Practice Management

The Blog Post I Do Not Have to Eat - thanks to Patrick Lamb

Posted on January 10, 2009
  Patrick was kindly referring to my August 2007 post called Doom and Gloom in the Legal Profession - It's Coming which I promised to eat if wrong.  I am sorry I don't have to eat it for reasons you will see if you review it...

The Blog Post I Do Not Have to Eat - thanks to Patrick Lamb

Posted on January 10, 2009
  Patrick was kindly referring to my August 2007 post called Doom and Gloom in the Legal Profession - It's Coming which I promised to eat if wrong.  I am sorry I don't have to eat it for reasons you will see if you review it...

Your Strategic Plan to Make More Money While Working Less

Posted on January 08, 2009
  Keynote Presentation in Chicago May 27, 28 at the Get a Life conference for lawyers.   ...also Strategic Planning Session to close the conference     

Get A Life.? - Annual Conference

Posted on January 08, 2009
  Keynote Presentation in Chicago May 27, 28 at the Get a Life conference for lawyers.   ...also Strategic Planning Session to close the conference    ...details  

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Cravath Swaine & Moore Killing the Billable Hour?

Posted on January 06, 2009
Evan R. Chesler is a Presiding Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.  He has offered his thoughts via Forbes in a piece called: Kill The Billable Hour.  There is no suggestion that he is articulating a new policy for the entire firm but he is clear on his own views and given that he is the presiding partner, his words may very well represent some strategic thinking within the firm...

Cravath Swaine & Moore Killing the Billable Hour?

Posted on January 06, 2009
Evan R. Chesler is a Presiding Partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.  He has offered his thoughts via Forbes in a piece called: Kill The Billable Hour.  There is no suggestion that he is articulating a new policy for the entire firm but he is clear on his own views and given that he is the presiding partner, his words may very well represent some strategic thinking within the firm...

Will economic hardship mean more client/law-firm fraud?

Posted on January 05, 2009
Perhaps these troubled times will motivate more attempts to defraud law firms - Managing Partners, what have you done to strengthen security lately? Client Reportedly Scams $1M from Philippine Law Firm  

Will economic hardship mean more client/law-firm fraud?

Posted on January 05, 2009
Perhaps these troubled times will motivate more attempts to defraud law firms - Managing Partners, what have you done to strengthen security lately? Client Reportedly Scams $1M from Philippine Law Firm  

Bravo Pepe & Hazard for demonstrating what "client driven" really means

Posted on December 01, 2008
Pepe & Hazard has had the courage to decide to freeze its rates for existing clients for 2009 and to go public with that information.  Managing Partner Al Turco Managing Partner, Al Turco, said [Pepe & Hazard] is in the process of formulating a 2009 budget to manage its own revenues and expenses...

Bravo Pepe & Hazard for demonstrating what "client driven" really means

Posted on December 01, 2008
Pepe & Hazard has had the courage to decide to freeze its rates for existing clients for 2009 and to go public with that information.  Managing Partner Al Turco Managing Partner, Al Turco, said [Pepe & Hazard] is in the process of formulating a 2009 budget to manage its own revenues and expenses...

The Art of Laying People Off

Posted on November 28, 2008
  PUNCHLINE:  (yes, I'll start with it) Managing Partners: I don't think you should downsize now unless you absolutely have to.  It's a rough world out there - you should have cut the underperforms a long time ago...

The Art of Laying People Off

Posted on November 28, 2008
  PUNCHLINE:  (yes, I'll start with it) Managing Partners: I don't think you should downsize now unless you absolutely have to.  It's a rough world out there - you should have cut the underperformers a long time ago...

What does the Futurist see for your firm?

Posted on November 25, 2008
                                                            Read all of the Top Ten Predictions from the Futurist for 2009 and on - possibly most relevant to the legal profession are:    5...

What does the Futurist see for your firm?

Posted on November 25, 2008
                                                            Read all of the Top Ten Predictions from the Futurist for 2009 and on - possibly most relevant to the legal profession are:    5...

When are you meeting with your Landlord

Posted on October 28, 2008
    Negotiating is a question of power. The Chicago tribune reported today that: Layoffs at Chicago law firms have sent a shudder through the commercial real estate market.   The article, Cutbacks at firms worry landlords, quotes Bill Rogers, managing director of commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle:   "I do have a sense that you may see some landlords get a little more aggressive and push rates down" The articles continues: That is likely to push firms into the real estate market...

When are you meeting with your Landlord

Posted on October 28, 2008
    Negotiating is a question of power. The Chicago tribune reported today that: Layoffs at Chicago law firms have sent a shudder through the commercial real estate market.   The article, Cutbacks at firms worry landlords, quotes Bill Rogers, managing director of commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle:   "I do have a sense that you may see some landlords get a little more aggressive and push rates down" The articles continues: That is likely to push firms into the real estate market...

Banks force troubled law firms to rethink structures

Posted on October 20, 2008
"[Law] Firms in financial ‘intensive care’ told to merge, divest or restructure as cash dwindles from accounts" OK, this is a UK story but so what!  What reason do we have to believe that law firms around the world will not encounter similar challenges (perhaps they already are but are keeping it between themselves and their bankers)...

You'll never see a sticky note the same way again

Posted on September 17, 2008
EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.   HUGE THANK YOU to lawyer and creativity genius, Matthew Homann of the [non billable] hour and his ingenious LexThink

Call for US lawyers to get involved in voters' rights issues

Posted on September 16, 2008
I am passing this forward for my good friend, Kirk T. Hartley, of the Chicago litigation boutique, Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP.  He cares a lot about voting rights! Kirk asked me to direct you American Lawyers who care about voting rights to his post Offtopic - Lawyers and Voters' Rights 2008 - Get Involved at GlobalTort

How Optimistic Law Firm Leaders Might React to Wall Street

Posted on September 15, 2008
The image above is the core of the post of internet phenom, Rajesh Setty, in his post today at Life Beyond Code: Optimists and Pessimists - The big difference is.. Couple that with the wisdom of lawyer and legal profession provocateur, Patrick Lamb, in his post today: Silver Lining in Black Economic Cloud? in which Pat says among other things: If you don't see the opportunity to restructure relationships in ways that produce savings for your clients while at the same time strengthening your relationship with that client, you need to open your eyes...

Lehman Liquidation? Merrill Acquisition? Greenspan: "worst economy I've ever seen"?

Posted on September 15, 2008
Managing Partners, you may have a disaster plan for fire, perhaps for terrorism - do you have one for the economic train coming off the tracks? Listen (and watch) what Greenspan said yesterday Sept 14th (50 seconds) Punchline:  You are getting fair warning - are you acting on it?  This is not a time for traditional strategic planning - it is time for scenario planning that will create "dynamic resilience" that may become the life support system your firm will need should the economy worsen...

30 Tips for Getting Along With Others

Posted on September 13, 2008
Many of my law firm clients tell me that one of their biggest "people" problems is that some people just don't work well with others - why?  because they don't always get along. Enter a brilliant post by Marelisa Fabrega (lawyer/blogger/woman-extraordinaire) called 30 Tips for Getting Along With Others You might want to get Marelisa's permission to print her post and use it for an internal workshop or two...

The rest of the world is counting on you, Americans!

Posted on September 10, 2008
Americans!!  You are the only ones who can participate in your upcoming election so on behalf of foreigners like me, (in my case, a proud Canadian living in Anguilla, British West Indies) PLEASE get involved and please vote.  The higher the turnout, the more those of us who are not Americans can respect your outcome...

Oh my Darling - 60 years!!!

Posted on August 30, 2008
Britain is facing "arguably the worst" economic downturn in 60 years which will be "more profound and long-lasting" than people had expected, Alistair Darling, the chancellor, tells the Guardian today in a story called: Economy at 60-year low, says Darling...

The One Piece Of Advice You Need to Get the Fees You Deserve

Posted on August 15, 2008
RainToday.com created a special report  from 12 experts in pricing  professional services, including, I am honoured to say, yours truly.  You can download my article: "Think of Services in Terms of Value – Not Rates" by Gerry Riskin (author: The Successful Lawyer) or download the entire 39 page report including all 12 articles by visiting RainToday...

"How the 'Cravath System' Created the Bi-Modal Distribution."

Posted on July 23, 2008
Law Professor William D. Henderson (click on photo for bio) Managing Partners and law firm H.R. Executives should contemplate the meaning of Indiana University School of Law's Prof. Bill Henderson's post: "How the 'Cravath System' Created the Bi-Modal Distribution...

A new kind of law firm: Virtual Law Partners

Posted on July 17, 2008
Stephanie West Allen breaks a story that we will look back on in ten years as groundbreaking.  Have a look (click on the image for Stephanie's post): PUNCHLINE:  I can relate having lived in a virtual world for many years.  Lawyers in most firms seem to resist the virtual world in favour of the comfort of bricks and mortar and "proximity" - working with someone on the next floor seems easy enough but in another city?  Many still have trouble with that one...

When Better Service Is a Bad Thing

Posted on July 01, 2008
What is your initial reaction to the title of this blog post?  I thought it was daft… until I read the complete post by Susan Cramm on June 25, 2008 on her Harvard Business Blog: Having IT Your Way. Here is an excerpt from her blog post: Over the past decade, IT organizations have worked hard to improve services and in turn increase IT’s impact on the business...

Law firm Leaders - here's 3 minutes 53 seconds from Tom Peters

Posted on June 09, 2008
Tom Peters on the Definition of Leadership from Tom Peters on Vimeo. Whether you are Firm Chair, Managing Parter, Practice Group Leader, Industry Group Leader or Client Team Leader, I believe 3 minutes and 53 seconds will prove a useful catalyst for your thought...

Weather the Storm Article Available from Canadian Bar Association's The National

Posted on May 23, 2008
To download this article, click on an image or this link.

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