Categories
Firm Culture

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

There is nothing funny about child abuse, so I hesitate to tell this story. But there is a point to it, so please bear with me.

Back in the day when parents did not see anything wrong with occasionally giving their kids a smack, there was a very young boy who believed that if he shut his eyes tightly, no one could see him. When his father was angry, the boy would close his eyes and feel safe. When he got hit anyway, he was initially shocked. But eventually he learned that hiding did not make him safe.

Categories
People I Met Practicing Law

A Piece of the Big Blue Sky

“Blue Sky Law” refers to securities regulation. The expression is said to have originated in Kansas and refers to hucksters who could sell ‘a piece of the blue sky’ to unsophisticated farmers.

Back when I was more impressed with Big Law than I am now, we were approached by a senior lawyer who I will call Jake who wanted to leave Big Law and join our medium-sized suburban wannabe downtown law firm.

Categories
Firm Culture

Partners Be Crazy

“It had evidently not occurred to her as yet that those who consent to share the bread of adversity may want the whole cake of prosperity for themselves.”
― Edith Wharton

I cannot think of anything more important in a law firm partnership than associating yourself with partners who share your values.

Categories
Law Firm Management

Kentucky Fried Lawyers, Anyone?

The magic of a franchise system is that someone brilliant develops a business system and then documents every step that must be taken to permit someone less capable to follow the system and replicate the results. So, wherever you go in North America, someone much less accomplished than Colonel Sanders can sell you a bucket of chicken that is just as tasty and unhealthy as the original.

Categories
Legal Tech

Don’t Miss the Tipping Point

Back when I started practicing law, fax machines were just coming into vogue. This was an extremely useful development, especially since email had not been invented yet.

The timeline for the introduction of fax machines into law offices had two distinct markers.

Categories
Law Firm Management

Do Lawyers Suck at Business?

I am of the opinion that, generally speaking, lawyers are not particularly good businesspeople. I attribute this to the following:  

Categories
Legal Tech

The Button

In my second year of practice, word processing was just becoming a thing.

My firm had fourteen lawyers but no word processor. Fred was the senior partner. I told him that we really needed one of those new-fangled machines.

Categories
Law Firm Management

Lawyers Know Everything

Since lawyers tend to think that they know a great deal more than they do about just about everything, they often choose to do things themselves rather than pay money to experts to do them.

One of the things that lawyers typically do poorly is performance reviews.

Categories
Legal Tech

Selling Out?

When I retired and the pandemic put my travel plans on hold, I started writing to amuse myself. I soon found that I enjoyed the freedom to say whatever I wanted to say without having to worry about whether it would please my partners, other lawyers, or the Law Society.

I also discovered that I enjoyed exchanging ideas with like-minded people and being part of an online community.

Categories
Law Firm Management

Is My Wife Right (Yet Again)?

In the first draft of this post, I set out as a fact that I had a question which would stump 95% of all lawyers. My wife read the draft and said that I was wrong. There is nothing unusual about that. I am wrong plenty and she is quick to notice when I am.