A young lawyer named Eve called me today about a fee dispute. She had quoted an hourly rate without providing an estimate and had issued an interim bill for the time that she spent. The client did not think that it should have cost that much but was willing to pay it. However, the client wanted the rest of the work done within her budget.
“Estimating is what you do when you don’t know.”
~ Sherman Kent
A young lawyer named Eve called me today. She had made the same mistake that I made numerous times in my first few years of practice. She had quoted an hourly rate for reviewing and reporting on a draft agreement without providing an estimate, and then issued a bill for her time.
The client said that the bill was too high. Never in his wildest imagination had he contemplated that the job would take that much time. He did not want to pay.
Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.
~ Stephen Covey
A Canadian grocery chain has just announced that it will launch a new brand to sell low-priced groceries in Canada. Their announcement is being greeted with great skepticism. The reason? Canadians do not trust them. It could be because we just do not buy it when their CEO says that their increased profits have nothing to do with their increased prices.
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I don’t consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.
~ Leonard Cohen
I have a friend who is a Dermatologist. I will call him Howard. Howard knows a great deal about skin cancer, so he worries about contracting skin cancer. He wears long pants, long-sleeved shirts, and a hat all summer, and covers any exposed areas with sunblock. Some say that Howard is obsessive about that.
Murray (M) at my first rodeo:
Client (C): We need to close this transaction in two weeks.
M: That is impossible.
C: The Vendor said that his lawyer told him that deadline is perfectly reasonable. Why are you creating roadblocks? If you cannot get it done, I will find someone else who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
Back in the day, before I became as warm, compassionate, empathic, and all-around loveable as I am today, I had something of a reputation as being someone who did not suffer fools gladly. There were even a few people around the office who found me to be intimidating. Of course, self-awareness not being my strong suit, I did not understand how anyone could have possibly found me to be anything other than wonderful.
Imagine the following scenario:
Jordan is a third year Associate with a mid-sized firm in Calgary who has a billable hour target that is somewhat reasonable compared to the targets in Big Law. He typically achieves that target and receives a bonus of $18,000. He is also paid 10% of the billed and collected business that he brings in.
Unsuccessful people are the ones who are impressed by celebrity, by people’s names and titles.
~ Robin S. Sharma
In the old days, there were Associates and Partners. Every lawyer planned to work ridiculously hard as an Associate for about seven years, after which the firm would invite them to become a partner. Or not.
If you were not invited to become a partner, you were expected to hang your head in shame and slink out of the firm. The system was called “Up or Out.”
I never worked in-house. Of course, having no experience working in-house is not going to stop me from spouting off about in-house counsel (“IHC”).
So, here we go!