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Rethinking the Trajectory of an Associate

(On October 21st, I’ll be presenting a session on how to use the pandemic as a catalyst for positive change in law firms, through CLEBC. Find information on that session here: https://store.cle.bc.ca/productdetails.aspx?title=Using-COVID-19-and-other-Challenges-to-Progress-Your-Firm&cid=1821 . In this blog post, I’ll highlight one element of that presentation). When he first took office, Obama suggested that the only time [...]

The Importance of Multiple Perspectives in Law Firm Decision-Making

I’ve taken advantage of the relative quiet of the end of summer to take the free University of Alberta Indigenous Canada course.  The course provides a summary of life and history in Canada according to those where were here first.  I’m about halfway through as I write this blog post, and I’m finding it both [...]

By |2020-08-31T14:05:12-04:00August 31st, 2020|Business Management, Leadership|0 Comments

Make Your Communications Meaningful (or Risk Losing Power)

I recently received an email from an organization in which I used to be quite active.  The purpose was an announcement of an amalgamation of segments of the organization.  The message was well-written in a technical sense.  It included a summary of the change, some of the activities leading up to the decision for the [...]

By |2020-08-16T13:31:29-04:00August 16th, 2020|Business Management, Communications|0 Comments

What’s Your Contact Management Game Plan?

Great marketing isn’t a single action; rather it’s a series of connected actions, each one building from the other for the purpose of creating a mutually beneficial and ideally ongoing relationship.  This is a difficult lesson for lawyers to get, for three main reasons. Most lawyers don’t like marketing. It isn’t why they joined the [...]

Lessons Learned from a Law Firm Breakdown

(This article first appeared in SLAW)  The line between bad strategy and a law firm collapse is as thin as a noose.   Yet law firms practice bad strategy on a regular basis.  Take heed from the lessons of a very public breakdown. A client recently gave me a copy of Norman Bacal’s book “Breakdown, the Inside [...]

Why Mentoring Programs Fail (and How to Fix Them)

(This article first appeared in SLAW).  Most law firms intuitively understand the value of mentoring.  Unfortunately, that rarely translates into a successful mentoring program.  Here’s what’s wrong with them, and how to fix them. There are so many skills a young lawyer needs to develop in their formational years, and so little time in which [...]

By |2020-04-28T14:26:15-04:00April 28th, 2020|Firm Management, Mentoring|0 Comments

How Law Firms Can Prepare for What’s Ahead

It’s official: we are headed into a recession and possibly a depression. And we’re headed into this abyss while still in quarantine, which may last until there’s a vaccine and the time needed to inoculate everyone. Government assistance – for those who qualify – helps, but can’t last forever. How do we get out of [...]

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