Brian Baxter of American Lawyer has a post on lawjobs.com called The Fine Art Of Overbilling. It begins with this: A tongue-in-cheek look at how to pad your bill, unless of course you don’t mind getting arrested or disbarred Except, as I read it, it wasn’t tongue-in-cheek. Let’s look at the eight overbilling schemes and decide… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: February 2009
“Maybe this will make us live the way we should have been living.”
Posted in CommentaryA man who owned a shoe repair store was being interviewed this morning. He said his business was up big time. People are being more thrifty, having shoes repaired, zippers replaced and so forth rather than simply disposing of these things and buying new. "Maybe this [referring to the bad economy] will make us live… Continue Reading
Finally, an honest engagement letter
Posted in CommentaryIt comes from Australia. Of course, because you wouldn’t expect this from a US lawyer. It begins this way: "I am writing to you quite frankly because I am being made to and for no other reason." Okay, so maybe it’s not totally serious. But it is honest. And very funny. Here are some more highlights:… Continue Reading
Associate Layoffs Beg The Question: Who Is Doing The Work
Posted in CommentaryIn the wake of today’s announcement by Latham that it is "laying off" 190 associates, and on the heels of Black Thursday when hundreds of associates also were "laid off," I feel compelled to highlight three recent posts, You Are Too Efficient. You’re Fired, Hours Based Bonus + Bad Economy = Warning To Clients (Watch… Continue Reading
How Do Boutique Law Firms Deliver Greater Value With Alternative Fees
Posted in Commentary, People, Places and BlawgsJim Hassett, who writes he influential Legal Business Development blog, will be moderating a discussion of how boutique firms are delivering greater value using alternative fees. The West Legalworks webinar will take place on March 17 at 12:30 Eastern. Details are here. I honored to be on the panel that Jim assembled, which also includes… Continue Reading
Seller Must Adapt To Buyer
Posted in CommentaryJust a few days ago, I posted You Must Understand Their Expectations Before You Can Meet Them, the latest is a long line of posts in which I articulate my basic premise that Clients have the power of the Buyer and that law is, inherently, a Buyer’s market. In this same vein, Seth Godin has… Continue Reading
The Problem With Most Fixed Fee Proposals
Posted in CommentaryJim Hassett’s latest in his series of of posts on alternative fees is now available. This is a very important post on how to set a fixed fee. Jim notes that there are two ways of getting to a fixed number, cost plus pricing and value pricing. In the former, estimate what you think it… Continue Reading
Behind the Curtain
Posted in Commentary, Leadership and ManagementIn my inaugural glog post (glog is my definition of guest blog post, I alluded to the issue of diversity and suggested that, in addition to driving change related to alternative fees, in-house counsel had the power (or at least some power) to drive change in this regard as well. In late January, I had… Continue Reading
Dan Hull Podcast Full of Great Insights
Posted in Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesMy friend Dan Hull of Hull McGuire and author of What About Clients? is interviewed by "Charon QC" in a podcast covering a wide range of topics. Dan offers insights on topics ranging from the economy to client service to lawyer layoffs to cross-border collaboration and more. I was riveted and I suspect you will… Continue Reading
You Must Understand Their Expectations Before You Can Meet Them
Posted in CommentaryThe title comes from a line by Matt Homann is his post, Ten Rules of Rainmaking. The line reminded me of a retreat I attended once that was led by Gerry Riskin. Gerry began by asking the assembled group what would have to happen that day for everyone to leave thinking it had been a… Continue Reading
Excellent Article: “Surviving In The Current Cascade Of Economic Disaster”
Posted in People, Places and BlawgsI can’t get enough of what Bruce Marcus writes. Anyone who lives by the philosophy that "a mind at rest tends to remain at rest, a mind in motion tends to remain in motion" is somebody whose views merit careful consideration. Bruce writes The Marcus Letter. His most recent post, Surviving In The Current Cascade Of… Continue Reading
What Ever Happened To Standing Behind Your Work?
Posted in Commentary, Leadership and ManagementTime was, people produced things and stood behind them. Slogans like "our name is your product" and similar sentiments were expressed as a means of assuring quality. Those days are over. But now it looks like the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. It’s a sad day. I stopped by a store at O’Hare… Continue Reading
An Ode To My Partners: We Is More Than Me
Posted in CommentaryFrom time to time, you’ve heard me mention my Valorem partners. I have tried (unsuccessfully, I realize) to keep this blog from being too Valorem-centric. But as my partners and our spouses gather tonight to celebrate our first anniversary, I want to use this space to share with them some things I’ve learned during our… Continue Reading
Example of Great Client Service
Posted in Client ServiceLast evening, Valorem had an open house to celebrate our first anniversary. I had opposed the idea of the party and was persuaded by my partners that it was the right thing to do. Boy, were they right. We had a grand time and visited with many of the people who helped in our evolution. … Continue Reading
On The Importance Of Writing Well
Posted in Client Communications, CommentaryMore litigation results from bad drafting that one can possibly imagine. Excellent writing is a critical component of excellent client service. My friends at What About Clients have two terrific posts on good writing. The first reminds us that writing well is hard work. The second discusses client-centered writing and advances the argument that over-reliance… Continue Reading
Optics Count
Posted in Client Service, Commentary, Leadership and ManagementMy first memory of the importance of optics in law was the time I was standing with an in-house lawyer for a large waste company outside a waste transfer station in Brooklyn, New York. We were going to be meeting with a senior partner from a large New York firm. He arrived in a limousine,… Continue Reading
Bad News? Don’t Ignore the Gorilla.
Posted in Client CommunicationsYou can’t. But it’s amazing how people keep trying to ignore that old gorilla. As I’ve mentioned, I was listening to a panel of General Counsel share some stories last week. This story was told by one of them. The took a case to trial. And got hammered. Way beyond what trial counsel had predicted… Continue Reading
The Harmony of Alternative Fees
Posted in CommentaryI heard a story last week to the effect that many larger firms are offering fixed fee arrangements in response to RFPs issued by prospective clients. Just a few days before, I had been talking to some lawyers at a large firm who were investigating the possibility of their firm quoting more alternative fees to… Continue Reading