Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Getting Out Of Your Own Way To Succeed in Law and Life

Speedboat with twin engines named Fast Forward

I once had a partner who I will call Marvin.  Marvin was a capable lawyer who had a specialty in a particular area of litigation.   Marvin was personable. He could bring in lots of work in his specialty and hold onto clients.  Marvin was also smart.  He could look at a complex problem, boil it down to its essentials and identify the most practical solution.  Marvin was particularly good at developing litigation strategies and he was also very good at negotiating with other counsel and at persuading judges to rule in his favour on all sorts of issues. 

read more about practicing law and having a life “Getting Out Of Your Own Way To Succeed in Law and Life”
Categories
Mental Health and Work/Life Balance

Caution: Law Firm Built On Quicksand Ahead

A building damaged by an earthquake and covered with tarps.

(A Cautionary Tale For Lawyers of All Ages)

Back quite a while ago somewhere in Ontario, a fellow who I will call Sam started a law firm, which he quickly grew to be a decent firm of about 20 lawyers.

Sam was a fairly progressive guy for his time, in a number of ways. 

One of Sam’s philosophies was that it takes all types of personalities to build a successful law firm.  When other partners would complain that some partners brought in more clients or produced more billable hours than other partners, Sam would say “we need to have diverse personalities and skills to build a strong firm.  We can adjust for differences in productivity in compensation.”

read more about the conflict between having money and having a life “Caution: Law Firm Built On Quicksand Ahead”
Categories
Legal Fees

Beware of Lawyer Math

The computers used to launch the first manned space flights at Cape Canaveral

Lawyers typically bill in 6-minute intervals (one-tenth of an hour). So, a lawyer with a $500.00 hourly rate bills $50.00 for 6 minutes of work.

Say a lawyer billing $500.00 per hour spends 6 minutes for a client on one day, consisting of four tasks, being a two-minute phone call, one minute reading an email, one minute leaving a voicemail message, and 2 minutes drafting a quick letter.  Six minutes. One-tenth of an hour. At $500.00 per hour, that’s $50.00. Right?  

Maybe. 

read more about lawyers’ creative math “Beware of Lawyer Math”
Categories
The Practice of Law

Sometimes Law Firms Do Not Tell the Whole Truth

A bull standing in a field

Some time ago there was a fellow who I will call Jack.  Jack had invented a product and had found a large company to be his partner and finance the start-up of a business to manufacture the product.  The business did not do well. The partnership did worse. The day came when a deal had to be struck for the partnership to be dissolved.

read more about what law firms lie about “Sometimes Law Firms Do Not Tell the Whole Truth”
Categories
The Practice of Law

Negotiating With Idiots

A replica of Fred Flintsone's car with cartoon characters in it.

Back quite a few years ago, I was out for lunch with one of my associates who for today will be called “Samantha”.  We were having a quick meal at one of those sandwich places where you line up at the counter and order your meal and then take it to a table, gobble it down for 15 minutes and get back to work as quickly as possible so that you do not waste too many billable hours.

read more about negotiating with unreasonable people “Negotiating With Idiots”
Categories
Legal Ethics

Time Travel on the HMCS Document

Terraces on the mountainside at Machu Picchu suggesting an earlier time.

I attended my first closing of a commercial transaction when I was an articling student.  It was a rather large share transaction. The closing started around 2 pm and I imagine that the lawyers thought that they would be done by late afternoon.

It was not to be.

read more about the ethics of backdating documents “Time Travel on the HMCS Document”
Categories
Client Development

Twenty-Two Tips for Keeping Legal Clients Happy

Traditional Church with modern motorcycles parked out front.

Legend has it that years ago in Toronto there was a law firm which embarked on what was then a somewhat unusual exercise.  At the urging of their marketing consultant, this firm surveyed their clients to ask them what they thought of how the law firm delivered its services. 

read more about keeping clients happy “Twenty-Two Tips for Keeping Legal Clients Happy”
Categories
The Practice of Law

The Games That Lawyers Play

Arial view of a county fair.

When negotiating an agreement, clients are often happy to hear that the other side’s lawyer is going to do the drafting.  They assume that their lawyer will spend less time reviewing an agreement than he or she would have spent drafting the agreement in the first place, and that allowing the other side’s lawyer to draft the agreement will be cheaper for them.  Lawyers who are overwhelmed with work, or who are inexperienced, or who are lazy, or who are just not that bright, will readily agree with this approach.

read more about why good lawyers want to do the drafting “The Games That Lawyers Play”
Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

Bullies in the Boardroom

A children's ride in the form of a donkey.

In my 6th year of practice, I represented an insolvent client in his negotiations with his Bank.  The retainer came upon me suddenly as the client was summoned to a meeting with the Bank and its lawyers on virtually no notice and told to bring counsel. 

I met the client for the first time just before the meeting, and off we headed downtown to meet with the Bank’s representatives and a senior insolvency lawyer at a large Toronto firm. I will call this lawyer Tom since I want to make it clear that he was an asshole, but I really do not want to be sued for writing this article. (Although I suppose that the risk of a successful lawsuit would be low since truth is a complete defense). 

read more about bullies in the legal profession “Bullies in the Boardroom”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

An Article About Articling Students

Young girls in traditional Peruvian costumes.

I write this from the perspective of retirement after having practiced law for four decades and having had what I believe was a successful career.

I articled in 1979 for the now defunct firm of Goodman & Carr which at the time was an excellent mid-sized Toronto law firm.

I was not a great articling student.  What a ‘not great articling student’ does not need are some exceptional articling students to work alongside so that the comparisons are easy for everyone to make.

read more about succeeding at articles “An Article About Articling Students”