I just finished reading What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, by Tina Seelig. Dr. Seelig is a neuroscientist and the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering. I wish I knew this now, at 52. I have spent a lot of time talking… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Valorem Announces Advisory Board
Posted in CommentaryThe need to improve is never satiated. Just as true is the fact that "fresh eyes" frequently see things that those closest to something cannot see themselves. These two facts were the impetus for Valorem Law Group forming an Advisory Board. It features current in-house lawyers,current and former GCs, advisers to the legal profession, consultants,… Continue Reading
Thank You.
Posted in GeneralOver 1,300,000 American soldiers have died in battle. Countless others have served in uniform. Honor them. Thank them.
Does Increasing Turbulence Suggest That Now Is The Time For A Different Means Of Travel?
Posted in CommentaryIn the last two days, the legal market has been greeted with more layoffs, a prediction that many more layoffs of associates and partners is inevitable, further deferrals of starting dates for new associates, buy-outs of new associates (also called firing them before they start), rollbacks in associates salaries, further cuts in partner income,… Continue Reading
Defender Of Billable Hour Emerges
Posted in Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesThis headline caught my attention: "Billable Hour Hullabaloo is ‘Overblown, Drinker Partner Says." Courtesy of the ABA Journal, The headline is true to the article. “The billable hour is an overblown issue,” said Drinker Biddle & Reath managing partner Ed Getz, in an interview with the ABA Journal. Getz goes on to say that clients are… Continue Reading
The Process Era–A Follow Up On Jeff Carr’s 4 Buckets
Posted in CommentarySeveral weeks ago, I posted about Jeff Carr’s 4 buckets of law practice–process,content, advocacy and counseling. In the same vein, Jordan Furlong advises lawyers to Get ready for the process era. It is an outstanding piece of work and presents a similar view much more capably. Jordan’s conclusion: I was listening to Richard [Susskind] deliver the… Continue Reading
Is Trust A Casualty of the Recession?
Posted in CommentaryIt may be, according to this post in the Harvard Business Review Editor’s Blog. This article discusses the relationship between buyers and Chinese manufacturers, but also notes this: Is the buyer likely to trust any vendor again? Not surprisingly, when HBR surveyed readers in January 2009, we found that more than one-fifth of 1,024 respondents… Continue Reading
Natural Selection Of Brain Cells (Off Topic)
Posted in GeneralSorry. But I received this email from a friend and laughed so hard I had to share it: Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 I don’t think I’ve ever heard the concept explained any better than this . ‘Well you see, Norm, it’s like this . . . A herd of… Continue Reading
Waste Not, Want Not: Law Firms And The Current Economic Crisis
Posted in CommentaryRahm Emmanuel is famous for saying "a crisis is a terrible thing to waste." But another crisis truism comes to mind as well: "by the time you recognize a real crisis, it may be too late to do anything about it." The question for the day is whether law firms yet today recognize the real… Continue Reading
Is Your Law Firm A Premium Or A Luxury Firm?
Posted in CommentarySeth Godin, a leading marketing adviser, has a fantastic discussion of the difference between luxury and premium goods in his blog today. The entry is suitably titled Luxury vs. premium. Here’s what he says: Luxury goods are needlessly expensive. By needlessly, I mean that the price is not related to performance. The price is related… Continue Reading
Is It Possible That The Hourly Rate Model Is Just Misunderstood?
Posted in Hourly Rates and AlternativesAwwww. The billable hour model is not so bad, just misunderstood. Such is the hypothesis of a new law.com article, In Defense Of The Billable Hour: Bad, Or Just Misunderstood?. One expects a vigorous defense of the poor ‘ole hourly rate, but that is not to be. Instead, the article takes issue with reliance on… Continue Reading
Clients: How Do You Feel About Paying For $60,000 Paid Vacations?
Posted in CommentaryInteresting article in Time.com, Why Rookie Lawyers Get $60,000 Paid Vacations. The article never answers the question, it just talks about how individual 3Ls are reacting to the "opportunity." No one has really spoken about this from the customer’s perspective. If a firm has an incoming class of 50 new lawyers, somebody is paying for… Continue Reading
Gulp! Dismal Prognosis For BigLaw From Top Consultant
Posted in Commentary"… it’s more based on the data I’m seeing on the firms’ financial performance. The data is dismal, and it leads you to certain conclusions. Often consultants draw those conclusions sooner than the firms do, but they’re going to draw the conclusions too." So spoke law firm consultant Peter Zeughauser, in the WSJ Law Blog,… Continue Reading
The One Piece Of Advice You Need To Earn Your Clients’ Loyalty
Posted in People, Places and BlawgsIt is no secret that the recession is testing relationships between lawyers and clients, and that the situation will continue to worsen and test those relationships for some time. RainToday.com asked what does it take to build the type of relationships with your clients that keep them loyal and coming back to your firm year… Continue Reading
Overkill in Bankruptcy Court Yields Motion To Disqualify
Posted in CommentaryThe US Bankruptcy Trustee is moving to disqualify Kirkland & Ellis from representing General Growth in the company’s bankruptcy, which is pending in New York. The reason? General Growth also is represented by Weil Gotchal and the trustee believes “the danger of overbilling and duplication of billings is great.” Ya think? Overbilling squared. By the way,… Continue Reading
Wither thou, AmLaw 25-200?
Posted in CommentaryUsually, I start a post by typing the title and I go from there. I know what I want to say. This time, I’m not sure where to go or what to title the post. Two tidbits of information came to my attention today, both published. Above the Law reported last week that Jenner & Block has recently… Continue Reading
From the Front Lines: Change Is Never Easy
Posted in CommentaryAltman Weil has released the results of its Law Firms in Transition flash survey. The results are fascinating. Here are some highlights : The top four areas of permanent change identified by all survey respondents were: more price competition (chosen first by firms in all size categories), a longer partner track, more contract lawyers and… Continue Reading
Thoughts About Twitter
Posted in CommentaryI have not been able to figure out Twitter. Here’s the description from Wikipedia: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user’s profile… Continue Reading
Our We Diverting Focus On Our Clients?
Posted in Commentary, Hourly Rates and Alternatives, Leadership and ManagementI’ve mentioned my friend Dan Hull any number of times in my posts. He is thoughtful, an extraordinary writer and someone who shares my passion for providing great service to our clients. He sees things through the same client service prism I do. I don’t always agree with him, but when I don’t, I devote… Continue Reading
Inside Counsel Superconference: A Great Learning Experience
Posted in CommentaryAs I posted a while ago, I had been asked to participate in a panel on The Future Of Fees at the Superconference put on each year by Inside Counsel, a publication on the regular reading list of informed inside counsel. This year’s conference concluded on May 6th. It was an extraordinary event. The discussion… Continue Reading
Inside Counsel: If Your Budget Has Been Cut, Call Pam
Posted in Commentary, People, Places and BlawgsI had a chance the other day to spend time talking with Pam Woldow of Altman Weil. Wow, was I impressed. Pam helps Inside Counsel achieve better performance from their law departments. In today’s world, that means she spends lots of time helping inside counsel deal with budget cuts, some as high as 50 per… Continue Reading
“Money Holds Us Together.”
Posted in CommentaryI was reading the May issue of American Lawyer this morning. From Citations on page 24: "I don’t think partner retreats are what hold a firm together. Frankly, what holds a firm together is money. That’s what holds us together." This quote is attributed to John Quinn of Quinn Emmanuel, are originally reported in The Wall… Continue Reading