Blawgger Ronda Muir and her unique approach to Practice Management
By Bill Gratsch
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1. In what capacity does your blog serve the legal community?
I am a specialist in organizational development for law firms and law departments. I have an expertise in lawyer personalities, which in this industry has a major impact on how their organizations work. (The comment I usually hear from non-lawyers is ?Isn?t lawyer personality? an oxymoron?? So you can see we are up against a difficult market perception.)
2. What can lawyers/firms learn from reading your blawg and/or accepting services from your other website(s)?
My blog covers all sorts of personal dynamics issues?leadership, diversity, succession, morale, communication, compensation, retention, etc. Our firm?s services are customized to our clients and cover a broad range, including strategic planning, business development, risk management and marketing, in addition to all of my organizational development topics.
3. What makes your approach to practice management different from other legal consulting companies?
We are lawyers who have been in the trenches. I practiced law on Wall Street and also in a smaller firm, and was also a co-General Counsel for a conglomerate in Europe, so I know the challenges that law firms and departments face. Many legal consultants are not lawyers, or if they are, never practiced much in these environments.
We also have a fully stocked resource cabinet when it comes to determining what the best steps to take are. My familiarity with the behavioral science research generally and the data on lawyers specifically informs our approach in a more fundamental way than any other consulting firm. And that together with our experience makes us both quick to understand the issues and practical in delivering recommendations.
4. How does your expertise in lawyer personalities and organizational development aid the growth and development of the law firms Robin Rolfe Resources consults with?
David Maester, a very-well respected OD consultant and author, and I used to have our differences because he claimed lawyers should follow the same advice that he gave to other professional services firms. I, on the other hand, contended that lawyers are really different. I felt somewhat vindicated when he published an article in the American Lawyer a couple of years ago saying that he conceded that law firms are different than other types of firms-- that what makes lawyers good at what they do also makes them harder to manage.
And that is indeed the point. Understanding the personal dynamics issues that run through every firm is central to developing a plan for growth. You cannot see the path ahead unless you know where your are standing now. I can bring awareness to a firm as to what the issues are and how to move ahead.
5. Has practice management and legal consulting changed now that the internet has become such a large part of gaining clients?
We certainly find that we are more accessible than we might be without the internet. I am often asked to speak and write because of information on my blog, and we are able to provide easy access to assessments and programming over the internet.
6. Do you think blawg's are important for lawyers and legal professionals to maintain? In what ways?
I think that in this day and age an internet presence is a necessity to everyone, including lawyers and legal professionals. The beauty of a blog is that it allows you to easily customize your message, update it regularly and provide a more intimate experience for the reader than a website can.
7. What has blogging taught you about the legal profession along the way, and maybe even yourself?
As to the legal profession, blogging on the people side of the practice has provided a pleasant surprise, in that I see there is an audience at least receptive to these concepts, concepts that have been utilized in other professions and corporations for decades, but that may sometimes require some courage to embrace in the legal industry. That has been gratifying to see that we as lawyers are concerned about the dysfunction that can occur and are willing to do something about it. As to myself, there is such a flow of information in our area of interest, particularly at this critical time in the evolution of the legal profession, that blogging makes me hone even more sharply those prioritizing and time management skills.
8. How has legal blogging in general changed since you first started and in what direction do you think it will it take in the future? What direction will your blawg in particular take down the road?
I have had my blog for only a few years, but the world of blogging is already changing. I see improvements in the content and presentation of blogs generally, but also a proliferation of ?navel-gazing? types as well, which we could probably use a few less of. In the future, I think blogging will offer the more fulsome version of connection and information that the growing popularity of venues like Twitter and other micro-blogs show people are interested in. Again, it?s a quasi-intimate experience in an increasingly solitary/alienated culture. In my blog specifically, I will be chronicling and evaluating the wave of innovation that is sure to engulf the legal profession over the next few years.
9. What is your favorite site to visit on the web?
Youtube.com
10. What's the #1 internet sensation you were surprised caught fire on the web?
Snuggies?
The blankets with arms. Not just on the web but as a marketing venture generally?shows, I think, how people want to be comforted now.
