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Post #212 - Thursday, July 5, 2007
World Services Group Speaking Invitation
I am grateful to the folks at the World Services Group for inviting me to provide the keynote presentation: How To Outperform Your Larger Rivals at their upcoming sixth annual meeting, September 7th and 8th in Montreal.
The World Services Group is a global network that brings together the full spectrum of the leading professional services firms, including more than 15,000 professionals in 400 offices spanning over 120 countries. Members are prominent state, national and international firms with the highest reputation within the business community.
Post #211 - Thursday, July 5, 2007
Don't make excuses---make good.
There is no failure except in no longer trying.
Elbert Hubbard
Post #210 - Monday, July 2, 2007
Mistakes Of Leadership
Extracted from a number of the surveys and interviews conducted with law firm managing partners and firm leaders, here are four of the common mistakes that these incumbents have observed leaders make:
• Not understanding your partner’s “appetite for change.” The way many partners will react to any change in strategy will be driven by what has happened in the past. Many firms are filled with skeptical lawyers who have seen multiple initiative come and go, and are now waiting for yours to fail.
• Not acting early or boldly enough. What happens when you pretend not to notice an underperforming partner, a new competitive firm entering your market, or something emerge that is really going to adversely impact the profession? The earlier and more decisively you can react, the better.
• Losing focus. Within two days of being appointed the new managing partner your calendar is full for the next six months, and if you’re not careful you will spend all your time doing urgent but not critical things - fighting fires. You only have a limited tenure, so focusing on the key initiatives that you want to be remembered for, is crucial.
• Getting stuck in your office. Your job operates under immense pressures and it is all too easy to get stuck behind your desk. When was the last time you visited a client? So few firm leaders make time to get out and visit clients, someone who actually does can make significant gains.
Post #209 - Monday, July 2, 2007
Cranking Up Communications
It is sad but true that just when you are sick of repeating the same core message over and over again is when people are starting to hear you. First they do not hear. Then they do not understand. Then they do not believe. If you stop repeating yourself now, they will conclude that you were not serious after all. And so law firms have taken that communications message seriously.
Orrick has been using vodcasts (on-demand video clips that can be played over the internet) to communicate management announcements for more than a year and a half. Recently, chairman Ralph Baxter made a vodcast on the firm’s increases in salaries for West Coast associates. Orrick has also been using vodcasts to introduce new lateral partners to the firm. New hires are asked to discuss their practices, divulge a few personal details on a short video clip which is distributed via e-mail and on the firm’s intranet.
Meanwhile Simpson Thacher has been experimenting with webinars, a desktop-based training program for general counsel. Apparently substantive lectures are videoed and made available on-demand, on secure external websites for the general counsel of client companies - along with supporting documentation and a audio podcast of the seminar (which can be downloaded to an MP3 player). When not everyone is physically able to turn up for your seminar, this offers a practical means to access the information when the client wants it.
There is no denying that an increasing amount of communications (internally and externally) is now being conducted over the internet.
Post #208 - Tuesday, June 12, 2007
New Series of Workshops
FIRST 100 DAYS
MASTER CLASS FOR THE NEW MANAGING PARTNER
It may not be fair, but it’s true: Your first few months as Managing Partner—the time when you are just starting to grasp the totality of your new job—may well turn out to be the most crucial in setting the stage for a tenure that hopefully should last for years.
Frankly, your master class really made me think about how to manage this transition. Not an easy thing in light of the circumstances. By the way, if you have graduate courses that continues on from this master class, please let me know.
Ira C. Kaplan
BENESCH FRIEDLANDER COPLAN & ARONOFF
WHEN:
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
and Tuesday, January 29, 2008
E-mail me for a copy of the agenda
WHERE:
Gleacher Center
University of Chicago
HIT THE GROUND RUNNING
MASTER CLASS FOR THE NEW PRACTICE GROUP LEADER
Congratulations! You have just been appointed as one of your firm’s newest practice group leaders and you now have the care and custody of a group of your peers. This may be your first experiencing in managing or leading (or whatever you call it) a group. To be effective you must now forge a team out of a group of autonomous individuals. Only one small problem . . . you were never trained or given any guidance on how to go about organizing and managing a group of your fellow professionals. So, now where do you turn?
For what it is worth I thought the training was excellent across the board. The interaction with the others was great as far as getting ideas and we even ended up continuing it a bit at O'Hare when we were delayed and I ran into some of the others. I have a lot to learn in this role but you certainly gave me a running start. I have already utilized some of the concepts at a team meeting last week and really got a pretty enthusiastic reception. Thanks again.
Jay M. Rector
FOULSTON SIEFKIN LLP
WHEN:
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
and Wednesday, January 30, 2008
E-mail me for a copy of the agenda
WHERE:
Gleacher Center
University of Chicago
SPONSORED BY:
 
Post #207 - Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Advice To A New Professional
Last week I happened to be invited to have lunch with the new Marketing Director at a large law firm, who is also brand new to the profession. We spent some time talking about a project that I am doing for the Executive Committee and then she asked if I might have any advice for her, given that I've spent some years working with law firms and this was her first foray into professional services.
I told her that there are two things she might want to think about in her new position . . .
One. If you think about law firms, irrespective of size, you can place all the partners across a bell curve. 10% originate the work, 80% do the work, and with the remaining 10% you feed the work through the top of the door, pull it out the bottom but never expose them to clients. My advice was that you visit with all of the partners and ask of each what activities they think you should engage in to both support their efforts and to add value. In visiting with these partners, recognize that the top 10% represent the power in the firm and you must ensure that you get them on your side and understand their views and needs. The middle 80% probably won't give you any answers of much substance, but just asking the question will ingratiate you. And the bottom 10% if you are not careful will find ways to suck the life out of you by consuming your time in meaningless ventures. They are to be avoided at all costs.
Two. You need to recognize that you are a cost center and not necessarily a revenue center. And as a cost center you must always be sensitive to justifying your existence as power partners may very well ask what it is that you are accomplishing. My advice is, at the very least, to begin preparing a written, one-page, Friday, weekend-end wrap-up in bullet point form, of your activities and accomplishments for that week and e-mail it to the managing partner and whomever else you think important enough to receive your report. Keep your Friday reports in a binder and prepare a Quarterly Summary. Keep your quarterly summaries so that you can produce an annual report. Never let any partner ask what it is that you are doing / contributing without having others informed enough to quickly provide written evidence.
I don't know if these meanderings were of any use but I offered them in the sincere interests of trying to be helpful.
Post #206 - Sunday, June 10, 2007
Online Interview
I participated last week in conducting an interview with Online Legal Marketing talking about such trivial things as how I began my career and then progressing to the more important topics of technology, blogs and what kinds of websites work best for a law firm.
A gracious thank you to Jane Mundy for her keen interview skills.
Post #205 - Sunday, June 10, 2007
Blackberry Addiction
I remember fondly a few years back when one of the European law firms I was working with, first obtained Blackberrys for all of their lawyers. At every meeting I would then see these professionals proudly place their little toy on the boardroom table such that about every five minutes you would see one buzz and the owner quickly sticking it under the table to see what their latest message was all about.
 Last year I spoke at a Globalization Conference where one of my fellow speakers admonished the audience on how we were not training our clients properly. He related how the use of Blackberrys has caused clients to believe that they will get instantaneous responses from their lawyers and now wonder why you are not being responsive if you take two hours to answer their e-mail. We all chuckled simultaneously, later that same afternoon, when someone caught this same lawyer checking and responding to his own e-mail under the table.
Now for my part, I’ve not yet succumbed to the temptation of owning a Blackberry as I believe I have enough bad habits. And I’ve only ever had one client suggest it to me, and I think it was really a case of them wanting to enjoin someone else in their addictive pursuits.
That said, every so often I really do wonder whether I should breakdown and get one.
Then a few weeks back, at the Chicago conference I chaired, I witnessed where an addiction to Blackberry's will take you. As I entered the Men's Room at one of the breaks, I spotted one delegate at the urinal text messaging . . . with both hands. I will leave the sight of that for you, dear reader, to imagine.
Today’s Lesson: You might want to wash someone else's Blackberry before ever touching.
Post #204 - Saturday, June 2, 2007
New Spring Journal Now Available
Our Spring 2007 issue of the Edge International Review should go out in the mail this week, but if you are interested in an advanced peek, you can download an electronic version of the issue here.
 The Edge International Review is a quarterly collection of pragmatic articles and prescriptive counsel penned by both Edge partners and respected colleagues.
This issue includes an article entitled: Successful Transitions: The New Managing Partner's First Days, which I wrote as an interview with a group of new or soon to become managing partners who attended my last one-day First 100 Days Master Class (stay tuned for another being scheduled this fall). The piece provides guidance for how any new leader can make the most of an important transition period.
My partner Michael Anderson contributed: My Favorite Leadership Quotations, a collection of some of his favorite leadership quotes (and he has been developing one of the most extensive collections I’ve seen), in hopes that these might provoke you to ponder about what it must take to be effective.
Our good friend, and a fellow consultant whom we have had the privilege of involving on assignments, Bruce MacEwen, conducted a one-on-one interview with Peter Kalis. Bruce had the opportunity to sit down with Pete, chairman and global managing partner of K&L Gates to get his views on the current state and future trajectory of our industry. Have a read through Talking With Pete Kalis.
Finally, kudos to my partner, Gerry Riskin for suggesting that we pull out one of the Edge classics: Planning Your Law Firm Retreat. This paper nicely identifies what makes for a successful retreat, what works, what doesn't, and how firms can get maximum return from their retreat efforts. Please do give me a call if you have a retreat coming up that we might help you with.
Good reading.
Post #203 - Thursday, May 31, 2007
How Do You Treat Others?
 In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell suggests that analyses of malpractice lawsuits show that there are highly skilled doctors who get sued often and doctors who make many mistakes but rarely get sued. Curiously, the vast number of people who suffer an injury due to a doctor's negligence never file a malpractice suit at all. In short, patients do not file lawsuits because they've been harmed by poor medical care. Patients file lawsuits because they've been harmed - and something else happens. What is this something else?
According to the research Gladwell reviewed, it is how they were treated, on a personal level, by their doctor. The key message: people don't sue doctors they like. In the end, Gladwell states that it comes down to a matter of respect and the way that respect is communicated is through tone of voice (the most corrosive tone of voice that any professional can project is a dominant tone).
This applies to those of us in every profession.
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