Thoughtful Legal Management

Recognition for Achievements by Lawyers and Law Firms

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:20:56 +0000

♫ We are the champions
No time for losers
Cause we are the champions
of the world… ♫

Music and lyrics by Freddie Mercury, recorded and performed by Queen.

When thinking of the Olympics, an image of a breathless young person comes to mind who is standing on a podium, smiling the smile of a lifetime as someone places a ribbon-bound medal around his or her neck. While lawyering may not be an Olympic sport, there are no shortage of awards and recognition that lawyers and law firms may win in the international, national, provincial and community levels, aside from the coveted QC.

There is the Gruber Prize for Justice. The Gruber Foundation Justice Prize is presented to individuals or organizations for contributions that have advanced the cause of justice as delivered through the legal system. The award is intended to acknowledge individual efforts, as well as to encourage further advancements in the field and progress toward bringing about a fundamentally just world. In 2003, Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella and Madam Justice Bertha Wilson, both of Canada, were recipients (okay, they are judges but they were lawyers at one point too).

There are the Legal Awards. Canada fared rather well in these awards in 2009:

* Best Tax Team, Canada, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP
* Best Transfer Pricing Team, Canada, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
* Best Banking & Finance Lawyer, Canada, Barry Ryan, McCarthy Tetrault LLP
* Best Intellectual Property Lawyer, Canada, Douglas N. Deeth, Deeth Williams Wall
* Best M&A Lawyer, Canada, William M. Ainley, Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

The College of Law Practice Management awards the InnovAction Awards for ingenuity in law practice management. Designed to inspire creative thinking in a field known for its over-reliance on precedent, the InnovAction Awards are intended not only to identify effective innovation but also to inspire it through international recognition. Unfortunately, no Canadian firm has ever won an InnovAction award.

There are the Western Canada General Counsel Awards, a spinoff of the highly successful Canadian General Counsel Awards, sponsored by National Post and ZSA Legal Recruitment. Darren Watt of Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. was picked as “Tomorrow’s Leader” and William Cottick of B.C. Ferries Service, received a Lifetime Achievement award.

David Allgood, on behalf of the RBC’s General Counsel team, received the Association of Corporate Counsel’s highest honour, the “Excellence in Corporate Practice” award.

The Legal Marketing Association has: the Your Honour awards (in 2009 McMillian LLP, Stikeman Elliott LLP and Bennett Jones LLP were winners), the Hall of Fame Award and our own Vancouver Chapter has the HELM Awards to honour excellence in legal marketing (2008 winners can be found on the Vancouver Chapter’s Web Page.

The Canadian Law Blog Awards, (“the Clawbies”), highlight great blogs published by the Canadian legal industry. They are to inspire “social endorsements” for those Canadians who invest their time blogging about the law, or the legal industry in general.

The Clawbies are intended to be a showcase of Canadian legal blogging and to promote a sense of community. Erik Magraken’s B.C. Injury Law blog (www.icbclaw.com/blog) (along with your humble scribe’s Thoughtful Legal Management blog) were B.C. winners.

And of course this short summary just scratches the surface of the legal, business and humanitarian awards that lawyers and law firms can and have received.

Congratulations to all the nominees and the champions of the world alike.

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

The Scams Continue..

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:36:57 +0000

♫ 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 Firm Leaders Should Focus on NOW…

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:02:12 +0000

♫ 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.

Management compensation: The members of the senior management team should have a compensation plan that rewards them for assuming their management responsibilities and for their performance as leaders and managers.

Strategic Planning: This is more important than ever. But, in addition to the basic plan, there needs to be alternative plans as well, based on “what if” scenarios.

Implementation: Many firms develop plans – firm, practice group, client team, individual lawyer – but never implement them. Plans mean nothing unless they are implemented – and the results monitored.

Fees and providing value: While there is a growing trend towards alternative fee arrangements, the billable hour is not dead. Flexibility and creativity are needed to ensure that clients are comfortable with the billing arrangement and feel they are receiving “value” – which, in many cases, just means lower fees or discounts on hourly rates.

Listening to clients: For all the reasons discussed in our September, 2009, Legal Communique, client audits are more essential than ever.

Capital: A law firm is a business and every business requires sufficient capital to support operations as well as growth. Yet most law firms are under-capitalized because they do not require the partners to contribute sufficient capital, either at the time they are admitted to the partnership or as the firm grows. In fact, there are still firms that do not require partners to contribute any capital – i.e., invest in the firm and become true owners.

Partner compensation: A firm’s compensation system needs to recognize, not just billable hours or collections, but each partner’s total contribution to the firm,. This requires a subjective review of objective data. Some firms have even recently removed billable hours from the determination.

Profitability: Maintaining or increasing profitability should no longer depend on raising rates each year. Firms must manage their work and operations more efficiently. Leverage is still the principal source of profitability. But leverage now includes, not only delegating work to lower-fee timekeepers, but also making maximum use of technology. Outsourcing, even in SmallLaw and MidLaw firms, can also be a key source of profit.

Succession Planning: This has become ssential for both client responsibility and management. There should be a written policy that is applied on a case-by-case basis. Gradual adjustments in compensation must be part of the program.

Senior partners: Many partners in their 60s, 70s and even 80s want to continue to be active and can make productive contributions to the firm in various ways. Management should recognize this and take advantage of this pool of talent.

Recruiting: There are several options – entry level associates, lateral entries and small group acquisitions. Which is the best strategy for the firm – or should they all be pursued at times? Associate training and development. A small but increasing number of firms have already recognized that lockstep promotion and compensation should be halted. An apprenticeship or similar program should be instituted, followed later on by merit promotion and compensation. But firms must provide sufficient time and resources to individually monitor and evaluate each associate’s development.

Indoctrinating lateral entries: Despite the great increase in lateral entries at all size firms, most still do not sufficiently integrate these new partners or associates into the operations, practice – and culture – of the firm. As a result, cross-marketing opportunities are missed and some of the most sought after laterals subsequently leave for another firm.

Culling the herd: Layoffs serve, not just to reduce expenses or increase Net Income per Partner, but also to raise the performance level – and morale – of the firm. Disruptive and unproductive people, attorneys as well as staff, must be eliminated. This should start with a review of equity partners.

Marketing and Business Development: Now is not the appropriate time to spend precious marketing and business development dollars on flashy and ego-centric campaigns. But it is time to return to the basics and be certain that the firm and the lawyers are focusing on current clients, target clients, target industries and new practice areas that will grow and be most profitable.

Expectations of partners: Firm leaders cannot focus on all these areas by themselves. They must have expectations of their partners – as discussed in Bob’s January Communique.

You can subscribe to Bob’s Communiques at: www.robertdenney.com and stay on top of what you should be doing with the rest of your life (at least from a business perspective!). Thanks Bob – keep up the good work!

Guess it was Just a Matter of Time…

admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:16:34 +0000

♫ 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!

Feeling a Bit Paranoid???

admin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:41:53 +0000

♫ Everytime I turn around
Something don’t feel right
Just might be paranoid..♫

Lyrics and music by: Nicholas Jerry Jonas, Joseph Adam Jonas, Paul Kevin Jonas II, Cathy Dennis, John Fields, recorded by The Jonas Brothers.

I guess it was just a matter of time. IT World posted an article today by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (sjvn@vna1.com) entitled: “Can you trust Chinese computer equipment?”

While this may seem like the musings of a hyper-active Homeland Security Department, it is based on MI5’s report in The Times Online “China bugs and burgles Britain” that the Chinese Government has given British executives equipment with security holes.

The Times Online article contains a chilling paragraph in discussing a report on these incidents:

Written by MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the 14-page “restricted” report describes how China has attacked UK defence, energy, communications and manufacturing companies in a concerted hacking campaign.

The rest of this post can be found on: Feeling a Bit Paranoid??? on slaw.ca.

WestlawNext..other Perspectives…

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:38:09 +0000

♫ You see more than I
Daniel you’re a star in the face of the sky…♫

Lyrics by: Bernie Taupin, music and recorded by Elton John.

Subsequent to the early glimpse into WestlawNext that Thompson Reuters provided to a group of us in Eagan, Minnesota, many of that august group have now posted their views on WestlawNext on the web. So without any further ado, here is a look at what they, and others, have seen:

My fellow www.slaw.ca colleague Simon Chester has posted an extensive review of the product along with screen shots on Slaw.

Robert Ambrogi (who unfortunately wasn’t in Eagan) posted his look at WestlawNext on his blog Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites.

Jason the Content Librarian (Jason Eiseman) sat down with Tom Boone, Greg Lambert of 3 Geeks and a Law Blog and Jason Wilson who were at the preview and recorded a 40 minute video of their impressions of the product (note that each of them have posted their thoughts on their own blogs).

Robert Ambrogi has also posted additional views on legal blog watch on www.law.com (note – his last blog post on law.com has just been posted! We are going to miss you Robert!).

The New York Times as well as the ABA Journal have posted reviews.

Carolyn Elefant posted her views on www.myshingle.com.

Betsy (Elizabeth) McKenzie has posted on Out of the Jungle.

Laura Bergus of Legal Geekery has posted a “WestlawNext: Special Edition Legal Geekery Podcast“.

Lisa Solomon posted a review exploring pricing and other thoughts on her blog Legal Research and Writing Pro.

You can sign up for a launch day alert here.

I hope I haven’t omitted anyone who has posted their early views and thoughts on the new WestlawNext. In the interests of fair disclosure, Thomson Reuters did pay expenses to travel to Eagan to see the preview (brrrr…it is cold there compared to warm Vancouver!).

By visiting these other sites hopefully you will gain perspective by reading the thoughts of other legal bloggers, writers and videographers who are stars in the face of the sky.

Dave’s Top 10 List about WestlawNext

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:44:02 +0000

♫ Baby lovin’ you
Is how it’s meant to be
It’s something that is oh so natural to me
Natural…♫

Lyrics and music by: Cathy Dennis and A. Todd, recorded by S Club 7.

WestlawNext is about to be released. Courtesy of Thomson Reuters, I was given a sneak peak at this new legal research offering. So without further ado, here is Dave’s Top 10 list on WestlawNext:

10: You no longer have to select a database. Choose your jurisdiction (say California or Alabama) and the search engine under the hood will pull together relevant hits from all of West’s legal databases that are relevant to your search criteria. Considering that Westlaw has over 40,000 databases, this is a marked improvement. Furthermore, you get to see the results of all the hits in the Westlaw system and not just in the databases that you traditionally searched.

9: You do not need to know Westlaw syntax or use boolean search logic (’search terms and connectors’). Natural language searching is just fine. Of course you can use boolean search terms if you wish

8: That search engine under the hood has been considerably enhanced. You do not need to spend time considering the precise language in framing your search. You can search by factual description (“right to trim tree when tree debris falls on neighbor’s property”), by legal concept (“res ipsa loquitur”) or statute terminology to retrieve your search inquiry.

7: Your search term does not need to appear in the hit to be listed. For example, “DWI” is only one way of classifying driving under the influence. Behind the scenes, the search engine recognizes the variations and pulls up cases, statutes and relevant secondary materials related to the concept rather than the actual wording. This ensures that your searches are more effective than under the traditional way of searching.

6: You can customize the search to display cases, statutes or briefs etc as your preferred search result.

5: It provides you with “related topics” to your search which may assist in understanding your search query to lead you to resources that you may not have considered. This allows you to understand and comprehend the wider context of your query.

4: WestlawNext has on-line folders in which you can store your search documents and results. Here the added benefit is that if any new materials are added to Westlaw, your online folder will contain the new items. Furthermore, other than the cost of subscribing to WestlawNext, there is no cost to searching all the databases in Westlaw. If a document in your hit list is part of your existing Westlaw plan, then you don’t pay anything to view that document (or place it in your folder). If the document is outside of your Westlaw plan, then you only pay if you choose to view the document. This way you can use the search power of WestlawNext and only pay for what you wish to see. When you place a document in your online folders, there is no additional charge to go back and view it. However, someone with whom you are collaborating may have to pay to view that document, depending on their Westlaw plan.

3: Collaboration and workflow tools have been added. You can now share research with others in your firm.

2: When you view a case, your case results are automatically KeyCited with that information displayed at the top of the screen. Case warnings are prominently displayed.

1: Along with your preferred search result (cases, statutes etc) a panel on the right side of the screen brings up secondary materials related to your search. This way you can expand your research without having to do the search again, this time selecting another database.

WestlawNext has been designed under the hood to use the power of the West Key Number system along with other search algorithm improvements combined with human tweaks on how to improve search results. Not all improvements are in how WestlawNext functions. The way that WestlawNext displays its search results has also been tweaked based on customer insights, log analysis, eye tracking, design reviews, performance testing, usability testing, workflow observations and focus groups.

The people at Thompson Reuters state that WestlawNext works best using Google’s Chrome browser. If you don’t use Chrome, users are advised to upgrade to the latest versions of their browsers to attain the best results.

I do like the fact that all searches in WestlawNext are included in your existing plan; only viewing results comes at a charge. This feature that allows you to see the full extend of the resources available to you is a significant improvement, in my opinion.

WestlawNext is clearly aimed at those lawyers who are more familiar with a Google search than a traditional Westlaw search. The appeal of WestlawNext to me would be the efficiency/effectiveness gains in using WestlawNext as compared to traditional legal research. Another appeal would be WestlawNext’s ease of use.

In order to gain market share, a user would have to gain confidence that the results in WestlawNext are not just as good as, but in fact superior to, a traditional search; the people at Thomson Reuters confidently assured us that this is in fact the case.

Given Google Scholar, Westlaw has to raise the bar to beat the competition and justify their value-added services. It looks like they have a winner on their hands.

My only question is when is this coming to Canada? I am told it will be the last quarter of 2010 or the first quarter of 2011. Like most new technologies, those of us in the frozen white north will have to wait a bit before we see this in Westlaw Canada.

It is something that is oh so natural to me; it will be worth waiting for.

A New Fraud Attempt on Lawyers

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:25:32 +0000

♫ 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….

Aim for the Stars..

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:24:09 +0000

♫ Time now to spread your wings
To take to flight
The life endeavor
Aim for the burning sun…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Darren Hayes and Daniel Jones recorded by Savage Garden.

Every so often, all of us are looking for a bit of inspiration – a few uplifting words to give flight to our ideas and our lives. Accordingly I was pleased to receive an email from a colleague Patricia Yevics pointing me to a graduation address by Steve Jobs at Stanford University on “How to Live before You Die”.

This particular video clip is hosted on: www.ted.com. I had visited TED before but this last visit brought home the full extent of the number of inspiring and truly great and inspirational clips on this site. TED calls itself: “Ideas Worth Spreading” and I couldn’t agree more. I like to think of TED as YouTube that has been moderated.

I hope that we can spread the word about TED to those who may be looking for an updraft when they are aiming for the stars.

Human Rights, Google and Internet Explorer…on Slaw.ca

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:47:51 +0000

♫ A moment of despair
That forces you to say that life’s unfair
It makes you scared of what tomorrow may bring
But don’t go giving into fear ..♫

Lyrics and music by: Stone, Greenberg, Daniel Pierre, recorded by Joss Stone.

This is a post on Slaw.ca today:

You may wonder what human rights has to do with Internet Explorer. Prior to the earthquake in Haiti, the news was filled with the cyber-attacks on Google. The latest attacks on Google’s network appear to have originated in China, reported ComputerWorld in a post dated Jan 12, 2010 and were directed at the Google accounts of human rights activists in China. ComputerWorld stated:

In a blog post Tuesday, David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said that attacks have forced the company to “review the feasibility of our business operations in China.” Google, continued Drummond, is “no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.”