On March 19th, JD Supra announced its 2018 Readers’ Choice Awards, which recognized 240 authors from among 50,000 who published on JD Supra’s platform this past year. I am deeply honored to have been named a Readers’ Choice winner in the Marketing and Business Development category. As described by JD Supra, the… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Commentary
Subscribe to Commentary RSS FeedThe Law Firm of the Future
Posted in Commentary, GeneralSeveral news items, reports and articles in recent weeks have provided insights that should make traditional law firms nervous. Here’s what caught my eye: According to BTI Consulting, the financial services industry has essentially stopped hiring new law firms and will press for significant changes in the law firms these businesses are currently using. In… Continue Reading
The underlying connection in my most-read posts of 2017
Posted in Commentary, GeneralCourtesy of JD Supra, I get data every month on how many times my posts are read. I thought it might be an interesting exercise to identify the 5 most-read posts of 2017 and see if there is any common thread. It turns out there is. Here are the most-read posts: HAL 9000, washing… Continue Reading
Valorem honored to be named to BTI Client Service A Team for 6th Straight Year. Why it matters to us.
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryFor the 6th straight year, Valorem was named the BTI Consulting’s Client Service A Team. We were recognized in these areas: Understands Client’s Business Advising on Business Issues Client Focus Commitment to Help Provides Value for the Dollar Innovative Approach Handles Problems Meets Core Scope We are deeply honored to have been selected to this… Continue Reading
Renter v. Investor? Buyer v. Builder?
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryI have been a renter. I have been an investor in homes. I have been a buyer of homes and I have worked with a builder to design and build a home. Each experience has its pros and cons. The critical thing to making each role a successful one is to decide in advance what… Continue Reading
Justifying shadow billing as promoting diversity? Much better ways exist.
Posted in Commentary, General, Leadership and ManagementEarlier this year, Vincent Cordo, the Global Sourcing Officer for Shell, and Casey Flaherty, a consultant to law departments, wrote an article for the ACC Docket, Shell Legal—Shadow Billing. Let me begin by disclosing that I have enormous respect for the work Vincent Cordo has done at Shell and that Casey is a friend whose… Continue Reading
Getting to where you want to be–it’s like going on vacation
Posted in Commentary, GeneralIf you want to take a vacation, there are a few basic steps. Figure out where you are. Travel requires a starting point. Figure out where you want to go. Tropical paradise? Check. Ski chalet? Check. Great wall of China? Check. Figure out how to get from 1 to 2. Plane? Check. Train? Check. Automobile?… Continue Reading
Is Time Really The New Black? Hardly.
Posted in Client Service, Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesI just finished reading Mary Juetten’s post in Above the Law, Time Is The New Black. I was struck by this statement: “Also, all should reject the value billing theory that recording time is unnecessary.” Since there are few statements with which I would disagree more, I decided to parse the article and respond to… Continue Reading
HAL 9000, washing machines and AI in Law
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryI read this and immediately started thinking about my Saturday morning encounters with our washing machine. Walk by, put the towels in and then feed the dogs. Swing by later after grabbing morning coffee, put the towels in the dryer and put the whites in the washing machine. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Episodic encounters with the… Continue Reading
The importance of learning what does NOT need to be done, and other things.
Posted in Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesI just read an article in Law360 discussing Microsoft’s commitment to shift 90% of its work to alternative fee arrangements. Michael Rynowecer of BTI Consulting is quoted as saying the move is “one of the most aggressive” adoptions of AFAs he knew of. “Ninety percent is on the leading edge. It’s an enormous step; it’s… Continue Reading
Nicole Auerbach honored as one of Chicago’s most influential women lawyers
Posted in Commentary, People, Places and Blawgs, UncategorizedKudos to our very own Nicole Auerbach, who was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of Chicago’s Most Influential Women Lawyers. Here is how Crain’s summarized Nicole: After concluding that the billable hour model for pricing legal services needed to change, Nicole Nehama Auerbach helped form Valorem Law Group in 2008 to give clients… Continue Reading
The importance of understanding context.
Posted in CommentaryJeff Carr sent me a link to a post by Richard Smith of Sydney, Australia. I don’t know Mr. Smith. He is a “business development expert with over 20 years’ experience.” He works to develop and implement “successful business strategies for leading professional services firms; including working closely with stakeholders to maximise revenue potential from… Continue Reading
There is more to being innovative than simply deciding to be innovative.
Posted in Commentary, GeneralI was just having a conversation with a passing acquaintance, who runs a mid-size law firm. He told me the firm had decided to be innovative, in the sense of saying “starting next Tuesday, we will be innovative.” I hope I kept my smile inward. Innovation is not something you simply flip a switch to… Continue Reading
If you are not using checklists, what are you waiting for?
Posted in CommentaryBefore leaving for the Amazon, Nicole left an article for me from the Illinois Bar Journal, The Checklist Manifesto for Lawyers. It discusses Atul Gawande‘s incredible book, The Checklist Manifesto. The IBJ article is not special, but Gawande’s book is a must read. Many years ago, I bought copies for everyone in Valorem and we… Continue Reading
Valorem recognized as Leading Core Firm and Leading Recommended Firm for Manufacturing Industry
Posted in Commentary, GeneralI am honored to report that “Clients recognize Valorem Law Group for its unparalleled client relationships in the brand new BTI Industry Power Rankings 2017: The Law Firms with the Best Client Relationships in 18 Industries.” Specifically, “clients rank Valorem Law Group a Leading Core Firm for the Manufacturing Industry, among the top 15% of… Continue Reading
Space can make you more creative
Posted in Commentary, GeneralNot outer space. No, the point is that the space you meet in, the space you operate in, or the space you interact with people in can make you more creative. Everyone has been to a conference in a hotel ballroom, right. Mind-numbing. Plain. Boring. The space sucks the very life out of you. We… Continue Reading
A real live mythical creature speaks about alternative fees
Posted in CommentaryUtah Business recently published Industry Outlook: Legal, which featured a question about alternative fees. It appears that Utah is an hourly billing utopia, immune to much of the turmoil firms face in the rest of the country. This quote, from Darren Reid of Holland & Hart, struck me: As a litigator, I can tell you… Continue Reading
Is your firm filled with open-minded people?
Posted in Client Service, Commentary, Leadership and ManagementPedantic is defined as “narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned a pedantic insistence that we follow the rules exactly” and “unimaginative, dull.” You’ll see in a minute why I began with this definition. I read an interesting article in today’s Chicago Tribune on the signs of greatness in companies. One of the key signs is… Continue Reading
Vanilla. Tastes good, but it’s a bad way to market.
Posted in Client Service, Commentary, General, UncategorizedIf you spend any time reading law firm websites, you soon come to one conclusion: all of them were written by the same person. We know this because all law firms say the same things–best schools, best lawyers, client-focused, great client serviced, alternative fees, focused, collaborative, efficient, blah, blah, blah. Some websites use more words… Continue Reading
Law firms lose clients because of poor client service. What do they do about it?
Posted in Client Service, CommentaryTruth be told, nothing. Well, at least nothing of consequence. Oh sure, there is the occasional in-house program on client service and websites are edited to talk about the firm’s commitment to client service. But if you asked 10 lawyers in any given firm what changes the firm has made that are intended to improve… Continue Reading
A seminar on the cost of 6 minutes
Posted in Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesReally? I just received an invitation to a seminar that stresses that the average attorney bills 6 minutes per day less than they did two years ago. Six minutes a day! According to this invitation, that costs firms more than “$12,000 in lost billings per lawyer per year. If you have 200 associates, that’s $2.4… Continue Reading
“Our clients don’t want AFAs.”
Posted in Commentary, Hourly Rates and AlternativesWhen I have the opportunity to speak, I ask participants and co-presenters about their experiences with alternative fees. Better than half the time, I am told “my clients don’t want alternative fees.” I always ask whether the firm has developed different work methods or whether the work methods are the same for both hourly and… Continue Reading
The quality of your questions determines the quality of the answers.
Posted in Client Service, Client Surveys and Audits, CommentaryBack in January, I copied a portion of an article that provided a list of questions lawyers should ask themselves. It was an interesting list of questions, but I was struck by how the wording of the questions could cause lawyers to avoid taking a sufficiently critical look at themselves. I have been unable to… Continue Reading
Discovery by boilerplate. Can we end it?
Posted in Commentary, GeneralI have long hated boilerplate objections, which frequently are made to “kick the can” down the road. That is, if you object to a request are “unduly burdensome” or “overbroad,” you can avoid answering for now and have more time to figure out what the answer is. Or maybe your opponent will forget about the… Continue Reading