Legal Ease Blog

Do Lawyers Really Need Practice Management Software?

Earlier this week on the JD Hacker blog, Will Geer posted "Do You Really Need Practice Management Software?" His answer was no, but I'm not so sure - I think his post missed some of the big reasons to have practice management software.

Geer opines that most lawyers purchase practice management software for document management, but that this is a 'ridiculous' reason for making this purchase. He sets out a system for storing documents in your operating system, which is the default method for most solos and small law firms (and even some mid-sized firms). He goes on to describe this system, complete with folders for each client and subfolders for individual document types, as well as his naming system for those folders.

While this system sounds logical and can work for a while, as a practical matter, it has a number of pitfalls which I have, unfortunately, witnessed first-hand both in the law firms I worked in as an associate and as a partner, but also in the law firms I work with as a consultant.

First, creating a file folder for each client makes sense, it doesn't help if you have a number of different matters for the same client. Geer suggests that this is easily solved by naming the folders with the full name of the engagement, but this can also get confusing, and as your client base and the number of engagements with your office grows, you'll find that duplicates and other complications often arise. What happens if you have a practice in which you have a large number of cases with a particular client (for example, if you do insurance coverage work or all of the litigation for a particular company)? Long folder names can get cumbersome quickly.

Geer next suggests creating subfolders within each client's file for managing documents, and suggests folder names such as "pleadings, discovery, client communication, correspondence, documents and trial." But these categories are open for broad interpretation. Does a letter to a client go in correspondence or client communication? If you're in New York, does the bill of particulars get filed under pleadings or discovery? Does a witness statement get filed in documents or trial? If it is exchanged by another party during discovery, does it get filed under discovery? If a piece of correspondence addresses discovery issues, is it filed under correspondence or discovery?

While some of these issues can be resolved by creating rules within your office for electronic filing of documents, even those rules can get out of hand, and no set of rules will be able to account for every single document created or received in your practice.

Practice management software eliminates many of these headaches because the documents can be categorized as above (and multiple categories can be assigned to a single document), but search and retrieval of documents is much easier.

With regard to naming of documents, I am often baffled by lawyers who insist on saving documents and naming them using the date. Your operating system allows you to sort documents by date regardless of how they are named, so naming them using the date is not only redundant, but is another area open for error because many will forget to use the necessary zeros, causing documents to be out of order anyway. And all of those numbers before the name of the document makes scanning through a document list for a particular document type or name difficult.

Filing documents by file type also isn't necessarily productive or helpful - should it matter whether a document is a pdf or a word file in most instances? When you are searching for a particular document, is its format most important? Consider naming documents using criteria that you would use most often to search for them, or names that give you some idea of the substance of the document itself, to make the document easier to identify during your search.

If you are filing documents in client subfolders, it is also not necessary to include the name of the client in the file name - the document is already stored in that client's folder. The longer the file name, the more confusing it is and the less likely it is that you'll be able to see the entire name on your screen in some formats. Easy and simple but descriptive should be the order of the day. You should name documents in a way that allows you to tell at a glance what the document contains so that you dont' have to open multiple documents to find what you are looking for. While it is true that each operating system has its own search function, many of these search functions are not as robust as those that are made a part of practice management software packages.

Another big advantage of practice management software is its ability to link clients with matters and documents with clients or matters. You can easily see what work has been done for a particular client across multiple files, and any document created on a particular file is also linked to that client and contact - along with to-dos or tasks for that client and upcoming dates or calendar entries. This is a big advantage when communicating with clients, because you have all of the information at your fingertips, without having to search several different applications (Word processing, email, calendar, etc.) and individual client matters for information - you can get it all through the client interface.

Practice managemetn software also is a huge time saver when a client's information changes. Instead of having to go into each file separately to note an address change, a contact name change, telephone number change, etc., the change can be made once in the client's information screen and it will automatically be applied to each of that client's matters. Over and over I have seen law firms struggle with address, telephone number or contact person name changes where files and information are stored in individual file folders because lawyers and staff either are not informed of the change or they forget to make the change in each individual file.

Conflicts are another area of concern that can be addressed with practice management software. While it may be easy to determine whether you've ever represented a particular party before, it may not be as easy to determine whether you represented another party (such as a codefendant) with adverse interests without a robust database of information.

Practice management programs integrated with time and billing programs can help you not only create and assemble documents using information stored in the system (rather than constantly re-typing the same information over and over), but can help you track and bill your time for those activities as they're being performed (if you must bill hourly).

Is practice management software an absolute must? Probably not, but the advantages in productivity and efficiency and the time and effort it saves is well worth it - especially if you're not a true solo and you need to share information with staff and other attorneys.

Will alternative fee arrangements be profitable for lawyers?

Last week’s Legal Business Development Blog entry was part 16 on a series on alternative billing, entitled, “Alternative Fees (Part 16) - Win-win or win-lose?” The article opines that firms who are talking about their success with alternative fee arrangements may be over-stating their success, particularly in the short term.

The article suggests that some who have begun using fixed fees are not seeing additional profits above their hourly work. There was some discussion on one of my legal list serves last week pointing to this article as an example of why fixed fees won’t work, particularly in litigation. I’m not sure that conclusion was valid – even based on this article.  There seems to be a lot of information missing. For example, how are these firms calculating profits? Are they basing profits on hours? Are these firms staffing and working files the same way for hourly work as for fixed fee work? Have they implemented project management, technology and other productivity and efficiency boosting measures? Are their calculations taking into account the benefits of fixed fees with regard to time records and billing and collections issues?

When firms say that most of their non-hourly work is ‘less profitable’ than their hourly work, are they comparing non-hourly and hourly work on the same kinds of matters or on different kinds of matters (are they comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges)? What kind of fixed fee or non-hourly arrangements are we talking about here? None of these issues seems to be directly addressed in the article.

It doesn’t surprise me that the article indicated that the larger the firm was, the less profitable the reported non-hourly work. Large firms were built and staffed for and are used to working on an hourly basis, and they may not have adapted their processes to a non-hourly system.

It’s also telling that the article points out that, “Lawyers have been rewarded for their entire careers for putting in extra hours to analyze every risk from every possible angle.  Most lawyers will have a hard time delivering the quality they are comfortable with when they must work within hourly limits.” Placing ‘hourly limits’ on a matter isn’t the same as creating a true non-hourly billing system and fee structure - it’s merely capping the hours (or capping the fee and then trying to fit that into an old hourly mindset). That’s trying to change only half of the system – the way the client pays, rather than changing the whole system, including the lawyer’s reliance on hours as a basis for value.

That same paragraph goes on to talk about expecting lawyers to be productive for a certain number of hours, and finding those goals unreachable if some work is billed on a fixed fee basis. But why should the firm care if a lawyer is ‘productive’ for 2000 hours a year unless they’re still stuck in an hourly mindset? (And I’d challenge the idea that lawyers are ‘productive’ for 2000 or any other specific number of hours a year just because they’ve previously billed that number of hours per year).

The goal of fixed fees isn’t necessarily to make MORE money than you would make on the same matter billed on an hourly basis. The goal is to create a fee structure that your clients can understand and buy into, that doesn’t create conflicts between lawyer and client, and that rewards lawyers who can manage well, staff appropriately, resolve disputes expeditiously and work efficiently. In addition, it eliminates a lot of the traditional conflicts between lawyers and clients that are inherent in the hourly billing system, and it focuses on the knowledge, skill and ability of the lawyer in achieving the service and outcomes a client seeks, rather than focusing merely on hours expended. 

As the article correctly notes, increased competition is likely to drive down prices, particularly in this economy. So whether you’re billing hourly or not, you may see clients who are seeking to pay less for legal services – unless you can convince them that the value of those services justifies the fee. In my opinion, that’s harder to do on a pure hourly system. But even if it isn’t, it may be unrealistic to compare the profitability of work this year to the profitability of work last year in light of today's economic climate. Blaming it on the fee structure doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.

Working with alternative fee structures and setting fixed fees is not necessarily 'easy.' It takes trial and error and a lot of work and specific discussions with clients up front. Change is never easy.People are used to the hourly billing system so it seems easier, but is it really? Just look at all of the problems and complaints it creates. Hourly billing has its own challenges with write downs, write offs, and constant challenges to the amount of time a task 'should have' taken. 

Might shifting to a non-hourly billing structure mean a loss in the short term? It most certainly might. But if it results in a long term gain, increased client loyalty and a better client base, (or even one of the above), it’s still probably worth it. Is the fact that it may be 'difficult,' (especially at first) to implement a reason to give up on alternative fee structures?

If, as the article suggests, alternative fees are going to be more and more prevalent, lawyers are going to have to learn how they can use them or risk losing clients. In some cases, they may be ‘less profitable’ than hourly fees, but less profit is better than no profit - and for some firms, the amount of ‘profit’ that they were making on particular matters might not have been reasonable in the first place.

How do I know if I should be a lawyer?

I recently received an email from an undergraduate student seeking advice that might help him to determine whether a career in law was right for him. Here are some excerpts from his email request and my response. Please feel free to add to my comments and provide your own perspective - how would you have answered him?

Dear Ms. Shields:

I don't think you receive many e-mails of this type, but I'll try to keep this as brief and to the point.

I am an undergraduate student with an undeclared major. I have [done research] and I have taken assessments and think I am close to declaring a major. But when it comes to career path I am still really undecided. [The assessments I have taken seem to point to the law as a career path and I am trying to determine whether I would like it]. I have looked up all sorts of information about what it takes to be a great lawyer, and what the job atmosphere is like. I even visited once with my family's lawyer, but he is in private practice and I would also like other points of view.

I was looking through the internet and I ran into a link to your website [LawyerMeltdown.com]. I noticed that you help with lawyer meltdowns and I figured you may be able to give me some advice or a new outlook. I am not a lawyer having a meltdown by any means, but I am looking into law and if I do choose to become a lawyer, I don't think I will want to have a meltdown. So I wanted to ask you a few things:

• What are some common causes of meltdown that you have seen?

• What are some aspects of being a lawyer that you find people to have the most trouble dealing with?

• I have seen some articles about how it can be very overwhelming to be a lawyer because there is way too much work and they are always busy working overtime, [especially] when they are starting out in a big firm. Is this really the case? Is the amount of work so intense? I definitely see myself as a person who will be focused on placing my family first when I am older, and spending time with my kids, so I want to make sure I wouldn't be going into a profession where I don't get to spend much time with my family.

• Lastly, I have seen a lot of articles that say to be a good lawyer you have to be passionate about what you do. I have a little trouble grasping this because, if you look at it closely, it can be so broad. Passion in doing what exactly? Interacting, researching, presenting? I understand that they mean passion in your area, so that you will want to do all those things, but how would I ever know if I will be passionate about it unless I go into it?

I have simply been looking into the profession, and would like to know more about it from someone who's been there. I don't even really know what all the different areas exactly do(corporate, criminal, etc), but the whole field seems so broad that I don't know how I wouldn't find something I like doing.... I know what the general idea of a lawyer and what their job is, but I want to know more and I want something more specific. If you could help me out that would be great.

Sincerely,

E.A., Kansas State University

Dear E.A.:

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Although I can give you my perspective, ultimately the decision about what path to choose for your future is one that only you can make. Since you are an undergraduate with an undeclared major, I am guessing that you are only a sophomore or a junior in college. While the deadline to declare a major may be fast approaching, there is certainly no reason to put undue pressure on yourself to determine the rest of your life right now. You have plenty of time to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. There is much you will want to learn and experience. Don’t lock yourself in to any one profession or career path ever – but especially while you are still so young. Although in years past, many people chose one career path (and indeed, often only one job), today, people change jobs and even careers much more frequently. In addition, if you do choose to pursue a career in law, there are many avenues that will be open to you as a result. A law degree can open many doors, even if you never actually practice law in any capacity.

All of that being said, I will try to respond to your individual questions:

1.    There are many factors which contribute to what I call “lawyer meltdown.” Law school, like any other form of higher education these days, is not cheap, and many lawyers are only able to complete law school by taking out rather large loans to finance their education. As a result, they graduate from law school with significant debt and financial pressure.

As I indicated above, a law degree can provide many opportunities, but the practice of law is a demanding profession. Lawyers have significant ethical and fiduciary responsibilities and their work often affects their clients in very profound ways. It can be difficult to disengage from work at the end of the day or week, and some lawyers internalize their clients’ problems and issues.

Many law firms demand long hours, particularly for new lawyers. Lawyers that start their own firms or seek to move up to partnership have additional business development pressures and requirements.

Lawyers tend to be perfectionists, and the system of legal education often teaches lawyers how to identify problems without necessarily equipping them with the skills or the means to solve those problems. Most law schools teach substantive legal issues but provide very little, if any, training about the business side of the practice or how to attract and satisfy clients. Many lawyers think that they’re alone in these difficulties and are brought up and/or educated to believe that they can do anything, and therefore they don’t recognize when they need help or don’t want to ask for it.

The good news is that a lot of these problems are preventable. There are great resources available for lawyers and for law students if they choose to avail themselves of them. In addition, some lawyers are better suited for pure legal work while others are more entrepreneurial and are better suited to be owners or managers. Some lawyer discontent arises not from the choice of the wrong profession, but from the wrong choice of job, practice area or business structure, or from a lack of systems or structure, poor delegating or time management skills or other problems that have nothing to do with the practice of law or the profession itself.

2.    The amount of work for a young lawyer can be VERY intense, as I mentioned above, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Many firms today have flex time or part time work arrangements. If work in a large firm isn’t for you and you are looking for a more 9 to 5 lifestyle, there are many other options for lawyers, including in-house legal work, government work, or work for firms with more flexible billable hour and time requirements.

Your law degree does not necessarily have to lead you into the practice of law itself – the options are almost limitless. In addition, technology is changing the practice of law, allowing lawyers to work from anywhere. Some lawyers have even started virtual firms.

Work/life balance has been getting increased attention in the legal world and lawyers are working to create work structures that allow them to spend time with family and still satisfy work and client obligations. Right now, many of the high paying legal jobs require long hours, but there are trade-offs as with anything else. It’s a matter of knowing your priorities and recognizing what sacrifices you’re willing to make to reach the goals you set for yourself. Sometimes the sacrifice is time, sometimes it’s money, sometimes it’s freedom – and sometimes it’s a combination.

3.    I firmly believe that in order to reach your highest potential and to get the most pleasure out of what you do, you must feel passionate about it – whether it’s law or anything else. But no matter what career or job you choose, there will always be aspects of your work that you don’t like. That’s just reality.

Yes, ‘passion’ is very broad. You can be passionate about what you do, who you do it for, or how you do it – or some combination of those. Some lawyers are inspired to help a specific population – the elderly, the falsely accused, women going through a divorce. Some are passionate about what they do on a daily basis – they love the drama of the courtroom and the excitement of trials, or they enjoy the intellectual challenge of legal research or negotiating the best deal for their clients. But the best and most satisfied lawyers look forward to going to work every day.

Yet another perspective on the question of passion is this: some people work in order to make the money necessary for them to follow their passions in their spare time. Rather than seeking passion in their work, they seek work that will provide them with the time and financial stability to be passionate about their leisure activities, charity work, etc. Getting paid for your passion is, at least in my opinion, the ideal, but it isn’t necessarily the only path.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck and enjoy the remainder of your college years – they will be some of the best of your life.

Allison C. Shields
Legal Ease Consulting, Inc.

If you have questions about "lawyer meltdown" or want more information to help you get more satisfaction out of your law practice, please visit my website, www.LawyerMeltdown.com. View my post about how even young lawyers can take charge of their own practices here.

Who should I link to or 'friend' on social networking sites?

As social networking becomes more and more popular, and as lawyers become more willing to engage in online interactions, this question crops up more frequently.

There are some professionals out there who believe that 'friending' or linking to as many people as possible is the way to go. But (like any other tool), it depends on what your purpose is and what your goals are - what result do you want? I want my LinkedIn network to be as useful as possible not just for me, but for others in my network. That means I need to know enough about my connections and to have enough of a working relationship with them that I can feel comfortable making introductions and referrals.

When I receive a link request from someone I don't feel I know well enough to introduce or refer - or to call upon if a need for their services arises - I generally send an email or make a telephone call to find out more about that person and their business - and perhaps to meet them in person, if possible -before accepting the invitation.

Questions to ask when determining when to link to or 'friend' someone include:

• Why did I decide to engage in this particular social media outlet?

• Is this person someone that I know, or would like to know?

• Is this person someone that would be a good connection for my clients or colleagues?

• Is this person someone with whom I would like to be associated?

• Is this person a potential referral source or strategic partner?

• Would I be comfortable introducing this person to other professionals or others in my network?

• Do I know enough about this person, their work and/or their reputation to enable me to introduce them to others in my network?

If you think the connection might bear fruit but you still aren't sure who the person is, feel free to postpone your decision and reach out to the person making the request to open up an email dialogue, make a date to talk by phone or in person to learn more about each other and what you might be able to do for one another. Review that person's on-line profile and their list of connections to see which connections you have in common. Reach out to your common connections to learn more about them.

If you decide not to accept an invitation to link or 'friend' someone, be careful about what you do next. On LinkedIn, for example, clicking on the 'I don't know this person' option may get that person into trouble or lose them their LinkedIn privileges.

Do Something! Write Out Your FAQs

Do you want to:

• Streamline your intake process?
• Provide valuable information to your clients?
• Pre-qualify clients and avoid spending time with problem clients?
• Create marketing materials for your website, prospective clients, etc.?

Frequently Asked Questions, or FAQs can help with all of the above issues, and more.

Why FAQs?

There's a lot to discuss with a client at an initial consultation, and much of the information you provide to clients is provided over and over, to every client. Sometimes once you've had the initial consultation and educated the client about the process and the legal issues involved, the client decides that they can't afford you, or even that your services aren't right for them. You know that being helpful and providing information to potential clients promotes goodwill and may result in referrals at a later time. FAQs can help by providing the potential client with the information they need and freeing you up to meet only with those clients that are serious about retaining your services.

Many clients are reluctant to speak with an attorney and need some other way to determine who to call. Providing FAQs helps clients get to know you and your services in a less frightening way.

How do you create FAQs?

Most clients in your practice area probably have the same questions and concerns when they come to see you for the first time. What are the 10 most popular questions that clients ask during your initial consultations? What are the most important aspects of your service that need to be explained to every client at the time of the first engagement? What legal issues must clients be aware of? What common misconceptions or misperceptions about lawyers, the law, the legal process or your services have you encountered? Write out those questions and your answers, and you'll be well on your way.

• Remember to write the FAQs in the language that your clients use when they speak with you, and to provide information in terms that they can understand.
• Use the FAQs as a way to sell your services by explaining in your FAQs why you're the right lawyer/law firm to handle their matter.
• Write your FAQs in such a way as to educate clients up front about how you work and to begin defining their expectations for the engagement.

How can you use FAQs?

• Send a copy of your FAQs to potential clients after they first inquire about your services, but before they come to your office for the initial consultation. This will provide clients with valuable information and help them to decide whether your services are right for them.
• Post the FAQs on your website. If you don't yet have a website or are working on your website and marketing materials, FAQs are a good place to start, because they help you get 'into the heads' of your clients and focus on the clients' wants and needs and how your services benefit the client
• Give new clients an additional copy of the FAQs to refer to throughout the engagement
• Add FAQs to informational packages that are sent to vendors, strategic alliances, potential clients, seminar attendees, etc.
• Include FAQs in your regular firm newsletter

Moving Past the Billable Hour - How do you do it?

The most recent issue of the ABA Journal once again addresses the issue of flat fees with an article by David Gialanella, who sets forth five steps for firms to follow if they want to move from hourly billing to value pricing.

He also mentions the essential shift in thinking that must occur in order to change from a system based on billing by the hour to one based on value pricing. The article is based in part on Jay Shepherd of the Shepherd Law Group and the steps his firm has taken in doing away with hourly billing.

Gialanella says firms must:

Do some homework
If you've been practicing for some time, reviewing past bills as Shepherd's firm did, looking at the variables that arose and what made one case more difficult, complicated or expensive than another is a valuable educational experience. Not only will it help you to determine how you should price your services, but it will also help you to prepare clients for possible twists and turns that may occur. If you're new to the practice, you'll have to do even more research to find out the possibilities and the price for similar legal services. You'll need to know what these services entail, what clients expect and how you can differentiate yourself.

Making the shift may be difficult at the outset, and will require some hard work before you get the pricing structure working the way you want it to. It's a process that will need constant tweaking as your services, the market and your clients change.

Find a new way to measure performance
Rewarding (or punishing) staff and associates based on hours alone was never a good idea, but it certainly won't work in a value pricing environment. Measuring things like accomplishing stated goals, providing innovative solutions and creating happy clients are much more appropriate standards for performance. (For more on this topic, see my post, "Are Timesheets Really an Effective Management Tool?")

Be firm (stick to your guns)
If the work is priced right, you may get some 'push back' from clients, particularly if you're pricing an entire engagement up front, rather than billing by the hour, because you'll be quoting a big number that the client needs to swallow all at once. This is why billing in stages or dividing up the fee into smaller, more manageable pieces can often make things more palatable to clients.

Get to know the business end of the practice
Contrary to popular belief, you CAN be a professional AND think like a business person. In fact, if you want to be successful in today's market, you MUST be informed about the business end of your practice.

Stop tracking time
While there may be some circumstances under which this is impossible due to statutes, court rules, etc., keeping track of time interferes with the necessary shift away from thinking that you're selling time and toward the realization that you're selling a service that has value apart from the length of time it takes to complete a task or engagement. (See my post, "Do You Need Timesheets to Determine Profitability?")

Want more information on value pricing and other billing issues? Take a look at the posts in my Legal Fees and Billing category. Or, if you want help re-working your own pricing structure, contact me to see how I can help.

Are Timesheets Really an Effective Management Tool?

My previous post on the issue of timesheets (Do You Need Timesheest to Determine Profitability?)talked about whether timesheets are truly needed to determine whether your practice is profitable. Last week I also posted once again on value pricing issues in The Debate Over Value Pricing Rages On, That post concerned one objection to value pricing. Another objection, raised in an article on value pricing from the UK site, AccountingWeb, entitled, Value pricing: a debate without end, involves timesheets again.

Timesheets - or lack of them - is one of the most controversial aspects of value pricing. There are two reasons that most professionals currently keep timesheets: pricing and management. This post will specifically address the claim that timesheets are an effective and useful management tool, and that therefore they should be kept even if they're not being used as the basis for the lawyer's fees.

The AccountingWeb article asserts, "timesheets are a useful management tool, and on occasion they collate handy information to present to the client too."  Timesheets are time consuming. If you're looking for a way to collate information to present to the client, there are other, more efficient and effective ways to collate information for a client than writing down everything you do in 10th of an hour increments.

But what about using timesheets to manage employees? How can law firms compensate associates without timesheets? How will they know if the associate is productive? How will they know if a particular associate is valuable to the firm?

Having been a partner on a management team at a law firm, I can tell you that timesheets and 'billable hours' are a poor way to determine whether a particular employee is valuable to the firm - or even to determine whether they're actually doing their work. First of all, employees create their own timesheets, so you're taking them on faith.

Second of all, if you've ever filled out a timesheet, you know that they're rarely a reflection of how hard you actually worked, of your productivity or of your effectiveness in solving the client's problems. How many times have you spent hours in the office and found only a measly few hours on your timesheet at the end of the day? Associates face the same issues.

Sometimes the timesheet isn't accurate because, in the heat of working with clients and doing the actual work you're getting paid for, you don't have time to stop and write down what you did. Those little missed .1s add up. And then you spend additional time agonizing over what you forgot to write down or where that time went. Who cares? If you're not billing your clients based on time spent, you don't have to waste time worrying about it.

One of the reasons to ditch hourly billing in the first place is that the amount of time you spend on a matter or on a particular task bears little to no relationship to the benefit your service provided to your client. All hours are  not created equal.

There's a great comment left by Eric Fetterolf to the above AccountingWeb article. Fetterolf challenges the value of the timesheet as a management tool and asks these questions about timesheets:

• Does it tell you, for this custom project, that your charge spent too much or to little time?
• Does it tell you that the customer is satisfied, delighted, or horrified with the result?
• Does the time sheet alone tell you how to innovate the process, or even whether innovation occurred that could provide future profits to both your firm and your customer firm?

As you become more efficient, more proficient, and are able to use technology more to your advantage, the time it takes to complete discrete tasks will be reduced. That should allow for more time to innovate, to come up with new arguments or new solutions for clients. But how do you bill the time for 'thinking?'

As Fetterolf says:

Our minds do not switch off once we leave our desks.

I have come up with great solutions in the shower, at the dinner table, and all other sort of places far removed from the office. In truth, the 15 minutes of active, consious thinking, say at the dinner table, was not the only time I spent on the problem. My mind, subconsiously, was churning on the issue the entire time. Can I bill for that time spent? Can I even articulate it to the customer without being thrown out?

If your associate comes up with a great solution to a client's problem at the dinner table and saves the account, or creates a loyal client for life as a result, do you really care what their timesheet says? Won't you be able to determine whether they're a valuable employee?

Managers that compensate or value employees strictly (or even largely) based on the hours that are written on a timesheet miss many of the most important ways of evaluating employees: their ability to work as a team, their ability to keep clients happy, their ability to bring in business, their ability to creatively solve a problem, or make a cogent and succinct argument, or write an intelligent analysis to the client, or take a good deposition, their leadership qualities, etc.

Managment by timesheet just doesn't make sense when you're dealing with professional services, like lawyers.

Which Marketing Method Should You Choose?

One of the most common questions lawyers ask about marketing is, "Which method is the most successful?" My previous post, Why Blindly Choosing Marketing Tools Doesn't Work - Know Your Target Market, gave one reason why answering this question is more difficult than it might seem. No marketing method will be successful if it doesn't target the right clients. That means you've got to know a lot about who your ideal clients are, where they are, what they need and how you can help.

Here are some additional questions things to think about before you choose (or reject) a particular marketing method:

• How will you define 'success' or 'failure' of the method?
• Is this method one that is likely to reach your ideal clients?
• Is the message one that will appeal to your ideal clients?
• Is the placement one that is likely to reach your ideal clients?
• How does this particular method fit within your overall marketing plan?

More Advice for New Lawyers

As a follow up to my previous post, New Lawyers, Take Charge of Your Career Now, take a look at Susan Cartier Liebel's post as host of Blawg Review #142, Letter to a New Lawyer. It's a clever letter, incorporating the titles of a whole lot of blogs with pertinent advice for new (and not-so-new) lawyers. Susan's letter reminds us that it's all about clients, saying:

If you refuse to accept you are selling legal services and construct a business model which incorporates this knowledge, (a day structured around business development, networking, client development and the practice of law), whether in a Big Law firm, small firm or solo, you will forever be at the mercy of others, just a cog in someone else's wheel or out of the profession entirely.

I couldn't agree more. Lawyers are business people, and must pay attention to the concerns of running a business, attracting clients and providing them with a great client experience.

New Lawyers: Take Charge of Your Career Now

Just because you’re a young lawyer doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t take charge of your career from the moment that you graduate from law school. In fact, it’s your responsibility. After all, if you’re not going to nurture your career, who will? Whether you think you might someday open your own firm or you merely want to get the most out of your career, there are three major ways to get your career going on the right track from the very beginning:

• Build and cultivate relationships
• Never stop learning – and using what you’ve learned
• Hone your skills

Build and cultivate relationships

Relationships are at the core of what you do as a lawyer. It’s never too early to begin building relationships that will boost your career.

Make allies

Your secretary may be your best ally in your firm. The same goes for the clerks in the courthouse or the people working behind the desk in the records room or at the bank, etc. The people who are the ‘first line of defense’ can often be the best and easiest way to get things done. They usually know ‘the system’ better than anyone. It sounds simple, but being nice to people in those positions will go a long way. Remember that just because they're 'non-lawyers' doesn't mean that they are somehow less than you.

Secretaries, clerks, etc. have usually been around longer than you and know things like where to get information or supplies you need, who knows the most in the office about a particular area of the law, what the filing guidelines are, how to find things in the computer system, etc. They can also be valuable sources of information about personalities, i.e. when is the best time to approach a particular partner with a question or issue, etc.

Develop good habits

As a lawyer, your reputation is everything. That means the little, day to day things, not just the big things. Integrity means doing what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it. That means you’ve got to develop a system for following up on all of your commitments. Whether your firm has specific software or systems in place, you’ve got to have your own personal system so that, when you tell a client (or a partner in your firm) that you’re going to get them an answer by a certain date, you do it. Integrity and credibility go a very long way in establishing relationships.

Cultivate the ability to deal with a crisis

Integrity doesn’t mean that you’ll never make a mistake. But how you deal with mistakes, unforeseen circumstances or crises says a lot about your character, and ultimately carries a lot of weight with clients, colleagues, partners and others. Rather than hiding your mistakes, learn how to ‘fess up and apologize and find out what it will take to make it right.

Begin business development activities

You may think that, as a young lawyer, you can’t do anything to bring business to your firm or to become a rainmaker. Don’t make that mistake. Having the opposite mindset puts you very far ahead of the game. Building business is, ultimately, all about relationships and trust. The earlier you begin to build relationships, the better off you will be.

Regardless of who you are or how long you’ve been an attorney, you’ve got connections and relationships, and you keep making more in your day to day life. Don’t think that business is just business and personal is just personal. Those lines aren’t so defined any more. When you meet people, begin thinking about what you can do to help them, rather than what they can do for you. You never know when you might be able to provide help – even if it’s help that doesn’t have anything to do with your practice. You may be surprised at how effective you can be at helping others – and how much that brings you in return – if you’re genuine and you have integrity.

Maintain your relationships with the clients you come into contact with. Often, existing clients are more important than new ones; you never know when a contact at an existing client will go to a new company and have the ability to send business to your firm, or when a formerly ‘low level’ contact gets promoted and has more control over where their legal business goes. And of course, maintaining the firm’s existing client base is important in itself.

Ask the more experienced lawyers in your firm if you can accompany them on client meetings to see how they handle clients and how business gets done in your office.

There’s no better way to build relationships than getting involved in something you’re passionate about. You never know where business will come from or where the next opportunity will arise.

Join committees at the bar association – these are learning opportunities and opportunities to make connections with other attorneys in the community who might serve as mentors, strategic partners or referral sources.

Build relationships within your office

Relationships are not only important with clients, but they’re important with other lawyers, particularly with lawyers inside of your office. Get to know the personalities, the legal skills, and the diverse personalities within your firm. A good relationship with a higher level attorney provides many opportunities.

If you have an opportunity to socialize with other attorneys in your office, take advantage of it. If your firm has tickets to a bar association event or other function and you are offered an opportunity to attend, do so. That ‘face time’ with other attorneys, particularly outside of the office, can be invaluable.

The relationships you build within your firm can last throughout your legal career, even if you move on to other endeavors. Keep those connections alive if and when you change jobs – don’t burn your bridges with those at your old firm. Even if you leave due to a problem or conflict or because you didn’t like something that was happening at your old firm, part ways with integrity.

Don’t neglect your family and personal interests

Your personal and family relationships are important to your career, too. Life isn’t all about work. You need the support of your family and friends. Make sure you continue to cultivate your relationships outside of work to stay healthy.

Be yourself

You can't build genuine relationships unless you're genuine. Trying to be someone you're not, or someone that someone else (like your mother, your law school professor, your girlfriend, or your best friend) wants you to be, rather than who you want and know yourself to be ultimately always backfires. It's hard work, and added to the regular pressures of being a young lawyer, it can be crippling. It's much easier to establish bonds with others when you're being yourself. When you're truly passionate about what you do and/or who you're doing it for, it will be easier, more enjoyable and ultimately, more successful. Make sure you're following your own path.

Never stop learning – and using what you’ve learned

Educate yourself

The only way we continue to grow is by continuing our education. Attend CLE programs in your area of practice to learn from others in the field, but try attending seminars on other practice areas, too. You may find something else you like, or you may be inspired to find ways to make connections with attorneys in other practice areas that complement yours.

Take courses, read books, listen to tapes on all subjects, not just those that you think will help you in your area of practice. Often, the best ideas come from other industries. Expanding your horizons will always make you more creative and innovative.

Law school doesn't (and sometimes can't) teach you everything you need to know as a lawyer. All of us leave law school with 'gaps' in our education, both in our chosen area of practice and in the business of being a lawyer. Seek to fill those gaps by attending lectures, reading, and seeking out information on topics including the business of law, finance, billing, practice management, marketing and business development, among others.

Learn about your clients, their businesses, and their problems

Being a lawyer is all about helping other people, whether it’s helping them solve a problem, prevent a problem or take advantage of an opportunity. The more you know about your clients, the better you’ll be at identifying their problems and opportunities. Clients like to work with people who show an interest in them as people or as businesses, not just as sources of revenue. Find out what’s important to your clients.

Learn about yourself

Pay attention to what kinds of clients you like working with, and what kinds of matters you like working on.

Trying out different types of cases, even within one practice area, will not only help broaden your horizons and provide you with new experiences, but will also help you determine what your strengths and weaknesses are – where your skills lie, what you like to do and what you excel at. It will also help you to ascertain what kind of people you like working with – both inside and outside of the office. What kinds of clients do you like working with? Which clients do you relate to the best?

Find out how things work within your firm

There’s a lot to learn about who’s who within your firm and how things work. Who gets promoted and how – what have those people done? Is partnership something you want for yourself? If not, are there other options or opportunities for advancement?

Are you interested in a particular aspect of firm life? Does the firm have committees that associates can join? If you have no committees, which partners or associates work on which projects within the firm? Can you approach them to work with them on a particular project, whether it involves substantive law or firm management?

Use what you’ve learned - everything can be used more than once

Use what you’ve learned. If you’ve handled a case with a novel issue, prepared a motion using recent research, or tackled an issue with a particular client that might come up with other clients, re-use what you’ve done. I like to call this ‘repurposing.’

Repurposing can be done substantively, by using the same research or basic forms, etc. for similar clients. But you can get even more ‘mileage’ from your work by thinking outside of your individual cases. Turn that motion into an article for a legal publication, create a case study for your firm’s website, write up the case study for trade publications, etc. Educate others in your firm - do a memo or ask if you can do a short presentation to the firm on a timely issue that you’ve tackled. Or use the information to educate clients in a seminar, newsletter or just a quick email to a client that may face a similar issue in the future.

Don’t forget to ask others in your office whether they’ve handled a particular issue or obstacle before; see if there are samples of forms, letters, motions or other documents in your office so that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. Learn from other attorneys’ experience. But take some initiative when speaking with older attorneys; they like to see what your thought process is and whether you’ve given the issue some time.

Volunteer to write articles; ask if a partner or more senior attorney in the firm will let you work on an article with them for publication.

Using what you’ve learned will help you retain the knowledge. By following some of the suggestions above, you'll build your credibility and your reputation - and help build your business as well.

Hone your skills

Build your technical legal skills

Don’t just sit around waiting for work to land on your desk. Ask for assignments. If there are particular clients you’d like to work with or specific kinds of cases or transactions you’d like to take on, ask for them, or ask to ‘shadow’ another attorney.

Doctors have the advantage of a residency, in which they have an opportunity to experience different areas of medicine to see what practicing in a particular area is ‘really’ like. Lawyers don’t have that luxury. Often, that means that lawyers are at a disadvantage. The reality of practicing in a particular practice area is often much different than you anticipate. If your firm practices in more than one practice area, ask for assignments in different areas to broaden your experience. Not only will this give you a better idea of what you’d like to do with your legal career, but you’ll have some inside knowledge about what others in your firm are facing.

Be an observer

Watching others is one of the best ways to hone your legal skills. You’ll learn more about being a lawyer by watching other lawyers in action than you’ll ever learn reading a book or sitting behind a desk. It may mean you lose some ‘billable hours,’ (or it may mean that you’ve got to work longer to make up some of those hours), but it will be well worth it. Want to be a litigator? Go to the courthouse, find out where the trials are taking place, and watch a few. Take some work with you to do during the inevitable down time.

Want to learn how to do a deposition, handle a closing, or negotiate a contract? Ask another attorney if you can follow along and see what they do.

Ask for criticism

Law offices are extremely busy places, and sometimes young lawyers don’t get the feedback they want or need from others in the firm. Don’t wait until your yearly review to ask how you’re doing. Ask for feedback when you’re working with another attorney on a project or case. Ask if someone can review a motion or document that you’ve completed and give you some pointers.

Find a mentor

Find yourself a mentor, either within or outside of the office. A mentor is someone that can guide you and whose experience you can learn from. You can have more than one mentor – perhaps a mentor that will help you with your technical legal skills, one that will help you with your business development or client relationships, and/or that will help you navigate the office politics, etc. Mentors don’t have to be lawyers, either – you can have mentors from other businesses or mentors that are family members, former law professors, or friends. Having someone who can help guide you will help you keep things in perspective.

Seek outside help

Two of the best things I ever did for my career were hiring a coach and setting up 'mastermind groups' with other lawyers and business people. Both coaches and mastermind groups can help you identify goals and take steps toward reaching them. Both are safe places to discuss new ideas and test them out, to vent when things get tough, and to learn even more from your experiences.

[Update: Check out Build a Solo Practice, LLC, where Susan Cartier Liebel hosts Blawg Review #142, in the form of a Letter to a New Lawyer, incorporating lots of other blogs that give advice to lawyers.]