Author: Murray Gottheil

Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

Who Really Built The Pyramids?

Space ship with little green alien in it.
Photo by Michaël Meyer at Pexels.

I have heard it said that “an expert is someone from out of town with Power Point.”  This expression has some old roots. When I originally heard it, it was “someone from out of town with overhead slides.”

Apparently nowadays you do not even have to travel to become an expert. A young lawyer contacted me recently to ask me my views on the legal profession because he had been told by the Managing Partner of his firm that I was an expert on the profession, a status that I appear to have achieved by ranting on social media.

read more to find out about the root problem of the legal profession “Who Really Built The Pyramids?”
Categories
Client Development

Murray’s Marketing Missives

A wall with vintage advertising signs on it including Coca-Cola, Sherwin Williams and Shell Oil.
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

  1. Give a damn about your clients. They will refer other clients to you.

2. Take your law school friends to lunch. They will be handing out work in a few years.

3. Hold your glass in your left hand when you are at a cocktail reception so your right hand won’t be clammy when you shake hands.

read more marketing missives “Murray’s Marketing Missives”
Categories
Law Firm Management

The Worst People to Run Law Firms are Lawyers

Photo by Jonathan Borba at Pexels.

I was the managing partner of a law firm once. I came to the job with little aptitude for management and even less experience and training. Of course, I was qualified to be the managing partner because I had high personal billings and a whole whack of originating credits. 

read more about why lawyers should not run law firms “The Worst People to Run Law Firms are Lawyers”
Categories
Firm Culture

Time To Go

A young girl holding a clock.
Photo by Renata Kelly Untaler at Pexels.

“There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.”

Tennessee Williams

On the day that the love of my life and I first told each other that we loved each other, we were, unfortunately, both married to other people. It was a pretty rough journey from then to now (together seventeen years, married for twelve.) Along the way a number of people were hurt, only a few of whom deserved it.  I love the result but would not wish the journey on anyone, and deeply regret the hurt caused to the innocent parties.

read more about law firm culture “Time To Go”
Categories
Firm Culture

Building a Team of Partners and Losers

Baseball player sliding into third base and about to be tagged out.
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

We live in a hierarchical world. In a law firm, the levels are pretty clear. From top to bottom it goes something like this: Managing Partner, Other Partners (ranked in order of billings and client originating credits), Senior Associates, Professional Managers, Junior Associates, Law Clerks, Legal Assistants, Clerical Staff, Articling Students, and Cleaners.

Everyone in a law firm has a pretty good notion about what the hierarchy is, although Articling Students have sometimes found out to their shock and horror that they do in fact rank under the Law Clerks, Legal Assistants, and Clerical Staff.

read more about partners and losers “Building a Team of Partners and Losers”
Categories
Law Firm Management

Selling Out For the Price of a Postage Stamp

A red postage stamp bearing the head of the Queen.
Photo by Brett Jordan at Pexels.

Just about everything that I learned about stupidity in the realm of managing people, I learned from lawyers, much of it from my own mistakes. However, this time I will write about the failures at my friend Martin’s law firm instead.

At Martin’s firm, the Human Resources Manager convinced the Partners that it would be a good idea to initiate a program to recognize long-serving firm members, with the view of spreading the word to all members of the team that the firm valued loyalty.

read more about how useless lawyers are at motivating people “Selling Out For the Price of a Postage Stamp”
Categories
Law Firm Management

The Evolution of a Question

Rocket with space shuttle blasting off.
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

When I first attended partners meetings, “what are other law firms doing?” was a question that I heard over and over. Whether the topic was a billable hour requirement, parental leave policy, marketing initiative, or just about anything else, the question of what other law firms were doing always seemed to be relevant.

read more about expanding our horizons in law firm management “The Evolution of a Question”
Categories
Client Development

Stupid Talk

Instructor presenting to an audience.
Photo by Pavel Danilyuk at Pexels.

Lawyers (other than litigators, I suppose) don’t like public speaking much more than other people do, and most people rank public speaking as their greatest fear, just before death.

As best as I can tell, there are two potential audiences for lawyers to speak to. The first group is comprised of potential clients. The reason for speaking to them is obvious.

read more about speaking to drum up business and to other lawyers “Stupid Talk”
Categories
Firm Culture

The Lunatic Fringe

Two rams butting heads.
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

Back in the day, there was a law firm in which the partners were – how do I say it sort of nicely – not ‘culturally aligned.’

Sam was the Managing Partner. He was charming and charismatic, and nice to everybody, at least most of the time.  Aligned with him were enough partners to vote with him on everything that mattered, sometimes more out of personal loyalty or ignorance than conviction.

Gordon was the other high billing partner with a huge client base, which qualified him to lead a group of dissidents. He and Sam tended to be competitive about things such as compensation.

read more about law firm culture “The Lunatic Fringe”
Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Living Well in the Legal Profession

Young man skiing wearing a shirt and shorts.
Photo by Andie Venzl at Pexels.

Doug was an Associate at my first law firm. Martin was our boss.

Just after lunch on my first Friday at the office, Doug said to me, “Any minute now Martin is going to come into my office with a file that absolutely, positively, has to be completed by Monday morning. He does this every Friday to be certain that I have to work on the weekend. He must tell the clients to hold off on giving us files until Friday morning.”

read more about finding happiness in the legal profession “Living Well in the Legal Profession”