Categories
Legal Fees

In Defense of the Billable Hour

The other day I heard a story about a furniture store in Toronto that was known to cater to the wealthy. The owner purchased an unusual item in Vietnam for twenty dollars. He brought it back to his store and promoted it as a one-of-a-kind item from an exotic destination. He sold it to someone with more money than brains for $10,000. The person who told me the story swears that she has fifth-hand knowledge of the incident and that it is absolutely true. Having shopped in that store once, I do not doubt it.

Welcome to the concept of value billing. Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.

Categories
Law Firm Management

Yoga, Mental Health, and Law Firms

If any among you have not yet happened upon the writings of H.L. Mencken, you should correct that. Among his many pithy quotes are the following gems:

  1. Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
  2. Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
  3. Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

One of H.L. Mencken’s quotes that seems particularly apt for law firm management is this one: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

Categories
Client Development

Call ME, Maybe!

There once was a law firm which marketed itself as being a team of lawyers with deep expertise in different areas of the law who worked together seamlessly to deliver the best possible outcomes for the clients. Let’s call them “Super Team Lawyers.”

Super Team compensated its lawyers for bringing in business by awarding origination credits to the lawyer who introduced the client or referral source to the firm and paying them a percentage of their originating credits.

Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

Welcome to the World of Clients

Back when I practiced law, it had been drummed into my head that every mistake was a potential catastrophe and a source of shame. I was a perfectionist and proud of it.  I was also a little bit intense and not particularly healthy. I taught my Associates and Law Clerks to be just like me!

Categories
Retirement

A Retirement Primer for Slow Partners

I recently wrote an article titled, “You are Old. We are Greedy.  Get the Hell Out!”  In that article, I lamented the fact that law firms often nudge (or push, or shove) lawyers out of their firms when they hit their sixties. If you did not like that one, you probably will not like this one either, so just keep scrolling.

Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Justifiable Paranoia – Nothing New Under the Sun

“All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again.”

Battlestar Galactica, Peter Pan, and Ecclesiastes 1:9

It is not often that I quote the Bible, but when the Bible is validated by both Peter Pan and Battlestar Galactica, it has to be right.

In 1994, which may as well be back before the beginning of recorded history as far as people entering law school now are concerned, the Los Angeles Times ran an article written by Amiram Elwork under the following title, “‘Justifiable Paranoia’ Afflicts Lawyers, Psychologist Says.”

Categories
Client Development

The More Things Change, the More Lawyers Still Screw Up Marketing

“Either you follow-up or you fold-up.”  

Bernard Kelvin Clive

I recently observed a law firm doing some impressive online marketing. At the same time, to quote Shania Twain, when it came to the follow-up, “that [didn’t] impress me much.”

Here is my story:

I was doing a bit of research, hoping to find an answer to a legal question to solve a personal issue. I quickly came across a great website for a boutique firm which appeared to have all of the expertise that I need. Great articles, videos with a lawyer who has personality plus, and the offer of a free discovery session. Clearly this firm had the expertise that I required to solve my rather discreet problem.

Categories
Client Development

Never Trust a Lawyer Who Doesn’t Make Mistakes

Back in the day, I would have an Associate join a client meeting with instructions to speak up if they thought I was getting something wrong. Of course, they would only do so occasionally because I was not wrong all that often. When they did, if their point was not so great, I would respectfully acknowledge it and move on, but if it was valuable, I would say so and say to the client something like, “that’s why I had her sit in.”

Categories
Retirement

You are Old. We are Greedy. Get the Hell Out!

Since professional firms are usually partnerships, the well-compensated people at the top of the pyramid are partners, not employees. As a result, all of that stuff that protects employees from discrimination on the basis of age in the Human Rights Code does not apply to them, at least where I live in Ontario, Canada.

With that over-simplified but pithy summary of the law, I have explained how partners in accounting firms and law firms can be squeezed out in their early sixties.

Categories
Legal Fees

Silent Stupidity

“Fools believe silence is a void needing to be filled; the wise understand there’s no such thing as silence.”

Michael J. Sullivan, Age of Myth

Client: Why do I want to pay for two lawyers to be in this meeting?