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Post #262 - Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Communications Specialist Needed
I received the following from friends and am happy to help promote a worthy cause . . .
Founded in 1957, African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) is the only international health development NGO that has its headquarters in Africa, and 97% of the staff are African. AMREF implements projects to learn, and shares that learning with others to advocate for changes in health policy and practice.
AMREF is seeking a talented media and communications specialist to undertake a six month placement out of Kenya and Uganda. It is a pretty high profile role and there is a great deal of international attention on AMREF right now. This person will address this and take the opportunity to raise its profile even further.
If you, or anyone you know may be interested, please contact Claire Davidson or Lord Gillford at London-based The Policy Partnership (207.976.5555) or e-mail to cdavidson@policypartnership.com
Post #261 - Thursday, December 6, 2007
The Science of Developing Leaders
I’m finally back at home base . . . drained . . . exhausted . . . having spent the better part of this past week ensconced at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Atlanta working with a dozen PhD Psychologists and a most distinguished faculty from the Hogan Assessment Center.
What is the Hogan Assessment Center you might ask?
I was introduced to the work of the esteemed psychologist Robert Hogan through David Dotlich, a fellow business author and coach to top executives in Fortune 500 companies (like Intel, The Gap, Nike, Novartis and the like). Anyway, Hogan has developed a preeminent reputation from over two decades of research into leadership effectiveness and from founding a multidisciplinary consulting firm that combines the science of personality assessment with practical business experience to develop leaders. Hogan and his partners have developed a number of leadership tools that are:
 • the benchmark for understanding the performance capabilities of individuals;
• the only assessment package that links competencies with leaders’ personalities;
• designed to evaluate a leader’s impact on the climate and culture of a firm;
• the key to forecasting a person’s ability to get along and to get ahead;
• flexible enough to incorporate the unique competencies of a professional service firm; and
• based on extensive research that distinguishes successful leaders from failed leaders.
Today, Hogan provides services to thousands of companies throughout the world, including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 100. And, in addition to their own principals, they provide services through a network of consulting psychologist partners, all of whom are certified in their technology and endorse the science of developing leaders. This week I completed my certification at Georgia Tech.
So what does this mean?
Well, it means that you may expect to see EDGE announcing the introduction of a brand new program for the assessment and development of law firm leaders.
This new initiative will be comprised of three inter-related modules that encompass both a diagnostic and counseling service. The first measures and provides feedback on a law firm (Chairman, Managing Partner, or Practice Group) leader’s “bright side” – those (7 primary and 41 sub) characteristics that appear during social interactions, and facilitate or inhibit your ability to get along with others and achieve your goals.
The second module identifies your leadership “dark side” – the 7 most common performance risks that can derail your leadership tenure and negatively influence your career. (David did a brilliant job of documenting these in his noteworthy text, Why CEOs Fail.)
Finally, we look at what motivates and drives you (and your entire executive committee and/or management team) toward taking charge and taking responsibility for getting things done.
I cannot tell you how personally excited I am about unveiling this new program. I will be introducing this material to those new managing partners who have already signed up for our First 100 Days master class in New York at the end of January.
In the interim, I will be testing these three modules (in collaboration with the folks at Hogan) with a handful of managing partners. If you would like to participate (be assured that all of your data will remain highly confidential), please give me a call (800.921.3343) over the next two weeks. The process would involve devoting a full hour to going through a comprehensive (on-line) assessment; receiving a thorough examination and written analysis of your leadership capabilities and potential blind spots; and obtaining a one-on-one coaching session designed to help you improve your leadership performance.
If this past week is any indication, I strongly believe the results will far surpass your expectations.
Post #260 - Thursday, December 6, 2007
New Partnership Between Lawyers and Accountants
Here is an excerpt from a very interesting article from one of our Canadian legal publications that signals changes in the profession:
The following words from Jim Peacock, president of the Alberta Law Society: “Nothing in our rules prevents a law firm from taking an ownership interest in an accounting firm.” Why would Peacock even need to make such a statement? Why would a law firm own part of an accounting firm?
The question isn’t that odd to people like chartered accountant Kim Moody, the co-managing partner and co-founder of Moodys LLP Tax Advisors. Moody launched his eponymous Calgary firm on Oct. 1, with business law firm Shea Nerland Calnan LLP as part owner.
Moody understands why his tactic raised eyebrows. “The idea of a multi-disciplinary practice is not new,” he explained, “but the implementation of it is very rare.” Perhaps that’s the case in North America, but, “multi-disciplinary practices are very common in Europe and they’re hotly debated in the U.S. because client demand is sparking the trend,” Moody explained.
Also, his experience told him that it’s natural for lawyers and accountants to work together on issues like taxation. “When I was in accounting firms, I used to hire lawyers,” he said.
“We’ve both always been in the tax game,” explained Dennis Nerland, partner at Shea Nerland Calnan LLP. “I’m a legally trained tax person. He’s an accounting trained tax person. We think about tax problems differently. If you marry the two, you get more ways of looking at problems, a greater range of solutions, more depth in thinking.”
Moodys’ case is unusual in that the relationship is formalized. Debacles like the Enron scandal, which sank former accounting powerhouse Arthur Anderson, have resulted in reams of roadblocks that impede both multi-disciplinary practices and thoughts of creating them. “ To cleanly stickhandle through professional regulations toward the goal of a new business model, Moody made a bold move: he chose to not offer accounting services like auditing. He thus prevented potential conflicts of interest, such as a client buying both legal and audit services from one firm. As a result, Moodys LLP got a favorable ruling from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Alberta and Shea Nerland Calnan LLP received written comfort for this arrangement from the Law Society of Alberta. “
The firm’s focus, said Moody, is providing tax planning and strategy. “Many accountants and lawyers have a working knowledge of tax planning, but we have a specialized knowledge. We’re very aggressive about keeping up to date,” he said.
Can an investment like this turn out to be sound?
Based on his first month in operation, Moody’s answer is a resounding “yes.” “We’ve had an unbelievable amount of attention over this,” he said. “There aren’t enough tax specialists out there to do this type of work. Clients are interested and we’re busy. That tells me the model’s right.”
Post #259 – Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Our Readers Have Responded
 The Fall 2007 Issue of Edge International Review arrived on the desks of managing partners only a few weeks back and I’ve learned that our readers have already responded to a special offer inconspicuously contained in the magazine.
With this issue I was especially pleased to include an article written by my good friend David Maister and a special offer concerning his forthcoming new book, Strategy And The Fat Smoker. You see David most graciously offered to gift copies of his new book to those of our magazine readers who were the first to respond in a prescribed manner. And boy, did our readers respond in a timely fashion!
All of the available complimentary copies are now spoken for. And while the book is not due out until the first week in January, many of our EIR readers will be enjoying an advanced copy. (You should know that orders for David’s book may be placed with Amazon.com) Thank you David.
Now, wait until you see what I have planned for the Spring 2008 issue of EIR.
Post #258 - Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Further News On Dubai
Subsequent to my earlier posting (Post #240 on October 4th) with respect to Dubai, I am pleased to have now played a part in facilitating a three-way collaboration between a 500-lawyer US law firm, a Toronto-based boutique and one of the largest local, non-affiliated law firm in the Middle East, servicing the region with offices in the UAE, Iraq and Qatar.
If you are interested in exploring more about the possible opportunities available in Dubai, shoot me a note and I’ll put you in touch with one of my colleagues who is on-the-ground over there and can provide you with advice on the legal environment.
Post #257 – Friday, November 23, 2007
Do You BrainSwarm?
I received this e-mail from a London managing partner earlier this week . . .
Dear Patrick; I continue to enjoy reading your articles and rants. In particular I got a chuckle out of your All Hat No Cattle (very North American) reference to consultants who make up silly words and phrases to make themselves look smart. I thought you might find this item from page two of our The Lawyer of interest. It appeared in the 12 November issue, just a few weeks after your post. Best.
 And here is the page 2 item:
“Prepare yourself for some new business jargon that is being cooked up in the US of A. The word is Brainswarm and it is being pioneered by an American law firm analyst.
Apparently brainswarming uses swarm theory to solicit firmwide input into a firm’s strategic planning process, using a dedicated enterprise blogging platform as a tool. Just nod and smile if someone ever mentions it in a meeting. Nod and smile.”
Thanks Geoffrey. As you suggest, I’m sure that your managing partner colleagues in London are lining up to begin their next brainswarming session – whatever that means! In any event, your entry on behalf of this shameless, pseudo-intellectual analyst entitles him or her to win my All Hat No Cattle award for November.
Keep those cards and entries coming.
Post #256 - Thursday, November 22, 2007
A Client Goes For The Throat
The Washington DC firm of Hogan & Hartson has been on the receiving end of a campaign launched by a disgruntled former client. The campaign, featured in the New York Times and other publications, asked: “Have you recently been represented by the law firm of Hogan & Hartson? Were you expecting that your case would have the representation of a senior partner, but you found that your representation was handled by a less experienced junior member of the firm? Do you believe this was detrimental to the outcome of your case?” It closed with the words, “We want to hear from you!” and a toll-free number to call.
Apparently this aggressive campaign was launched by the President of US company General Steel. It is an attempt to recoup costs incurred by the company when it instructed Hogan on (ironically) a deceptive-advertising lawsuit it faced. Earlier this year General Steel settled the lawsuit and agreed to pay $4.5 million. The following month it sued Hogan and claimed its case had been passed down to “inexperienced associates”.
Looking internally at some of your delegation practices, are you vulnerable to this kind of client resentment?
Post #255 - Tuesday, November 20, 2007
A Radical Marketing Gesture
Annoying piece in USA Today entitled: Marketers target fliers roaming airports.
Apparently law firm and accounting firm advertisers, with more money then brains, think that when you and I are delayed in any one of the 500 commercial airports (as is happening far more than we would all like), we have absolutely nothing better to do with our excess time than wander the terminal reading their advertisements. This week these advertisers will compete for the attention of 27 million people estimated to be trying to get home to visit loved ones during the Thanksgiving holiday.
So here’s a radical gesture: Suspend for one year all money spent by your firm on stupid image or brand advertising – that means all of those airport billboards that nobody every pays attention to, those postage sized (big budget) ads in the Wall Street Journal that no one ever sees and so forth. Hey dude, I got a big news flash for you. Intelligent adult consumers don’t buy professional services as a result of noticing your billboard in the airport!
 Think I’m over stating the point. Okay, somebody tell me the slogan that appears on every advertisement that Accenture runs. (No peeking.) Most people cannot answer that question . . . nor can they imagine the huge budget that Accenture spends to try to burn that brand image into your mind.
There are far better ways to spend your marketing budget. (Well, I have kept you on the edge of your seat for long enough, so I will present the plan.) Put that money into a special projects fund and use it to actually hire your own attorneys to spend time nurturing their best clients in formal client team activities – where they do things like actually go out and visit with the client, off the current matter, just to learn about what’s going on inside the client’s business. Why? Because far too many of them don’t seem to want to spend time on non-billable activities with a potential return that doesn’t appear immediately.
Then at the end of the year, measure and compare your ROI from that activity versus what you received from your advertising efforts.
Of course few firms would ever take me up on this. Why? Because the radical aspect of it is that it calls for lawyers to actually make physical one-on-one nurturing contact with their clients. Far easier to just throw money at marketing and think that you are really accomplishing something.
Post #254 - Sunday, November 18, 2007
Is the Financial Day of Reckoning Close at Hand?
In just the past few months, Wall Street's big banks and brokers went from dismissing the subprime credit crunch as "no big deal" to dropping billions in subprime related losses. Specifically, the big banks and brokers have already taken some US$45 billion worth of losses and asset write-offs as a result of this debacle. And we may not have seen the worst of it yet.
This from the Financial Times . . . “‘The mortgage black hole is, I think, worse than anyone saw,’ said Tony James, president of Blackstone, the big private equity firm. ‘Deeper, darker, scarier. [The banks] are now looking at new reserves and my sense . . . is they don’t have a clear picture of how this will play out and confidence is low.’”
It looks to us as if there has been a big sea change in the world’s markets. Every day brings more evidence . . . Housing prices in Southern California have now fallen back far enough to erase the last two and a half years worth of gains, says the LA Times. In Atlanta, 5,244 houses are going on the auction block next month . . . already, 53,365 houses have been auctioned this year . . . a total that is rising at about 36% per year. And the Chicago Tribune reports on a study by the Center for Responsible Lending that predicts a ‘foreclosure hit’ equal to $223 billion.
Meanwhile, estimates of total losses of over $13 billion at Citi. Morgan Stanley is facing $8 billion in losses. Merrill Lynch set records with estimated losses of $18 billion. The cat still has Goldman Sachs’ tongue. But when the losses are toted up, they will probably be spectacular. Altogether, there is more than $1 trillion in sub-prime debt outstanding; much of it will go bad.
A hundred billion here . . . a hundred billion there . . . pretty soon we’ll be talking real money.
Post #253 - Thursday, November 15, 2007
Wouldn’t This Make A Handsome Presentation?
 Our new Fall 2007 Issue of Edge International Review contains an interview with Greg Jordan the current Chairman and Managing Partner of Reed Smith. The interview is great, Greg is charming, his message stimulating, and the photo of him . . . but hold on a moment, that’s not a photo!
Our inspired graphic artist, Jim Prokell really outdid himself in this issue of the magazine. Not content with the typical grainy photograph that you get downloaded from a law firm web site, Jim decided to do a portrait of Greg . . . and what a portrait it is. Have a look for yourself at the front page of this article.
Now I’ve just got to believe that if you are looking for the perfect gift for one of your founding partners, for a retiring managing partner, or for one of your colleagues who has just closed the biggest deal in the firm’s history, what better way to commemorate a legacy than with a portrait of this quality. (For my part, my wife now knows what she is getting this Christmas.)
If you’re interested in memorializing someone special, contact Jim via e-mail — jprokell@jimprokellstudio.com.
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