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The Art of Great Lawyering

“Great lawyers are not made in law school or in the courtroom. Great lawyers develop their knowledge and skills over time in all they do. They are shaped by experience, guided by principle, and know that learning never stops. Great lawyers strive for excellence in their practices, which goes beyond knowledge of the law. Great lawyering includes delivering effective and exceptional client service, as well as managing the professional risks that can harm clients and a law practice.”

The Art of Great Lawyering is the theme of the 17th Annual Jerry Mirza Memorial Risk Management Conference, offered by the ISBA Mutual Insurance Company in October. I am honored to be the sole presenter for this half-day conference tradition.

We’ll first highlight the most pressing issues at the intersection of technology management and legal ethics in TechnoEthics. Technology is important to every lawyer today, but we must be sure client confidences are protected wherever we are and whatever computing devices we are using in our practice.

We’ll next look at the areas of greatest malpractice risks and share common-sense solutions in What Keeps You Up at Night: Practical Solutions to Common Lawyer Nightmares. From employee conduct to trust accounts, from calendaring mistakes to The Avoidance Syndrome, this session will help you sleep better at night.

The third session of the day is the shortest but may be the most important. When You Go to Heaven, Will Your Practice Go to Hell? is a primer on planning to protect your clients, firm and reputation in the event of sudden death or disability. Never an easy subject, we’ll tackle it head-on and make it "doable".

Finally, we’ll explore how better communications can make you a better lawyer in Mastering Client Communications. As lawyers, we rarely blame communications when a case or client relationship goes bad, but there is more to this issue than meets the eye--or ear. Just understanding the three components of interpersonal communication will immediately help improve these skills.

The conference will be held in four locations the second week of October, beginning in Collinsville, IL on October 8. We'll next head to Bloomington October 9, then to Oakbrook Terrace in suburban Chicago on October 10, and finally to Chicago at the Harris Bank Auditorium on Friday, October 11.

I look forward to helping all those who attend in their journey to great lawyering.

For further information, check out the ISBA Mutual website.

Fifty Innovators and Visionaries Changing the Legal Profession

Fastcase, the innovative legal research service, has published their annual Fastcase 50, "honoring the law's smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders." The list is impressive, and I am pleased to say includes a good number of my friends and professional colleagues:

Congratulations to Matt Homann of Lex Think, Jeff Richardson of iPhoneJD, Erik Mazzone of the North Carolina Bar, Mark Britton of Avvo, Jack Newton of Clio, Larry Port of RocketMatter, author Sir Richard Susskind, Susan Cartier Liebel of Solo Practice University, and John Tredennick of Catalyst Systems.

I am honored to have made the list, and humbled to be in such august company.

Our profession faces many challenges, but the tools are in place to meet those challenges, thanks in large part to the people on this list. Changing consumer needs, constant economic pressures on firms by consumers and other forces, more reliable and robust mobile computing, and evolving norms of the workforce, are converging on the profession. Look down this Fastcase 50 list and you'll see the innovators, visionaries, and entreprenuers who are leading our profession into this new era.

Set a Google Alert for many of those on this list, read their blogs, or follow them on Twitter. Combined with the 2011 Fastcase 50 , these are the people to engage and follow in the years to come.

The Nightmare Left Behind

South Carolina blogger and SC Bar practice advisor, Courtney Kennaday, has posted actual photographs of a deceased lawyer's office recently taken by the lawyer appointed to close down the practice after the solo lawyer died suddenly. This is exactly the type of nightmare that Courtney and I wrote about in our article When You Go to Heaven, Will your Practice Go to Hell? earlier this year. 

If your office looks like these photos, there are steps you can take to avoid this nightmare:

• Develop a file storage procedure: Define what type of document needs to be kept in the office, what needs to go into archives, and what can be ethically discarded. File storage companies such as Iron Mountain and your state bar practice management advisor have resources to help you with this process.
• Set time on your calendar to slowly tackle the mess. Set aside a hour a day or a morning or afternoon a week. Don't overwrite that time with other matters. 
• Work through each stack of files and boxes following your file storage protocol. As you put documents in new boxes, make sure the boxes are labeled for easy retrieval.
• Do not keep client files in your basement, attic, or garage. If you must retain the files and have run out of storage space in your office, use a file storage company to confidentially maintain the boxes and help you keep them organized for later retrieval.

If your office even comes close to looking like the photos, and you cannot find the time or motivation to organize and clean it up (as suggested above) in the next six months, then hire a person who can do this for you.  Some lawyers just can't part with documents even when it is ethically permissible to do so. Failure to take action can lead to the embarrassment defined in the pictures.

Richard Susskind's ABA TECHSHOW Keynote Should Be Mandatory Listening

Richard Susskind continues to challenge our profession to look at ourselves in our changing world and redefine who we are and what we do in order to meet the future needs of consumers of legal services.  In his latest book, The End of Lawyers?, he lays out the forces behind the change and while he does not predict the future, he does thoughtfully lay out several scenarios that may scare those of us who are not looking to the future.

While I have recommended his book, I'll let him convince you that his ideas are worth considering. His recent keynote address to the 2009 ABA TECHSHOW is now available on-line thanks to the ABA Law Practice Management Section.  So grab a coffee or a sandwich and listen to it. You may not go out and change the way you do business tomorrow, but it should influence your thinking over your next five year planning cycle.

Oh, and be sure to read his book. Mine is now marked up like a law school textbook.

LexThink Innovate is Set for March 29-30

Matt Homann has more good ideas than just about anyone else I know. And when it comes to legal  "conferences" there is no one who does it better. I attended the first LexThink event in Chicago a few years ago, and still think it was one of the more rewarding learning experiences I have had as a lawyer. Several years later, I engaged Matt to consult on a legal conference I was co-organizing, to make it more interesting and vibrant for attendees. Once again, his ideas were a hit.

So I am pleased to learn that Matt has designed and organized LexThink Innovate, the latest in his LexThink events (I hate to call them "conferences" because is is so unlike other legal conferences). Billed as part "unconference", part retreat, LexThink is meant to engage and challenge all participants. It requires thought, participation, and deeper commitment to action than your typical CLE conference. Rest assured, this is not a marketing consultant selling you an expensive service; Matt is a former practicing lawyer who has devoted the last five years to rethinking how lawyers can come together to innovate their law firms.

Matt's latest innovation for LexThink Innovate? It is the first "Name Your Own Price" legal event. Yep, you pay the value of what you think you got out of it--after you attend! Guaranteed. In short, he's turning “you get what you pay for,” into “you’ll pay for what you got!”

With that kind of creativity and confidence going in, you know it is going to be different.  I don't know exactly what Matt has in store, but if it is like his past conferences, it will be well worth every penny.

When You Go To Heaven, Will Your Practice Go to Hell?

That's the title of the article I co-authored with Courtney Kennaday that appears in this month's issue of Law Practice Today.  While numerous articles cover what solo and small firm lawyers should do to plan for their unexpected death or disability, we decided to highlight what happens to law practices without any planning. The sudden death or disability of a lawyer while tragic, is even more devastating to clients and family when there is no plan for the practice.

I hope you'll take a few moments to read the article. If you are a lawyer, I hope it moves you to action.

Pay Less in Taxes, Sleep Better at Night, and Enjoy Life a Little More

I have forgotten to post this article I authored for GPSolo magazine last year, but with the April 15 tax deadline looming, I remembered to post it now. The title may sound a bit overly-ambitious, but it has many useful tips that will help you save tax dollars this year, sleep better, and enjoy life as a busy lawyer.

Congratulations to Jay Foonberg

My congratulations to Jay Foonberg, author of numerous books to help lawyers, including "the bible" for new law firms, How to Start and Build a Law Practice, for receiving the ABA Sam Smith Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2007 ABA Annual Meeting. I was pleased to be part of the crowd honoring Jay at the City Club of San Francisco, and to watch the presentation of the award. Jay is an icon in the legal profession, and many of us owe him a continuing debt of gratitude for his books, articles, checklists, and seminars to help make us better lawyers.

Thanks, Jay!

Professionalism Can't Be Emailed In

If you haven't yet received the email discussion between Massachusetts attorney Will Korman and his "almost" associate, Dianna Abdala, then take a look at this article in the Boston Globe. It seems that Ms. Abdala had a change of heart and decided not to work for Mr. Korman. She informed him of this fact via email late the night before she was to start work. It only gets worse from there. After several subsequent messages between them, Mr. Korman decided to email the discussion to a friend. From there the Korman-Abdala dialogue has circulated the Internet at speeds rarely seen unless nude celebrities or politicians are involved.

At the heart, this is a lesson in professionalism for all lawyers: Be a professional at all times; be courteous and civil to other lawyers, clients, and the public.  However, it is a lesson for everyone in the power of the Internet.  Be careful what you put in an email message. If Ms. Abdala transmitted the same message via letter, fax or voice mail, it would have revealed a similar message about her professionalism, but would not have been so easily forwarded to thousands of lawyers around the world.  Email is a convenient and powerful tool, but it can also come back and bite you on the career!

Proof That Client Service is Worth Millions

Sometimes winning $16.8 million for your clients is not enough.  It's how you win it that matters. That's the lesson from this story in the Buffalo News about a family's displeasure with their lawyers, despite the firm obtaining a $16.8 million personal injury verdict on their behalf.

Disbursement issues, the right-to-control-settlement, and dissatisfaction on other matters caused the father to file a disciplinary complaint against the attorneys, and he is threatening to file a malpractice claim.

The complaint played a part in the recent decision by the New York Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court to discipline the lawyers.

The case highlights the importance of superior client service even in the face of exceptional legal service.  Today's clients want to be involved in the resolution of their legal matters. Most are unfamiliar with legal matters, but do understand client service.  Clients who feel left out of the process or pushed beyond their comfort zone will lose faith and trust in their legal advocates. A lawyer's foremost asset is intellectual objectivity, but it must be balanced against the client's expectations.  If these are out of sync, client dissatisfaction follows. It is important for lawyers and firms to continually gauge client satisfaction throughout and after the legal representation to make sure attorney and client expectations are being met, or problems will result.

No matter how good the results in court, the final verdict is really in the hands of the client.  Firms that make client service their highest priority will reap the benefits and avoid the pitfalls, even when the legal results are measured in millions of dollars.