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 [...]
When you decided to become a lawyer, you took the time and energy to plot out a pathway. You took the right courses and got the grades needed to get into law school. You participated in extracurricular activities that would look good on your resume to secure summer positions and later, a good articling position. [...]
Increasingly, law firms are learning to appreciate the value of individual lawyer marketing plans. But paperwork is only the first step. A plan is useless without implementation. Yet how does a firm convince a busy lawyer to implement on those plans? Too often, in firms that require personal plans, lawyers will begrudgingly prepare them but [...]
Precedent figures heavily in most law practices, so it’s understandable that lawyers would rely on past experiences and belief systems in the running of their lives as well. Life experience can create wisdom. It can also lead to our greatest weak spots. In over twenty years of coaching lawyers, my primary goal has been to [...]
Laterals can be a wonderful addition to a law firm. They can also be an incredibly expensive drain – financially, in terms of resources and with respect to morale. Here’s how to ensure your lateral hires can help rather than hurt your firm. It’s said that laterals have around a 70% chance of surviving in [...]