. You ask yourself “How do other businesses manage to achieve better-than ordinary results?” What is their magical formula? Short of cracking a whip, how do you motivate yourself, and others, to excellence?

The high art of achieving extra-ordinary results from people has been clearly demonstrated time and time again. However, it is an inexact science with many factors and ingredients. Let us examine the tips and techniques that have been put forward towards achieving lofty goals:

• The Oracle at Delphi dispensed age-old, but very pertinent advice namely: Know Thyself. To achieve excellence you have to start with a strong potential – so ask yourself what is it that you are very good at? Put it another way: Marketing is not selling what you have but knowing what you have will sell. You probably know countless examples of lawyers who are doing whatever comes in the door rather than concentrating on what it is that they are good at. Clients want and expect to go to a lawyer who has a strong reputation and profile – they seek out those lawyers. Isn’t that what everyone wants – a practice where the clients find you rather than your trying to find the clients? Start building your profile by deciding – now – where lies your best potential to be excellent

• In doing some research into this matter, the April 2002 issue of Fast Company had an article on the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Pan-American Chess Championships – and how the UMBC Chess team went from placing 26^th out of 27 teams, to taking the tournament’s fifth title in six years in December 2001 (and currently the UMBC Chess Team is the six times winner of the Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship). Their secret? By recruiting top high-school students and creating an environment where it is “Cool to be Smart”. Oh – another factor - the majority of students are African-Americans. UMBC’s exacting standards combined with their desire for everyone to succeed – creates a “fire in the belly” of the students that helps them succeed. This approach is 180 degrees off of the conventional educational approach involving disadvantaged children – namely that you lower expectations for such kids because high expectations would be an excessive burden . The message: set high standards – you may be surprised at the results

• So what motivates people to perform? Money? Study after study show that while employees desire money, they are motivated by intangibles: challenge, recognition, opportunity for growth, involvement, meaningful work and pride. Money is a way of determining success – keeping score, so to speak, and is therefore the result of doing excellent work, not the inducer. What is the world’s most powerful motivator? Achievement. “I do because I can”. Motivation is tied to “internal matters” – grey matter, ultimately..

• Assume full accountability for your future. Now surround yourself with other high-achievers. Place yourself in a high-nutrient mix – where the peers with whom you associate will radiate higher expectations and their own pursuit of excellence. We tell our kids not to associate with certain crowds – do we drink of the same medicine?

• Acknowledge other’s successes. Don’t dwell on errors – praise results in public and deal with problems in private. Listen to your staff and their suggestions and act on good ideas. Whenever possible, give immediate feedback (shortens the learning cycle) and positive reinforcement. Give staff greater autonomy and encourage them to be confident and responsible. Do the annual performance reviews – and let the staff member verbalize their own strengths and weaknesses – and set their own methods on how they are going to grow. Let each staff member know why each person is put in their position. Let each individual know what skill development is required for them to go beyond their present job. Be clear on what it is that you expect them to accomplish in their present position. Make sure that the people with whom they work know this, too. Most of all, be consistent – be seen to be dealing with the deadwood as a way of communicating that low performance is not tolerated.

• Offer to pay for skill development (job-related, interpersonal and communication skills). Encourage staff to seek out managerial responsibilities in social settings – community groups, schools, social institutions, non-profits etc. – for the skills that they learn in those settings will come back with them into the work environment – as well as the recognition for a job well done.

• Model the behaviour you want. Care – passionately – about results. The test of anyone’s character is when the going gets tough. Keeping firm hold of the basics – grace under fire – tells volumes to the world and keeps the troops going. Edith Wharton said: “There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” Churchill went further and said: “In the past we have had a light which flickered, in the present we have a light which flames, and in the future there will be a light which shines over all the land and sea.”

• Bring people into big projects. Let them feel and be part of the action. They can learn from their involvement and you can benefit from their energy.

• Eliminate bottlenecks and Red Tape. Process is important – except where it becomes an inhibitor of performance and new ideas. Recognize where your own procedures could be putting the stop to greater things.

• Have fun. Go to: www.spacecamp.com and read the testimonials from the alumni. Operated in conjunction with NASA, these programs challenge kids and adults to be, in effect, rocket scientists. (There is a Canadian version as well: www.spacecampcanada.com). Comments from those who went through the camps (The 500,000^th camper, Samantha Rice, graduated June 15, 2007) consistently state that it was the experience of a lifetime. Achieving excellence and mastering new ideas does not have to be a slog. The evidence is clear – people who are having fun outperform those who are not.

Moving to higher ground may ultimately depend on ignoring the glitter and concentrating on that quiet place inside all of us where dreams are made and a candle glows on what might yet be.

(this post is based on a column originally published in PracticeTalk in the Canadian Bar Association - BC Branch’s newsletter BarTalk)

♫ Come Monday morning’ I’m the first to arrive
I ain’t nothin’ but business from nine to five…
Well I’m a hard livin’, hard workin’ man…. ♫



Words and music by Ronnie Dunn, recorded by Brooks & Dunn.

The traditional view of management is that they must be continually focused on motivating employees lest the business fall into rack and ruin. However, research published in Harvard Management Update (Jan 2006) shows that most employees are very motivated when they start a new job. But, after less than a year, their motivation drops off significantly. Why? Paradoxically, the answer appears not to lie with the employees, but rather with management. Rather than motivating people, management’s style and overall behaviour can be a strong demotivational force that saps the natural energy and willingness of employees to do their best. Furthermore, thinking that the problem lies with the employees (and *of course* not with management), management then implements policies that only accentuate the difficulties that are facing the employees. You now have a downward spiral with management believing that they must ‘crack down’ further as they perceive they have a problem with motivation.

So what can be done to break this spiral and put staff and lawyers on a positive track that leads to both happy and motivated staff as well as management? Here is a selection of tips put forward in this area:

• Respect: Management often adopts a ‘need to know’ approach to communication. This inevitably leads employees to frustration as they are not clearly and consistently told why or why not certain actions must be done. Displaying a lack of respect for an employee’s need to understand not only what they must do but also why they need to be doing it is a very strong demotivational force. It reinforces the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ view of labour and management, it excludes employees from feeling part of the team and it leads to distrust – as employees never feel that they are being told the full story. Communication is poisoned as anything management says must be in turn, searched for its ‘true meaning’ – leading to speculation and suspicion.

• Recognition: Everyone likes to be recognized for their accomplishments. However, when a lawyer overtly takes credit for something done by his staff, or even worse, never recognizes when his staff has saved his bacon, the staff quickly catch on. Lack of meeting the basic human need of recognition – before clients, before other staff and before other lawyers – can quickly quell the motivation of any staff member to ‘go the extra mile’ for any organization.

• Expedite: Staff look to management for one major reason – to solve problems that are difficult or impossible for them to address due to their position in the firm. By failing to take action to make your staff’s job easier when requested to do so, you have clearly shown that you are unconcerned with your staff and the problems they face. Next time, be a hero by stepping up to the plate and quickly bulldozing a path for them to allow them to do their jobs as they wish to do them.

• Purpose: In some cases it is clear why staff member are being asked to do something. However, there may be tasks and projects that they undertake that are not clearly aligned with meeting client needs. In these cases, it is necessary to communicate how the task meets the overall needs of the firm. It is even better if all tasks can be tied to a ‘principled’ view of the firm – in other words, a mission statement that clearly states what purposes the firm serves, other than just being a vehicle to make money (for example, it would be a goal for the firm to be a leader in the community and a conduit for social change). These principles on which the firm lies will be the bedrock to which all the work of the firm is related – from providing pro bono services (as it meets the mission and goals of the firm), to building an informational infrastructure that allows the firm better meet the firm’s stated goals..

• Workloads and Pace: There is an old story about the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Unfortunately management can fail to heed warnings that continually adding to workloads or expecting too hectic a pace can be counter-productive and lead to burnout, absenteeism and departures. If any of these are a factor in your firm, you may wish to speak to your staff and start a dialogue about what is a reasonable workload and turn-around time period for work in order to improve the morale for the betterment of all.

• Team Members: Another old adage is that one rotten apple can spoil the whole barrel. In this case, failing to deal with a non-team player when you are trying to build up a strong functional team can be a frustrating exercise at best. Moreover, by keeping the rotten apple, you are communicating to the rest of your staff that standards are not enforced and there is no need for anyone to perform at anything but a mediocre level. This is one exception to the rule that firing someone (after visibly trying to work with them to improve their performance) can reduce morale. You may hear the quiet cheer when the troublemaker is finally shown the door.

• Take the Blame: Along with giving credit where credit is due is not allowing public fault to fall onto your staff. Leadership is demonstrated by openly accepting the burden if something did not work out as planned. This does not mean that you don’t work diligently behind the scenes and find out why something went wrong and take steps to correct it. However, if you clearly communicate in act, words and deeds that your desk has a plaque that says ‘the buck stops here’, you will encourage your staff to trust in you and this builds positive morale.

Management needs to be aware of not only how to actively promote motivated staff but also how their actions or inactions, as the case may be, may actually demotivate staff from their initial enthusiasm that they bring to their positions, in order to achieve an office full of hard-working men (and women) who are all business from nine to five.

(this post is based on a column originally published in PracticeTalk in the Canadian Bar Association - BC Branch’s newsletter BarTalk)

♫So I’d like to know where, you got the notion
Said I’d like to know where, you got the notion
To rock the boat..♫

Words and music by Wally Holmes, recorded by the Hues Corporation.

I have to hand it to this group of law students (Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession) and their blog. They have released a study that ranks law firms on diversity, pro bono participation and billable hours in six major markets (New York, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Northern California and Southern California).

These students are hitting law firms in the numbers. For example, when looking at New York firms:

“Gender Composition: At all firms surveyed in New York City, women are significantly less represented as partners than as associates. Even at Morrison & Foerster, which has the highest percentage of female partners in New York, women make up only 23.3% of all partners. At Fulbright & Jaworski, which has the lowest percentage of female partners in New York, women are only 7.1% of all partners.”

From the southern California rankings:

“Low Diversity Partnership Rates: Of the 16 Los Angeles-area firms included in the report, 100% had three or fewer African-American partners, all but one had three or fewer Hispanic partners, and half had three or fewer Asian-American partners, placing the percentage of partners represented by each ethnic group at less than 5%. By contrast, 2005 census data show African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latino-Americans to comprise 9.7%, 13.1%, and 46.8% of the population in Los Angeles county.”

These days when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, these kinds of rankings may be influential with regard to attracting young and idealistic law students who are placing their values on the line and who seek firms that are working towards a better legal profession (at least according to their principles).

I applaud this effort and frankly, their willingness to challenge a profession of which they seek to become a part. What is more worrisome was that the reports are based on the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) annual workplace survey and many firms did not fill out the questions in that survey. One can only hope that this will change as law firms pick up on these rankings and publish them on their websites in order to attract talent to their firm. Indeed, one firm (Venable LLP) has already posted their ranking on their web page in order to give publicity to the fact that they ranked 5th in diversity and they went on to state that:

“Other areas Venable ranked in the top 10 include percentage of Hispanic associates (fourth), percentage of female partners (eighth), percentage of African American partners (ninth), and percentage of Hispanic partners (tenth). “

I have to give them credit - it appears that rocking the boat appears to already be making some waves!

♫I’ll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through..♫

Words and Music by Sammy Fain / Irving Kahal, sung by Billie Holiday.

Wednesday Oct. 10, 2007 will see the 2007 edition of the Pacific Legal Technology Conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This conference will be the 5th PLTC and this year The BCLMA (the British Columbia Legal Management Association), the LMA (The Legal Marketing Association - BC Chapter) and the GPSSF National Conference of the Canadian Bar Association (The CBA’s General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Conference) all have joined the Conference as additional sponsors. This is in addition to the four founding sponsors: The TLABC (The Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia), the CBA - BC Branch (The Canadian Bar Association - BC Branch), the LSBC (The Law Society of British Columbia) and the ABA-LPM Section (The Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association).

This year’s conference starts with a bang at 8 am with: 60 Technology, Management, Marketing and Finance Tips in 60 Mins and concludes with 25 Things You Really Need to Know and Take Home. The noon plenary features Frank Fowlie, the Ombudsman for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Frank has a unique view of the growing trend towards on-line dispute resolution and will talk on the different technology platforms in use, the state of ODR and the opportunities - and challenges - that ODR poses to the legal profession. The full program can be found here.

In-between these plenary sessions are a further 18 sessions divided into six tracks: The Solo and Small Firm Track (sponsored by the GPSSF section), the Tips and Marketing Track ( sponsored by the LMA), the Applications Track (sponsored by the ABA-LPM Section), the Implementing Technology Track (sponsored by the LSBC), the Administrators & Managing Partners Track (sponsored by the BCLMA) and the E-Discovery and Litigation Track (sponsored by the TLABC).

The sessions range from How to Know What You Don’t Know - a Primer on the Newest Legal Technogies to Electronic Evidence Best Practices; from Working with Adobe Acrobat to No Limits! What a Young High Tech Firm Could REALLY Look Like!; from Security Overview: Backups, Removing Metadata, Digital Signatures, Secure Email, Handling Spam, Fraud and Other Tips to Tips on Becoming Creative with Technology in the Practice of Law.

The conference features outstanding speakers: Sharon Nelson and Dan Pinnington (both past ABA TECHSHOW Chairs) as well as a number of other outstanding speakers from ABA TECSHOW and from BC (Doug Jasinski, Allison Wolf, Steve Matthews just to mention a few…(24 great speakers in total). The Conference draws attendees from as far away as Halifax and down into the USA (MCLE Credit is available for Washington, Oregon and California and pending from Idaho) and the Conference offers 9 hours of Professional Management Instruction for reporting by BC lawyers.

The theme of this year’s conference is Leadership, Technology and You. This conference is unique in that it is designed from the bottom up in a collaborative manner with all past attendees. Each year, the Advisory Board pulls together a list of possible sessions that are posted to a SurveyMonkey web site - and every past attendee is invited to participate and indicate which sessions would be most relevant to them.

From the survey results the session program is pulled together from the top rated sessions. As a result, in every year the Conference has been held, it has received a 100% “YES” answer to the question “Would you recommend this Conference to your colleagues?” in the conference evaluation. As the Chair of the Conference, I am proud of that distinction and believe it indicates the world-class speakers, exhibitors and information that is integral to the success of the Conference.

I hope to be seeing you at the Vancouver Westin Bayshore Hotel and Resort on Wednesday October 10 for the Pacific Legal Technology Conference this year!

Dave

♫ Nobody does it better,

Makes me feel sad for the rest,

Nobody does it half as good as you.

Baby, you’re the best…♫

Music by M. Hamlisch, Lyrics by C.B. Sager, Recorded by Carly Simon

Law Practice Magazine published by the American Bar Association, Law Practice Management Section, received three awards this summer: A 2007 APEX Award for Creative Director Mark Feldman for cover design of the April/May 2006 issue, another 2007 APEX Award in the writing category for Bill Gibson’s terrific “Ask Bill” column, and a 2007 Tabbie Award for cover design, again for the April/May 2006 cover. The APEX Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content and ability to achieve overall communications excellence. The Tabbies recognize excellence in trade, association and business publications. Credit has to go to former Law Practice Magazine Editor-in-Chief Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, who led the team to excellence at the time these awards were earned!

Dan Pinnington (Director, PracticePro) recently received The Edge Award for the Best Column in Law Practice Magazine for 2007, entitled: I’m Not Here Right Now, Please Leave a Message (Tips and Tricks), in the April-May 2007 issue. Congratulations to Dan for an excellent column! Speaking of Dan, he was just inducted into the College of Law Practice Management. Edge International is a leader in firm strategy and management.

Congratulations are also due to all the 2006-2007 Edge Award winners—announced on page 5 of the September 2007 issue—for writing excellence in Law Practice magazine. They are: Best Feature Article: Steven T. Taylor “Rainmaking: Rewriting the Rules” in the October/November 2006 issue; Silver Feature Article: Peter Darling, “Seeking Out New Markets” in the September 2006 issue and of course, Best Column: Dan Pinnington, “I’m Not Here Right Now, Please Leave a Message”, from the Tips and Tricks column of April/May 2007.

It is gratifying that a magazine devoted to the topic of the business of the practice of law receives such recognition. Oh, and I am proud to be the current Editor-in-Chief and grateful to be working with such a talented team of professionals - the Editorial Team (Joan Feldman - Managing Editor, Joy White - Editor, Mark Feldman - Creative Director), the Editorial Board (Laura A. Calloway - Finance Editor, Marcia Pennington Shannon - People Editor, and Mark Tamminga - Technology Editor), the Editorial Advisory Board (Edward H.Flitton III, Ann Lee Gibson, K. William Gibson, Erik J. Heels, Karen MacKay, Reba J. Nance, and Doona L.G. Shaft), the talented writers, ABA Staff and all others who contribute to the success of Law Practice Magazine. Way to go Team - Baby, You’re the Best!

♫ Living in my own world
Didn’t understand
That anything can happen
When you take a chance ..♫

Words and Music by David Lawrence, Matthew Gerrard & Robbie Nevil, recorded by High School Musical.

My copy of Innovations, an Editorial Supplement by the editors of Baseline, CIO Insight and eWeek, hit my desk this week. This magazine bills itself as focusing on the secret ingredients of successful companies. On page 18 was an article by Robert Hertzberg on the top technological innovations that businesses were focusing on in 2007. I love these types of studies that show what people are actually spending money on rather than those that state what people could be doing with technology. While thinking about futuristic ideas is always interesting, ultimately it all comes down to the question of whether or not you are willing to risk capital on an idea or project in order to achieve a better ROI than you are achieving at the moment. And this provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the where law firms are relative to other businesses and see where there is room for innovation - or at least increased emphasis - by law firms. So what are these top projects?

#1 Business Process Improvement (BPM): BPM, or as I prefer to put it: figuring out how to do things better, faster or cheaper, is the number one innovative initiative undertaken by businesses. These projects all have one common denominator - they address a defined business need (or at least, one that has been identified by an outside consultant!) This is certainly one area where law firms are always interested; the principle challenge, as I see it, is in devising improvements that are not already in use at other firms - in other words, being truly innovative rather than just keeping up with Jones, Jones & Jones LLP.

#2 Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Wikipedia states that CRM is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information. These projects, while exciting and truly different, typically have a high failure rate. If you follow the maxim that high risk must equal high return, there must be a hefty upside to building an effective CRM system and building it right. Law firms may wish to pay a bit more attention to this trend.

#3 Business Analytics and Business Intelligence: Here you are taking firm business data and analyzing it to demonstrate to partners or clients or perhaps both, that there are demonstrable benefits from new ways of working together or working in a defined manner (such as implementing increased delegation and staff leverage for greater returns to both the clients and the firm). I would be surprised if any but a small handful of the larger law firms are actually taking steps to implement business metrics and measure the benefits of analytics and thereby looking to innovate using this technique, notwithstanding the real data and results that could be achieved. However, akin to CRM systems, the benefits from undertaking these types of projects could be big. This is definitely a ‘working smarter not harder’ idea.

#4 Desktop/laptop Upgrades: The trend today is for businesses to purchase laptops rather than desktops. This reflects a common insight - that if you give someone a desktop at the office, they work at the office. If you give someone a laptop, they can work from virtually anywhere, anytime, particularly with widespread Wi-Fi and web-enabled email. Lawyers, being workaholics, should be jumping all over this trend.

#5 Web Services: This is an interesting area. Certainly there have been firms that have built extranets and web portals for their clients for some time now (such as commercial, transactional and litigation firms that wish to communicate with their commercial clients). Other types of law firms have realized that they can exist largely on the web and market to clients and render services via the web (such as immigration firms). This area, in my opinion, has a large growth potential for law firms who can adjust their business model to incorporate the potentials offered by the web.

#6 Disaster Planning/Recovery: After the recent gamut of Katrina, 911, tornadoes, floods, fires and other potential disasters, whether natural or man-made, it would be amazing if firms are not spending significant time and attention here to ensure their viability in the face of disaster and the protection of their data, client information and intellectual property. Perhaps the only thing holding back law firms from addressing this would be the belief that disasters only happen to someone else…

#7 Intrusion Detection and Prevention: Along with disaster prevention, protecting your systems from hackers, malware, viruses and the host of low-life on the web is a priority as I see it, for lawyers and law firms. A once-a-year review by an outside consultant to advise that law firm systems are sufficiently secure and robust would be a good thing, in my view.

#8 Server Upgrades: This is a fairly routine task and one that I see attended to by the IT staff or IT contractors for firms on a regular basis. I rarely see a firm that delays implementing a server upgrade once the recommendation has been made that it is time to do a replacement.

#9 Enterprise Systems Planning: In the law firm context, these projects look at greater system integration in order to meet law office business requirements. A good example is the roll-out of integrated practice (or case) management systems such as Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, ProLaw and the like. This is certainly a growing trend in law firms. The benefits of such integrated systems has clearly been demonstrated and the ROI is positive. Firms that have not already considered an integrated legal case and practice management solution have some catching up to do in this regard.

#10 Financial Reporting: Given that partners are also business owners, I would think that improvements in financial reporting would be attended to with all due haste provided that the partners knew what to ask for from their systems. Any lack of innovation here could be attributed to more of a lack of knowledge of what reports they should be creating to improve their business performance rather than a lack of desire or resources. There is much room for financial reporting to move from reporting on historical performance to being a forecasting and strategic performance tool in law firms, in my view.

So there is the list of top projects from the business side and a reflection on where law firms are relative to these areas. Now the question is - how does your law firm budget incorporate any of these? Are you giving time, attention and resources to address any of these in your business plans and budget this year? After all, anything can happen when you take a chance…

♫ Ya know it’s true
Everything I do - I do it for you…♫

Words and music by Bryan Adams, Mutt Lange and Michael Kamen.

I have been reading the Ohio State University Leadership Center’s weekly email on leadership for some time. In particular, I have been looking for information on how a law firm can ‘close the gap’ between the difficulty that a client may have in perceiving the value that lawyers bring to their client’s problems and the actual services rendered. Like it or not, legal services are not terribly ‘tangible’ and lawyers face a continual challenge in communicating their value to their clients. As such the Ohio State leadership email struck a chord in terms of focusing a law firm leader’s work in a law firm directly on the client. It sets up a measuring stick to use in terms of determining if any proposed action will ultimately ‘add value’ to the client. Their post was as follows:

Five Expectations of Customer Leadership

1. “Every leader needs to be able to hear the customers ‘voice’ in everything they do.

2. Leaders who are aware of customer needs should be customer advocates, whether others in the organization are or not.

3. Leaders need to implement only those changes that are customer driven.

4. Leaders need to be knowledgeable about the entire value chain of how work is delivered to the customers and ensure that the value chain interdependencies work efficiently and effectively.

5. All objectives and measures for leaders (and their teams) need to be articulated with a clear connection to the value that the objectives create for the external customer (Weiss, 2005, p.58-61).”

Reference: Weiss, D. S. (2006). The leadership gap: building leadership capacity for competitive advantage. Mississauga, ON: John Wiley & Sons Canada Ltd.

Milton Zwicker, a lawyer in Orillia, Ontario has been writing in this area for decades and was one of the first ‘law firm client advocates’ that I can recall. He has spoken and written long and hard on the need to focus on the client and on how one orients a law firm around the concept of client service and value. In this context, the advice from D.S. Weiss is apt - before making any change, take a moment and ask if this particular change is one that is client driven. If a proposed change does not add value from the client’s viewpoint, then perhaps greater thought needs to be put into the proposed change and the reasons behind it. After all, when a leader looks around at the hub of activity before him or her in the office, they want to be able to say that ‘everything they do, they do for you…’.