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Legal Commentary

In Search of Perfect Client Service

Why Lawyers Seem To Stumble. Blawg from attorney Patrick Lamb

Post Frequency: 1.8/day

Last Entry: March 17, 2011 at 16:14:07

Clients: How Do You Feel About Paying For $60,000 Paid Vacations?

Posted on May 18, 2009
Interesting article in Time.com, Why Rookie Lawyers Get $60,000 Paid Vacations. The article never answers the question, it just talks about how individual 3Ls are reacting to the "opportunity." No one has really spoken about this from the customer's perspective...

Gulp! Dismal Prognosis For BigLaw From Top Consultant

Posted on May 17, 2009
"... it's more based on the data I'm seeing on the firms' financial performance. The data is dismal, and it leads you to certain conclusions. Often consultants draw those conclusions sooner than the firms do, but they're going to draw the conclusions too...

The One Piece Of Advice You Need To Earn Your Clients' Loyalty

Posted on May 16, 2009
It is no secret that the recession is testing relationships between lawyers and clients, and that the situation will continue to worsen and test those relationships for some time. RainToday.com asked what does it take to build the type of relationships with your clients that keep them loyal and coming back to your firm year after year? My partner Nicole Auerbach and I were honored to be among those asked to contribute our thoughts to this insightful ebook, now available...

Overkill in Bankruptcy Court Yields Motion To Disqualify

Posted on May 15, 2009
The US Bankruptcy Trustee is moving to disqualify Kirkland & Ellis from representing General Growth in the company's bankruptcy, which is pending in New York. The reason? General Growth also is represented by Weil Gotchal and the trustee believes 'the danger of overbilling and duplication of billings is great...

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From the Front Lines: Change Is Never Easy

Posted on May 12, 2009
Altman Weil has released the results of its Law Firms in Transition flash survey. The results are fascinating. Here are some highlights : The top four areas of permanent change identified by all survey respondents were: more price competition (chosen first by firms in all size categories), a longer partner track, more contract lawyers and more non-hourly billing...

Wither thou, AmLaw 25-200?

Posted on May 12, 2009
Usually, I start a post by typing the title and I go from there. I know what I want to say. This time, I'm not sure where to go or what to title the post. Two tidbits of information came to my attention today, both published. Above the Law reported last week that Jenner & Block has recently de-equitized more partners...

Thoughts About Twitter

Posted on May 11, 2009
I have not been able to figure out Twitter. Here's the description from Wikipedia: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length which are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers)...

Our We Diverting Focus On Our Clients?

Posted on May 10, 2009
I've mentioned my friend Dan Hull any number of times in my posts. He is thoughtful, an extraordinary writer and someone who shares my passion for providing great service to our clients. He sees things through the same client service prism I do...

Inside Counsel Superconference: A Great Learning Experience

Posted on May 07, 2009
As I posted a while ago, I had been asked to participate in a panel on The Future Of Fees at the Superconference put on each year by Inside Counsel, a publication on the regular reading list of informed inside counsel. This year's conference concluded on May 6th...

Inside Counsel: If Your Budget Has Been Cut, Call Pam

Posted on May 07, 2009
I had a chance the other day to spend time talking with Pam Woldow of Altman Weil. Wow, was I impressed. Pam helps Inside Counsel achieve better performance from their law departments. In today's world, that means she spends lots of time helping inside counsel deal with budget cuts, some as high as 50 per cent...

"Money Holds Us Together."

Posted on May 02, 2009
I was reading the May issue of American Lawyer this morning. From Citations on page 24: "I don't think partner retreats are what hold a firm together. Frankly, what holds a firm together is money. That's what holds us together...

"Billable Hour Admitted To Hospital"

Posted on April 29, 2009
When we created the Valorem website, we boldly declared that "The Billable Hour Is Dead." It was a bold statement, clearly relying on the "dead man walking" concept. Today, a former partner and still friend of mine brought this blog post to our attention (Thanks Debra!): Billable Hour Admitted To Hospital...

Real Client Service? It is an issue of organizational DNA.

Posted on April 27, 2009
Another great post by Dan Hull at What About Clients?, this one on Ease Of Use Services. Dan begins with a pet peeve I share, the way the gap between the lip service to client service and the actual service provided has rendered the notion of client service nearly meaningless...

Jeff's Carr's Four Buckets-- Advocacy, Counseling, Process and Content--And Change In The Legal Profession

Posted on April 27, 2009
Jeff Carr, the General Counsel of FMC Technologies and ACC Board Member, has spoken often about his idea that legal services fit into four buckets, two of which he is happy to pay for and two of which he thinks will someday be free. Jeff says he happily will pay for advocacy and counseling, which require skill, expertise, knowledge of the company and which are, at their core, customized services...

Jeff Carr's Four Buckets-- Advocacy, Counseling, Process and Content--And Change In The Legal Profession

Do Lawyers Systemically Fail To Get Things Done On Time?

Posted on April 22, 2009
I was intrigued by a a post penned by my friend, Dan Hull, on What About Clients?. In We, The Undisciplined, The Miserable, Dan raises this issue: "Do we lawyers know how to get things done, done right and done on time? Do we even value that? I wonder...

You Buy Hours, You Get Hours. And Hours. And More Hours.

Posted on April 22, 2009
The AmLaw Daily reports today that an insurance company has sought to compel arbitration against a prominent Los Angeles based firm over the reasonableness of its fees handling a toxic tort matter. Among the allegations are an associate who has not yet passed the bar charging $450 per hour...

The Future Of Law?

Posted on April 20, 2009
I had the great privilege of participating in FutureFirms 1.0, organized by Professor William Henderson of the Indiana University School of Law. The event, sponsored by Hildebrandt, feature four teams comprised of law firm partners, associates, current law students and actual clients...

On Being All Things

Posted on April 09, 2009
Yesterday, I saw something I had never seen before. A Lincoln pick-up truck. I've never seen a BMW pick-up, or a Lexus pick-up truck. Nor, if memory serves, an Audi, Bentley, Rolls, Porsche or Infinity pick-up. I was surprised...

Are Discounted Hourly Rates The Answer?

Posted on April 07, 2009
The March 30 issue of National Law Journal contains an article, reprinted on Law.com, discussing how some inhouse lawyers are responding to the economic crisis by asking their firms to slash hourly rates. The discounts discussed in General Counsel Pressuring Firms Amid Recession are not quantified, but include references to "we'll match any qualified offer" and similar gimmicks...

Innovation During The Downturn? A Followup

Posted on April 07, 2009
I recently wrote about whether BigLaw would take the opportunity provided by the economic downturn to change their fundamental business model. Yesterday, I ran across an article in law.com suggesting change may be occurring. Tough Times For Law Firms, Lawyers May Be Catalyst For Positive Change posits the theory law firms are changing because they are changing the way they hire and the starting salaries for new associates...

Financial Advisors Encouraged To Bill By The Hour

Posted on April 07, 2009
Accountancy Age encourages financial advisers to "charge by the hour if you want to survive." Essentially, the argument is this: hourly fees are more predictable than commission-based income. Meaning, you can more more if you charge for your time than if you charge for your results...

Inside Counsel Superconference: The Future Of Fees

Posted on April 05, 2009
I am honored to have been invited to participate on a panel discussing The Future Of Fees at Inside Counsel's 2009 Superconference, the premier event of its kind for inside counsel. The program is wide-ranging and I am honored to be on a panel with Fred Bartlit, the renowned founder of Bartlit-Beck, Karen Klein, the General Counsel of Kayak...

Will Firms Get A Third Chance To Change?

Posted on April 05, 2009
The recent story of General Motors provides an interesting point of comparison for law firms. Before approaching the government last December for bailout money (and a tone-deaf request at that), General Motors had decades to change itself into a company that could compete in the future...

One Bad Apple. One Little Thing.

Posted on April 04, 2009
I love the Westin Hotel in Seattle. I have several great memories of that hotel. But on Thursday, I was in a hurry and I needed to grab a quick bite. For some inexplicable reason, this hotel does not have a restaurant for breakfast. Instead, there is a little cafe where you can get breakfast, but there is no wait staff to speak of...

Law Firms Declaring War On Clients' Wallets?

Posted on March 19, 2009
Question for clients. How would you feel if your law firms hiked their hourly rates by 3% today. That's right, you get the same work output and pay 3% more. Okay, show of hands. Ummm, any body want that 3% increase? Is there a single hand to be raised? Of course not...

Earthshattering News: Layoffs Increase Likelihood Of Padding Timesheets

Posted on March 17, 2009
You're a young associate. Several of your friends have been "laid off" (most non-law firm types call it being fired). They are struggling with their loans, losing their apartments, having to move home. Then you look down at the assignment given to you by the one partner not hoarding the work to himself...

The Importance of Exchanging Ideas

Posted on March 12, 2009
There are many law firms that apply the Hippocratic oath to their public expressions--first do no harm. An in the course of "doing no harm," they become milquetoast and merge into background, just like elevator music. No one hears it...

Innovation During The Downturn? BigLaw Apparently Says No

Posted on March 11, 2009
There is a fascinating discussion going on in a Legal On Ramp forum under the same title as this post. I am taking the liberty of quoting in its entirety a post by Fred Bartlit of Bartlit Beck, because it is so incredibly indicative of BigLaw's attitude about the current state of things: Re:Innovation during the Downturn 2 Minutes ago Here is the attitude of large traditional firms...

Virtual Law Firms v. Face-to-Face Collaboration

Posted on March 10, 2009
Yesterday's online version of the Washington Post contains an interest article, Recession Sends Lawyers Home, that discusses the growing number of virtual law firms. The article discusses Virtual Law Partners and others. One of my partners wondered whether our true competition would come from virtual firms rather than BigLaw...

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