Gary Klein can tell law firms a lot about working under pressure and uncertainty. He is a research psychologist and pioneer of the field of naturalistic decision making, as well as author of (among others) the book “Seeing What Others Don’t”. People pay attention to this guy: his work is used by the US armed [...]
Typically, lawyers work from 40 – 80 hours per week. If they are able to bill out 2/3rds of that time, they are lucky (or organized). But it could be better. The difference between billed work and the rest of that time is often wasted or at least under-utilized time. That’s because most lawyers don’t [...]
As a gardener, I love this time of year. In my part of the world, the May long-weekend is the traditional time to prepare the soil and plant all of the vegetables and flowers that I’ve been growing from seed, or bought as little plants six weeks ago. They’ve been safely tucked away in my [...]
I’ve received several requests to outline a good pathway to Partnership. (I’m referring here to Equity Partner). A pathway is critical because there are a lot of lawyers (and owners) set to retire in the coming ten years. Properly preparing for Partnership and being prepared to run what is often a multi million-dollar business was [...]
I’ve written about this in the past but it merits repeating. As you critique your past year and prepare to make plans for the year coming, consider one of the best ways to improve your efficiency and promote productivity in the firm. Professional legal managers (office manager or COO, Accounting Manager, Marketing Manger, HR Manager, [...]
Recruiters make a lot of money helping to place Associates in law firms. It’s a great service, but their motivation places emphasis on movement in the marketplace rather than stability. And movement follows because most Associates don’t really know what they’re looking for and how to assess if firms have those things. And most law [...]
(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 [...]
This pandemic has highlighted what many of us already suspected: that we aren’t very good at fully utilizing the down-times at work. While we can’t make work fall out of thin air, we can certainly make this time more productive…perhaps even leading to more work in future. Here’s how… No career will be going 110 [...]
Are you a lawyer considering retirement, or do you know someone who needs to start thinking about their retirement? If so, read on... It seems counter-productive to be thinking of an exit strategy when building a business; but that’s precisely what experts say you should do. This was particularly relevant during the .com era when [...]
By definition, make or break decisions occur when we have the least amount of time and emotional control to make them. How can we make the best possible decision in the worst possible circumstances? Management is about dealing with people and things – including events. We can’t possible manage every timekeeper, every moment of the [...]