CounseltoCounsel Blog

Lateral hiring on the rebound in Chicago and Midwest.

As firms increasingly adopt alternative fee agreements, better models of staffing will take on more importance (including outsourcing).  But technology also has a role to play in helping law firms figure out how to deliver legal services “better, faster, cheaper”.

I don’t follow the e-discovery world that closely; but do I take notice when law firms adopt innovative approaches.

Therefore,  a press release I received today from Squire Sanders LLP and Equivio, a software company that manages data redundancy, caught my attention.

“Modern litigation triggers a deluge of discoverable information that cannot be effectively managed with traditional strategies that rely on using associates or contract lawyers to page through ever-escalating volumes of data,” said Howard J. C. Nicols, Squire Sanders’ global managing partner for practices and head of the firm’s advocacy practice area. “That type of review multiplies the time and expense of discovery and, if not managed effectively, can sacrifice quality.”

“Our strategy, which we call intelligent discovery, is an alternative approach that we believe provides clients with the best possible value by delivering enhanced review quality within a well-controlled cost framework,” Nicols said. “Intelligent discovery seeks to reduce e-discovery costs by eliminating to the greatest extent possible the cost of human review. Intelligent discovery combines review by experienced trial lawyers with automated analysis and prioritization of potentially relevant documents to deliver reliable and cost-effective results.”

The key here seems to be using intelligent systems to prioritize documents (i.e. rather than simply look for key words).

Here is a good rundown of the ethical issues that you should be concerned with if you are thinking of running your law practice with cloud computing.

Does all the change in the legal profession have you wondering whether you are at the “right” firm?  My latest submission to JDSupra http://bit.ly/aFWkQ2 .

One of the reasons that brilliant lawyer may not be brilliant salespeople is that selling requires emotional intelligence. Since the two are independent of each other, it is not unusual for an academically bright individual to be less talented in the emotional intelligence department.

The good news is that emotional intelligence is not fixed.   Through proper coaching, emotional intelligence can be enhanced.  According to one psychiatrist, emotional intelligence has 12 elements.  (See also here .)   Understanding these elements is the first step in becoming more “emotionally intelligent”.

There is a lot of evidence that lawyers need to change they way they bill for their services.   And as the billable hour is replaced by alternative fee agreements, law firms will have a much greater incentive to find more efficient ways to get their work done.

A lot of the pressure is coming from corporate clients who are adopting the principals outlined in the ACC Value Challenge.  But apparently, some judges are paying attention to these issue as well (i.e. they expect counsel to use appropriate resources to complete tasks.)

As reported in Above the Law, a partner at a major law firm was chastised for requesting excessive  attorneys fees.  In reducing the fees requested by counsel, the judge suggested that the partner had demonstrated “a lack of  billing judgment”.  In particular, the judge suggested that some of the discovery tasks performed by the partner should have been performed by junior associates.

The practice of law is changing.  While it remains unclear how much movement there will be away from the billable hour, one thing is certain:  this time around, talk about alternative billing is no longer just talk.    In conjunction with billing changes, staffing models will also be changing (once law firms no longer have the incentive to spend as many hours as possible to get work done, they will look for ways to create efficiency).

Change in the practice of law is particularly disruptive.  While no one likes change, accepting new ways of doing business is particularly challenging for lawyers  This may come in part from the fact that lawyers spend their days helping their clients to avoid risk.

But like it or not, change is coming to the legal profession and what was yesterday’s hot practice area can easily become today’s moribund practice group (think collateralized debt obligations).  What was once a highly profitable way to staff a case (e.g. placing a team of high priced associates on a large document review project) may no longer be viable in a world economy where document review can get done in India for half the cost.

Adapting to change is easier said than done.  Humans are not well wired for change and as a group, lawyers are particularly bad at accepting new ways of doing things.  Being a profession that advises clients on how to avoid risk, change is uncomfortable because it feels risky.

But staying put is even riskier.  Just ask all the manufacturers of buggy whips who were unable to (or unwilling to) recognize that the automobile was going to replace the horse and buggy.

I’m always looking for new ways to explain to my clients the importance of focus in marketing.  Sometimes I refer to this as “less is more”.

Most of the lawyers I work with have a fairly broad mix of work that they have performed at one time or another.  Most of my clients have expertise in more than one practice area.

The communication issue for these attorneys is that they do not want to miss out on any opportunities.  Somehow, there is a natural inclination to believe that when asked what we do, we had better mention “everything” lest we leave out the one service that the individual or company actually needs.

The paradox, however, is that when we articulate a long list of services that we provide, we dilute our message.  By trying to be all things to all clients, we end up being less effective in getting our prospects to remember what we do (and getting them to call us when they actually have a need!)

The diagram above explains the solution.  The key to building a successful law practice is to have a focused message (i.e. the red circle in the middle); but not to confuse your marketing message with your broader case/client screening criteria (i.e. the larger circle of all cases that you are willing to handle.)

For example, maybe you have litigated divorce cases, trademark disputes, small business disputes, employment matters and even personal injury cases.  If one of those cases comes along, you will happily represent the client. But as you communicate your expertise to the world (e.g. through public speaking, writing articles and social media), your message might be that you represent executives with employment discrimination claims (and a host of other business litigation matters.)

By focusing your message on your niche, you are much more likely to be memorable wrt that niche.  Rather than missing out on work because the prospect is unaware that you have the required experience, you will insure that your expertise is filed away in a place where it can be retrieved.  And since it can take a long time for any one prospect to actually have a need you can serve, it’s best to be memorable than to be comprehensive.

Are you placing too much emphasis on professional achievement in order to derive your own self esteem. That was the diagnosis offered in the WSJ (subscription req.)–way back in early 2009 when we thought hoped 2010 would be a big year for job growth.

While there is nothing wrong with striving for high levels of achievement (and as any parent knows, achievement is the cornerstone of self esteem), the problem arises when professional achievement becomes your principal source of self esteem.  In the current economic climate, it is NOT easy to achieve professional success in the short run.  You are therefore not being fair to yourself if your self worth is being measured by the money you have in the bank right now.

If you haven’t been laid off, your workload may be slow. If you are responsible for generating work at your firm, you are probably finding it harder to generate billings (though some firms are starting to note a pick up in economic activity).

In the long run, I think the current economic crisis will force more lawyers to reevaluate their priorities (e.g. why did I go to law school? what do I really want to do with my life? how can I use the added free time to improve my relationships with my friends, children, spouse and family?)

Personally, I’ve rediscovered cooking and my wife and I are eating better. I spend more time with our children, our dog gets more exercise, I’m following up with old friends more frequently and I’m taking care of little annoying car and house related projects that have been on the back burner for a long time.

It’s not that I’m not working hard (in many ways, I’m focusing more energy than ever on identifying business opportunities).  But I’m trying to focus more on other parts of my life to derive self esteem.

So what are you doing to build self esteem during these challenging times? Hint: focus on areas of your life where you have more control! If you do focus on the professional, reward yourself for being successful at networking and don’t be too hard on yourself when clients are not ready to spend their legal dollars.

www.helpareporter.com

I just learned about a great resource for anyone looking to do some public relations for their law practice (i.e. without hiring a PR firm).  Helpareporter.com is a website where reporters post requests for sources (for articles they are writing.) You can sign up to get daily feeds and scan them to see if there are any subjects where you might be an expert.  It looks like reporters from some of the top news sources use this so it is not just for obscure publications.  This service does not put PR firms out of business.  But for attorneys who have a limited amount of money to spend on law firm marketing, this looks like a no-brainer (of course I’ll report back if I see any problems with it after I start to use it.)