Tag: lawfirms

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Law Firm Management

Running and Throwing

Quarterback running with the football.
Photo by Yura Forrat at Pexels

I have been reading about Deshaun Watson’s return to the NFL after serving a suspension as a result of allegations of sexual harassment and assault. Normally I do not like to rush to judgment when a person has been accused but not convicted of a criminal offence, since I believe in the presumption of innocence and all of that. But however you may feel about the allegations against Mr. Watson, he definitely has some ‘splaining to do.

What struck me in the account that I was reading was a statement from one of his alleged victims who said, “he can run and throw and that’s enough.” In other words, when someone has the ability to generate serious money, our culture will forgive pretty much anything.

read more about the free pass for productive lawyers “Running and Throwing”
Categories
Firm Culture

A New Year’s Resolution For Grape Popsicles

Young woman smiling and eating a grape popsicle.
Photo by Nick Oz at Pexels.

I like orange popsicles. The cherry flavoured ones are also okay. The grape flavour is terrible. This is one of the few topics upon which everyone in my household agrees.

It is really hard to find a box of only orange popsicles. Trust me, I have looked. So, we always end up buying a box which contains all three flavours. Eventually our freezer becomes full of grape popsicles that nobody wants and we throw them away to make room. It is a waste of money and not that great for the environment.

read more about being a grape popsicle “A New Year’s Resolution For Grape Popsicles”
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
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
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

Mental Health:  Marketing or Operations?

Womanmeditating.
Photo by Natalie at Pexels

I like to bake bread. In my opinion, and in the opinion of a family member named Aidan, the crust is the best part of my bread.  When he was younger, Aidan would sometimes help himself to both end pieces. I did not like that.

Once, Aidan asked if it was okay for him to take a slice of my freshly baked bread as it was cooling on the counter. I told him to take just one slice.  The next thing I knew he had sliced the entire top of the bread off and was happily munching way.

When I confronted him, Aidan was not particularly remorseful. He said, “you said that I could have a slice. You didn’t say anything about how I had to slice it.”

read more about law firms and mental health initiatives “Mental Health:  Marketing or Operations?”
Categories
Legal Tech

Danger Ahead!

Tiger
Photo by Pixabay at Pexels.

Back in the day, I used to teach junior lawyers how to practice law. I had me some rules. They went something like this:

  1. Do not delegate something that you do not know how to do yourself. If you do, how are you going to know if the work product is correct?
  2. Do not include anything in a document if you do not know why it is there. I will be unimpressed if you give me a document and cannot explain why you included every single word in it.
  3. As a corollary to Rule number 2, never say to me that you included something ‘because it was in the precedent.’ If you do that, I will be apoplectic and that will not be a good thing for either of us.

These rules helped me train a number of junior lawyers to be pretty good at what they did.

read more about the danger junior lawyers face using legaltech “Danger Ahead!”