Leadership for Lawyers

The future of law practice

When consulting with law firms, I frequently get asked about the future of law practice.  What will it look like?  How will firms compete?  How will services be delivered? How will it be priced?

I think I saw a glimpse of the future in what Seyfarth Shaw is doing today.  Several of their leaders made a presentation on how they use six sigma process improvement tools to improve efficiency and client service and lower cost to the client. 

They believe that corporate buyers of legal services want high quality legal work and more predictable and lower legal costs.  Cutting rates (and profit margins) is not a sustainable strategy, so they dug in and started to re-design work flows and processes as a manufacturer might value-engineer a production process.  Using "lean" process improvement tools, they found ways to save clients as much as 50% off their bill while maintaining or improving quality.

Think that will sell?

To clients, yes. But to the partners of the firm who realize that they have to produce twice as much work to get the same revenue, well, that's another kettle of fish.  Profit margins increase and client loyalty improves, but the essence of the law firm revenue and compensation model changes significantly.  I have so much respect for any firm who can make such significant cultural change to not only serve clients but to essentially set the standard for a new way think about delivering legal services. 

Interested in learning more? Read these articles:

Re-Engineering the Practice of Law - New York Times

Six Sigma Makes a Comeback - Business Week

Seyfarth Shaw Says Six Sigma Method Has Cut Client Fees by Up to 50%

New Buzz Phrase in Efficiency Efforts: Process Management

Making It Lean: Lisa Damon, Seyfarth Shaw

Top Innovative Law Firm

and information on Seyfarth Lean Consulting.

If Seyfarth Shaw can make the implementation (and cultural change) stick, they will certainly have a competitive advantage serving cost conscious corporations. 

 

InnovAction Awards 2011

The College of Law Practice Management has announced that they are accepting nominations for the annual InnovAction Award Program.

This is a world-wide search for lawyers, law firms, law departments and others in the legal services field that have invented or successfully applied new business practices to the delivery of legal services. The goal of the InnovAction Awards is to demonstrate to the legal community what can be created when dedicated professionals with big ideas and strong convictions are determined to make a difference.

If you have developed a new and better way of serving clients, a breakthrough way to find new business, or a truly innovative way to value and sell your services, you deserve the recognition of lawyers and clients worldwide by receiving a 2011 InnovAction Award. In prior years, the InnovAction Awards recognized only unprecedented initiatives, but in today’s rapidly changing environment, that criterion no longer represents the realities of law practice management. Therefore, the 2011 Awards will focus on originality of ideas and approaches, positive market disruption, value to client or industry, and effectiveness of results.

Award entries will be judged on the basis of four primary criteria:

• Originality: is this a novel idea or approach, or a new twist on an existing idea or approach?

• Disruption: does this entry change an important element of the legal services process for the better, and marketplace expectations along with it?

• Value: is the client and/or legal industry better off because of this entry, in terms of the affordability, ease, relevance or effect of legal services?

• Effectiveness: has this entry delivered real, demonstrable or measurable benefits, for the provider, its clients, or the marketplace generally?

The presentation of the InnovAction awards will occur in October at the College’s Annual Meeting and Conference in Chicago, IL. For applications and more information go to www.innovactionaward.com.

Ukila nanasi, tunda lingine basi

Ukila nanasi, tunda lingine basi.

In Swahili, it means, "Once you taste a pineapple, you''ll never go for any other fruit"

Wouldn't it be nice for your clients to say this about your firm?

What would it take for your clients taste pineapple at your firm?

InnovAction Awards Nominations Open

Nominations for the 2008 InnovAction Awards are now open until June 2, 2008. 

The InnovAction Awards is a worldwide search for lawyers, law firms, and other deliverers of legal services who are currently engaged in some extraordinarily innovative efforts. The goal is to demonstrate to the legal community what can be created when passionate professionals, with big ideas and strong convictions, are determined to make a difference. Each year, the College of Law Practice Management presents the coveted InnovAction Awards to those unsung heroes and rising stars within the legal profession who dare to think differently and succeed by doing so.

If you know of a law firm that is truly innovative, I encourage you to nominate them for a "Nova".  We need to celebrate and publicize innovation in our profession in order to encourage more firms to try new things.

For more information:

Press Release

Entry Form

InnovAction Web Site

2007 Winners

 

Branding Through Client Partnerships Workshop

The Public Relations Society of America's annual western conference will feature several presentations on best practices in public relations and marketing on October 17, 2007 in Denver.  I will present a workshop on "Branding through Client Partnerships" and will discuss the Holland & Hart/Frontier Airlines partnership, as well as Holland & Hart's "Clients on a Rock" advertising program.   Watch the PRSA web site this summer for registration details. 

PR News featured the program in a recent Case Study when it awarded the firm the 2007 PR News Legal Award.

InnovAction 2006

Long weekend reading:

InnovAtion 2006 is Out!  The College of Law Practice Management has published the inaugural issue of InnovAction, a 100 page online book on innovation in law firms. 

The book features articles by
-  David Maister
-  Silvia Coulter
-  Bruce MacEwen
-  Patrick McKenna
-  Gerry Riskin

A Roundtable on Innovation in Billing, Client Relations, Management, Marketing, and Talent with:

-  Merrilyn Astin Tarlton
-  Simon Chester
-  Matt Homann
-  Dennis Kennedy
-  Dan Pinnington

And success stories of:

-  Blank Rome
-  Bowman & Brooke
-  Bryan Cave
-  Nicholas Critelli
-  DLA
-  Halleland Lewis Niland & Johnson
-  Holland & Hart
-  Morrison & Foerster
-  Pinsent Masons
-  Simpson Grierson
-  Sughrue Mion
-  Wragge & Co. 

It  is beautifully produced by Greenfield/Belser and edited by Jordan Furlong, editor of the Canadian Bar Journal. 

Read it here:             http://www.colpm.org/pdf/innovaction_emagazine.pdf

Ideas

Maybe you are seeking an irresistible marketing hook or a knock-your-socks-off client service concept. Perhaps your ambitions are more practical, like how to totally reenergize your staff after a four-month trial or a never-ending closing. You need more than a typical thought. You need a really good idea. No, you need a great idea. But where do great ideas come from? And how can you get more and still better ones? Great ideas have three important components:

Ideation
It’s the concept, the spark and the “idea” of the idea.

Inspiration
It’s the motivation, the energy or the creative force that moves the idea through to completion.

Implementation
It’s the only way to realize the idea, even if it entails—which it often does—a series of failures before the idea sees the light of day.

Relax, already!

Joe Robinson waxes about how some of us have OCP:  Obsessive Compulsive Productivity, even on a long weekend like this.  We can't stop working hard, even at playing.  His commentary on NPR's Marketplace can be read here, and heard here.

Excerpt:

"Vacations aren't about output, they're about input. You can't measure that by the production yardstick. Trying to get results from a vacation is like trying to get a cat to bark. How do you tally the spray of an exploding waterfall? How do you produce quiet?

The irony is that input upgrades our output. McKinsey & Company asked managers where they got their best ideas and found it wasn't at the office. Instead, the inspiration came when people were disengaged, at play, on the golf course, out running.

The source of true productivity isn't nonstop output; it's a refreshed and energized mind. "

-  NPR's Marketplace, Sept 1, 2006

Mind Mapping

Simon Chester, an attorney at Heenan Blaikie and a long time leader of the ABA Law Practice Management section, put me on to mindmapping software.  Mind mapping is a thinking technique using visual representations to connect ideas.  Mindjet just came out with their latest version, which is easier to learn and use.   You can download a free trial to check it out before you buy. 

How does this apply to lawyers?  Mindjet posts a case study about a law professor who uses mind mapping to teach legal concepts.

I learned to take notes in outline form, nesting ideas in a linear fashion.  Ideas and thoughts, however, are not often linear.  They are organic, interconnected and unbalaned.  Mind mapping is a great technique for brainstorming a strategy, sketching out an article or book or planning anything.

For those who have been mindmapping for awhile, check out mindjet's blog.

Innovaction Awards 2005

Dirth of Law Firm Innovation?

The Innovation Awards were created two years ago to recognize true creativity and innovation of law firms worldwide.  In 2004, the program elevated four firms with really cool ideas.

Not this year.   The group, backed by brand-name sponsors, awarded only two awards in the Market Disruptors category.  No awards were given in the other three categories.  Here is a quote from their web site:

"While entries were received in all four categories, this year the judges regrettably found no winners in the categories of Client Service Virtuosos, Knowledge Stars or Leader Ships, concluding that none of the law firms entering had attained the level of innovation required to receive an award."

What does it take to be innovative in a predecent-based culture like law firms?

How can you spark innovation at your firm?

For a few ideas, visit the Edge Group's collection of innovation articles here.

Fast Company's Innovation Station can inspire too.