Tag: law firms

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Law Students and Young Lawyers

Partnership – Not The Holy Grail, Part Five: Why, Oh Why, Do Things Have to Change?

Group of young business people, two of whom are shaking hands.
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In this Part, I would invite you to live in an imaginary world where you respect and appreciate all of your partners, each of them is a phenomenally talented lawyer, who is also productive, respectful, collaborative, ethical, and has an amazing client base. And they all love you too.

If you are a typical law firm partnership, you will not be content to let things be. No, the firm must grow and increase its profits and the prestige of each of its partners. You need more partners!  And to be fair, you don’t want to lose your bright young associates who are chasing the Holy Grail, and you cannot keep all of them satisfied with non-equity partnership gimmicks indefinitely. So, grow you must.

read more about being careful about how the partnership culture may change “Partnership – Not The Holy Grail, Part Five: Why, Oh Why, Do Things Have to Change?”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

A Sucker’s Game

Young girl in skeleton costumer sucking on a lollypop.
Photo by Charles Parker at Pexels.

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.

read more about why working hard on billing time can be a sucker’s game “A Sucker’s Game”
Categories
Client Development

Being Brilliant is Over-Rated

Boy staring at chessboard.
Photo by Mart Production at Pexels.

Way back before the cell phone, we had a telephone in our reception area for clients to use. At the same time, my doctor had a sign in his reception area advising patients that the doctor’s phone was for his staff’s use and clients could use a payphone in the lobby. The difference? We lawyers had to market ourselves to find clients and then convince them to pay our bills. My doctor worked under a government health care system and did not have to worry about either of those things.

read more about what really matters to clients “Being Brilliant is Over-Rated”
Categories
Law Firm Management

Another Law Firm Just Went Down

A large ship listing badly.
Photo by Irfan Rahat at Pexels.

“Write what you know.” 

Mark Twain

I know absolutely nothing about the collapse of Minden Gross LLP beyond what I have read in the Globe & Mail. However, I did hang around the legal profession for a long time, and I figure that qualifies me to comment.

read more about why law firms get into trouble “Another Law Firm Just Went Down”
Categories
Mentoring

Users and Mentors

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This is an abridged version of one of my first posts from several years ago.

Supervising lawyers fall into two groups. 

read more about real and fake mentors “Users and Mentors”
Categories
People I Met Practicing Law

Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part One: The Managing Partner

A man holding a book in a library. Looks like a lawyer.
Photo by RDNE Stock project at Pexels.

When articling students or young lawyers enter a law firm of any size for the first time, they see the carefully cultivated image that the law firm promotes and are often thrilled to be part of a legal fantasy world where every lawyer is dynamic, brilliant, experienced, strategic, and practical. 

Over time they get to know the lawyers and other key players, and eventually figure out what is real and what is not.

read more about evaluating the managing partner “Law Firm Primer For Articling Students and New Associates – Part One: The Managing Partner”
Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

Too Nice For This World

A somber looking stone angel.
Photo by Francesco Ungaro at Pexels.

Before you read this story, I should let you know that this is a sad story which does not end well.

Long ago I had a great professional relationship and friendship with Laurence.  I liked Laurence a lot.  He was honest and ethical. He cared about his clients, his family, and his relationships. He taught me valuable lessons about dealing with clients and co-workers.

read more about our actions affecting the mental health of others “Too Nice For This World”
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People I Met Practicing Law Uncategorized

The Importance of Asking The Right Questions

Woman holding her ears sleeping next to man snoring.
Photo by Kampus Production at Pexels

This is a true story, even though it may not sound like one.

Chris was a law partner who joined a new firm.  Two of his new partners were named Angela and Martin.

Soon after Chris joined the firm, Angela cancelled out of a promotional ski trip, leaving a gap to be filled. So Martin invited Chris to the event and mentioned that he could use the hotel room that had been reserved for Angela.

read more about the importance of asking the right questions “The Importance of Asking The Right Questions”
Categories
The Mentality and Attitudes of Lawyers

The Me Generation

A cruise ship at Port.

I am on a fifty-five day segment of a one hundred and eleven day geriatric world cruise. That is not the official title – the cruise line just calls it a ‘world cruise.’  But if you think about who can afford the time and money to be on vacation for that length of time, you can see why the average age of the cruisers is high enough to make me, at 68 years old, one of the youngsters.

read more about the tension between the generations in law firms “The Me Generation”
Categories
Law Students and Young Lawyers

Lies We Tell Our Associates

A Pinocchio puppet.
Photo by CARLOSCRUZ ARTEGRAFIA at Pexels

My wife says that I am pathologically honest. I even have trouble bringing myself to tell little white lies (except when writing on LinkedIn where I may fib about the identity of some of the characters, and that one time I forgot to mention to my ex-wife that I had fallen in love with my Associate.)

Being too honest can be a real problem sometimes, especially when you are running a law firm.

At my law firm, we were scrupulously honest. But my friend Martin tells me that at his firm it was sometimes necessary to lie to the Associates.

read more about the lies that we tell our asssociates “Lies We Tell Our Associates”