♫ Taking all of my energy, energy, energy
Taking all of my energy…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Louis Biancaniello, Rico Love, Sam Watters, Wayne Wilkins; recorded by: Keri Hilson.

Energizer Bunny

This guest post is courtesy of Beth Flynn of the Ohio State University Leadership Center and is one of her “Leadership Moments” emails. The OSU Leadership Center is inspiring others to take a leadership role that empowers the world.

In theory, every person on your team is a source of energy for your organization. But in reality, some team members create energy while others sap or destroy energy. If you know your team well, you already know which team members are sappers and which ones are the energizers.

High-energy performers test the limits and spur themselves and others on to even greater results. These are the people who will push you up and add energy to your reservoir. They spark others to perform. It’s fun to watch them in action. A team full of energized people is typically easy to motivate but challenging to manage because their high energy level requires constant direction and focus. (more…)

♫ Can’t pay tax
Won’t pay tax..♫

Lyrics, music and recorded by Chaos UK.

HST Flowchart

Well the HST on legal services is now a reality in BC and in Ontario.

The CRA’s  publication:

Ontario and British Columbia:  Transition to the Harmonized Sales Tax – Services has the displayed flowchart in Appendix A – Transitional rules for services.

A PDF version of this diagram can be downloaded here: HST Flowchart PDF

This flowchart helps clarify the issue as to when HST or GST (and PST for those in BC) applies to legal services. The publication is: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gi/gi-056/gi-056-e.html (more…)

♫ I know his journey ends never.
His Star Trek will go on forever…♫

Music by: Alexander Courage, lyrics by: Gene Roddenberry.

Sooner or later, every firm must deal with the issue of succession planning. Given that the ‘boomers’ are all nearing retirement age, this is a looming – and lurking – issue for most firms.

This issue can arise in several ways. One major way this issue comes to the forefront is the lease for the office is coming up for renewal. At that time the partners who really don’t wish to keep practising for another 5 years refuse to sign onto the lease. This throws the partnership into a crises and most likely leads to the firm going ‘supernova’ – the firm explodes and a group of partners leave (usually the ones with the biggest book of business) and the remaining ones are left to try to pick up the pieces (or most often, simply close the doors and turn off the lights on their way out).

More subtle ways of this occurring happens as major keystone partners start to leave – one by one – until what is left is a shell of the former firm. This is death by a thousand cuts as the major income earning assets of the firm depart leaving only the liabilities of the old firm in the hands of those remaining. (more…)

♬ With bits of memories scattered here and there
I look around and don’t know where to start…♬

Lyrics and Music by: Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Johnny Mandel.

My good friend Robert (Bob) Denney has just issued his April 2010 Legal Communique: Addressing Challenges and Making Changes Requires a Thoughtful Approach.

Aside from the use of the word “thoughtful” (which I always appreciate!) the advice that he has packed into his Communique is top notch and timed for firms coming out of the current economic malaise. With his permission, here is Bob’s latest advice:

“Now that the economy is in the process of recovering, forward-thinking law firms are shifting from survival tactics to strategic planning as they begin to address, not only the challenges they face, but also the changes they may have to make. However, as discussed in our February Communique, the list can be long and there are few, if any, precedents for addressing many of the issues. (more…)

♫ If we put our heads together our hearts will tell us what to do…♫

Lyrics and Music by Lorene Allen, Loretta Lynn, recorded by Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb.

Now that the 2010 Olympics and Para-Olympics in Vancouver are over and ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago is concluded for another year, it is back to business!

My overview of Techshow 2010 is being published concurrently by the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia in their manazine “The Verdict” as well as here, so there will be a short delay while the print version comes out. That post will cover the themes and tips that I garnered from ABA Techshow this year. It was a fabulous program and kudos to all who had a hand in organizing it. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I thought I would try to highlight one theme that struck me when talking to the lawyers and others who were at Techshow this year. One factor that became apparent was the openness of some lawyers to bring in consultants to assist in the tweaking of the management of their firms versus the (apparent) reluctance of others to do the same. (more…)

♫ The time is right to do it now
The greatest rock’n'roll swindle
The time is right to do it now…♫

Music and Lyrics by Steve Jones, paul Cook, Julien Temple, recorded by the Sex Pistols.

The ABA Journal reported on Feb. 22, 2010 that an email scam was targeted at 6 law firms in Honolulu and two of them fell for the scam, losing a total of $500,000.00.

In this case the clients, who only contacted the firm via electronic communications, “overpaid” the retainer by way of a cashier’s cheque. When informed about the ‘overpayment’, the clients requested a wire-transfer refund.

By the time the law firm realized the cashier’s cheque was counterfeit, the wire transfers were long gone…

The ABA Journal states:

“Law firms and other professional service providers are cautioned to be on high alert when dealing with clients who come forth via the Internet,” the FBI warns. Also, when dealing with wire transfers, firms should be sure the initial payment has fully cleared before issuing refunds.

Law firms should be instituting policies regarding ‘know your client’ as well as policies regarding ensuring that funds deposited to their trust accounts have fully cleared before forwarding these funds along. The swindlers are counting on the fact that there are lawyers out there who have not yet taken steps to follow these precautions; in which case the swindlers are saying….the time is right to do it now…

♫ What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and south
and east and west of your life? ♫

Lyrics and music by: Alan Bergman, Michel Legrand, Marilyn Bergman, recorded by Barbara Streisand.

Robert (Bob) Denney of Robert Denney Associates, Inc. has just released the February 2010 Communique on What Firm Leaders Should Focus on Now.

With Bob’s permission, here is his communique, which I think is excellent in terms of strategic planning and vision for the year to come:

The economy is recovering although not as rapidly or steadily as we would all like. It is already apparent that this recession will have a far greater impact on the legal profession than any previous recession. Now it is time for firm leaders to shift from survival management to recovery and strategic management. Firms face challenges they have never faced before and for which there are few, if any, precedents. These are some of the areas where these challenges will occur and where firm leaders should now focus their attention.

Leadership and Management: Managers have a short-range perspective. Leaders, on the other hand, need to have a long-range perspective and a vision. They also need to build consensus throughout the firm for achieving that vision. Leadership is different from management. Right now both are critical.

Firm and Practice Management structure: The Managing Partner/President/CEO should focus on strategic issues and external factors – especially clients. But, in BigLaw firms and in many MidLaw firms, this top level manager should focus solely on running the firm and should not have any personal client responsibilities. There should be a senior management team including an Executive Committee, a Chief Operating Officer (or co-Managing Partner) and Practice Group Leaders. All positions should have job descriptions and the partners in these positions need to be given sufficient non-billable time to fulfill their management responsibilities. (more…)

♫ Well, who are you?
Who are you? Who, who, who, who?
I really wanna know…♫

Music and Lyrics by Pete Townshend, recorded by The Who.

A new service has sprung up. It is entitled “Career Excuse.com” Its purpose is to allow you to create false career references for your resume. They state:

Lets say you are applying for a Retail position and have a 3 year gap in your resume you want to fill. CareerExcuse.com has a retail company already established with a 800 number, a real address, a real website, and a real contact person.

Not only do they allow you to ‘fill’ that 3 year gap, they can act as new former job references, complete with: ‘company name, address, “800″ number, company website/Email address , contact name, contact phone number, contact email address’.

You can create your own virtual company answered by a live receptionist, or direct any inquiries into voice mail limbo.

What if someone should happen to call the listed job reference?

When we receive a call inquiring about your references, they will be directed to our human resources dept. where they are instructed to fax, or e-mail, a Authorized Release Form and their Employment Verification Form to a contact person that we provided to you as your new job reference.

It seems their creativity knows no bottom:

Bankrupt companies make a great previous employer
We have created a management company with dozens of bankrupt companies that are ready to provide any inquirer your desired reference information.

Advising on ethics is just another part of their services:

Is misinformation on a resume illegal?
No, Since a resume is not a legal document, it is not illegal to misrepresent on a resume.

Course if the employer should happen to find out about this, ah, deception:

Can I get caught and fired?
We can’t guarantee that you wont and not liable if you do. If you get the job in the first place..we did our part. It’s up to you to act responsible after you get the job

After you get the job?

It would seem that an employer must do their own due diligence by checking #800′s and email addresses against valid sources to ensure that they are receiving valid reference checks.

It does seem that they are careful about privacy:

What about my privacy?
For your protection we do not collect or share any personal information about you, such as your name, mailing address or credit card number. All of your financial transactions are conducted through Paypal, our secure payment processor.

When it comes to hiring people these days, it seems that one needs to carefully ask: “Who are You…who who????” because we would like to know…

Hat tip to Pete Roberts for passing this site along!

♫ Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run..♫

Lyrics and music by: Steve Miller, recorded by the Steve Miller Band.

A lawyer in BC has reported that the fraudsters have a new tactic in their attempts against lawyers and their trust accounts.

Past fraud attempts have aimed at trying to have a lawyer immediately forward funds to a client resulting from a ‘collection’ against a debtor that is paid by a forged certified financial instrument that is deposited into the lawyer’s trust account. Now the fraudsters have changed tactics.

Rather than try to convince the lawyer that he or she has just collected a large debt and he or she should send over large amounts of money forthwith, the fraudsters are now simply forging cheques that appear to be trust cheques drawn on the lawyer’s trust account. This way they bypass the lawyer and their firm controls entirely.

This is a straight cheque forgery. In one case that I am aware, a bank cashed one of these forged cheques, only to reverse the withdrawal shortly afterwards and restore the funds back into the lawyer’s trust account.

This behooves lawyers to go online and check their trust account activity on a daily basis…just to ensure that someone hasn’t taken the money and run….

♫ Everyone of them knew that as time went by
They’d get a little bit older and a litter slower but
It’s all the same thing, in this case manufactured by someone who’s always
Umpteen your father’s giving it diddly-i-dee
District was leaving, intended to pay for

Who’s to know?
Who was to know?…♫

Lyrics and music by Lennon & McCartney, recorded by The Beatles.

A bookkeeper of a San Francisco Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury firm Bostwick, Peterson & Mitchell was sentenced just before Christmas to 10 years in State Prison for stealing $9 million US from the firm since 2005 reported Legal Pad in a post on Jan. 6, 2010.

He will go to prison for 10 years; his thefts took place over about 9 years. He stole $9 million; he was ordered to pay $8.7 million in restitution.

Legal Pad stated:

‘While it’s mostly “water under the bridge,” said partner James Bostwick, it does offer some relief. “It took way too long, but of course it’s good to see him transferred from county jail to state prison.”

Bostwick said the firm uncovered Thomas’ transgressions in 2005, when he started acting suspiciously during an audit of the firm’s finances. “He caused a lot of harm along the way,” Bostwick said. “He was a person we trusted for 10 years.” ‘

Such stories make a rather convincing case for good law firm audits on law firm’s trust and general accounts. After all, in every year its all the same thing – a trusted person at the center – who’s to know without an audit?