Tag: lawfirms

In Defense of the Billable Hour

Post author By Murray Gottheil
Post date June 19, 2023
No Comments on In Defense of the Billable Hour

Woman holding a clock. — Photo by Victoria Rain at Pexels.

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.

Tags attorneys, billablehours, fixedfees, lawfirmmanagement, lawfirms, lawyers, valuebilling

Client Development

Call ME, Maybe!

Man wearing a headband and using the "call me" sign. — Photo by Brett Sayles at Pexels.

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.

Tags attorneys, businessdevelopment, lawfirms, lawyers, marketing, mentoring

The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

Welcome to the World of Clients

Post author By Murray Gottheil
Post date June 9, 2023
No Comments on Welcome to the World of Clients

A man covering his face and looking upset while staring at his computer. — Photo by Alex Green at Pexels.

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!

Tags articlingstudents, attorneys, lawfirms, lawstudents, lawyers, mental health, mentoring

Client Development

Never Trust a Lawyer Who Doesn’t Make Mistakes

Post author By Murray Gottheil
Post date June 2, 2023
2 Comments on Never Trust a Lawyer Who Doesn’t Make Mistakes

A sign which says, "Work Hard, Stay Humble." — Photo by Maddie Freddie at Pexels.

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.”

Tags articlingstudents, attorneys, lawfirms, lawstudents, lawyers, marketing, mentoring

Legal Fees

Silent Stupidity

An older man holding a finger up to his lips to make the silence gesture. — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels.

“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?

Tags attorneys, lawfirms, lawyers, legalfees

Mentoring

To Thine Own Self Be True

Post author By Murray Gottheil
Post date May 9, 2023
No Comments on To Thine Own Self Be True

Woman packing a box marked "Fired" — Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA at Pexels.

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Hamlet – William Shakespeare.

I drove into the Big City the other day and had brunch with an old friend who I will call Sandy, because that is her name.

Tags articlingstudents, attorneys, lawfirms, lawyers, mentoring

Law Students and Young Lawyers

What Danger Lurks in the Shadow of Brilliance?

Post author By Murray Gottheil
Post date May 7, 2023
No Comments on What Danger Lurks in the Shadow of Brilliance?

Yellow Dead End sign. — Photo by Dustin Tray at Pexels.

Now that I have been retired for a few years, I sometimes wonder whether my experience as to how law firms work remains valid. Also, since I spent my days with medium-sized firms and not in Big Law, I occasionally worry that my view of what goes on in Big Law is not correct.

But then I speak to lawyers working in Big Law and they invariably confirm that Big Law is exactly what I always thought it was (which is just Medium Law on steroids, with worse side effects), and nothing has changed, and likely never will.

Tags articlingstudents, attorneys, lawfirms, lawstudents, lawyers, mentoring

Legal Tech

Enough Chatter About Chat GPT: Time to Move on Up

Post author By Murray Gottheil
Post date May 2, 2023
2 Comments on Enough Chatter About Chat GPT: Time to Move on Up

Rocket ship blasting off. — Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

So, so much chatter about Chat GPT. I believe some of it. I think that some of it is nonsense.

Here is the bottom line:

Lawyers did not go out of business when computers were invented and we lost all of those hours reviewing draft after draft of retyped documents.
We were still able to generate enough billable hours, even after we became able to produce documents faster with document automation software.
Online legal databases did not replace articling students and junior associates.

Buying Clients

Woman standing at whiteboard that says "Marketing" and has numerous sticky notes. — Photo by Alena Darmel at Pexels.

Back when I was practicing law, ignoring my health, and always exhausted, there were oh so many things to think about. One of them was referral fees.

Of course the Law Society has rules about referral fees, as they should. (There are a whole bunch of other things that they have rules about which they should not be involved in, but I will save my rant about that for another day.)

In our firm, we kept our rules about referral fees a whole lot simpler than the Law Society rules. We did not pay referral fees and we did not accept referral fees.

Keep it Stupid, Simple

A skeleton wearing a wig and sunglasses. — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio at Pexels.

Back in 1996 my sister became a doctor. No, not the type that the cabin crew calls for desperately at 35,000 feet when some overworked lawyer has a heart attack. One of the other kinds. In my sister’s case, she holds a Doctorate in Psychology, which is often quite useful given the level of crazy in my family.

For her doctoral thesis, my sister designed an experiment which examined, among other things, the effect of gender on the diagnostic process. She sent a questionnaire to medical doctors and psychologists describing the symptoms of a patient and asking them to suggest a diagnosis. The description of the symptoms received by each clinician was the same, except for one tiny discrepancy. In some cases the patient was described as a woman with certain symptoms typically associated with premenstrual syndrome and which she reported experiencing over several days before the commencement of menstruation. In the others, the patient was described as a man who experienced the same symptoms every four or five weeks.