The Practice Manager

Returning to Your Office After a Disaster

2011-09-16T13:44:00.002-05:00

By: Gisela B. Bradley, CEO
Law Practice Management Consulting

Where , oh where do I begin?
This is what many of you will be asking yourself if your office has been struck by a disaster. For purposes of this article disaster is defined as a fire, tornado, flood, hurricane, or other natural occurrence.

If you have never experienced a business disruption of any magnitude, it will be difficult to know where to start. Even if your firm has an emergency response plan, it is not a recovery plan. Recovery is yours, even after the Red Cross serves you food, and you hold your insurance check in hand – it is up to you to get back to some level of normalcy as quickly as possible. Unfortunately you will need to work on recovery and resurrection of your firm as it was – at the same time. Following are some suggestions on how to accomplish that.

At your first visit to your office after the disaster, briefly assess the extent of damage to your property. How much clean up is needed? What type of damage has your office suffered i.e. water, smoke, fire or wind damage? Are the premises usable to an extent that will allow you to begin the clean-up? If so, make sure that you have potable water, sanitary facilities, protective gear such as masks, gloves, boots etc. to protect workers from mold and other toxins. Before you begin any clean-up efforts, take photographs of damaged areas and property, you may need them for insurance purposes later. You may also want to first assign someone to be in charge of the recovery of your practice and someone else to start setting up temporary operations.

The next step would be to take inventory of all your equipment, furniture and fixtures. Determine what is usable and what needs to be replaced. Remember not to plug in any computers or other electronic gadgets if they are wet, as data may be lost or damaged.. Examine your files and records (take pictures of destroyed files) and document their condition. This inventory is needed for two purposes: to asses the damage, and to establish how much money is needed to replace unusable items.

If you have lost power, water, telephone or any other utilities, communicate with the landlord or the utility companies to find out when the utilities will be reconnected.

Some of the supplies you will need for facility clean-up will be: tarpaulins and plastic sheeting to protect materials from water, to insulate windows, and to cover desks during salvage operations. Interlocking plastic crates to pack materials in, because cardboard boxes will weaken from the moisture in the materials if you had water damage. Generators to power equipment such as emergency lights, air conditioners, fans, etc.; waterproof and grounded heavy duty extension cords for fans and dehumidifiers; washing tanks or large plastic garbage containers, along with sponges, brushes, and hoses to wash materials; freezer paper, wax paper to keep items from adhering to each other in a freezer, and last but not least, cellular or satellite telephones or ‘walkie-talkies’ to coordinate the process, portable battery operated 2-way radios and petty cash in case the ATM does not work.

While your recovery team is taking care of the impacted location, your organizing team looks after finding temporary space to work out of, and rent needed equipment and furniture, coordinate staff and work schedules, and contacting clients to let them know that you are still in business and how and where you can be contacted.

Contacting your clients is the most crucial aspect of your business continuation. If your clients have been impacted by the disaster as well, they will be happy to hear from you and know that you are concerned about their well-being. At the same time, they can tell you if they have new needs for your services. You will want to get an idea of the work that is coming in, and what kind of cash flow it will create. Prioritize the work to most urgent, somewhat urgent, and can wait a while, until your practice is fully functional again. It is important to know how much money you will need during the recovery period, and knowing what type of work is coming in, will help determine that number.

Technology can play an important role in disaster recovery. The first is to realize that the physical location of your office is no longer as crucial as it once was. You can have several ‘virtual’ offices to work out of, i.e. associates’ homes, secretaries’ homes, etc. by utilizing technology to communicate the written and spoken word. You can dictate your work into a telephone and your assistant can email the work product back to you almost as easy as if she/he were sitting outside of your door. If you are working out of several locations, plan on having regular conference calls (your telephone company can set that up for you) to promote the feeling of working together. At the same time, if your computers have suffered during the disaster, this may be a good time to upgrade to newer technology for a more efficient practice.

It is possible that you will be in more than one temporary location before your office is settled again in a more permanent facility. It is my opinion that the two most important things in getting back to work as it was before the disaster are to remember : communicating with your staff and communicating with your clients. The first facilitates a quicker return to normal operations by keeping everyone informed of the progress of recovery and the need for all to return to work as quickly as possible, the latter is to assure your clients that you are still there to serve them and that you will continue to provide the same quality work as before.

If you cannot reach your clients, please remember to document every effort you have made to contact them, just as you need to document every step you have taken to get your practice back in operation.

QuickBooks Online - How the CLOUD Works With Your BOOKS

2010-09-14T16:08:00.003-05:00

By David J. Ferrell

I began using QuickBooks on my office computer in 1997 when I learned that my $1,000 a month accounting firm was using this program to do my books and payroll. I researched in-house use of this accounting software because of frequent payroll mistakes made by that accounting firm and a major foul up in the trust account. I learned that our payroll and trust account was being administered by the most junior non-CPA secretary of the accounting firm. I went to the firm with a box of floppy disks and “acquired” my law firm’s data. I then went to Computer City and purchased QuickBooks for less than one hundred dollars and within two hours I setup the law firm’s books on my computer and discovered what a horrible job the accounting firm had done with my firm. As I remember it, we had been set up as a trucking company, that was why our trust account was fouled up. QuickBooks had/has a module that sets up a business with the regular accounting codes for certain types of businesses, INCLUDING law firms.

As good as QuickBooks was/is I became disenchanted with the frequent need to update the tax tables for payroll. QuickBooks required that I purchase a “plug in” module for my desk top version for payroll tax computations and the yearly fee began at $249 and went up every year. QuickBooks also kept “upgrading” the desktop software, when the old version worked perfectly well for my small firm, but there were veiled threats that my QuickBooks software would be inadequate soon, and more onerous, it would not be supported by “tech support” which I used occasionally but when I did, it was critical.

In January, 2010 I got my bill for the yearly renewal of the tax tables and it was about $350. I was also informed that I needed to upgrade the desktop software again. I was irritated, to say the least, so, I began researching other ways to keep my books. I did not want to go back to an accounting firm, bad memories don’t go away easily. So I went to QuickBooks online and downloaded the free trial version of their “cloud” accounting software.1

Initially, I was worried about having my books in the “cloud” where maybe the world had access to my accounting information but having read the QuickBooks online materials and being assured that my data was secure, confidential and protected I decided to go ahead. QuickBooks Online is a VeriSign Secured™ product, which means they use the same data-encryption technology that banks rely on for data security. I was able to setup an online account, upload my law firm’s data and my accounting codes and try the software FREE for 30 days. The transition was simple and I kept my desktop version and data (just in case) and began using the online version. My main motivation was to eliminate the incessant update and plug in costs AND the time I had to put in each time the updates/plug in’s were needed.

I did not need 30 days to evaluate the online version, I was sold after just a week. I still got my first month free but I did not have to use my desktop version anymore. I did not have to pay the $199.95 for 2010 QuickBooks Pro (upgrade to the desktop) and I applied for a refund of the $350 that had been automatically charged to my credit card for the tax table plug in. I saved $549.95 for 2010.

What did it cost me? QuickBooks online charges a monthly fee which includes updates to the software and for the payroll tax tables plug-in. AND, I don’t have to install the upgrades nor the new tax tables, QuickBooks does that. What do I pay now? $46.82 a month.2 That’s for three users, I only use two, myself and my administrative secretary. So, in reality, I would have paid $549.95 for the new desktop 2010 version of QuickBooks and the tax table plug-in, but now I am paying $46.82 a month which totals $561.84 a year, a difference of $11.89. AND, I don’t have to bother with updates, they come with the online version automatically.

I have an accountant that prepares my 940 and 941 reports and my annual tax return and she has access to my QuickBooks online from her home office, and she is not counted as one of the three users. If I have a question about some tax/accounting issue my accountant can get online while I am online and we can discuss these issues on the phone. When she prepares my 940/941, W2's and my tax return she can do it from her home office. With QuickBooks, I can prepare these documents myself BUT I feel better having a CPA review what I am doing.

The online version of QuickBooks has many bells and whistles that are easy to use and the software adapts to the user’s needs. It works for small firms and large firms and tech support can help you set up how you want the program to display. A detailed log is created showing who is using my accounting software (me, my secretary and my accountant) and what they did (write checks, make a deposit, review my data, etc.) and when. I can access my QuickBooks from any Internet enabled computer and I often review/work on my books at home. As a matter of fact, I created my payroll checks from home for the April 15th payday, went to my office at 6:30AM, printed the checks and put them in my secretary’s drawer and proceeded to the courthouse where I had hearings for most of the morning and my staff had their paychecks when they came to work. This software computes the tax payments and sends me an e-mail of when they are due. Tax payments are made online the day before they are due.
1. http://quickbooksonline.intuit.com/
2. Base Product for up to 3 users $34.95
Online Payroll: $19.95
Subtotal: $54.90/month
20% off QuickBooks Plus
20% off Online Payroll
Current price: $43.92
Tax $2.90
Total: $46.82/month

Publicity: Letting Others Know About Your Firm!

2010-09-14T16:04:00.002-05:00

By John Meredith

Many firms do not have a budget for advertising, so they must rely on other forms of lower-cost publicity to get the word out about their firm and services. As background for where publicity fits among the well-known “Four P’s” of marketing -- Product, Price, Place and Promotion -- publicity is a type of promotion.

Publicity can be called “free” advertising because publicity is usually obtained at no cost or at a discounted cost. While some firms have marketing personnel on staff or are able to retain PR/Advertising firms, publicity can provide law firms without a marketing budget a means to let others know about their firm.

Why Publicize?

One of the main reasons to obtain publicity is that it increases the number of persons who are aware of your law firm. Another reason is that clients feel more comfortable hiring your firm if they have heard about it before and are familiar with it in the general community.

A final valuable reason for publicity is that it can provide a third-party endorsement. Third-party endorsements, such as newspaper articles, are from persons not on the payroll and are viewed as more objective and credible.

What is Your Message and Who will receive the Message?

The basic steps to effective publicity are (1) Research, (2) Plan, (3) Implement, and (4) Evaluate. The research and planning phases should begin with an idea of which “public” or audience you are trying to reach with your message. Potential audiences include current and potential clients, new attorney and staff recruits, referral sources and others. Each audience has different methods for receiving and absorbing publicity. Through this audience-focused planning, you can work back to the best method for targeting each intended audience.

One common mistake is forgetting internal publicity and communication with attorneys and staff at your own firm. The internal audience may need to be notified first, so they are not caught off guard by publicity dispersed outside the firm. Further, your attorneys and staff can give their initial impressions, so that you have a first glimpse of the effectiveness of the publicity. Your ultimate goals are to consider what impression you want to leave and what action you want the person or entity to take as a result of receiving the publicity.

How to Publicize your Message?

There are many publications that are looking for information to publish. For example, if an attorney joins your firm, then the Texas Lawyer, your local newspaper, the Texas Bar Journal and other sources will publish this information. In addition, the attorney’s law school and college may publish the information in their sources.

For formalized publicity attempts, prepare a press release. Consider using different press releases for each type of media outlet. Make a list of media contact names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses and strive to develop a relationship with these sources.

In the press release, include the who, what, when, where, why and how. Also, list a contact person with the first and last names and business title, a physical address, phone numbers (work and mobile) and email address. Next, include the release date (e.g., “For Immediate Release”), which lets the media know when they can publicize the information.

Make sure the overall theme of the publicity is concise enough to pass the “elevator ride” test -- meaning the publicity should be succinct enough to describe it in a short elevator ride. Start your press release with this primary message and do not hide it in the body of the text. Most importantly if you want to have a reporter publicize your message, make the press release creative and interesting. Since media sources want the news to be “new,” a press release with a catchy title or exciting theme increases the chance that the media will follow up on the story or publish the press release.

Republicizing Your Message

Most people do not realize that publicity can be reissued, so consider repackaging the information and sending it out again to clients and others who may not have seen the publicity the first time. You can also include the information on your firm’s webpage.

Putting It All Together

Most importantly, the publicity message should fit with your firm’s overall theme. While getting your firm’s name in the media is usually valuable, part of the planning is to determine if the publicity moves your firm’s overall image in the right direction.

Finally, without effective legal services, all the publicity in the world is not helpful. There are times when you should refrain from publicizing programs or events if it would not be beneficial for your firm. In the end, Starbucks has to have good coffee, not just good publicity.

John Meredith is the Business Director for the Houston Office of Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

To Hire or Not to Hire

2010-05-28T09:47:00.001-05:00

by Antony P. Ng

When starting a solo practice, you are likely to be responsible for performing such tasks as preparing documents, docketing, maintaining an appointment calendar, tracking time and billing, etc. In fact, it is fairly common nowadays even for many experienced solo practitioners to type documents and post accounting information themselves. This is because current technology allows many solo practitioners having well-equipped offices to operate an effective law practice with no support staff at all. For example, a lawyer can perform legal research via online services, generate documents and correspondence on a word processor, transmit documents and/or correspondence via facsimile machines or e mail programs, and answer phone using an automated telephone system.

However, there comes a time when doing everything oneself can become very cost ineffective, especially for do-it-all solo practitioners. Of course many do-it-all solo practitioners often balk at the idea of hiring a staff person, thinking they just cannot afford one. But before reaching such conclusion, let's examine the situation again.

Do-it-all solo practitioners often reduce their fees to ridiculously low levels in order to attract legal work. When they start to generate legal work, they think they are busy because they work so many hours, but in fact they are just inefficient. They soon find that they do not make enough money to properly compensate themselves for the hours they put in, and they do not understand why they work so hard but take home so little.

In addition, do-it-all solo practitioners often fill their time with typing, filing, etc. when they do not have enough legal work to keep them occupied. Since do-it-all solo practitioners do almost everything themselves, they typically have low overhead; but interestingly, their operations may actually have high costs. The reason for this apparent paradox is that a high-cost personnel, i.e., a lawyer, is relegated to doing low level clerical work. So instead of functioning as the proprietor of a business, do-it-all solo practitioners choose to bury themselves in mindless clerical drudgery.

Quite often, lawyers view staff as a cost of doing business, i.e., an expense. However, this characterization may not always be true. Generally speaking, an expense is an expenditure for a good or service inherent in the process of dispatching work. For example, rent is an expense; paper clips and staples are also expenses. Needless to say, expenses should always be controlled carefully. On the other hand, an asset or investment is an expenditure that substantially enhances the value of a business. An asset has the capability of amplifying profits by multiples of the investment's cost, and investments should be judged by their potential return. If properly utilized, a staff person can be a lawyer's most important asset. A staff can support the legal work as well as non-legal work the lawyer needs to do, with the non-legal work being entrepreneurial, organizational and marketing work needed to grow the lawyer's practice.

If you finally come to a realization that a staff person may actually be beneficial to your practice, the next logical question would be "How much business should I have before hiring a staff person?" You are not ready to hire a staff person until your gross revenue is at least four times the cost of the staff person. So before you hire an assistant at $30,000 per year, you should have a gross revenue of at least $120,000. An assistant should be able to provide you with about 500 extra hours of capacity, but you will need about 250 hours of extra work to cover the additional overhead. Anything you generate over that will go to the bottom line. Thus, a good assistant can increase your profit by about double what you pay the assistant if you get work at a new capacity. The only way to get your hourly rate up is by increasing your marketing activity and effectiveness.

Your decision to add staff will also generate questions such as: What type of support staff is needed to accomplish the tasks in my office? Will a paralegal or legal assistant be more beneficial to my work? The answer to these questions is usually hinged upon the type of practice you are in, the location of your office, the extent to which you use technology. You also have a wide array of personnel choices, such as a staff employee, leased employee, or contractor. Each of these choices has its own advantages and disadvantages.

A staff employee is the traditional and perhaps the most obvious solution. Since a staff employee should be available to you on a relatively long term basis, you can build your corporate knowledge with in house expertise. However, adding a staff employee can be very expensive, and to maximize the benefit to your practice, you should hire carefully with the expectation of a long term relationship to the staff employee.

Alternatively, you can pay a staffing agency to provide you with a leased employee. Since the leased employee is an employee of the staffing agency, you have no payroll headaches and no benefit expenses. However, you will have to pay the staffing agency a premium for this convenience. Because of the high mark-up from the staffing agency, some people tend to avoid this option.

With a staffing agency, you may also consider hiring a "temp to perm" staff person. Basically, after a set term indicated in your contract with the staffing agency, you can then hire the leased employee as your staff employee. This arrangement lets you see a person in action before you make a hiring decision.

Contractors or Freelancers are available for contract work, but generally not for permanent employment. They are often described as independent contractors, and independent contractors are subject to heavy scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service as to their employment status.

In the beginning of your law practice, it is often more cost-effective to make use of personnel such as secretaries, bookkeepers, title searchers, etc. on an as-needed basis. The cost may be slightly higher on an hourly basis, but can be geared to specific tasks at specific times. However, when you have more work than you can handle and you are billing at a sufficiently high rate to apply the four-to-one hiring rule, you should begin looking for a more permanent staff.

Reference
Paul McLaughlin, Practice Management Consultant
Art Italo, Hiring Staff for Your Law Practice

How to Fire a Client: Replace a Bad Client with a Better Client!

2010-05-28T09:32:00.004-05:00

By Martha Newman, J.D., PCC
www.TopLawyerCoach.Com

Talking about dropping clients may seem like a strange topic in this economic climate where ADDING CLIENTS is what all of us are focusing on.

We need to build that client base no matter what, right?

Wrong!

Tough times make SELECTIVITY crucial.

Troublesome Traits

Troublesome clients are not only energy drains, they can literally suck the life out of your practice.

So, which clients generally fall at the bottom?

David Leffler, a New York City-based lawyer, lays out some troubling characteristics in a recent GPSolo Magazine article.

• Constant complaining about your work, your availability, your bill, etc.
• Doesn't heed your advice - ever!
• Skips out on a bill or is slow to pay.
• Is unreachable until a day before trial.

Wasted time. Wasted energy. Personal misery aside, these types of high-maintenance, low-return clients are bad for your practice...and for your HEALTH.

Think about it. All the time you spend with a huge headache of a client who drives you nuts or doesn't pay on time could be otherwise devoted to a better-quality client who follows your advice, pays your bill, and is a pleasure to work with.

In addition, Leffler writes:

"The amount of time and emotional energy taken up by this [bad] client is way out of proportion to the amount of revenue brought in. Not to mention, you're affected when you're NOT working with them. Trouble clients can challenge your self-esteem, making it harder for you to do well with other clients."

While it's hard to actually cut a client loose, it's important to understand that doing so will most likely lead to more work. Once you fire a counter-productive client, you'll have:

• More time to devote to your professional relationships with existing clients.
• More time for lawyer marketing and business development.
• More time for networking and pinging contacts and referrals.

How to Delicately Fire a Client
Once you've determined which clients are weighing you down, it's time to give them the boot!

Termination of services should always be carried out politely and in person. Never do it by e-mail!

Leffler reminds attorneys to keep malpractice in mind as well.

"You can't just leave a client high and dry in the middle of a lawsuit. Be sure to observe all local rules in this regard."

Finally, be courteous enough to make yourself available to the next lawyer. Make sure the client's file is ready and waiting for new counsel ASAP! Be proactive!

A proactive lawyer is a productive lawyer.

Don't be bogged down by unhealthy attorney-client relationships.

Cut bothersome clients loose and start reaping the rewards!

Trillium 15 Laptop Carrying Case

2010-05-28T09:23:00.002-05:00

by Al Harrison, Harrison Law Office, P.C., Houston

Trillium 15 Laptop Carrying Case
Shaun Jackson Design; www.SJDesign.com; 888-662-4300
Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price: $149.95

Attorneys who use a notebook or laptop or a netbook computer (referred to herein as a "laptop" for convenience) when out of the conventional brick-and-mortar office or while traveling or who rely upon such a portable computer as a crucial cog of a virtual law practice, will appreciate the need for having a convenient, lightweight and protective carrying case or carrying bag for porting a laptop along with its essential accessories. Nevertheless, most users just accept whatever carrying bag is packaged with a laptop at the point of purchase or just do not bother to carefully select a carrying bag for promoting laptop longevity. This product review discusses several advantageous features to be gained by protecting your laptop with a convenient and secure, feature-rich carrying bag and illustrates this approach to laptop longevity with Shaun Jackson Design computer-safe bags.

The initial entry into the Shaun Jackson Designs (“SJD”) carrying case product line was aptly named the “LapDog” which was uniquely configured to be efficiently unlatched and metamorphosed into an ad hoc desktop by being conveniently emplaced in situ upon a user's lap (as if it were a pet dog). Hence, this LapDog bag, when opened, transformed a portable computer into a mobile desktop, i.e., into a true "laptop," the quintessential ingredient of a virtual law practice. Since the LapDog computer bag was commercially released prior to the advent of X-ray machines at airport checkpoints, the bag was not designed to be expeditiously opened while waiting in line and quick removal of your laptop at security checkpoints. Accordingly, several unclicks of plastic hinges were prerequisite for opening the bag so that it's contents could be examined by Xray machine and possibly manually too.

The current vintage SJD carrying case, the "Trillium," is convenient, practical and versatile especially for frequent airport travelers. It may be invoked in three distinct modes: (1) a comfortably-padded backpack; (2) a briefcase having a shoulder-strap; and (3) a lightweight, protective padded sleeve. While initially introduced as the "BackOffice" indicative of its profound functionality as a virtual office, its name was changed to "Trillium" to emphasize its innovative threefold functionality. See, images depicted at www.hggear.com/trillium.html.

In its basic configuration, the Trillium may be instantly unlatched by a single click to form a compartmentalized mobile virtual law office situated on your lap as a lapdesk or for use atop an available horizontal surface. Thus, to work directly from the fully-assembled Trillium, you just unclick the securing hardware and then expose your well-protected laptop by unzipping the padded sleeve that encases the laptop so that the top of the sleeve may be raised. This single unclicking and subsequent unzipping occurs in mere seconds, thereby exposing the laptop contained within. As deemed appropriate, the computer's lid may then be raised in situ, i.e., while it is still seated within the sleeve, or it can be physically removed from the sleeve and emplace the laptop directly atop your lap, or on a tabletop or desk, or on a tray-table or the like.

The 15" model comfortably accommodates a laptop sized up to 14.5" x 10.7" x 1.75". A larger model is also available for accommodating a 17" laptop. Constructed with "Cooldeck" non-slip riser pads, your laptop is situated within the sleeve in an elevated position, inherently benefitting from natural airflow cooling. Incorporated into the Trillium are two large zippered side pockets (11" x 7.5" x 1.5") with each pocket being located on either side-flap for convenient storage of ancillary items such as writing implements, notepads, AC adapters, paper clips, business cards, cables, iPod, laser pointer, CDs, thumb drives, etc. One side pocket has a slightly smaller zippered pocket juxtaposed upon its upper surface. The other pocket has an organizer panel configured with variously-sized compartments that are juxtaposed upon its upper surface. If you opt to invoke this basic Trillium arrangement, then each side flap of your lapdesk hangs downwards outside each of your thighs. with the compartments' contents being immediately accessible while you conduct your business.

To accommodate its padded backpack configuration, the Trillium provides a special, barely-visible zipper compartment for storing, easily removing, and then attaching a pair of (backpack) straps via secure and convenient hinging hardware. The shoulder straps may optionally be secured to each other via a cross-strap which is situated across your chest and which is affixed to each shoulder strap — assuring that your laptop will be quiescently situated on your back. Using this backpack arrangement, of course, frees your hands to deal with situations that may arise while checking in at an airport or a hotel, without your setting it down, thereby unnecessarily jeopardizing your care and control.

When a more professional appearance is sought, e.g., when you are dressed formally for court or for an in-person client conference or the like, wherein the functionality of a backpack is not appropriate for carrying your laptop, the pair of (backpack) straps simply remain hidden within the allocated zipper pocket, and a handle and/or a single shoulder strap may be used when the briefcase configuration is invoked. While used in this briefcase configuration, the Trillium provides a second rear pocket which has greater capacity for storage than the shoulder strap pocket and, indeed, affords ample storage for files and documents within a 12.5" x 11.25" x 1.5" space. It should be noted that this supplemental rear pocket is also available in the Trillium's backpack configuration.

In its isolated sleeve configuration, the Trillium provides a removable laptop inner sleeve section which is securely attached to the Trillium's undersurface with military-strength Velcro. This sleeve section may be carried by either its own rubber handle at one end or by a single shoulder strap. The Trillium's functionality as a mobile housing for your portable office remains with the sleeve's non-slip, rubberized bottom surface and combined Cooldeck - gripdeck interior. It is recommended that your laptop be kept within this custom-tailored cushioned sleeve while emplaced upon the conveyor belt traveling along the security Xray-checkpoint at airports.

The Trillium 15 accommodates laptops up to 15"wide and is constructed with a rigid frame and securely-fastened, high-quality hardware; the case is enclosed with shock-absorbing foam padding throughout for lining external rugged, expedition-grade fabrics — with all stress points being reinforced to assure uninterrupted protection of its sensitive contents.

Thus, the SJD Trillium laptop carrying case or carrying bag can serve as your first level of protection to your mobile or virtual law practice. The central internal portion affords a well-padded and secure resting place for your laptop which may be transported either as a backpack, as a briefcase, or as a padded sleeve. Obviously, this is the raison d’etré for any carrying case: routinely and reliably waterproofing and insulating your laptop or the like from movement and (mild) shocks, to assure its physical longevity.

Attorneys should give serious consideration to how best to sustain the longevity and security of client data stored on their laptops or the like. As discussed in this review, the structural and physical integrity and outstanding functionality of Shaun Jackson Design computer bags have established a high standard of care for the mobile law office. The Trillium not only affords superior protection for notebooks, netbooks and laptops alike, but also provides handy accommodations for concomitant miscellaneous accessories and law practice-related papers and references. Providing adequate physical protection for your portable computer both promotes its longevity and assures that stored files are immediately accessible when needed.

Social Media Primer for Lawyers (Part 3)

2010-02-09T14:51:00.002-06:00

By Debra Bruce, J.D.

In the first post in the Social Media Primer for Lawyers series, we covered an overview of blogging and Facebook. In Part 2 we introduced LinkedIn and Twitter. In this Part 3 of the series, we’ll give an overview of several social media sites especially designed for lawyers.

5. Legal OnRamp www.LegalOnRamp.com

Legal OnRamp describes itself as “a Collaboration system for in-house counsel and invited outside lawyers and third party service providers.” Think of it as a LinkedIn for the legal industry. You can request an invitation to join Legal OnRamp from a link on the homepage, where you will be directed to complete and submit an application. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a response, however. It’s more effective to find someone you know who is a member of Legal OnRamp, and ask them to send you an invitation to join.

The site has a number of features that lawyers may find useful:
a) profiles of the members
b) display of several legal blogs
c) discussion groups
d) a section for posting news and updates
e) a collaborative wiki for posting templates, sample agreements and surveys
f) links to articles on Law.com and InsideCounsel
g) a rolling job posting display

While Legal OnRamp has only about 10,000 members, it has a concentration of in-house counsel, which makes it a valuable networking site for both inside and outside counsel. In May 2009, FMC Technologies announced that its RFP process for litigation counsel would be coordinated on Legal OnRamp, with all its responses to questions about the process being provided only in its discussion group created there.

6. Texas Bar Circle https://texasbar.affinitycircles.com/sbot/home

Texas Bar Circle is the social media network restricted to members of the State Bar of Texas. It also resembles LinkedIn. It contains discussion groups, job postings, event announcements and opportunities to connect with other Texas Bar members. Any user can start a discussion group, which can be open or restricted. Groups have formed based on practice areas, geographic regions, law schools and interests outside of law. Bar Circle members report that they appreciate the opportunity to ask questions of other lawyers, engage in professional discussions, share resources and develop relationships with lawyers they didn’t know before.

7. Martindale-Hubbell Connected www.martindale.com/connected

Martindale-Hubbell Connected is another LinkedIn-like social network targeted specifically for attorneys. In fact, there is a feature to allow you to see which of your LinkedIn connections are also members of Connected, so that you can invite them to join Connected. Any attorney can join for free, and other legal professionals are also permitted to join. It is not necessary to have a Martindale.com subscription. Martindale announced in September 2009 that Connected had achieved 15,000 members.

The site sports member profiles, blogs by members, affinity groups, discussion forums and legal news updates. There is a place to make announcements, as well. None of these features are very actively used as of this writing, at least by comparison to LinkedIn and other more established networks. A quick perusal of the attorneys in Houston, Texas on Connected in October 2009 revealed that the majority of them had 0 connections established. Some conferences are creating private groups for their participants to download documents and connect with each other on Connected.

8. AVVO

AVVO describes itself as a website to provide guidance to consumers in choosing a lawyer. AVVO compiles profile information and ratings of lawyers from state bar records, self-disclosure, peer reviews and client reviews. AVVO has its own formula for calculating its ratings, which range from 1 to 10. It also has

It also has how-to legal guides for consumers, and a question and answer section where lawyers answer consumer questions. Attorneys have the opportunity to showcase their expertise through posting guides and answering questions. AVVO also awards attorneys “levels” based on how active and helpful they are on the site.

AVVO is not really a networking site, but it is based on user-generated content. It does give lawyers a chance to connect with other lawyers by posting endorsements of them, and to interact with potential clients by answering questions. Lawyers should check their profiles to make sure they are aware of what clients and other lawyers may be saying about them.

The AVVO site and its rating system have been controversial. A number of commentators have criticized AVVO for giving poor ratings to prominent attorneys, and “no concern” ratings to lawyers who have been sanctioned by their bar association or convicted of a crime. It also has its proponents, who laud the free directory listing. It provides an inexpensive opportunity to establish an Internet presence to small firm attorneys, in contrast to the expensive directories like www.lawyers.com and www.findlaw.com.

9. JD Supra www.JDSupra.com

JD Supra is an online repository of legal documents, forms and articles. Why would you want to post anything there? Here are a few reasons:

a) Some lawyers who have posted articles have been contacted to write a similar article for a legal publication, garnering more publicity and name recognition.

b) JD Supra has an application that can make your publications come up in a list in your Facebook profile, thereby making it easier to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise to your Facebook connections.

c) JD Supra tweets about postings on Twitter in subject-specific newsfeeds. That enhances your reach to your target audience. JD Supra already has established followers in the relevant industries on Twitter, and they retweet what they like, to their network of followers.

d) JD Supra feeds articles into relevant LinkedIn interest groups, as well.

e) It helps to level the playing field, showcasing solo and small firm articles right along with those of the BigLaw firms. A number of BigLaw firms post their firm newsletters and alerts on JD Supra.

For more information about the benefits of JD Supra, Gina F. Rubel wrote a good article in The Legal Intelligencer Blog.

10. Lawlink www.LawLink.com

LawLink bills itself as “the first social network for the legal community.” The members are restricted to lawyers, law students, expert witnesses and law professionals. Members can post documents, like at JD Supra, and link to their blogs, similar to LinkedIn. They can also participate in discussion groups and post or answer questions, like on LinkedIn.

LawLink incentivises participation by giving points for posting documents, questions, answers, and other items. Members of LawLink are listed in order of their accumulated points. The home page showcases four “featured attorneys” for a month, who gain that honor by being the most prolific poster of the month.

The features are actually pretty nice on LawLink, but the participation is not very robust. At the time of this writing, lawyers looking for a social medium designed for lawyers would find more action at Legal OnRamp.

We have discussed the “Big 3” of social media networking: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. We’ve also discussed social networking sites especially relating to lawyers. And yet there’s more. So much more. Keep watching for another post about social media sites attorneys may want to know about.

Debra L. Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach. She is a former Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and past leader of Houston Coaches, Inc., the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your comments below.

iPhone3GS or Palm Pre?

2010-02-09T14:48:00.001-06:00

By David J. Ferrell

This summer we have seen the greatest evolution of mobile technology in world history and the greatest competition is between the iPhone 3GS and the Palm Pre. Both are cell phones BUT they are much more. They are hand-held gateways to the almost infinite knowledge/data that is archived on the internet. Besides bestowing very useful, informative and fun applications, the cell phone revolution has spawned a very mobile communication system that boggles the mind of those who bought those BRICKS ie. the first handheld cell phones. Today, teens text at 75 words a minute, their parents do the same at 8 words a minute. You can email an astronaut in space as you drive through a school zone, if you know her e-mail address, at least before September 1, 2009 when that behavior will get you a ticket (see Texas Transportation Code Sec. 545.425). And, she can respond at the speed of light; don’t worry, Texas has no jurisdiction in space.

Well, now which cell phone should you get if your old contract is about to expire? The iPhone 3GS is a marvelous device. It has access to nearly 50,000 applications, it is sleek and powerful. I will not articulate a thorough evaluation here but I will point out the main difference between the two heavy weight competitors for mobile technology dollars.

I chose to purchase a Palm Pre on June 6, 2009 (first day available). Some people will joke that I was the first nerd in line at Best Buy. That’s not true!! I was the second. Anyway, I bought the Palm Pre and almost took it back three times. Then, as the haze of 3G technology lifted and I began to understand the miracle of 4G I saw the genius of WebOS and knew I would not go backwards in my quest for the best mobile technology for now on the market.

The iPhone can run one application at a time, the Palm Pre multitasks, I have been running my calendar, my GPS, my contact list and memo pad as I was sending an email and an instant message while listening to a music stream from Pandora, all at the same time. This was a test I was conducting I wouldn’t normally do all that especially while driving to the courthouse. BUT, it is possible and the implications are enormous.

A big drawback to the iPhone is its only carrier, AT&T. There are dead spots in many different places. The Palm Pre’s exclusive carrier, Sprint has its problems too. Another big problem with the iPhone is the word PROPRIETARY. That means Apple has its hand in almost everything that the iPhone does. Here is where the Palm Pre will excel, and if you can wait until early 2010, Verizon will become a Palm Pre carrier.

The Palm Pre Mojo SDK (Software Development Kit) enables anybody to create, install, and debug locally hosted Web applications. This SDK puts the Palm Pre into FREE Developer Mode, which opens Pre's Linux developers to remote login. Once your genius kid in India or El Paso gets in the Pre's command shell, they will discover how robust and open the Linux OS at WebOS' base really is. I predict WebOS will be used on netbooks, notebooks , and desktop computers and even on the CPU (computer) in your refrigerator etc. in your house of the future.

Once Pre developers get into the SDK, they will exploit the easy access and use of the command line, shell script, and C. There isn't another mainstream mobile phone that is as effectively rooted at the factory. So, even though there are few applications for the Palm Pre right now, as compared to the iPhone, get ready, I predict a tsunami of Palm Pre NONPROPRIETARY applications will emerge AND, they will be free or cheap. Imagine this, you will be able to hire a geek kid somewhere to write an application for you that does what you want EXACTLY and you might spend fifty bucks for the programming. The program (application) is yours! Then share or sell that application to others who want that application but didn’t think about it until YOU did.

As a postscript to this article which I wrote in July 2009, a final comment: Just recently, Motorola and Google have teamed up and released “The Android” or “Droid” smart phone. Since it is so new, I would investigate this new communication system that could eclipse all other smart phones and devices. Google the term “ANDROID SMART PHONE” and read the articles. This is Android 2. Google has been very successful in its ventures to provide technology FREE OR CHEAP. That alone is worth further investigation.

Social Media Primer for Lawyers (Part 2)

2009-11-24T15:56:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce, J.D.

In the last post we began an introduction to various social media from the perspective of lawyers. That post discussed blogs and Facebook. This post continues the series by introducing lawyers to LinkedIn and Twitter.

3. LinkedIn www.LinkedIn.com

Although LinkedIn has a smaller membership (over 50 million) than Facebook, the members are primarily white-collar business professionals. A LinkedIn profile looks like a resume on steroids. You are invited to post your current position, former positions, and education. You can fill the summary section with a search-term rich description of your practice, and you can incorporate your blog, slide show presentations and other features. Your LinkedIn page may get better search engine ranking than your website! If you still don’t have a website, get on LinkedIn so that at least you will exist when prospective clients or referral sources search for you on the web.

Like Facebook, LinkedIn has a place to post short status updates. Because it is entirely appropriate to toot your own horn on LinkedIn, this is a good place to publicize an award you just received, a trial you won, an article that got published or anything else that enhances your professional reputation.

Like Facebook, you can invite people to link to you, but with a kicker. When your old classmates or colleagues connect to you, there’s a good chance they will review your profile. If you have constructed it carefully, they will be reminded of the ways you can help them. Then your status updates will help keep you top of mind when they have a need. A lot of people have gotten business just from reconnecting with old contacts as they built their LinkedIn network.

Once you get about 100 connections, LinkedIn becomes even more valuable because it operates on the “six degrees of separation” theory. Let’s say there is a company that you want to do a little reconnaissance on. You might want to know how to best approach them as a prospective client, get a job there, or find their weak spots as a litigation opponent. When you search on the company name, LinkedIn will not only show you everyone you are connected to who works there or used to work there, it will also show you which of your friends knows someone like that.

Like Facebook, LinkedIn has groups that you can join that share common interests. In those groups you can raise your visibility among potential clients and referral sources who are members of the group by answering questions or posting some of your own to get a discussion going. Keep in mind the usual ethical caveats if you answer legal questions, and shy away from posting questions about legal issues in a public forum. Examples of a few questions that might generate discussion without making you look bad include (i) how have you found LinkedIn to be beneficial, (ii) if you have used a virtual assistant, what was your experience, and (iii) what positive trends or changes do you see coming out of these challenging times.

4. Twitter www.Twitter.com

Twitter is called a micro-blogging site because posts cannot exceed 140 characters, and the user’s profile description can’t exceed 180. It evolved from a mechanism for people to text multiple friends at once to keep tabs on each other, so they could meet up or alert each other to something cool going on. Today, however, Twitter is has become the fastest way to get up-to-the-minute news on any topic. Observers “tweet” the news as it happens, as previously described regarding the June 2009 Iranian election. It also garners attention for newsworthy events that mainstream media may have ignored.

Twitterers share information, often with links to blog posts with more in-depth discussion. If your followers find your comment interesting, amusing or informative, they will “retweet” it to their followers. Thus, your posts can very quickly go viral, and if it contains a link to related information on your website or blog, Twitter can drive a lot of traffic there. If you have a message you want to get out to a lot of people, or if you want more traffic to your website, it pays to develop a lot of Twitter followers.

Twitter can help lawyers to build a reputation for expertise and create valuable relationships with potential clients and referral sources by joining conversations in an arena with very few barriers. Twitter has been described as a giant cocktail party where you can join a conversation on any subject that interests you. Just like at a cocktail party, you make new acquaintances and can follow up with them later in a more private forum.

The culture of the “Twitterverse” is open and collaborative, allowing you to connect with (or at least eavesdrop on) people who probably wouldn’t take your phone call. For example, on July 10, 2009, the new CEO of General Motors, Fritz Henderson, spent half an hour answering questions on Twitter about the products and direction of the “new” post-bankruptcy GM.

The Twitterverse has its own etiquette, which frowns on flagrant self-promotion, and favors helping others and reciprocation. Since those values support relationship building, and relationship building lies at the core of effective marketing of professional services, Twitter can be a valuable tool for lawyers.

Twitter neophytes often find it confusing. That’s mainly because the Twitter structure is actually rather skeletal, and users rely on a myriad of external applications to make it function in the way they want to use it. Just enter “top Twitter apps” into your favorite search engine, and read a few blog posts to find some applications that will make Twitter easier to understand. For some quick guides, check out Twitter 101 by LegalTypist, Inc. and The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter by Webdesigner Depot. To really learn about the power of Twitter in detail and in an efficient manner, read the book Twitter Power by Joel Comm.

The most common misconception about Twitter is that you will just waste your time reading about what someone had for breakfast. Yes, some foodies and narcissists will post about what they eat. However, you won’t “hear” what they have to say, unless you follow them. If their conversation bores you, walk away! Only follow people (your “tweeps”) who tweet on topics you care about.

Here is a brief list of essential applications and sites for attorneys experimenting with Twitter. This list just scratches the surface, but it’ll help you get off to a good start.

Tweetdeck. This popular application helps you manage the conversation flow of the people you follow. You can segregate tweeters into columns by interests, locations, friends, favorites, or any other category that helps you sort for the tweets you really want to read. This becomes more important as you increase the number of people you follow. Tweetdeck also has an iPhone app to keep your tweets organized on the road.

Tweetbeep. You can use this app to alert you by email when someone sends you a message, mentions your name, or mentions any other subject you want to react to promptly. This tool is essential for lawyers who don’t check Twitter frequently, and might miss someone’s effort to contact them or compliment their tweet.

Lextweet. A site that follows the tweets of lawyers and other members of the legal community who register with the site. See what your peers are saying.

Twellow. Breaks tweeters down by industry based on what they registered under. Find people to follow in your clients’ industry or in the legal industry.

WeFollow. Another service that categorizes twitterers to help you find who to follow.

By now you have plenty to experiment with, and yet “social media for lawyers” encompasses so much more. The next post will discuss some social media venues that specifically relate to lawyers.

Debra L. Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach. She is a former Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and past leader of Houston Coaches, Inc., the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your comments below.

Three Steps to Take When Planning to Return to Work After a Disability

2009-11-24T15:18:00.001-06:00

A long term disability can be life altering – for yourself and for your family. It can impact
your livelihood and your ability to continue to earn an income. That’s why a long term
disability (LTD) income insurance plan that offers a return-to-work option can be such an
important part of your financial plan. It offers a measure of security that will allow you to
concentrate on your first priority – getting well – without worrying too much about how
you’ll meet your financial responsibilities. But perhaps just as important, it can help you
to get your life back to as normal a routine as possible by allowing you to resume
working while still receiving benefits.

Returning to work while receiving disability benefits can be rewarding, but it will take
some coordination between your LTD provider, your employer and yourself.

Here are three important steps you should take when you return to work:

1. Inform your LTD provider you wish to return to work. In most cases, once your
provider offers a “return to work option” and approves your return, your benefits
will continue after you re-enter the workforce. Benefits may be reduced to take
into account your new income, and may cease all together if you begin earning an
income comparable to your pre-disability income. Make sure to keep your
provider abreast of your plans – going back to work without your provider’s
consent may jeopardize your LTD benefits.

2. Contact your HR department (if applicable) to find out what requirements they
have regarding your return. For instance, you may be required to submit release
forms from your medical care provider clearing you to return to work. HR may
also be able to offer you “light duty” or a transitional position as you readjust to
the workforce.

3. Alert your manager of any special accommodations you need. You may find
that you have special needs such as ramps, more frequent breaks or a specialized
keyboard to help you perform your job.

Depending on your LTD plan, you may have access to services that can help you get
additional training if you want to get back to work, but are no longer capable of fulfilling
the duties you previously held. Many LTD plans offer assistance obtaining vocational
training needed to re-enter the workforce.

Returning to work after a disability can be an uplifting experience that can help you
physically, emotionally and financially. Make sure you have the option to get back on the
job by choosing an LTD plan with a return-to-work option.

The Long Term Disability Plan, endorsed by the State Bar of Texas Insurance Trust and
issued by The Prudential Insurance Company of America, offers LTD protection
designed specifically with Texas bar members in mind. The Plan provides money you can
use to pay your mortgage, buy groceries and meet your everyday expenses while you’re
disabled. Go to www.sbotit.com /ltd to learn more about the Plan and how it can help you
make sure you are protected.

Virtual Assistance Can Help Your Law Firm Manage A Downturn

2009-11-24T15:06:00.001-06:00

By Mike Lewis

Using a virtual assistant can reduce your firm’s overhead costs.

In the midst of an economic downturn are you doing everything you can to cut costs and stay afloat?

Many companies are now using an innovative service provided by virtual offices that enhances productivity and creates value in the global downturn—virtual assistance. A virtual assistant handles all the administrative tasks that take time away from your ability to focus on what you do best.

A virtual assistant helps you manage your professional and personal tasks just like an on-site administrative assistant, but without the overhead. The difference is you pay virtual assistants for time actually worked, opposed to a salaried administrative assistant who needs health insurance, vacation, and other employee benefits.

Pofessional virtual assistants conduct internet research, manage your personal and professional calendars, format MS Office applications, book your travel plans, coordinate events, speak multiple languages, and perform many other services—they are well-resourced to manage all your administrative needs.

Maria Flores, a virtual assistance user, says, “Since I decided to hire a Virtual Assistant, my life has been so much easier. Now I don't have to worry about time-consuming administrative tasks, and I have more time to dedicate to…my business and to my family.”

If only 5% of your time is spent on administrative tasks, that is 4-6 hours of time you are not able to bill a client for.

There are many virtual assistant firms and it is important you choose the correct one. Quality firms provide you with a dedicated virtual assistant, instead of farming out your work to whoever is available, and they work with you to find a virtual solution that best meets your needs.

Once you get used to using a virtual assistant you will forget how you operated without one.

For further information please contact: Mike Lewis, Principal, mlewis@excend.com. About EXCEND Consulting Group: EXCEND has provided consulting services to over 170 clients worldwide. The firm advises leading businesses on penetrating the Hispanic market in North America, as well as consulting international businesses on entering the North American market. Clients of EXCEND penetrate new markets at rates up to 3 times faster than their competitors.

The Art of Hiring and Firing

2009-09-04T13:52:00.001-05:00

By Barbara J. Garder, J.D.

HIRING – EMPHASIZE THE POSITIVE

Hiring well is a talent and firing effectively is a skill. If you hire well, you will have to engage your firing skill less frequently. Eagerness to fill an opening should not prevent you from performing a thorough consideration process to hire the best choice for your firm.

Following are some practical pointers regarding handling the hiring process and a variety of issues to consider prior to making the decision to terminate an employee’s employment...

Click here to read the full article.

Social Media Primer for Lawyers (Part 1)

2009-09-04T13:09:00.000-05:00

By Debra L. Bruce, J.D.

Unless you live in a cave, you have probably been hearing about social media lately. Many lawyers dismiss social media as just something that kids do. Others recognize that many adults use social media, but claim that it’s a waste of time for lawyers. Some lawyers even concede that using some social media might benefit their practice, but assert that there are too many risks associated with it.

Lawyers made similar claims about the internet and email in the 1990’s. Today most of us can’t even practice, if our access to internet and email goes down...

Click here to read the full article.

Thomson Reuters Westlaw Research Tools: Graphical Statutes & Graphical KeyCite

2009-09-04T12:07:00.000-05:00

Reviewed by Al Harrison

Legal research frequently commences with assessing underlying federal and/or state statutes. Researching statutes has traditionally been both a laborious and a challenging aspect of legal research, regardless of whether being undertaken by law clerks, paralegals, professional researchers, or by attorneys themselves. While paper-based law libraries have become largely superseded by universally-available electronic libraries, researching the statutory basis for legal controversies has largely remained a daunting chore. Consider and contrast the functionality and feature sets of two popular but diametrically opposed currently-available protocols for performing statutory research: MyTexasBar and Westlaw Graphical Statutes.

Click here to read the full article.

Silver Linings in Recessionary Times

2009-04-06T09:03:00.005-05:00

By Debra Bruce, JD

The current economic downturn has affected BigLaw to an unprecedented extent, resulting in lawyer layoffs. Many smaller firms, however, have not actually seen a drop in business. This scary economic climate may actually create opportunities for smaller law firms.

Small Firm Opportunities

1. Big companies with shrinking budgets may take a chance on smaller law firms with good reputations and less expensive fee structures. Make sure you keep your corporate relationships current.

2. Your firm may attract higher quality, experienced attorneys or staff at reasonable salaries, as the result of layoffs from corporations or large firms. Some lawyers may be glad to work on an Of Counsel basis or office sharing basis, just to have a respectable place to land with the possibility of referral business.

3. More graduating law students will have difficulty finding jobs, and they may seek positions as law clerks or even unpaid interns, just to get experience. Get some help or delegate tasks you don’t like to do, without over-extending your budget.

Take Advantage of Slower Business

If your business has slowed down, this too shall pass. Take advantage of the additional time you now have available. Do what you kept wishing you had time for, when you were too busy. Here are a few suggestions to consider.

1. Take a vacation. Make it up to your family for all those nights and weekends at the office. If you are concerned about expenses, there are some good travel bargains now, but you don’t have to leave town. Be a tourist at home and pay attention to those you love. As a lawyer, I found that one way to generate additional business was to book a vacation with non-refundable tickets. Perhaps it was the perverse humor of the Fates, or the fact that I informed clients I would be unavailable for a week. Business almost always ticked up. Hint: notify your clients enough in advance that you have time to complete those “can’t wait” projects.

2. Clean up your office. You always intend to get more organized, don’t you? This is your chance. Don’t waste it.

3. Enhance your business relationships. Rekindle relationships with former clients, law school classmates, and referral sources that you haven’t talked to in a while. Check in to see how the economy is affecting someone today. Call your former client to ask how things are going after the completion of that trial or deal closing. Pass on useful articles to referral sources and prospective clients. Most people appreciate help in keeping up with our rapidly changing world. The recent legislative developments provide ample opportunity to benefit them while showcasing your expertise.

4. Write an article or prepare a talk. Think of 10 tips or 10 traps for the unwary that you can share with your prospective client audience. Contact organizations that your prospective clients may be involved in, to see if they would be interested in your article for their publication or your talk at an upcoming meeting.

5. Attend meetings of client industry associations and bar associations. Get involved, so that more people will get to see how responsible and trustworthy you are. Once you build up that trust, they will assume they can count on your legal work, too. You’ll build new relationships with potential clients and referral sources. You will probably learn something valuable, too.

6. Catch up on CLE requirements. Don’t wait until your birthday month this year. If your area of practice looks like it will be down for a long time, take courses in a new practice area to add to your repertoire.

7. Do some pro bono work. Most unhappy lawyers have lost the sense of meaning and purpose in their work. Reignite your passion for the law, and feel good about yourself, by making a difference to someone who really needs legal services, but can’t afford them. Some volunteer lawyer associations provide training and mentoring, in case your expertise doesn’t lend itself well to pro bono work. You may even get training in a new practice area, if you need some.

8. Catch up on technology. Explore the unused capabilities of your case management software; learn how to have a less-paper office; find out the benefits of online social media; create or update your firm’s website; start a blog; find useful new apps for your iPhone or Blackberry; or test out speech recognition software for your dictation. You can’t outrun (or out-retire) the tsunami of technological advances in the legal world, so you better learn to swim!

9. Mentor newer lawyers. Young lawyers wish they had more mentoring, and older lawyers wish the younger ones were more experienced or more professional. Increase the value of your firm and the productivity of your less experienced lawyers by teaching them what they need to know. If you don’t have any younger lawyers in your firm, raise the quality and perception of our profession by mentoring a recent law school grad. Just contact the nearest law school to let them know you are available.

10. Take care of yourself. For once you have time to exercise. Besides improving your health, it will reduce stress, anxiety or the blues. Sleep late a few mornings. What can feel more luxurious? Actually prepare a healthy meal for yourself and your family. Get your kids or spouse to join in, and you can turn a chore into a time of reconnection and bonding. Spend some quiet time alone each day. That will increase your resilience, lower your blood pressure, and open your mind to creative solutions that didn’t occur to you before.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Look for opportunity in adversity. Enjoy your new-found flexibility. If nothing else, call your mother. You know you never do that enough!

© 2009 Debra L. Bruce

Debra L. Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming the first Texas lawyer to be credentialed by the International Coach Federation. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas and a past leader of Houston Coaches Inc. You can email her at debra@lawyer-coach.com.

E-Book Review: Spam-Proof Your E-mail Address

2009-04-03T10:40:00.005-05:00

Book: 2nd Edition By Brian Livingston
www.WindowsSecrets.com
31 pages, $9.95

Review By Al Harrison and Randy Claridge

Brian Livingston, a highly-regarded expert of matters pertaining to any and all incarnations of Microsoft Windows and the author of the well known Windows Secrets series, has written an informative “e-book” that reveals modus operandi for protecting website-published e-mail addresses from exploitation perpetuated by purveyors of junk e-mail. Known as “spammers” in the electronic vernacular, such purveyors of spam are responsible for consuming daily significant attorney-time which tend to undermine the efficiency of e-mail communications.

A recent estimate of the profitability enjoyed by spammers by Ciphertrust (see, www.ciphertrust.com) is that a return of a mere single spam out of a population of 50,000 e-mails justifies this heinous procedure. That is, if only one spam-recipient unknowingly or inadvertently responds to a junk e-mail, while contemporaneously approximately 50,000 co-recipients properly reject the same junk e-mail, the spammer typically can realize a profit. Furthermore, according to data compiled by the SpamHaus Project, an anti-spam service (see, www.SpamHaus.org) which tracks spammers and also shares its findings with law enforcement, fewer than 200 spammers generate at least 80% of worldwide spam. The urgency for seeking “spam-proofing” protocols is evident.

Mr. Livingston’s thesis for foiling spammers’ dastardly exploits is for the user to affirmatively create an environment that inherently reduces spam. His ideal electronic landscape minimizes or avoids spam-flow on the basis of e-mail addresses being rendered invisible to spammers. Thus, spam-proofing may be achieved by hiding e-mail addresses from the robotic eyes of automatic e-mail “harvesting” applets that collect e-mail addresses for sale to a plethora of exploitative spammers.

He observes that harvesting applets focus on spam targets having predictable format: character strings having the format “your-id@domain name.” Accordingly, search criteria invoked consists of an algorithm that: (1) seeks occurrences of the special character “@”; (2) confirms that this “@” is followed by a domain name having a “.” delimited format such as “isp.com” or “YourDomain.com”; and then (3) copies the (non-blank) characters that precede the “@.” Of course, other top-level domains (besides the com-domain) such as net, org and edu would typically be included in this search strategy.

To prevent harvesters from electronically cumulating email addresses, the author suggests several approaches which he classifies as “Super-Simple,” “Simple,” Moderately Simple,” and “Advanced.” While not assuring success, these methods may significantly improve the usability of preferred e-mail addresses. When posting an e-mail address on a website, the most rudimentary deterrent to being placed upon a spam distribution list is to modify the way the e-mail address is conveyed to the reader. Rather than specifying “myname@isp.com,” it is preferable to present the address as “myname(at)isp(dot)com.” This approach foils harvesters by not displaying what is predefined as constituting a valid e-mail address. A spam bot does not copy every bit of text on a website, but rather scans millions of websites looking for the familiar “@” and “.” combination associated with conventional e-mail addresses. Unfortunately, the author concedes, spammers are beginning to include e-mail address variations such as “myname(at)isp.com” in e-mail scanning algorithms.

Another recommended method involves posting an e-mail address as a graphical image file instead of a textual string. Image files cannot be read by text-scanning routines, but, images provide website visitors a familiar e-mail address. Harvesters are not programmed to perform optical character recognition (“OCR”) on billions of web pages in the pursuit of collecting myriad e-mail addresses. Analyzing the enormous number of images encountered would drastically undermine the bots’ productivity. The primary drawback to relying on image files to depict an e-mail address is that visitors must manually type the address rather than just hot-linking via a single click.

As an aid to enabling website visitors to invoke the familiar point-and-click experience, Mr. Livingston refers to a free applet that embeds an encrypted “mailto:” hyperlink on a website. Then, once incorporated into a website, an email address may be invoked by visitors who can view an e-mail address as an image and establish contact by clicking on the encrypted hyperlink. The invoked hyperlink triggers a new e-mail message in the visitor’s default e-mail program and automatically populates the “To:” field with the e-mail address. Adding the prerequisite code to a website is more technically involved than the previous methods, but it affords website visitors easy e-mail access while simultaneously hiding the e-mail address from nasty bots.

The author introduces the most technically sophisticated method for spam-securing an e-mail address, while still affording convenience to website visitors: incorporating an interactive form into a website. Most website visitors are familiar with web forms, usually found on service support websites and the like. Nevertheless, as Mr. Livingston correctly notes, many businesses fail to design a visually-appealing form. Website visitors may acquire a subpar first impression of a business based upon what appears to be an amateurish form. Cost-effective web-design tools for generating web forms and website designers are available but should be carefully selected.

As yet another approach to avoiding spam, he suggests creating “disposable” e-mail addresses whereby each recipient of an e-mail is allocated a different address. Under this schema, if one such disposable e-mail address is compromised, the user simply ceases any further use, i.e., turns it off. The e-book includes a list of available disposable e-mail services, some of which are free.

Brian Livingston’s “Spam-Proof Your E-Mail Address” is an excellent way to not only become conversant with techniques for avoiding being inundated by spam, but also to experience the nuances of the e-book genre.

Al Harrison is a member of The Law Practice Management Committee and a former Chair of the Computer & Technology Section of the State Bar; he is a patent attorney and intellectual property lawyer practicing with the firm of Harrison Law Office, P.C. In Houston.

Randy Claridge is a recent graduate of South Texas College of Law who is an associate attorney practicing with the firm of Harrison Law Office, P.C.; he has extensive background in computer and Internet technology.

Creating Your Personal Marketing Plan

2009-02-18T10:08:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce, JD

In the last article we talked about preparing to create a marketing plan. Now it’s time to write down your plan. A written plan requires you to organize your thoughts, and provides some accountability guidelines for your activities. This article does not address the specifics of advertising, but if you do plan to use advertising, it should be addressed in your plan, too. Here are five steps to create your marketing plan.

1. Budget marketing time. Decide how much time you will commit to marketing activities each week. It’s important to set a minimum so you will develop a regular habit of marketing activity. You can’t postpone your marketing efforts until you are low on work, because marketing legal services is a long-term process. You have to plant and nurture seeds before you can harvest the fruit. You can’t wait until you need the apples to plant the apple seeds.

Budget a minimum of five hours per week. That will allow for 10 to 15 minutes per day for making a little connections by emails, notes or phone calls. Your other marketing activities will require time blocks of approximately two hours each. You might choose two per week from the categories of (a) in-person meeting over lunch, breakfast, dinner, coffee or cocktails with a client, prospect or referral source, (b) group networking activity such as a bar, civic, or industry association meeting, (c) writing or blogging, (d) online networking in listservs, social networking sites like LinkedIn, chat rooms or forums, or (e) speaking. Some weeks all of your efforts will fall in one category, but try to diversify your efforts over time.

2. Set monthly goals and action plans for developing relationships within your target audience. Choose just one target market to start. Begin building a relationship with at least one new person in that market per month. Experiment with strategies to come in contact with new prospects. If your clients are companies, what industry associations do they belong to? Can you attend their meetings? What conferences or trade shows do they attend? Can you take on a leadership or other visible role in the industry organization once you attend consistently for a while? Can you blog, write articles for their publications, or speak at their conferences? Write down the actions you plan to take.

If your clients tend to be individuals, what problems or other characteristics do they have in common? What groups do they join? Who else serves the same types of people? For example, if you have a wills, trusts and estates practice, can you speak to organizations that financial planners belong to? Can you be a speaker at an event a financial planner hosts for her clients? Can you be an invited guest? Can you speak to retirement or assisted living associations or organizations for new parents or for caregivers of aging parents?

Personal injury lawyers and other litigators often find this step difficult because most people don’t expect to need their services. You may need to focus on developing relationships with referral sources. Can you speak to or write for consumers’ rights groups, union organizations, safety councils or organizations that provide support or resources for people with related problems or injuries? Who else serves the same people – hospitals, doctors, clinics, chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists, community services, psychologists, credit counselors, auto repair shops? Are there close knit groups of people who share information and resources with each other, like neighborhood associations, ethnic associations, or religious associations? Can you be a part of and play a helpful role to any of those groups, and thereby become a trusted resource whose name would get passed around? Can you educate them about the legal issues that may affect their members or customers?

Set goals to regularly attend meetings in organizations where you can build relationships with referral sources or potential clients. Designate at least one meeting that you will attend every month. Sporadic attendance gets associated with unreliability, and won’t give you enough exposure to build relationships. You may need to visit several organizations before you find the best ones for you. Look for meetings in which you are interested in the topics discussed, the cause they support, and the people who attend.

3. Set goals and action plans for repeatedly connecting with existing clients and prospects. When a need arises, people prefer to take their problems (or stake their reputation on a referral) to someone they trust. Trust takes time to build, and if you don’t connect with them sufficiently often, they may not think of you when a need arises. Create your reserved parking spot in their brain on the subject you can help with. Set goals regarding how often you will contact them or show up where they show up.

You can connect in many ways. Send a newsletter with useful information. Give them a resource for help with their non-legal problem. Call to check on how the economy is affecting them and their business. Invite them to a social event related to their interests. Share a restaurant review for their favorite food. Keep them abreast of cases or legislation affecting them. Bump into them at meetings they attend. Send a birthday card or holiday card. Send condolences when their team loses a big game, or congratulations if they win. Ask them to be a speaker at an event you help plan. Interview them for an article you write. Every time you connect again, you are reinforcing that reserved parking spot. If you are genuinely interested in helping them with their concerns (regardless of whether they relate to legal issues), you build trust.

4. Track your efforts and your next actions. You may have a distorted picture of what works if you don’t keep records. Make a note every time you connect with your targeted prospect or referral source. When your record shows that it took 12 “touches” to get that new piece of business, you won’t stop at 3 next time.

Your record should also capture your plan for the next action to take. Did you promise to send something? Will you need to set up another meeting when you get additional information? Are you waiting on a response from them? Are you both planning to attend the same conference? When will you touch base with them again?

Choose a recording method you are comfortable with. You can use case management software, a three-ring binder, a chart in Excel or WordPerfect, or even a legal pad. Some attorneys keep a notebook with a page for each prospect and a running narrative of their goals and the actions they take toward them. Some create a prospect chart with names, contact information, decision makers, the needs they have uncovered, results of meetings or calls, and next action steps. You can email me for samples of some tracking charts in Excel.

5. Review your goals, plans and results regularly. That will help you keep a marketing focus and show you where to make course corrections. Over time you will get a better sense of what works for you and how long it takes. Be patient and persistent!

© 2009 Debra L. Bruce

Debra L. Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (http://www.blogger.com/www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming the first Texas lawyer to be credentialed by the International Coach Federation. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas and a past leader of Houston Coaches Inc. You can email her at debra@lawyer-coach.com.

Preparing to Create a Marketing Plan

2009-01-21T13:41:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce, JD

The beginning of a new year is a good time to set a marketing plan for your legal services. Many lawyers don’t have a marketing strategy, much less an action plan. They use the “Threshold Method.” They take any business that crosses the threshold into their office.

Some attorneys write down marketing goals, but they put about as much thought into them as they do their new year’s resolutions. They resemble a wish list more than a plan. A wish list is better than nothing. At least if you stumble onto one of your goals, you’ll recognize it.

Some lawyers actually write down a plan of marketing activities for the year. This year they plan to give four speeches, attend three conferences and take four clients to lunch per month. At least they have some activities to aim for. They get off to an optimistic start, but their efforts tend to dwindle in a couple of months. Their numbers are specific, but their target audience is not. They lose momentum because they don’t have a focus.

A good marketing plan works like a treasure map, guiding you toward your goal. It gives you specific instructions, with landmarks that will help you gauge whether you are making progress toward finding what you are looking for. You know what you are trying to get to because “X marks the spot.”

You need to do some preparatory work, surveying the landscape before you create your treasure map. Get clear about the treasure you are seeking, and what kind of “X” it will be buried under. The steps described below will get you ready to map out a good plan.

Step 1 – Analyze your existing business.
Give a grade to your existing and former clients. We want to find more of the “A” and “B” clients, and figure out how to avoid the “C” and “D” clients.

“A” – Wish they could all be like this.
Interesting work. Good volume and ongoing. In my sweet spot of expertise and interest. Pleasant and reasonable people to deal with. They appreciate my efforts. They pay promptly and don’t quibble over the bill. Give referrals.

“B” – Good clients, but something is off a little.
Perhaps their work is not in my sweet spot, or it’s low fee or boring work. Perhaps they are unsophisticated users of legal services and are surprised at the bill or the time involved. They pay, but don’t really have an appreciation for the value they are getting. May give referrals.

“C” – Several things don’t fit.
Very fee sensitive. I wind up writing off some of my time. They pay but not timely. I have to dun them. I don’t really enjoy their work, or never know whether there will be more. I get last minute notice of their needs. If I were flush with business, I would refer them to someone else.

“D” – Pain in the neck.
High maintenance. Unreasonable expectations. Self-created crises. Frequent phone calls. Want the lowest rate. Pays slow. Client creates a lot of stress on our office. Tries to renegotiate the fee. Doesn’t give me all of the info I need.

Where did the “A” & “B” clients come from?

If networking or advertising, what kind? How long were you involved with that group or campaign?

If referred – what kind of referral source? Other attorneys? Former clients? Friends or family? Other vendors of products or services to same market?

How did you get to know the referrer?
If speaking or writing – what venue? What topic?

Step 2 – Describe your ideal client.
What kind of work do you do for them?

How else do you really serve them?

What industry are they in?

What title or level does the hiring decision-maker have?

What size is the company in terms of annual revenues? Number of employees?

If an individual, what income level, estate size, injury level, or other threshold does the client exceed?

What feels good about working with that kind of client?

How does working with them align with your passions or interests?

Step 3 – Identify your client’s need or desire.
What complaints, worries or problems do your best clients bring to you? What do they say? What questions do they ask? What is their pain?

What is your client’s dream? What are they hoping to achieve that you can help with? How do you make that individual’s life better, easier, less stressful or more fun?

If the client is a company, answer the above about the hiring decision-maker personally first, then about the company.

Step 4 – Identify what sets you apart from your competition.
List special expertise, experience or background that you have, connections you have.

What is the niche of service you provide? Determine the niche you will market to. You don’t have to turn away business outside that niche, but you need a market focus. Make the marketing niche as narrow as you can.

Step 5 – Develop your marketing answer to “What do you do?”
“I help (type of person or company) with (their problem) by (what you do for them)” or “I help (who) to (what they want to achieve).”

Example: “I help parents get through divorce without making it even worse.”

For tips on crafting your statement, read “Get Remembered” in the archives of The Practice Manager.

Step 6 – Identify where to come into contact with people in your niche market.
What industry organizations or trade associations do ideal clients in your niche market belong to?

What country clubs, sports clubs, social clubs, online networks or special interest groups do they belong to?

What articles, magazines, trade publications, Listservs or blogs do people like them read?

What conferences, seminars, conventions or trade shows do they attend?

What non-profit boards are they on? What non-profits do they support?

Who do they turn to for advice or referrals?

Who are the blabber-mouths that love to tell everyone about the best restaurant, the best movie, the best hair stylist, the best lawyer?

Step 7 – Identify where to come in contact with referral sources.
Where do they work? What do they do?

What organizations do they belong to?

What conferences and trade shows do they attend?

What blogs or Listservs do they comment on?

What networking groups (in person or online) do they get involved in?

What needs do they have? How can you help them? What referrals can you give them?

Step 8 – Identify the most comfortable/enjoyable marketing activities for you that will put you in touch with potential clients and referral sources.

What hobbies or other activities do you enjoy that can be done regularly and in large groups?

What organizations can you become active in and consistently attend which have potential clients or referral sources attending?

Do you like to write? What are some frequently asked questions can you answer? What developing issues or current events can you discuss? What innovative ideas or perspectives can you share? What publications might be interested in your article? Trade journals are always looking for free articles by reliable sources. Newspapers need new articles daily.

Are you comfortable with public speaking? What organizations and venues would be receptive to your talks?

If you have answered all the questions above thoughtfully, you now have some good clues to finding your treasured clients. With this preparation, you are ready to write a real marketing action plan with step-by-step instructions. Happy hunting!

© 2009 Debra L. Bruce

Debra L. Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas and past leader of Houston Coaches Inc., a chapter of the International Coach Federation.

Holiday Networking Tips

2008-12-16T13:58:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce

Many lawyers think of December as a time when people are harder to reach, decisions get postponed and less work gets done. That may be true for some, but it’s also a time filled with opportunities for marketing your practice, looking for new career opportunities, and deepening or expanding your network of useful resources.

No, I am not suggesting that you hawk your wares or pass out your resume at holiday parties. I am suggesting that you take full advantage of this opportunity to meet and reconnect with people who you may not have access to the rest of the year.

Whether you just love socializing or avoid big gatherings whenever possible, here are some tips that can make your holiday networking more productive:

1. Plan ahead. To optimize these opportunities, think now about how you might answer some of the typical questions, such as “What do you do?” Re-read my article Get Remembered published in The Practice Manager in June 2007 so you won’t give a dull and forgettable response. Don’t lead with “I’m a lawyer.” People tend to stop listening after that because they’ve filed you in a category in their brain. Lead with who you help and how. Have one or two very brief (two sentence) success stories in mind that you can use to illustrate how you do that.

2. Dress well. If you want to court business and instill confidence in your abilities, look successful and even festive, but not flashy. Don’t wear a slinky, low cut dress if you want people to pay attention to what you have to say. Wear something with pockets, if possible. Store your business cards in one pocket and stash cards you receive in the other.

3. Ask thoughtful questions. People who dread large parties and networking events usually fear awkward or shallow conversations. You can avoid that by thinking ahead about a few questions you can ask to stimulate a more interesting and in-depth conversation. You might ask a variation of one of these:
a. What changes have occurred in your business (or industry) as a result of
1) Hurricane Ike;
2) the economy;
3) fluctuating gas prices;
4) the recent election;
5) the holidays: or
6) other current events?
b. How do you like to celebrate the holidays? What’s one of your favorite childhood memories of the holidays?
c. How did you get started in your business?
d. What do you enjoy about your work?
e. What kind of challenges or opportunities do you expect the new year to bring you (or your business or industry)?
Notice that questions about work or business may lead to information indicating how you can be of service.

4. Have the intent to help someone. You’ll feel more at ease and have more fun if your focus is on being helpful, rather than on how you look to others. You can make introductions, point out the bar or the tastiest hors d’oeuvres, or share information about useful resources when needs surface in a conversation. You can start a conversation with someone standing alone. Imagine that you are the host to get in the right frame of mind for being helpful and at ease.

5. Take notes and follow-up. If someone gives you a business card, discreetly write on the back of it. Occasionally step around the corner or into the restroom if necessary. Write the date and occasion where you met and reminders of interesting conversation. Have your assistant record that information when adding them to your contact database. Hopefully you will be able to follow-up within the next week with an article, a website link or some other useful information relating to your conversation. Then you can include an invitation for lunch or coffee to continue the conversation.

6. Ask for introductions if necessary. If you see someone you want to know, and don’t have an easy way to get into conversation with them, ask a friend to introduce you. You may need to give them some information to share in the introduction that will facilitate the conversation.

7. Scope out future activities. If you are considering getting involved with an organization for business connections, the holiday party can give you a good view of who is connected to that organization. You can ask people about the organization’s culture and their activities. You can ask them what they like most about being involved.

8. Invite clients and prospects to your home. An intimate dinner for six to ten people in your home can really deepen your connection with them. If you just can’t stomach big parties, this is an excellent alternative for getting involved in the holiday. Cook it, cater it, or serve take-out from your favorite restaurant in your own dishware. Just make sure you have plenty of time for sharing conversation with your guests.

9. Don’t conduct business at holiday functions. Don’t spoil the holiday sentiments by selling yourself. Just mention that you have enjoyed the conversation and would like to follow-up for more discussion in the new year.

10. Personalize your holiday greetings. Even if you get sick and miss all the parties, you can still send out New Year’s cards. Be sure to include something more personal than a signature. For ideas, check out my December 2007 article called Send Holiday Greetings That Really Connect.

Don’t miss the chance to connect during the holidays. Accept as many invitations as you can. People are open and receptive at this time of year. May you have some fun, make new friends and renew your relationships with old ones this year!

© 2008 Debra Bruce

Debra Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas and a past leader of Houston Coaches Inc., the Houston chapter of the International Coach Federation.

Data Recovery: What to do When all Else Fails

2008-11-24T09:04:00.000-06:00

by Gerry Morris

Let’s say you’ve read my previous columns, listened to your consultant or come to the conclusion on your own that you need to protect your data with a redundant RAID array and utilize an offsite data backup service or system. Or maybe you’re backing up to tape or other removable media. Or, it could be that you’ve been meaning to establishing a reliable backup routine but just haven’t gotten around to it. Hardware failures which result in data loss are increasingly more rare these days, but they still occasionally happen. The more layers of backup used the more things have to go wrong before data is completely lost. But, in theory everything could fail at once. If a hard drives fails and there is no backup, it still may be possible to recover the data.

Hard drives consist basically of magnetic disks where data is recorded and the motor that spins them; a set of mechanical heads that move across the disks reading and writing the data as they go; and the software (firmware) that controls the disk’s operation. The components are assembled inside a “clean room” to prevent dust or other contaminants from finding their way into the disk’s enclosure. The disk operates at such close tolerances that even small particles of dust could interfere.

When a hard drive malfunctions to the extent that data can no longer be retrieved from it, the problem could be with one or more of its components. It could be that the disk will no longer spin because the motor has gone kaput. The mechanism that moves the heads across the disks may have fallen into disrepair causing the heads to bang against the disks or not move at all. Or, the problem could be corruption of the firmware. With either category of problem, it may be possible to recover all or part of the data from the failed drive.

If a critical drive on your system has failed and there is no backup, Google “data recovery” in the city where you are located. If you are in a metropolitan area, you’ll come up with pages and pages of hits. It’s big business to retrieve data from inoperable hard drives. This may give you comfort to know that there are thousands if not millions of other computer users with no usable backup of their data.

Data Recovery firms, like any other businesses, vary in costs and capabilities. A full service data recovery service would have access to a clean room. If the problem with the drive is mechanical, its enclosure might have to be opened for repair. This must be done in a dust free environment. This would be the most expensive type of data recovery because of the cost allocated to the use and maintenance of the clean room. If the disk failure is the result of a firmware problem or some other issue that involves retrieving the data without opening up the drive, the cost is substantially less. However, data recovery even without the use of a clean room is not cheap. Prices for more or less simple procedures may run up around $1,500.

Price shopping may be risky. This is your last chance to save years worth of data. Check references and testimonials. Also, the firms usually charge a fee to determine if the data can be recovered with a price quote for full recovery. If one firm cannot recover the data, usually nothing has been done to the disk that would prevent getting a second opinion.

If the data can be recovered it will be returned to you usually on the medium of your choice. It may be loaded onto a new disk or burned to multiple DVD’s so you can transfer it to your new system.

Of course we all want to avoid having to avail ourselves of this last resort. The best way to do that is by using more than one backup method, with at least one storing the data offsite. A RAID array won’t help if your building burns or floods. Also, a representative from a data recovery firm recently told me that her firm gets about one case a week where both drives of a RAID array have failed simultaneously. It is important to check your backup system regularly to make sure it is functioning properly. Unfortunately, the more automatic and transparent a backup system becomes, the more likely were are to forget to look in on it occasionally.

Also, at the first hint of a problem with a hard drive such as noise or read write errors, the drive should be replaced. The quicker Hard drives are a lot cheaper than data recovery.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 30 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at egm@egmlaw.com.

Successful Lawyer Time Management

2008-11-24T08:56:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce

A lot of lawyers struggle with time management. Many lament the unpredictability of their schedules and the volume of last minute client “emergencies.” Some get so many interruptions during the day that they don’t actually get a good start on their most important projects until after 5:00 pm. They work long hours just to make a little progress.

Some attorneys want to please their clients, so they promise to deliver the client’s work at the earliest date they can get it out. Unfortunately, they usually make the assessment in a vacuum, without first assessing the other commitments they have already made, and without allowing space for unexpected contingencies.

There are many such issues that affect an attorney’s productivity. Here is my top ten list of time management behaviors of productive lawyers.

1. Update your to-do list daily. Of course, that first requires that you keep a written to-do list. Attorneys who keep their upcoming tasks in their heads tend to feel more stressed and frazzled. They’re also more likely to overcommit themselves, get started too late, or forget things.

2. Prioritize your 3 most important tasks. Lawyers who don’t keep the focus on what’s most important to get done today get distracted by the papers on their desk or the latest email. You can’t afford that with so many genuinely urgent matters also derailing your plans during the day.

3. Delegate as much as possible. Savvy lawyers push the work they don’t enjoy off their desks and onto someone else’s. Chances are, if you procrastinate on it, it’s not your strength or it’s too far below your competency level. Either way, it’s better for you and your client if you can delegate it.

4. Identify activities slipping through the cracks weekly. Effective lawyers take a strategic approach. That includes stepping back regularly to assess where they are. At either the beginning or end of the week, make a brief review of all your projects. Catch what you missed and make a plan for the week ahead.

5. Keep a sacred uninterrupted productivity hour. Lawyers who allow everyone else to determine their schedule have trouble getting anything finished, and run up the client’s bill unnecessarily by working inefficiently. Your co-workers and your clients really can manage without you for one hour a day.

6. Limit returning phone calls to twice per day. Unless those calls relate to the hot project you’re working on right now, they’ll distract you. Bunch your telephone calls together at a time when you typically need a break from focusing on the computer screen. Give your assistant a script that includes the hour your caller may expect you to call back. Most clients are satisfied if they just know when they will hear from you today.

7. Track all time, whether billable or not. Some firms require their lawyers to account for at least eight hours of activity per day. Tracking all your time keeps you honest with yourself and shows you where the leaks are.

8. Train subordinates to do more complex work. The most efficient attorneys recognize the value of investing in the development of those who help them. Attorneys who say, “It’s just easier to do it myself,” also say “I’m just barely keeping my head above water.”

9. Let go of controlling how work is done. Effective managers give clear instructions about the expected results, and then get out of the way. That allows those you supervise to choose production methods that capitalize on their particular talents and abilities. You can require quality and timeliness without micromanaging. Keep your focus on your own work.

10. Fire or refer clients you don’t enjoy working with. Difficult clients tend to demand a lot more attention than our best clients, then complain about the service and the bill. They leave us distracted and weary when we turn to the clients we should be giving our best service to. Put your attention on what you want more of.

Do these 10 productivity pointers sound hard to implement? Are you good at some of them and lousy at others? Are these things you know you should do, but somehow you still don’t? You may need a buddy to encourage you or to hold you accountable. You may need more resources on how to go about some of them. You may need a way to make routine behaviors more interesting.

How big a problem do you have? If you are wondering how likely you are to successfully improve your time management habits, you can go to my website and take a five minute survey to get some feedback by clicking here. I encourage you to experiment with trying out at least one of these tips for 3 weeks. I would be delighted to hear how your experiment works out.

© 2008 Debra Bruce

Debra Bruce is President of Lawyer-Coach LLC (http://www.blogger.com/www.lawyer-coach.com), a law practice management coaching and training firm. She practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas and a past leader of Houston Coaches Inc., the Houston chapter of the International Coach Federation.

Record Retention: How Long Should You Store Old Files?

2008-11-23T17:07:00.002-06:00

by The Law Practice Management Program of the State Bar of Texas

The question most frequently asked in Law Practice Management is "How long do I keep my client files?" The State Bar of Texas does not have any set rules or policies on how long to actually keep them. However, here are some articles to download that offer advice and suggestions in establishing your own retention policy.

* Ethically Speaking

* Documents Retention: A Component of An Effective Risk Management Program

* Record Retention in the Private Legal Environment

* Ownership and Disposition of Client Files

* Resources

Disaster Recovery Reminders from Ike

2008-10-17T10:09:00.002-05:00

By Debra Bruce, J.D.

Hurricanes, tornados, mudslides, firestorms, ice storms, blizzards, riots – there are many different kinds of disasters that can affect a law firm. Savvy lawyers create a disaster preparedness plan before trouble strikes, and then do their best to cope with the ultimate results. There are two things you might not think to include in your disaster survival kit, however – humor and gratitude.

Gratitude as a Survival Tool
I began writing this during the 12th day without electricity following Hurricane Ike, which knocked out electric service to 90% of Houston. Even though personally I was fortunate to sustain only a minimum of damage, trying to live and conduct business without electricity (and therefore air conditioning, refrigeration, lights, microwaves, stoves, computers, Internet, email and sometimes telephones) creates challenges that fray the nerves. When I found myself feeling irritable, I knew that I was starting to engage in a futile internal battle with “what is.” That’s when turning to gratitude saved the day for me.

In the midst of the chaos and frustration of coping with the aftermath of Ike, I found a lot to feel gratitude for. I remembered that I was not one of the people with a tree through my roof or the mucky residue of flood waters in my home. I felt grateful for little things like a sudden breeze, or the fact that I don’t live in this hot and humid climate without air conditioning all the time, like people in the previous century did. I felt gratitude for big things like the fact that all of my loved ones, even my pets, were safe and sound. I didn’t live or work in Galveston or on Bolivar peninsula, where many lost their homes and others still struggle without basic services more than three weeks later. I expressed gratitude over how the problems I worried about last month now seem small.

Each time I ticked off a few things I felt grateful for, I felt a little more peaceful, a little more relaxed. It turns out that there is scientific support for the benefit of gratitude lists. Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and by Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami researched the impact of listing gratitudes.

Emmons and McCullough compared people who kept a weekly record of hassles or neutral life events to people who kept a weekly gratitude record. Those who expressed gratitude reported fewer physical symptoms, exercised more regularly, and felt better about their lives. They were also more likely to make progress on their goals, whether academic, interpersonal or health-based, over a two-month period.

Whether dealing with daily hassles or a genuine disaster, it is pretty common to want sympathy and to play “ain’t it awful” by recounting everything that has gone wrong. Consider the effect that you are having on your own health and the success of your practice, however. Be sure to at least include an equal dose of gratitude for what’s going right.

The Healing Quality of Humor
Your grandmother probably told you that “laughter is the best medicine.” Studies validate her wisdom and demonstrate that humor and fun strengthen your immune system, stabilize blood pressure, stimulate circulation and increase the flow of oxygen to muscles. Humor relieves stress and helps us cope, so be sure to pack a funny bone into your disaster preparedness kit.
Here are a few of the ways that survivors of Hurricane Ike have used humor to cope.

• Several homeowners posted “Yard of the Month” signs on their debris-strewn lawns. Photo at http://www.scrapjazz.com/forums/showtopic.php?tid/217834/

• One home had a boat lodged against it in the front yard. Propped against the boat was a displaced harbor sign that read: “No wake zone. 5pm strictly enforced.”

• A home had clothes and other ruined items piled by the street. A mattress leaning against the stack had a message painted on it: “I’ve had women treat me worse than this Ike.”

• A truck had a sign on the back that read “Go home Ike. Tina’s not here.” Photo at http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/09/hurricane-ike-h.html.

• Khyber restaurant’s marquee said “Not gone with the wind!” Photo at http://web.mac.com/icecarvingsecrets/ics/secrets/Entries/2008/9/17_elephant_(sitting)_design.html .

• A stack of discarded appliances and other junk from Ike clean-up bore a sign: “Got mud?” Photo at http://www.groupnewsblog.net/2008/09/hurricane-ike-eight-days-later.html.

Some hardy survivors have parodied Jeff Foxworthy’s “You know you’re a redneck when” humor with “You know you’re from the Gulf Coast when…” You can see one of the lists at http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=132573, but here are a few of my favorites:
• You have FEMA’s number on your speed dialer
• You catch a 13 pound redfish – in your driveway
• You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowner’s insurance policy
• Having a tree in your living room does not necessarily mean it’s Christmas
• A battery-powered TV is considered a home entertainment center
• At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw
• Your child’s first words are “hunker down”
• The dogs got out and you have been swimming around the neighborhood looking for them
Here are a few of my favorite “lessons from Ike” that circulated:
• People will get into a line that has already formed without having any idea what the line is for
• No matter how may times you flick the switch, lights don’t work without electricity
• What looks acceptable by candlelight in your bathroom will scare you when you look at yourself in the mirror at the office.
• There were a lot of dang trees in Houston
• Laundry hampers were not made to contain such a volume
• There are a lot more stars in the Houston sky than most people thought
• Hair will dry without blow dryers – it just won’t look like you planned
Disaster recovery is a serious matter, but taking ourselves a little less seriously can help us cope. I will echo how one author of hurricane humor signed off: “This is sent because we are in need of a smile, but you who have lost so much are in our prayers.”

© 2008 Debra L. Bruce

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Text to Spoken Word, It’s Here!

2008-10-17T09:57:00.001-05:00

by David J. Ferrell

Richard Bandler and John Grinder wrote a book called Frogs into Princes in 1979 where they discuss the three main ways humans receive information. These are VISUAL, AUDITORY and KINESTHETIC (feelings). The theory they assert is called NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming. NLP is a valuable tool when you are picking a jury. Just imagine being able to get your message into the minds of different people on the jury in their dominant method of information reception.

The language we learned first, the spoken language, remains our base throughout life. We use the model of spoken communication as the basis for much of our inferences when we read.

Ultimately, the underlying reason for relying on speech as a model for writing may actually lie in the nature of human understanding.

Did you get goose bumps reading that speech or hearing it?

The reason I prefaced this article with NLP is to have the reader evaluate which method may be useful to his/her reception and retention of information. When we read something we are using our VISUAL data acquisition mode, when we feel something we are using our KINESTHETIC mode and when someone speaks to us or reads to us we are in AUDITORY mode.

When we were children our parents, teachers, and others read us stories and word pictures were generated in our brains. To many of us this AUDITORY channel of communication is our best. Isn’t this the way most information was passed on prior to modern times when the plebeian masses learned to read? So, how many of us have listened to that contract we are preparing? How about that voir dire examination or final argument?

As lawyers we all have prepared our work product in written form. Corel WordPerfect and Microsoft Word are the main word processing programs used by law firms across the country. Wouldn’t it be nice to listen to your speech, motion, or legal memorandum as you drive from point A to point B? And, how about your appellate argument being spoken to you as you walk the treadmill at the fitness center? And, what if this oral presentation could be generated from the written material you already have?

All this is possible with inexpensive “text to spoken word” technology. Computer programs now convert any text into understandable voice wave files or MP3 files. We can listen to email, web pages, eBooks and our own generated documents on our computers and our portable MP3 players.

“MP3" is the file extension for MPEG, audio layer 3. Layer 3 is one of three coding schemes (layer 1, layer 2 and layer 3) for the compression of audio signals. The result in real terms is layer 3 shrinks the original sound data from a CD by a factor of 12 without sacrificing sound quality.

Because MP3 files are small, they can easily be transferred across the Internet and/or they can be stored and played on inexpensive, small MP3 players that can accompany us wherever we go. You can put enormous amounts of music/data on a CD (up to 40 hours and more) and play many hours of content on an MP3 enabled CD player. Controversy arises when copyrighted songs are sold and distributed illegally off of Web sites.

I can read much faster than I can listen but I can’t read during my commute to the courthouse which takes thirty minutes on a good day and 1 hour when the traffic is bad. Besides listening to my written work product(s) I can download the newspaper in print form, convert it to MP3 and listen to it on the way to the courthouse.

The State Bar is now publishing those great CLE articles in Word, WordPerfect and PDF formats (http://www.texasbarcle.com). I predict that someday they will publish those same articles in MP3 format. You will be able to go to the State Bar website, find that article you need and download it not only in written form but also in AUDIO - MP3 format to play as you commute or workout or whatever.

Although music is the predominant audio format published in MP3, there's a wealth of spoken word content on the web. Audio books have been around in cassette and CD form for a long time, and now you can listen to books online and download them for play on your own MP3 player. Many texts are free (Project Gutenberg - http://promo.net/pg/ & The Literature Network - http://www.online literature.com/) and a few sites let you download whole audio books for less than the cost of buying the CD or tape (http://www.Audible.com).

More literature is accessible in the form of audio dramas or poetry readings. Radio plays have gone digital with both new interpretations of classics like Shakespeare and new original productions. Poets and authors of all description can be heard over the internet.

Educational and informational audio is also abundant. You can take language lessons, listen to lectures from universities or take in speeches from famous personalities (http://odin.himinbi.org/speeches/). Audio programming about health, fitness, business, technology, news and travel is readily available from various sites. For rest and relaxation, you can kick back and listen to coverage of different sporting events or find a good laugh online with stand up, sketch or musical comedy. AND, with “text to speech” technology any written material can become an auditory experience.

If you want to hear this article in MP3 format go to http://www.elpasolaw.com and click on the Spoken Word button on the left side of the page.

Communicating After A Disaster

2008-09-17T11:35:00.000-05:00

By Dan Steppick

If in aftermath of event it is important to maintain appropriate and effective communications with employees, clients, vendors, opposing counsel, the court system and other persons and entities with which the firm interacts.

Client communications:
1. Maintain effective and appropriate communications with clients to reassure them that their files are intact, court dates will not be missed, operations will continue and the firm will survive.
2. Maintain off-site mailing lists so that clients can be notified in writing if possible.
3. Try to contact clients within 48 hours.
4. If possible, develop one appropriate letter for clients so that the firm speaks with one unified and forward-thinking voice.
5. Keep clients posted as firm recovers and/or relocates.

Employee communications:
1. Maintain off-site employee contact and phone list.
2. Immediately notify employees of contingency plans and temporary facilities.
3. Try to keep in communication with employees throughout aftermath in order to maintain morale and preserve relationships with valuable employees.

Court system/opposing counsel:
1. Notify appropriate court systems and opposing counsel of situation as soon as possible.
2. Court system and opposing counsel may provide support or backup in aftermath of event.
3. Cooperate and support other firms affected by events in community. Someday you may be looking for their support.

Public relations:
1. Maintain open and positive communications with press to maintain firm’s image.
2. Press may provide opportunities for good advertising and public relations moving forward
through feature articles or quotes.

Dan Steppick is a partner in the Denton firm of Shipman Steppick, PC, who practices civil litigation. Mr. Steppick has had first-hand experience in dealing with disaster recovery as his firm at the time was impacted by a devastating Fort Worth tornado several years ago.

Returning to Your Office After a Disaster

2008-09-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

By Gisela B. Bradley

Where , oh where do I begin? This is what many of you will be asking yourself if your
office has been struck by a disaster. For purposes of this article disaster is defined as a
fire, tornado, flood, hurricane, or other natural occurrence.

If you have never experienced a business disruption of any magnitude, it will be difficult to know where to start. Even if your firm has an emergency response plan, it is not a recovery plan. Recovery is yours, even after the Red Cross serves you food, and you hold
your insurance check in hand – it is up to you to get back to some level of normalcy as quickly as possible. Unfortunately you will need to work on recovery and resurrection of your firm as it was – at the same time. Following are some suggestions on how to accomplish that.

At your first visit to your office after the disaster, briefly assess the extent of damage to your property. How much clean up is needed? What type of damage has your office suffered i.e. water, smoke, fire or wind damage? Are the premises usable to an extent that will allow you to begin the clean-up? If so, make sure that you have potable water, sanitary facilities, protective gear such as masks, gloves, boots etc. to protect workers from mold and other toxins. Before you begin any clean-up efforts, take photographs of damaged areas and property, you may need them for insurance purposes later. You may also want to first assign someone to be in charge of the recovery of your practice and someone else to start setting up temporary operations.

The next step would be to take inventory of all your equipment, furniture and fixtures. Determine what is usable and what needs to be replaced. Remember not to plug in any computers or other electronic gadgets if they are wet, as data may be lost or damaged. Examine your files and records (take pictures of destroyed files) and document their condition. This inventory is needed for two purposes: to asses the damage, and to establish how much money is needed to replace unusable items.

If you have lost power, water, telephone or any other utilities, communicate with the landlord or the utility companies to find out when the utilities will be reconnected. Some of the supplies you will need for facility clean-up will be: tarpaulins and plastic sheeting to protect materials from water, to insulate windows, and to cover desks during salvage operations. Interlocking plastic crates to pack materials in, because cardboard boxes will weaken from the moisture in the materials if you had water damage. Generators to power equipment such as emergency lights, air conditioners, fans, etc.; waterproof and grounded heavy duty extension cords for fans and dehumidifiers; washing tanks or large plastic garbage containers, along with sponges, brushes, and hoses to wash materials; freezer paper, wax paper to keep items from adhering to each other in a freezer, and last but not least, cellular or satellite telephones or ‘walkie-talkies’ to coordinate the process, portable battery operated 2-way radios and petty cash in case the ATM does not work.

While your recovery team is taking care of the impacted location, your organizing team looks after finding temporary space to work out of, and rent needed equipment and furniture, coordinate staff and work schedules, and contacting clients to let them know that you are still in business and how and where you can be contacted.

Contacting your clients is the most crucial aspect of your business continuation. If your clients have been impacted by the disaster as well, they will be happy to hear from you and know that you are concerned about their well-being. At the same time, they can tell you if they have new needs for your services. You will want to get an idea of the work that is coming in, and what kind of cash flow it will create. Prioritize the work to most urgent, somewhat urgent, and can wait a while, until your practice is fully functional again. It is important to know how much money you will need during the recovery period, and knowing what type of work is coming in, will help determine that number.

Technology can play an important role in disaster recovery. The first is to realize that the physical location of your office is no longer as crucial as it once was. You can have several ‘virtual’ offices to work out of, i.e. associates’ homes, secretaries’ homes, etc. by utilizing technology to communicate the written and spoken word. You can dictate your work into a telephone and your assistant can email the work product back to you almost as easy as if she/he were sitting outside of your door. If you are working out of several locations, plan on having regular conference calls (your telephone company can set that up for you) to promote the feeling of working together. At the same time, if your computers have suffered during the disaster, this may be a good time to upgrade to newer technology for a more efficient practice.

It is possible that you will be in more than one temporary location before your office is settled again in a more permanent facility. It is my opinion that the two most important things in getting back to work as it was before the disaster are to remember - communicating with your staff and communicating with your clients. The first facilitates a quicker return to normal operations by keeping everyone informed of the progress of recovery and the need for all to return to work as quickly as possible, the latter is to assure your clients that you are still there to serve them and that you will continue to provide the same quality work as before.

If you cannot reach your clients, please remember to document every effort you have made to contact them, just as you need to document every step you have taken to get your practice back in operation.

Gisela Bradley is the owner & CEO of Law Practice Management Consulting, a legal practice management consulting firm in Austin (www.lawpracticemanagementconsulting.com). Ms. Bradley is also a former Director of the State Bar's Law Practice Management Program and a current member of the Bar's Law Practice Management Committee.

Law Practice Management Tip - August 2008

2008-08-17T15:22:00.002-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

If you are starting a new practice, or you are not enjoying the type of cases you are presently getting, work on focusing, or re-focusing, your practice. This is particularly important for new lawyers, who run the risk of either being overwhelmed because they try to handle everything that comes in the door or are doing nothing because potential clients don't identify them with any particular area of the law.

Once you select a focus area, or two areas which will complement each other, do market research to determine whether that practice niche is already filled in your community. If not, begin to identify the clients you want. Define them by geographical area, gender, age, education, occupation, financial and marital status. Then determine where you can expect to find such people and the best methods to make them aware of your services. Review your state or provinces rules of professional conduct before designing your marketing efforts. Develop a marketing plan with qualitative standards, pursue it steadily, and review your results frequently.

Listening to the Voices of Experience

2008-08-17T15:17:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

At Lawyer-Coach we get quite a number of calls and emails from attorneys starting a new law practice. Some are fresh out of law school. Some have been with a bigger firm, a corporation or the government. All appreciate the wisdom of lawyers who have been there before. Here’s an opportunity to hear from some small firm lawyers who are willing to share the benefit of their experience.

Getting advice from more experienced lawyers
Angela Nickel, a Seguin attorney who handles real estate and construction matters, including litigation, says. “Don’t be afraid to ask other lawyers for help….I developed relationships with other lawyers in town and simply asked for guidance, forms and the occasional game of devil’s advocate. Not only did I get the support I needed, but I developed some truly wonderful friendships. With 18 years under my belt now, I am eager to return the favor to other young lawyers in my community.”

Nance warns about a mistake his firm made. “Be careful of software programs that market themselves as a one-stop resource for accounting, file management and contact management. They will be good in one thing, but not in another.”

Good advice they received
Welch commends the advice she received to get board certified in her area of practice: estate planning and probate. She recommends that you represent clients in a few select areas of practice, and become an expert in those areas. “You cannot be everything to all people,” declares Welch. Nance agrees. He says board certification gave him instant credibility with potential clients and referral sources.

He also received sage advice to take two or three people to lunch every week. “It’s the best marketing tool a small firm lawyer has in his quiver of marketing arrows,” he asserts.

Making the move to a small firm
The switch to a small firm from a big bureaucratic corporate office or from a multi-office mega-firm can unsettle even seasoned lawyers. Paul Yale, a board certified oil and gas lawyer in Houston, says, “If you have spent a long period of time with the same employer (in my case, a big corporation for 27 years), you are probably overly risk averse and overly pessimistic about your chances of success outside the corporate womb….Don’t underestimate how big a factor renewed passion for your job can be.”

Laura Upchurch handles contested probate, trust and guardianship matters, as well as real estate and small business matters in Brenham. Based on her experience in moving from a large firm to a small one, she advises: “Recognize that you will no longer be a small cog in a large wheel – you will be a large cog in a small wheel. If any of those cogs does not mesh with the others, the firm’s ‘machinery’ is not going to operate properly…. [M]ake sure, before you join the firm, that the goals, philosophy and style of your practice will be cohesive with those of the other attorneys in the office.”

She suggests multiple interviews and meetings to get to know the other lawyers before making a move. Her firm reviewed writing samples and transcripts, and talked with colleagues at her former large firm. Now they also use personality assessments to help ensure a good fit. These precautions benefit both the firm and the prospective new lawyer.

James admonishes that it will be a mistake to think you can “just practice law” in a small firm. “You will be doing everything from marketing to billing to overseeing staff,” she reminds. Many attorneys underestimate the amount of time they will spend managing staff and handling other administrative matters.

Upchurch also reminds small firm lawyers that everywhere you go, you represent your firm. “If you are one of only five attorneys, what you do and say before others will likely reflect more on your firm than if you are one of 500 attorneys.”

Find ways to keep your practice enjoyable
Finally, you’ve got to keep it fun. Overcoming daily challenges can be wearing, and many lawyers burn out. John Sloan, a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer in Longview, says, “The thing I learned that made my practice more successful and more enjoyable is to take advantage of the opportunity that we have as lawyers to get to know people from all walks of life. Not just to get to know them from the standpoint of their legal problem or their case, but to get to know them as individuals with interesting stories to tell, with hopes and with dreams. Seeing each client this way makes for a more enjoyable practice and there is no better advertisement than former clients that have become valued friends.”

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Flash Memory Devices Grow Up

2008-08-17T14:00:00.003-05:00

By Gerry Morris, J.D.

Ten years ago, if I wanted to physically transport files from my office computer to my home computer, or to any other computer off my network, my options were somewhat limited. Assuming I either could not connect remotely to my office network or that I wanted to transport a lot of data so that remote transfer was impractical, I had to use either magnetic media such as floppy disks or Zip drives, or optical media such as compact disks or, later on, DVDs. The limited capacity of floppy disks made them unsuitable for large amounts of data not to mention the slow transfer rates. Zip drives held more data but required a compatible drive on both computers involved in the data transfer. Zip drives were popular but not universal. Rewritable CDs and DVDs also had drive and software compatibility issues. Not all packet writing software used the same format. Files could be burned permanently to a disk so that it could be universally read, but it was impractical to burn a complete new disk to again transfer the data after it had been altered.

A few years ago flash memory devices appeared on the consumer market for use with computers. The two most common configurations were flash memory cards (like those used in digital cameras) and USB flash memory drives. Like everything else having to do with computers, the first flash memory available was expensive and of low capacity. Flash memory first appeared in capacities well under 1 GB. The early ones were 16MB or less. Just a very few years ago I remember seeing adds for the latest 256MB USB flash drives touting a capacity equal to 175 floppy drives. Even at these initial capacities, the drives were a major advancement in the portability of data.

A USB flash drive is sometimes referred to as a “pen drive” or “thumb drive.” It is about the size of a child’s thumb and plugs into the USB drive of a computer. It contains flash memory. Without going into detail about how flash memory works, it generally stores data in a solid state memory chip much as data is stored on a hard drive. The data stays put in the chip even when the power is off. (If you really want to know how it works, see www.howstuffworks.com/flashmemory.htm). In fact, when you plug one into a computer running Windows XP or above, it recognized the device as another physical drive attached to the computer. So, if your hard drive is C: and your DVD drive is D:, the computer may recognize the plug and play thumb drive as E:. Data can be copied to the drive using Windows Explorer just like to any other attached drive. Unplug the device and plug it into another computer and a drive appears there. You can then read the data on the second computer.

Memory cards work the same way except both computers must have a compatible card slot. Most newer computers are equipped with memory card slots because most digital cameras store pictures on memory cards. The pictures can be easily transferred to the computer by inserting the card in the computer’s memory card slot. The memory card is recognized as a drive and the pictures can be copied to the computer.

There are several configurations of memory cards, each requiring a card reader designed for that particular type of card. There are cards called CompactFlash (CF); Secure Digital (SD); Memory Sticks (MS); MultiMediaCard (MMC); SmartMedia (SM); and x-D Picture Card (xD). (Here’s what they look like. www.steves-digicams.com/flash_memory.html). Although they will all store data files just like the flash memory drives, they are not as universally compatible as a USB drive. For instance, my work desktop computer has six card slots and will accept all the above. It’s one of two of my ten computers that will accept all types of cards. All of my computers and all computers I’ve seen on the market in the past five years with Windows operating systems have USB ports. However, the second generation of USB ports, version 2.0 and above, are much faster than the original version, 1.0. Drives made for version 2.0 and above are backwards compatible with earlier USB ports. The transfer rate will be considerably slower, though.

The card had a capacity of 16GB. To put that into some perspective, for the past five years I have been scanning virtually every document I’ve received or generated in my practice and saving them to the hard drive on my server. I have used less than 10GB of my hard disk capacity. I could load all my documents onto that card or a comparable USB flash memory drive and plug it into any computer with a compatible card slot or a USB drive. Or, I could back up all my data onto flash memory and keep it on my key chain.

My conversation with my colleague prompted me to check out the capacities of USB flash drives currently on the market. At Amazon.com I found a 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB drive for $115.40. Smaller drives were proportionately cheaper. All the data on my server including the operating system would fit on this drive with half its capacity left over. It is much smaller
than my thumb.

The Corsair drives are constructed to be virtually indestructible. (See www.corsairmemory.com for details). The transfer speed is not as fast as a modern internal hard drives, but as fast as external USB hard drives. In fact, they are fast enough that programs can be run from them. Specially written programs can be transferred from computer to computer and run completely from the flash memory drive. (See www.everythingusb.com/software.html).

Of course, it would present a security problem if I lost the drive and it ended up in a curious person’s hands. A simple solution is “on the fly” encryption software that encrypts data as it is copied to the flash memory drive. The data is password protected. Various encryption packages work in different ways when the drive is plugged into a computer other than the one from which the data was originally copied. For instance, Dekart Private Disk advertises that it resides on the USB drive so that it can be launched on any computer. (www.dekart.com/products/encryption/private_disk/). Other programs require that the encryption software be installed on the new host computer.

The capacity of flash memory drives will undoubtedly continue to increase as will their transfer speeds. There usefulness for applications such as backup and even as boot devices will
likewise increase. For the simple task of bringing files with me on a trip they sure beat a box of floppies.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Implementing a 360 Degree Feedback Program

2008-07-17T15:34:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

Recently two different clients came to their coaching calls upset. They worked for very different organizations, but both had received the results of feedback surveys without any support or private debriefing session. Both were discouraged. They shared their reports with me and asked for help.

A Client That Saw the Glass Half Empty
One client’s report actually indicated a lot of improvement and some very good results in developing teamwork in his group. However, he focused in on the responses to questions that called for negative information, such as frustrations on the job.

He seemed to disregard the responses to the question “What is working well in your group?” He also failed to notice that when asked the neutral question “Is there anything else you would like to share?” quite a few respondents volunteered comments like “I love my job,” “This is a wonderful place to work,” and “They are doing a great job and it’s appreciated.”

With that client, I simply read out loud about half of the positive comments in the survey. As he listened, he began to relax, and realized that perhaps he should review the responses again, with a different focus.

A Client Who Didn’t Know What To Do
The other client received some pretty consistent feedback indicating that she had some issues to work on. She knew she had challenges with a couple of “difficult” employees, but the consistency of responses gave her a wake up call. She began to consider that she might play a larger role in the problems than she realized.

This client felt discouraged because she just didn’t know how to improve the situation, especially in so many different areas. As a very conscientious employee, she had already been doing the best she knew how.

I pointed out to her three skills that we could work on together. I shared my reasoned opinion that, as she mastered those three skills, most of the other areas for improvement would naturally resolve themselves because they were related. The work ahead still daunts her, but she regained hope as we discussed a plan.

These two stories illustrate some of the risks involved in conducting a feedback survey without adequate advance preparation or post-results support for the participants.

Guidelines for Successful 360 Degree Feedback
Here are some guidelines for instituting a successful feedback program.

1. Explain the purpose of the survey in advance, and provide opportunities for questions and reassurances. A couple of appropriate purposes might be (i) to identify individual strengths to capitalize on and individual areas for further development, and (ii) to identify subject areas that warrant additional firm training.

2. To minimize participant anxiety and maximize cooperation, avoid administering the survey near performance review or bonus time or during predictable periods of high workload.

3. Design the survey to measure the important competencies and behaviors that lead to the achievement of the firm’s goals. Research-based surveys are already commercially available to measure certain competencies, such as the behaviors that result in effective leadership. Multiple choice questions are easiest to score, but include a few open-ended questions, as well. They allow raters to give specific examples or raise issues not otherwise addressed.

4. Tying survey results directly to compensation or other rewards can “put teeth into” the firm’s initiative on improving leadership, management, mentorship, communication or other “soft skills.” Such efforts can backfire in the highly competitive environment of a law firm, however. Supervisors may subtly (or not so subtly) pressure subordinates to give good reviews, or friends may collude to rate each other highly. When the firm frames the process as a self-development tool only, it may encourage more candid feedback.

5. Implement mechanisms to assure that the feedback benefits the participants as a professional development tool. Give careful thought to who should have access to the results. Widespread results sharing could cause embarrassment and defensiveness, which would hinder development efforts. For maximum safety for participants, the responses could be gathered confidentially by an external provider, with each participant seeing only his own report. For mid-level security, the responses might be shared only with the human resources

professional or practice group leader, and the respective individual recipient.

6. Help the participant recognize and understand differences between his self-perception (based on his self-rating in the survey) and the perceptions of others. Also provide benchmarking data, such as the average score for all other participants in the survey, or national averages for this industry.

7. Repeat the process (perhaps six months or one year later) after implementing training or other development programs. This gives the participants the opportunity to demonstrate progress. This is especially important for those who were disappointed by their first round results.

8. Don’t just focus on negative results. Capitalize on the strengths revealed in the survey by assigning important duties to those who exhibit capability in that arena, rather than on the basis of seniority, revenues produced, or other measures not specifically tied to the necessary competencies.

Examples of Survey Questions
If you have never participated in a 360 degree feedback survey, you may be wondering what kind of questions are involved. Typically the survey will describe a behavior or competency (or group of competencies), then allow the rater to rate how frequently the subject engages in the described behavior (never, seldom, frequently, always) or how accurately the trait describes the subject (strongly disagree, slightly disagree, slightly agree, strongly agree).

Here are a few sample measurement questions gleaned from different surveys:

Keeps focus on fixing problems rather than finding someone to blame
Places a premium on collaboration, cooperation, and contributing to other’s success
Considers the impact of actions and decisions on others before implementing
Actions and behaviors are consistent with words
Deals on a timely basis with issues that need to be addressed
Encourages open and candid expression of ideas and opinions
Is flexible in dealing with changing or new circumstances
Effectively uses available technology to increase efficiency
Analyzes data to determine the root causes of work process and procedure problems
Clearly communicates critical job task expectations and measurement standards

Would 360 Degree Feedback Benefit Your Firm?
Do the above rating statements describe behaviors that would improve the productivity and morale of your firm? Would it be valuable for people in your firm to see how their behavior is perceived by others on such standards? If so, a 360 degree feedback survey may be useful for your firm. If, however, members of management and other leaders do not acknowledge the feedback they receive, and take some public steps to improve on any poor scores, the survey may cause more problems than it solves. Don’t ask unless you are prepared to listen!

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

DSL v Cable. Which is Better?

2008-07-17T15:31:00.002-05:00

By Gerry Morris

Dialup Internet access is just about obsolete for business use. Broadband Internet service is now available almost everywhere anyone would want a law office. Larger offices or those with special needs for high speed Internet service may subscribe to a T1 line or other high capacity technology. However, most of us use the Internet just for email and access to the Word Wide Web. For that type of usage the more widely used broadband services are sufficient. In most urban areas a business user has the choice of two competing technologies; DSL or cable. If you have a choice, which one is better for you? Here are some considerations.

The two technologies are quite different and their differences may affect their suitability at a particular location. DSL stands for “digital subscriber line”. Digital information is transmitted over regular telephone lines and made available to your computer network through a splitter and a DSL modem. The splitter separates the digital signal from the analogue voice signal and the modem handles the communications between the DSL system and your computer network. Nowadays, the splitter is actually something that you just plug in to your phone line rather than the gadget that the phone company, in the past, had install for a fee. Most DSL service (and cable service) is asymmetrical which simply means that the download speed it much faster than the upload speed. That’s because most of us are much more interested in a web site fully downloading quickly to our browser than in having our emails go out a fraction of a second faster. Since there is only so much bandwidth available it is allocated mostly to downloading rather than uploading. (Some providers offer symmetrical service at a higher cost for users that require more upload speed.)

In the late 1990s and early 2000s DSL was not available everywhere. Even in central Austin, where I practice and lived at the time there were areas where there was either no DSL service or only very slow service. DSL is available only within about 2.5 kilometers of a telephone switching station with the proper equipment. The speed of the service deteriorates as the distance increases. In the older Austin neighborhood where I used to live, the phone lines were old and the switching equipment not up to date. For several years I could not get good DSL service. Consequently, I had to subscribe to my cable provider’s Internet service at a slightly higher price. Unfortunately, the cable infrastructure in that neighborhood wasn’t in great shape either thanks to fallen tree limbs and squirrels. However, by the mid 2000s things were fixed so that either type service was fast and reliable.

Cable companies transmit the digital information over, well, the cable. Even with a couple of hundred TV channels there is still a lot of Internet bandwidth available on conventional coaxial cable systems and fiber optic networks now being utilized by some companies provide even more capacity. Cable systems utilize a modem that connects to the same cable outlet as your TV and interfaces with the computer network. Generally, if there is television cable available in a block or neighborhood, there is also cable Internet access available.

There is no distance from the station limitation with cable. The only technical drawback to cable Internet access is that the system is arranged in a series of loops. One loop may include all or part of a neighborhood. There is a finite amount of bandwidth available to the loop, so, if several users on the loop are accessing the Internet at the same time the speed of the individual connections slows down. In my experience, this problem exists mostly in the minds of the cable company’s competitors. It’s mentioned prominently in their advertisements but I’ve never experienced any noticeable slowdown in my cable connections. Most if not all cable providers guarantee a minimum speed for uploading and downloading. The true speed usually far exceeds the minimum.

As a general rule, cable connections are faster than DSL, but, DSL is also generally cheaper per month. To compare prices and speeds, I’ll use AT&T Yahoo’s DSL business Internet services. The package offering 1.5 Mbps downstream speed and 384 Kbps upstream speed is $35.00 per month. Twice the download speed and 512 Kbps upload is $45.00 per month, The top of the line package featuring 6 Mbps downstream speed and 768 Kbps is $55.00 per month. The slowest cable business package available in my area from Time Warner Cable Road Runner is about the speed of the fastest AT&T DSL package. The cost for the cable service is about $100 per month. Each service offers a set number of email addresses, space for a web site, etc.

So, why would anyone choose the more expensive cable service? One reason might be the unavailability of the higher speed DSL service at a particular location or the unavailability of DSL at all. If the address to be services is not within about 2.5 kilometers of the switching equipment, DSL won’t be available. If the equipment hasn’t been modernized recently, the quality of the telephone lines poor or the distance from the switching station approaching the limit, the speeds available might not be top notch. I found that the slower DSL speeds didn’t fit the needs of my office, primarily because I like to access my network from my home or hotel via my laptop and use Windows Remote Desktop to access my office desktop computer remotely. This requires decent upload speed at my office to make the remote access useable. For several years I subscribed to the AT&T Yahoo package for with the 512 Kbps upload speed. I found this upstream speed to be adequate but perhaps a little slow for remote access. The fastest DSL speeds were not available at my office until fairly recently. I was contemplating upgrading but another factor caused me to switch to cable even though it costs me an extra $45 a month.

I found that the biggest drawback to my DSL access was having to deal with a phone company for service. AT&T Yahoo DSL service would periodically change things on their system such as requiring different security settings to use their outgoing mail server. On the AT&T Yahoo system a user has no choice but to use AT&T’s outgoing servers. This is to help prevent their servers being used by spammers. The latest security changes were intended to make it even harder for unauthorized users to send mail over their servers. However, the changes were made with little or no prior warning. On several occasions we suddenly lost the ability to send email in the middle of a business day. Calls to AT&T Yahoo’s service representative were, to say the least, unhelpful. To find a solution to the problem I would have to Google the error messages I received to find blog entries from other users who had experienced the same issue. I found that the blogosphere was more helpful than AT&T Yahoo support for finding a solution to the problem. After several instances of interruptions of outgoing mail, I changed to a cable provider.

Of course, not every DSL provider will have the same technical issues and poor customer service. The point is that in a busy office fixing a problem in a hurry is important. In my experience, I’ve found that the technical support technicians at my local cable company are much more attentive to my technical issues than were those employed by my former DSL provider. Time Warner cable has excellent technical assistance provided by local technicians. There is also an account executive in charge of my account that we found to be accessible and helpful during the setup process.

On Time Warner Cable Road Runner, we are able to use the outgoing mail servers provided to us by our domain hosting service, FutureQuest. Since Time Warner does not require the use of its outgoing mail servers on the Road Runner network, clients who bring there laptops to my office can access my wireless network and send email with the outgoing server that they ordinarily use. With AT&T Yahoo, they could send email only if they were configured to use that company’s servers. This was a small issue but somewhat of an annoyance. More importantly, so far the cable access is faster and more reliable.

It would pay to check the blogs to determine overall satisfaction with a provider before signing up. Reliable service and technical support may be worth paying a premium price. The more we rely on email and other Internet services, the more costly interruptions are.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Law Practice Management Tip - July 2008

2008-07-17T15:28:00.000-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

Did you know that even under ideal conditions, the practice of law engenders a certain level of stress? Stress speeds the depletion of your daily supply of energy. Consider the following factors that can reduce or induce stress:

practice area
practice setting
office comfort
clients
judges
opposing counsel
other parties
deadlines
travel
office systems
technology
"dog" files
fees
office expenses
office debt
personal expenses
personal debt
anger
blame

Choose to carefully control how you react to these factors. Strive to reduce the propensity of these factors to cause anxiety, discomfort and stress. Save your energy for your best service to your best clients. Be proactive about changing how you react to these factors. Remember that your office is your "sanctuary." Ensure your office systems are serving you; ensure that your staff feels safe to express opinions and to ask questions; ensure you are on track to achieve and maintain a more satisfying practice little by little each day.

Law Practice Management Tip - June 2008

2008-06-17T15:52:00.000-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

Did you know that it is a good idea to provide your client with a "We Do-You Do List?" The list describes the obligations of the law firm and the client during the course of the matter.

Examples are:

We Do Items

Take your calls
Do our best to advocate your case
Do our best to solve problems as they come up
Advise you of the maximum settlement for your case
Tell you whenever the other side makes an offer of settlement

You Do Items

Be honest with the Court and us
Be reasonable in the number of calls you make to us
Read what we send to you
Follow all Court Orders
Pay your bill

Your experience with many clients will fill in many more items. Putting what you will do in writing reassures the client and highlights everyone's professional obligations.

To Improve Your Firm, Look in the Mirror

2008-06-17T15:48:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

I attended a managing partner roundtable recently. In the course of the discussion I asked how many had ever used 360 degree feedback in their law firm. A couple of hands went up. One brave soul said, “What is 360 degree feedback?” Several nodded their heads or murmured that they were wondering that, too.

What Is 360 Degree Feedback?
360 degree feedback is a skills development tool which involves surveying the people above, below and around you to get their perceptions about your behavior and the impact of your behavior. The process may also be called multi-rater assessment, multi-source feedback or full circle appraisal.
It usually involves the supervising attorneys, practice group leader, and team or project leader, as well as colleagues, partners or peers within the firm who work with you or otherwise have ample opportunity to observe your behavior and your work product. The associates and staff who report to you or otherwise work with you also rate your behaviors and competencies, and feedback from clients might also be sought. The process usually seeks feedback on a confidential, anonymous basis.

The Purpose of Feedback
Several of you may be feeling a chill run down your spine just reading about this. You may be thinking, “Ask my clients what they think of me? Give associates a chance to mouth off about me? Set myself up for potshots from my partners? Let my staff give me a performance review? Are you crazy?” Most of us, however, secretly wish to know how others see us. This is a development tool that will help you become more proficient at the behaviors that lead to the results you want. Stated another way, this process can help you learn how to get out of your own way, while providing encouragement to continue doing what really works.

The corporate world has been using 360 degree feedback for decades. Jack Welch, the legendary former CEO of General Electric Company, was quoted as saying, “Any company that’s going to make it …has got to find a way to engage the mind of every single employee. If you’re not thinking all the time about making every person more valuable, you don’t have a chance. What’s the alternative? Wasted minds? Uninvolved people? A labor force that’s angry or bored? That doesn’t make sense.” Making any lawyer or staff member more valuable requires feedback to them. Giving them the opportunity to provide feedback to others (especially upwards) helps to keep the workforce engaged.

Research on the Critical Role of Managers
Many law firms now suffer from costly attrition among their young attorneys and staff, as well as partners. “People leave managers, not companies,” say Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, authors of First, Break all the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. Their conclusion is based on research studies conducted by the Gallup Organization involving over a million employees and eighty thousand managers in a broad range of industries. “How long that employee stays and how productive he is while he is there is determined by his relationship with his immediate supervisor,” assert Buckingham and Coffman. They discovered that managers, not pay, benefits or perks, are the critical factor in building a strong workplace.

If you give work assignments to anyone, you are a manager to that person. Are you willing to consider the possibility that you may be contributing to the problems your law firm experiences? Are you getting the results you want, including the retention of talented lawyers and staff? If not, how can you make the right shifts, if you are unclear about the impact of your current choices and behaviors? Candid feedback can provide the guidance you need.

Benefits to the Law Firm
The firm as a whole will benefit from a properly conducted 360 degree feedback program. Some of the benefits reported include:

Provides individuals a broader perspective on how they are perceived by others and how they positively and negatively impact others
Reinforces the desired competencies in the law firm
Increases awareness by senior management that they also have areas for development and improvement
Identifies key development areas for individuals, practice groups, support arenas and the firm as a whole
Multiple raters enhance the recipient’s perception that feedback is valid and objective leading to more willingness to accept and act upon the feedback
Fosters a climate of continual improvement in management and other skills
Identifies strengths in individuals for optimal benefit to the firm
Highlights the responsibility of an individual for his/her own career development
Reveals training needs in the organization
May reduce discrimination risk by getting feedback from multiple raters in varied job functions

Ultimately, the long term benefits of feedback from multiple sources can be increased productivity, improved talent retention, reduced conflict, more effective management, and progress towards the law firm’s larger goals. The success of the feedback program depends on what the firm and the recipients do with that feedback, however. If poorly implemented, a feedback program can produce negative results.

In a future article we’ll go into more detail about what a 360 degree feedback program looks like, and discuss tips on implementing such a program. In the meantime, you can still employ the old-fashioned way. Consider asking those around you, including peers, direct reports and supervisors, questions like “What suggestions do you have for me?” and “How can I help you be your most effective?”

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Your Next Computer, Buy or Build?

2008-06-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris, J.D.

If you had looked around my law offices seven or eight years ago you would have seen about ten PCs networked in a peer to peer arrangement. Most would have been running Windows 98 with at least one loaded with Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 machine would have been my file server. Most, if not all, of the computers would have been built by yours truly. Most would have been put together from parts scavenged from earlier models with slower processors. As the new faster processors came out I would buy a new motherboard and processor, swap them out with the old ones keeping the same video card, sound board, network cards and hard drives from the previous incarnation. With Windows 98, I could usually just start the upgraded computer and the operating system would reconfigure itself to accommodate the new hardware.

For all its ease of configuration, Windows 98 had its definite drawbacks. Chief among its shortcomings was its frequent crashes. The NT based workstation operating systems, Windows NT, 2000, and XP were much more stable. In my opinion Windows 2000 was the first really usable business workstation operating system from Microsoft. It was extremely stable and ran enough applications and peripherals to make it practical. However, the switch to Windows 2000 in my office ended the practice of upgrading my computers each time a faster chip came on the Market.

During the installation process, Windows 2000, and later XP, installed only the hard disk controller driver and other essential drivers necessary for your individual computer rather than an array of generic and specific drivers. This meant that if the motherboard was changed, the computer would no longer boot, unless the new motherboard was virtually identical to the replaced one. So, if I upgraded a computer’s motherboard, I also had to start over with a new installation of the operating system and software applications. I was never able to find a way to work around for this problem. There were some software applications available to transfer programs from an old computer to a new one, but not to make an upgraded computer boot.

Also, the price of new PCs continued to fall. In the past few years it just hasn’t been worth it for me to build workstation computers. The basic workstation in my office is whatever PC Dell had on sale at the time I needed to add or replace a computer. I would order them with the current version of Microsoft Office installed, and basic hardware peripherals. It doesn’t take much video power to adequately display Microsoft Office, nor is a super sound system important. I have one PC with above average video and sound for video editing. The rest are as bland as they come. I do order extra RAM. We usually have several applications running at once on any given desktop. The more RAM, the better the performance with multiple applications open. The price of a Dell on sale was significantly lower than anything I could build. Michael Dell buys in larger volume than I.

However, I will probably continue to build the PC I use for a server. Here, I am picky about getting just what I want and no more. The server I use now has been running 24/7 for about five years. It’s time to start thinking about constructing a replacement.

It’s really very easy to build a PC, and it’s gotten easier over the years. Ten years ago, most motherboards did not include onboard video, sound or network interfaces. I had to install peripheral boards to add these functions. Now, since chips continue to get smaller, it is standard to load up a motherboard with all the basics. So, the place to start is with locating a motherboard that has what I want and accepts the type of CPU chip adequate for my needs. I would make sure it has onboard video, sound and network interface. Video and sound quality is not important for a server so I wouldn’t pay a premium for high end boards intended for gaming and multimedia. I would start by looking in the paper and finding the sales at places like Fry’s or Best Buy.

For a server I want adequate horsepower, but not necessarily the newest, fasted CPU (Central Processing Unit) chip. Having bought several over the years I’ve learned that there is a significant price jump from the next fastest to the very fastest chip. I want to be sure and get a processor chip that is more than adequate to run the software that will reside on the server. I would check the minimum requirements for applications such as Amicus Attorney and overshoot the minimum requirements by as much as I want to spend. Five years from now that chip will look pretty slow. The motherboard box will tell me what types of chips may be used. There are several different configurations of processor chips from two major manufacturers, Intel and AMD. I have used chips from both over the years and haven’t noticed any difference when matched with the proper motherboards. I personally think AMD offers more bang for the buck. A cooling fan for the processor chip is also essential.

Sometimes the CPU chip is sold already mounted on a motherboard. This should mean that the chip is one recommended for that motherboard. It also means that I can’t bend the pins on the chip while installing it or otherwise mess up mounting the chip. Fortunately, that’s hard to do now since they all are made so that they will only go in the correct way. Years ago, they would go more than one way and the result of putting them in the wrong way would be instant destruction of the chip when powered up. When putting on the cooling fan it’s important to use the gooey stuff that comes with it. This serves as a heat transfer medium between the chip and the fan. Nowadays, chips run pretty hot, so the cream is essential to prevent overheating.

Also, keep in mind that older operating systems may not work well with the newer multicore processors. For instance, I run Windows 2000 Advanced Server as my server operating system. I am told that this operating system will recognize each core of the processor as a separate processor. While that will work to some extent, newer software is written to handle the advanced processors more efficiently and take full advantage of their sophisticated features. If I upgrade, I will probably purchase a new operating system. More about that in a minute.

For a server I would choose a motherboard with onboard RAID capability. Simply put, this allows me to connect two hard drives and have one be the mirror image of the other. If one hard drive fails, the other takes over. I simply have to replace the bad hard drive. The system then again mirrors one to the other. My current server does this through the operating system rather than via hardware. The result is the same. I keep a spare hard drive and have had to use one a couple of times. It’s the best first line of defense for data protection.

Also, I would buy about twice as much RAM as the software specs call for. Over the years the consistent trend for software is that each upgrade uses more RAM. I can buy it now or wait and risk that the particular type of RAM used by the motherboard will be hard to find a few years from now when I desperately need it. The motherboard box will tell me what type of RAM the motherboard accepts and in what sizes.

The motherboard with the CPU, RAM and cooling fan fastens into a case. There are hundreds of different types of cases ranging from the generic to the absurd. I go for the generic. I would need to buy a case that would accommodate the motherboard configuration and footprint and would conveniently accept two hard drives and a CD drive. Beyond that, size isn’t a consideration.

I would install two identical hard drives for the redundant RAID system and a CD drive for use to install software. Hard drives keep getting bigger and faster. I have two 80 meg hard drives that store five years of my practice. So far I’ve used about ¼ of their capacity. Here, I would buy whatever is on sale. The average drive now is over 200 meg. The CD drive will probably be the one I have on a shelf in my closet. Nothing has changed over the years for basic CD drives other than speed.

Once all the parts are put together according to the instructions accompanying the motherboard and case (it really is easy), and the mouse, keyboard, monitor, network cable, etc. are connected, I’m ready to install the operating system. When I buy a new motherboard, processor or hard drive, I am entitled to buy the operating system and some other types of software at OEM prices. (Original Equipment Manufacturer). The savings are significant. Network operating systems are about half price OEM compared to retail.

I would first fire up the new computer without the software installation disk and tweak the settings in the BIOS according to the instructions included with the motherboard. Setting up the RAID redundant drive system is also accomplished through the BIOS in accordance with the motherboard’s included instructions. Then the operating system disk goes into the CD drive and the system rebooted for installation. (The BIOS has to be set to allow the system to boot from the CD drive). Most bookstores have books that take you step by step through configuring the operating system to do what I want it to do. For instance, my current is set up to accept VPN connections over the Internet. The documentation that comes with the software won’t be as useful as an aftermarket book.

If you decide to build a computer, you can be assured that you have what you need to run your server-based software and perform the other functions important to your network setup. You can include everything you need but nothing that you don’t need, such as trial software to cause pop-ups and take up disk space. There is also no software hidden in the installation that sends marketing data to software vendors. Besides all that, it’s something to do that is a nice temporary diversion from the practice of law.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Delegate What You Hate

2008-05-17T15:59:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

Delegate What You Hate

An attorney coaching client recently asked for help with delegation skills. He had read my December 2004 article on delegation originally published in The Practice Manager (now available at http://www.lawyer-coach.com/raisingthebar/index.php/2004/12/01/delegation-a-powerful-time-management-tool/). He still had a hard time letting go. He realized that his concern was not so much how to delegate as what to delegate.

There are two important questions to ask yourself in order to identify tasks and projects to delegate: “What do I dislike doing?” and “Are there elements of the work I’m doing that don’t require my level of education and experience?”
Let’s look at each of these in turn.

What do I dislike doing?
If you can find a way to delegate the tasks and projects you dread doing, you will see a leap in your productivity and income. If you don’t like to do it, chances are it’s not in your sweet spot of skill and talent. We usually enjoy what we’re really good at.

Find someone who likes to do that kind of work, and give yourself permission to focus on what you enjoy. Although you may feel anxious if that requires you to incur additional expense, you’ll gain more energy to complete the projects in your sweet spot, as well as marketing time to garner more of them. You’ll enjoy your work more, and your enthusiasm will be attractive to clients. Your clients will be happier and more likely to make referrals when you have shorter turnaround times (because you don’t procrastinate as much) and more acceptable bills (because you’re more efficient or get better results at what you do best).

Some lawyers feel guilty about delegating what they consider undesirable work. Remember the aphorism “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” I conducted a workshop for a working team to help them communicate more effectively and distribute the work load optimally. I asked each team member to tell us what aspect of their work they liked the most and which tasks they liked least. When one person described her “grunge work,” another piped up, “I’ll take that on. I actually like doing that.” The work you dislike is perfect to delegate, to the right person.

Are there elements of the work I’m doing that don’t require my level of education and experience?
Delegate to the lowest level possible on the totem pole to optimize the usage of resources and provide developmental opportunities to your people. Even if most of the projects you work on require the judgment gained through years of experience, at least some portion of each project can be delegated. Think about what you tackled when you were less experienced, or even a beginner.

You may need to make your delegation gradual in scope, providing projects that are challenging, but not daunting. Give your delegates as much as they can handle. Ask them what they think they can manage.

Developing the skills of your team may require a greater initial investment of your time than doing it yourself, but you will reap the reward of freeing up more of your time in the long run. Be sure your instruction includes details about the purpose and desired outcome of the project, to foster their good judgment in future projects.

Mechanism for Identifying Tasks to Delegate
To determine the appropriate tasks for delegation, rank your outstanding tasks as to level of skill required and your interest level; then insert them into a graph similar to the one below. The shaded cells will indicate the optimal tasks for delegation.

SKILL High
LEVEL
Med

Low

Low Med High

INTEREST LEVEL

Additional Task Identification Guidelines
If you still need guidance on what tasks to delegate, here are some additional guidelines.
If you have trouble starting things, ask someone else to take a first crack at it, then you can edit and finalize it. If you are a good starter, but tend to lose interest before you get finished, find an organizer type who likes to pull things together and put the finishing touches on them once you get them headed in the right direction.
Delegate tasks you don’t know much about. For example, let someone else in your office conduct the preliminary research on reviews of software, cell phones or office equipment. You can provide guidance by listing out the dream functions and features you would like to have in the product.
Delegate tasks that require substantial knowledge outside your sweet spot, unless you want to become an expert in that area. Associate a colleague to answer the tax questions if you are a real estate lawyer. If you are a personal injury lawyer, bring in a corporate lawyer along to feed you questions in that deposition where you are trying to pierce the corporate veil. Call in an IT specialist to get all your computers and software programs talking the same language.
Delegate anything you can systematize, especially if the work is redundant. If you can construct written instructions to cover most contingencies, you should be able to get back a quality product with very little additional time investment on your part. You can probably have experienced subordinates create the bulk of the instructions by writing down in detail what they do. In a similar vein, create scripts to guide staff for common emails and telephone conversations and check lists for information from new clients or for finalizing ordinary transactions.
Delegate as much non-billable work as you can, but recognize that there are important non-billable tasks that you really must do yourself. It’s mainly up to you to nurture strong relationships with your best clients, and to review your monthly financial statements, for example.
Delegate decisions that have manageable risks, especially if they are time consuming. Let someone else make your travel arrangements, order office supplies and equipment, set deposition schedules, and manage your calendar.
Delegate tasks for which instructions are available elsewhere, such as in filing guidelines, bylaws, rules and regulations, owner’s manuals, procedural manuals and on the Internet. You can give a final review, if necessary for your comfort level.
Delegate as much responsibility as possible. Don’t delegate tasks that are critical to long term success and that need the judgment of your experience, however, such as which expert to designate in a major case, or whether to render an opinion on a dicey securities law issue.
Don’t do what someone else would be willing to do for you. Delegate anything that will make your job easier or your life more pleasant, while still maintaining necessary quality levels. Be willing to accept “good enough” while someone is still learning. Recognize the value of the tradeoff between perfection and your freedom.
For successful delegation, make sure your delegates have available what is required to do the job. Do they have sufficient authority, time, people, equipment, materials, introductions, information, cooperation from peers, respect and the appropriate location?

If you still have trouble with delegation, perhaps a coach or other objective observer can help you recognize what the real block is.

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Once Again, A New Version of Amicus Attorney

2008-05-17T15:55:00.001-05:00

By Gerry Morris

I have written several articles about the case management software offered by Amicus Attorney. I’m very familiar with the company and some of its products because I’ve used one version or another in my office for over 5 years. I started with Amicus Attorney version V, upgraded to version V+, and currently run the Small Firm Addition for the three lawyers and two full time staff members in my firm.

Along the way, I’ve resisted the temptation to upgrade to the first iteration of a new version of the product. I chose not to upgrade to Amicus Attorney X, the first web based version, and Amicus Attorney 7, the first version based on the Microsoft SQL data base technology, mostly because the postings on Amicus’ user forum were strongly negative about the products. Amicus Attorney X turned out to be a disaster for the company and severely damaged its reputation among its customer base. It followed up with Version 7 which was apparently released too early, judging from the number of bugs that inhabited the application in its first release. An upgrade a few months later addressed many of the problems, but more damage had been done.
Finally, Amicus Attorney employed a time honored troubleshooting procedure. When things wouldn’t work after changes were made, it went back to what worked before the changes. Amicus Attorney Version V+ was a good program. The problem with it is that it is based on the aging FoxPro database technology. This presented programmers with limitations for future improvements. The new SQL technology is all the rage, but, Amicus Attorney just couldn’t get right the new versions based on this more versatile engine. In order to keep its current customer based happy (me, for instance), Amicus Attorney released a new version of its product that amounted to Version V+ with several new features. I upgraded to Small Firm Addition and have found it to work flawlessly. The chief reason I upgraded was the addition of a much improved task module that allows be to see the tasks assigned to other members of my firm. That allows me to monitor the tasks I’ve assigned. Frankly, it’s still not as good as the task features in Outlook, but it will do.

In March of this year, Amicus Attorney released Amicus Attorney Premium Edition. This version is another SQL based application that allows unlimited users, (as opposed to the 10 user limit of FoxPro based Small Firm Edition). The feature list of the product (www.amicusattorney.com/products/prod_edition_comparison.html) shows traditional Amicus Attorney modules plus structural features designed for larger applications. Amicus represents that the Premium Edition can be configured for access over the Internet, a feature that Amicus has tried to implement in Amicus X and Version 7 with limited success. The new version also incorporates Citrix/ Terminal Services Support.

Scanning the user forum postings, it appears that this product has been fairly well received. The negative postings complain of rather minor installations issues that appear to be more operating system related than attributable to Amicus. One poster complained that this release seems to just be Version 7 with all the bugs fixed. If so, it would seem to be worth the upgrade, given the spotty record of Version 7.

I’ve written several times about why I like the general setup of Amicus Attorney. The program uses a graphical interface that is extremely intuitive. Each case file is viewed on the screen as an image of a manila folder with clasps holding pages containing contacts, events, accounting information, document links, etc. The training time for new staff is minimal, and someone of just about any level of technological savvy can work with it. The calendaring works flawlessly across all users. The new version of Professional Edition contains several features that provide more convenience than my Small Firm Edition. For instance, there is a “Favorites Module” that allows a user to make shortcuts to frequently visited locations in the program. There is the ability to log on from any workstation in the firm, because the program uses a ”thin client” workstation application that has minimal data stored locally. There is the ability to relate documents to contacts as well as files. There is also better integration with Microsoft Office including dynamic linking to documents.

The Professional Edition is intended for larger installations and its price reflects that market. For new installations the first license costs $699 and each additional license $599. An upgrade from Version 7 runs $249 for the first license and $199 for each additional license. Upgrades from Small Firm Edition or Version V+ go for $349 for the first license and $299 for each additional license.

Before buying Amicus Attorney 2008 – Premium Edition, I would contact a consultant that works with case management software to learn what users of the product have experienced.

Given Amicus Attorney’s struggles in recent years to produce a thin client, SQL based product, I would be cautious. However, initial signs are good for this version.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Law Practice Management Tip - May 2008

2008-05-17T15:54:00.002-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

If you are not already using a fee agreement in your dealings with clients, you should start using one immediately. The fee agreement will help set out your expectations of the client regarding your bill and will also let the client know how and when to expect your bill. You may contact our office for a sample fee agreement.

Law Practice Management Tip - April 2008

2008-04-17T16:13:00.000-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

Did you know that some web sites often neglect to include one vital piece of information - contact information? Don't fall victim to this common mistake, make sure that your contact information is clear and easy to find. Be sure to include not only the name of your firm and telephone number, but also physical and mailing address, fax number, and an email address. Also, you may want to add a map to show the location of your office to ensure that potential clients know how to get to there.

Even in a Reduced Paper Office a Shredder is Essential Equipment

2008-04-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris

The subject of this month’s article is a device that isn’t really all that high tech. The reason I’m writing about it is because it works and works well. I’m talking about the piece of equipment that eats my junk mail, discarded drafts of documents, old credit cards, DVDs and CDs, paperclips and all. My topic is the Fellowes Powershred SB-97C Shredder.

Shredders aren’t as sexy to write about as high tech gadgets but when I find a piece of equipment that works as advertised and is priced reasonably I like to pass the information along. Even in my reduced paper office I still have a lot of waste paper to contend with. We print what we think are final copies of documents only to discover something that must be changed. I received documents from other sources that I review and decide not to keep or scan. I also receive a ton of junk mail every day just like everyone else. Regrettably the forests are going to be endangered for years to come.

All this paper has to go somewhere. The best way I’ve found to manage it is to have shredders in everyone’s office or workstation that is an end recipient of the paper flow. We shred it, and dispose of it. This obviously isn’t rocket science. The only challenge was to find shredders that are capable of handling the volume but don’t cost an arm and leg.

The first couple of shredders I tried couldn’t keep up the pace. I started with small shredders with capacity ratings of about 11 sheets at a time. These shredders overheated frequently causing them to shut down until they cooled. I eventually did a little more comparative shopping and purchased a Fellowes Powershred SB-97C. I then purchased another and another.

The 97C is a “confetti” shredder which means that it cross cuts the sheets into 5/32”x1 1/2“ particles. This makes it extremely difficult for anyone to get any information from your discarded documents unless they really are serious about trying. It shreds up to 17 sheets of paper at a time and up to 204 sheets per minute. I’ve found this to be plenty of capacity for our volume of paper. Like all shredders, the 97C will shut down if it overheats but I’ve never had mine quit on me.

This shredder also cuts up credit cards, CDs and DVD, and just about anything else within reason. It will cut right through paperclips and staples so you don’t have to separate your documents before shredding them. It has a 10 gallon pull out wastebasket that accepts a plastic trash bag so it’s easy to get the shredded documents to the trash or recycling bin.
Features include a sensor on top near the intake slot that stops the shredder if hands get too close. It has the standard auto stop on jamming feature and a reverse switch.

Although Fellowes lists the suggested price as $419.98, the 97C sells for about $200 on line. (I just bought one from Amazon for $196). After about a year and a half of continuous use, I haven’t found a flaw in this machine.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Which Marketing Book Can Help You?

2008-04-17T16:04:00.002-05:00

By Debra Bruce

Many of my clients ask me to recommend books that can be good tools or reference materials for enhancing their law practice management skills. Today I’m sharing with you my reviews of three popular books that address business development for lawyers.

1. Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know by Mark M. Maraia. Maraia writes in an easy to read style, and gives numerous real life examples of how attorneys have successfully implemented the techniques he recommends. Those anecdotes shift the conceptual into the concrete, a real strength of the book.

Maraia’s book is ideal for attorneys who find marketing daunting, unpleasant or bothersome. He teaches the reader how to make marketing fun, or at least, in his words, “less torture.” He helps lawyers find ways to market their law practice while doing things they already like doing. He teaches them how to become more effective at the marketing techniques they have already attempted, and encourages them to stretch a little into some new activities.

The Maraia Method® focuses on relationship development. Some other business development books say things like (and I’m quoting) “Develop a relationship as early as you can….This can start in modest ways, such as gathering information about the prospect and establishing a rapport during the selling process.” Duh! But exactly how do you accomplish that? Maraia tells you. For example, in Chapter 18: The Myth of Asking for the Business, Maraia gives specific advice on how to build your prospect’s trust through the kinds of questions you ask.

Each chapter is only about 4-5 pages long. That allows you to pick a topic and read up on it on a “just in time” basis. Going to lunch with a prospect? Read Chapter 17: Avoiding Random Acts of Lunch. Scheduled to give a speech? Read Chapter 34: Using Speaking to Win New Clients. Serving on a non-profit board? Read Chapter 31: Building Relationships with Board Members.

Small firm attorneys may be turned off by the book’s tendency to focus on the business development issues of big law firms, with chapters such as “Making Cross-Selling Work in Your Firm” and “Measuring the Return on Investment in Marketing Training.” Nevertheless, most of the principles in the book will also apply to solo and small firm practices.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I must point out that I have been a member of the team giving follow-on coaching in connection with the Rainmaking Made Simple training program for several years. I formed my positive opinions about the book before teaming up with Mark Maraia, however.

2. How to Get and Keep Good Clients by Jay G. Foonberg and How to Start and Build a Law Practice by Jay G. Foonberg. Foonberg is an icon among law students who want to start their own law firms. His books have the “honor” of being the most frequently stolen from law school libraries. How to Start and Build a Law Practice is in its fifth edition and How to Get and Keep Good Clients is in its third edition, attesting to their long-term value in the legal marketplace.

I applaud Foonberg for giving very specific suggestions, such as a sample draft of a follow-up letter after attending a convention or trade show; suggested language to use in inquiring about why a client doesn’t send you referrals; and what to say when someone asks for a business card and you don’t have one.

A weak point: sometimes Foonberg addresses extremely basic issues, such as “The Role of Clothing in Marketing Yourself.” A strong point: he peppers the books with concrete suggestions on how to increase your visibility in the marketplace and position yourself as an expert. Many of those suggestions can be implemented by both new and more seasoned lawyers.

Foonberg’s books are good resources for new lawyers, providing advice on how to get started from the ground floor. A new lawyer should seek other resources in addition to Foonberg, however. Despite the revised editions, his books have become a bit outdated.

Although I think Foonberg gives a lot of sound advice, I disagree with some of it. For example, in his chapter on what to say when someone asks what you do, Foonberg leans toward trying to sell yourself as able to handle a wide range of matters. In my article in the June 2007 issue of The Practice Manager titled “Get Remembered,” I advised keeping your answer simple and concrete, which usually requires you to narrow the field, instead of broaden it. Concrete imagery makes your response more memorable and repeatable. That increases the likelihood that your listener will think of you when he (or a friend) has a need for your services. (If this explanation isn’t concrete enough, just read my other article.)

Some people don’t like the format of Foonberg’s books. Many of the “chapters” are less than a page in length, with each chapter starting on a new page. That presents the content in a choppy way, and makes the hardback copy fat and heavy.

I don’t really recommend Foonberg’s books for experienced lawyers. They are more appropriate for newer lawyers who haven’t really found their niche yet, and aren’t familiar with the myriad of issues they will face in managing a law practice.

3. Rainmaking: The Professional’s Guide to Attracting New Clients by Ford Harding. Harding’s 1994 classic was updated, re-titled and re-released in March 2008 as Rainmaking: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field. The newer version contains some added chapters, but whichever version you purchase, it will be well worth the price.

Many lawyers go about their marketing efforts in a haphazard fashion, trying this and that, now and then. They have little clue as to which efforts really pay off. If you recognize that you need to become more systematic and strategic about your marketing, Harding tells you how to do it. He provides charts, lists, questionnaires and forms that guide you step-by-step in networking, writing articles, getting publicity, making presentations, building client relationships, writing proposals, setting fees and identifying which marketing strategies are more suited to your practice.

This book would be a great help to a lawyer who has experienced modest success, but wants to ramp up the revenues. Harding’s method requires the lawyer to invest some time in planning and analysis, but if she does all of the exercises he recommends and implements a consistent marketing plan, I have no doubt she’ll succeed.

Today even seasoned lawyers find the ground shifting under their feet when it comes to legal marketing, and they are looking for resources. I hope these book reviews will give attorneys a sense of where to start. For finding strategies that involve the Internet and technology, however, I recommend surfing the web. Technology and the opportunities it creates keep changing too fast for book publishing to keep up.

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Law Practice Management Tip - March 2008

2008-03-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

After the initial client interview, it is a good idea to make a copy of the client contract and fee agreement for the client. Give it to the client in a folder along with a firm brochure. This will serve two purposes - first, the client can then file any documents related to his / her case that you may send their way during the course of representation and two, should the client have any questions related to the scope of representation or any questions regarding billing, all the information they need is in that folder. In addition to this, the client will feel like they did not leave your office empty-handed when they walk out with their own "file folder."

Learning from Our Mistakes

2008-03-17T16:17:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

A wise person said, “A mistake is not a mistake unless you fail to learn from it.” I made my share of mistakes in my legal career, and here are a few I learned from. I thought I would offer you the chance to learn from some of mine, instead of making them all yourself.

1. Viewing speaking and writing as non-billable time. It is true that we usually can’t bill anyone for those activities or the preparation time required. When I looked at it that way, however, I tended to de-value the activity, and put it behind everything else. Of course, that means I didn’t get around to developing talks or writing articles that would showcase my expertise and expose me to new contacts. The wiser course would have been to view those efforts as important business development activities, so that I would give them the appropriate emphasis.

2. Focusing on prospective clients and not on prospective referral sources. As a corollary to the first law practice management mistake described above, I didn’t take advantage of opportunities to speak to audiences full of referral sources. At a time when I represented small businesses, the managing partner of the regional office of a large national insurance company asked me to give a talk to their sales stars about shareholder agreements in closely held organizations. I never got around to it. I saw it as a favor to them and I didn’t recognize that they would be highly motivated to act like my free sales force convincing business owners that they needed shareholder agreements backed by key-leader life insurance. I didn’t recognize the opportunity, even though I had seen how an initial small project could develop into a significant long-term client. When those life insurance clients didn’t like their existing counsel, or needed a referral for other reasons, I would have been the corporate lawyer all those sales people knew to recommend.

3. Not networking enough with lawyers in other practice groups. As an associate in a large law firm, I billed a lot of hours. Although I liked getting to know the other attorneys, I had my nose to the grindstone so much that I rarely ventured to the other floors. As a partner, even in a smaller firm, I had many additional duties and tended to focus my networking outward. In those years I got a myopic view of firm politics, and missed a lot of opportunities to build or strengthen valuable alliances. Life in a law firm can have striking similarities to the reality television show Survivor, where alliances play a crucial role.

4. Training one subordinate after another on the same thing. The work in a law office requires smart people at all levels, so lawyers tend to develop people-dependent practices. People smart enough to be good lawyers or good legal support staff have multiple employment opportunities, however. As a result, many law firms today experience a lot of turnover. Illness, life changes, or even advancement within the firm can trigger the need to train replacements. After suffering through temporary employees and new trainees a few times, I learned to ask the people I supervised to develop a desk manual respecting their responsibilities. For any redundant work, the manual set out detailed explanations of the procedures involved and the location of the useful or necessary resources. I also established indexed form banks that I could point people to. That made my practice more system-dependent and less people-dependent. I got higher quality product from my direct reports, I spent less of my own time in the delegation process, and I didn’t get crippled when the inevitable turnover occurred.

5. Working myself into poor health. The ranks of lawyers include a lot of workaholics, and I’ve been one of them. When the law firm culture rewards martyrdom in the name of client service or higher revenues, lawyers may fail to recognize the true price they pay. Until I learned to establish some boundaries and engage in self-care, I went into the hospital twice during one pregnancy due to overwork; I allowed a cold to develop into bronchitis and then pneumonia; I experienced a period of excessive weight loss; I missed out on a great vacation that I regretted for years; and once I fell asleep at a stop light while driving home from work. I have not even mentioned the impact on my most important relationships. Looking back on those days from the maturity of my years and the vantage point of experience, what I gained was not worth what I lost.

6. Telling an experienced assistant how I liked things done without asking her how she liked to do things. When I joined a new law firm, I blew it on the very first day. As a result of that faux pas, we got off to a bad start and I experienced a lot of passive-aggressive foot-dragging and low quality work product from a very competent staff member. If I had started out by asking her how she suggested doing things, I might have learned a few new ideas. There would be plenty of time later to develop a working methodology that satisfied us both. I would have had a more willing guide through my initiation at the new firm, and I definitely would have saved myself a lot of frustration over the next few months.

These are just a few of the mistakes I made over the years. I invite you to share with me some of your experiences of “learning the hard way.” I suspect that together we could have enough fodder for quite a few more columns.

© 2008 Debra Bruce

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Stuff I Use Every Day

2008-03-17T16:14:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris

I’ve written about a variety of hardware and software products over the past couple of years. I’ve mostly written about gadgets and applications that either I or a close colleague use so that I can give you a first hand review of how it does or doesn’t work. Some of the products I’ve written about are now gathering dust somewhere, but there are a few that I’ve come to depend on to help me run my practice and my life in general. This month I want to briefly recap some of my past reviews and add one or two new ones to make up an all-star list of ten useful products. These products, listed in no particular order are the stuff I use every day and recommend. Some are pricey, but some are inexpensive or even free.

1. Amicus Attorney – Small Business Edition. This is the practice management software application I use in my office. I chose it over its competitors because the graphical user interface is the most intuitive in the field. It does everything I need it to do in my small firm practice and is extremely user friendly. I’ve also found it to be very reliable. You might also take a look at Time Matters for larger installations or more sophisticated functionality.

2. Google Desktop. I thought I would throw in something that is absolutely free. This program can be downloaded from, where else, Google.com. This desktop search engine indexes everything on your network and desktop PC much as Google’s Internet search engine indexes all the materials on the gazillion web sites on the World Wide Web. Type in what you are looking for in the program’s search box and, in less than a second, a list appears in a browser window with links to every relevant document, email, chat or previously visited web site. It’s amazing.

3. Splash ID. This program works with my Palm Treo. The product includes a desktop application and an application for the handheld. This program is basically a small database in which I enter all my web logon information, my credit card and bank account numbers, my wife’s clothes sizes, my frequent flier account numbers and so on. I can enter them in the desktop application and sync the information to my Treo. Splash ID allows me to carry with me all the information that I may need to get through a busy day of logging on, checking in, and paying up. Of course, all the info is password protected so I can safely keep it all in one place.

4. Publicdata.com. This is an online service that allows me to search driver’s license records in several states by name. There are also criminal records from several jurisdictions and a few state’s DMV records. The service costs a few cents a search but is well worth the meager cost. Not a day goes by that we don’t have occasion to find a current address for a witness or someone otherwise connected with something we’re working on.

5. Paperport. This document management program interfaces with our scanner and allows my legal assistant to drag and drop scan documents into Amicus Attorney. On each of our desktops we use Paperport’s stack and unstack feature to manipulate scanned documents. We can separate documents into individual pages, combine documents and turn scanned documents into fill-in-the-blank forms. We also use Paperport to convert documents into Adobe Acrobat pdf format.

6. Fujitsu sheetfeed scanners. The exact model of Fujitsu scanner I use, the 620C, has been out of production for some time. If the two I have ever wear out I’ll replace them with the current model. However, I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. These scanners operate at about 20 pages per minute and work flawlessly. We go months between paper jams and when they do occur, it’s usually because of a paperclip or staple. Speed is important but reliability is paramount. It doesn’t do any good to have a 50 page per minute scanner if the sheet feeder jams every 25 pages. From what I’ve read and heard, the newer Fujitsu models have carried on the tradition.

7. Palm Treo 755p. Apple iPhones are sexier, Blackberries are all the rage, but I prefer my Treo. The palm operating system enables me to take advantage of the thousands of low cost applications such as Splash ID mentioned above. I can create and edit Microsoft Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets. I can even view PowerPoint presentations. I can listen to music on a MP3 player and to unabridged books downloaded from Audible.com. I can receive and send email when I’m out of my office. Of course, the standard calendar, contact and task functions are included and the Treo syncs with Amicus Attorney without first having to sync with Microsoft Outlook. My new 755p has more built in memory than its predecessors and a faster processor. Treo’s market share is declining but, for me, it’s still the best smartphone available.

8. Audible.com. This one is purely for entertainment. Audible.com is a wonderful web site where, I can download to my computer and ultimately on to my Treo, any one of thousands of popular books ranging from the classics to today’s best sellers. The membership fee is about $16.00 per month which entitles me to two books per month with no further cost. If I want more books than that, additional ones can be purchased. I can knock out the average book on about 4 or five trips to one of the surrounding counties for court appearances. However, something like the unabridged version of Moby Dick took about nineteen hours of total listening time. Audible.com is well worth the price.

9. Onlymyemail.com spam blocker. This is a web based spam blocker which means that it retrieves your mail from your ISP, filters it, and then delivers it to your desktop. All the spam is retained off site. After I wrote about this service several months ago, I received several favorable emails from readers who tried it. There are a couple of downsides. If you sign up for the basic version for $4 per month, there is about a 5 minute delay from the time your ISP receives an email until it reaches your desktop. The advanced version for about $30 per month eliminates this issue. Also, the basic version has an attachment size limitation. I suggest creating a second email account on your ISP strictly for sending and receiving large attachments.

10. Brother HL-5250DN Laser Printer. For years I was strictly a HP devotee when it came to laser printers. They were reliable as the sunrise and the consumables were widely available. I occasionally strayed to try some new brand and always regretted it. However, after reading several reviews of the Brother HL 5250DN, I decided to give it a try. The twenty something page per minute, (Brothers says thirty) dual sided, three paper bin (on the model I have) networkable printer performs like a champ. All of our PCs are connected to it via our network, which mean that there is no dedicated printer server PC that must remain turned on. The print quality is excellent and the consumables reasonably prices and easy to find. The purchase price for one complete with extra paper trays is around $260.

Thank you for the kind reviews several of you have given me about this column. I always enjoy the feedback. I also enjoy hearing about technology you use in your offices.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Mac vs. PC – Another Viewpoint

2008-02-17T16:23:00.001-06:00

By Gerry Morris

From time to time in this column I’ve made comparisons between the PC and Mac platforms. I have always been a PC user. I’ve bought, built and used PC’s since the mid 80’s. I am admittedly ignorant of the pros can cons of Macs other than what I’ve learned through conversations with friends and colleagues who use them. Uniformly, they rave about them. This month I decided to turn this forum over to a dedicated Mac user. Dale Johnson practices law in Austin. His practice is comprised mostly of civil litigation.

WHY I SWITCHED TO A MAC

Dale Ossip Johnson

There is an old adage in the computer industry. Software developers and hardware engineers love the software and hardware which they know the best. The corollary is that the software developers and hardware engineers are the greatest critics of the software and hardware which were not developed or used by them. The same may be said about the end user. At the personal computer level, the hardware world, with some minor variances, is divided into two competing groups, PC and Apple. The PC computer since its inception in 1981 has always been built on the Intel processor and to a significantly lesser degree the Advance Micro Systems processor. Until recently, The Apple computer was based upon the Motorola PowerPC processor, developed by IBM and Motorola. In 2006 Apple moved to the Intel platform. Each platform has an operating system which is unique, both as to architecture as well as functionality. And, without intermediary software, which for the most part was complex to use and too often unreliable, there was no compatibility between the the different operating systems and their associated applications software. Many of the adherents of each group were fanatical and vociferous about the superior quality of their chosen computer system and the inferior quality of the other. Notwithstanding that PC and Apple now share the Intel processor as a platform, the fundamental philosophical and technological differences in operating systems and OS specific applications continues unabated as does the debate between their strongest adherents. Correspondingly competition between the hardware manufacturers and the software developers for each system to convince the end user that their products and software are uniquely reliable, functional and useful has become a major battlefield.

The use of computers in the legal profession parallels other professions, businesses and trades. Indeed, because of the underlying intellectual and fact driven aspects of legal services, the computer has become an essential, if not mandatory, tool in the practice of the law. No attorney can effectively practice law and meet his or her professional obligations to the client without effectively employing computers, personally as well as at non-attorney staff level. Indeed, I suggest to do otherwise may very well be a basis for legal malpractice.

Most lawyers lack a technical background and expertise in computer science at any but the most basic of levels. The average lawyer wants to practice law and not practice computer. Regardless of the size of the law office, lawyers want their computer systems, which for purposes of this article I define to include, the computer, its operating system and application software, to satisfy six fundamental requirements: The system must be reliable, functional, stable, cost effective, flexible and user friendly. My experience with the PC hardware since 1981 has been that it was consistently cost effective and reliable. However, the prevailing Microsoft developed and related system and application software have been more problematical. From the operating system standpoint It has taken Microsoft over twenty years to reach a state of reliability and stability. Even today, many third party software developers introduce into the marketplace software with stability defects which are often attributable to the peculiar centralized and controlled architecture of the Microsoft operating system. Moreover, the latest Microsoft operating system, VISTA, continues to have configuration issues both at the hardware level as well as the software level, particularly with regard to older hardware and software, and frequently requires ongoing technical support, whether in the form of onsite by knowledgeable employees or from third party vendors. Some configuration issues also appear to exist in Microsoft XP operating system, but not to the same degree as VISTA. In contrast the Apple Computer system has had a history of not only reliability of hardware, although at premium prices, but also stability of software, particularly its Mac OS X operating system. However, Apple also had a well deserved reputation for having limited availability of software, particularly at the business or enterprise level. The PC computer systems with Microsoft operating systems and Microsoft developed or related software have become pervasive and comprehensive resulting in Microsoft and its developers capturing over 90% of today’s PC market place. With Apple’s move to the Intel processor, the software gap between it and Microsoft is rapidly diminishing and, based on my personal usage, no longer meaningful to me.

When Apple announced in 2005 that it was moving its hardware platform to the Intel processor, I began to give serious consideration to moving my law office to an Apple Computer system. After evaluating a number of different types of Apple computers, its Mac OS X operating system and available applications, in December of 2006 I decided to replace my existing PC system and associated Microsoft software with an Apple system in which the iMac is the core computer. Some of the material factors in my decision were:

• With the use of special software, the Apple system was two computers in one. It could run both Apple and Microsoft application software seamlessly and share files;
• All of my Microsoft data files were easily transferable to the Apple system and were totally useable by both Apple and Microsoft software;
• Mainstream Microsoft software had been ported to the Apple platform, including Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat and Quickbooks. Other lawyer specific software was in development;
• Apple computers easily could integrate into PC based systems and exchange and share files;
• Apple computers were reliable, stable and required little, if any, outside tech support;
• Mac OS X operating system was compatible with not only new peripheral hardware but also my existing peripheral computer hardware such as printers and was trouble free in configuration;
• Although the Apple computers were slightly more costly than many PC computers, the cost was more than offset by the lower requirement for technical support and corresponding increase in productivity;
• Installation of new software was quick, efficient and virtually trouble free. Moreover, moving software from one Apple computer to another was equally easy, efficient and trouble free.
• The license fees for a substantial part of Apple software, such has the Mac OS X operating system were significantly less expensive than Microsoft. This became particularly true when Microsoft released Vista;
• Exposure to viruses and third party computer attacks was almost non-existent.
• The apparent speed of business applications was significantly superior to that of PC. Even the startup in the morning took only about 10 seconds.
• For $100.00 per year Apple provided telephone support which is readily accessible, comprehensive and effective.
• Synchronizing data, address books and calendars between Apple computers was quick and easy.
• For $100.00 per year .Mac services provided a plethora of utilities and services including online storage and online synchronizing of address books, calendars and other information between Apple Computers at different locations;
• Backing up of computers was seamless and trouble free;
• Mac OS X had unique features which were far superior to Microsoft XP. Ultimately the same was true regarding VISTA. An example is time machine which stores apple computer information and data in such a manner that you can go to any specific date and restore the computer to the condition that it was on that date.

With the limitation of space imposed upon me, it is impossible to adequately compare the Apple Computer system with the PC Microsoft based system. However, in summary, although Apple continues to market its systems as “consumer systems,” in fact they meet the needs of both the consumer and the business environment for not only the solo practitioner but also the multi-person law firm. Apple has recently released some enterprise level systems which should be able to handle the needs of even the largest law firms. In a like manner, the Apple Computer systems have access to all of the existing and future software, regardless of whether it is Apple or Microsoft developed.

There are many online articles written by lawyers and their experiences with Apple Computers. A few which I suggest are worth reviewing are Apple Briefs - Improving Your Law Practice with Macintosh, www.applebriefs.com?why-use-a-mac-in-your-law-firm/; www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1184869659955; http://www.themaclawyer.com/the_mac_lawyer/2008/01/law-related-mac.html; and www.maclaw.org/.

I consider my switch to Apple Computers as being one of the best business decisions which I have made. It has allowed me to withdraw from the non-productive activity of providing technical support to my staff and colleagues for their PC computers and Microsoft operating system and applications and return to the full time practice of the law with a lot more enjoyment, indeed fun.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Set A Theme For The Year

2008-02-17T16:21:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce

By now the “new” on the New Year has begun to wear off. Some of your resolutions or goals may have already given way to inertia or outside forces.

Revive Your Determination
Would you like a way to revive your will and hang on to it? Consider setting a theme for the year. You should be able to capture the essence of the theme in three or fewer words. I prefer one word myself.

Julz on Fire
I have to give a nod to my coaching colleague Julie Ford for this concept. She wrote that she set the theme of “Julz on Fire” for this year. It inspired her to get her morning going and do with enthusiasm and vigor those daily chores she tended to drag through. It also inspired her to take on challenges she wasn’t sure she was up to, like running a 10-K.

Uncover Your Theme
Perhaps, as you read this you are feeling like I did: unsure of what your theme should be. Here’s an exercise to help you hone in on what matters most for you this year.

On a sheet of paper, create two columns by drawing a vertical line down the middle of the paper. Label the left column “Yes” and the right column “No.” Set your Blackberry, your Outlook calendar or some other timer to beep in five minutes.

Rapid Writing
Now in the “Yes” column quickly list what you want to have or experience this year. You may want a new car, life balance, victory in a big case, recognition from your partners, appreciation from your spouse, fun, new clients, an organized law office, peace, prosperity, weight loss, time with your family, or any number of things. Just jot as many of them down as you can in five minutes.

Sometimes as we’re trying to think of what we want, we think “Well, what I don’t want is to feel stressed out.” Or maybe you don’t want any more conflicts in the office, worries about your teenager, or late nights at work. If any “don’t wants” come up for you, just write them under the “No” column and keep going.

Look for Patterns
When your five minutes is up, take a look at your lists. Notice if there are any patterns. When you look at that list, what do you notice you are longing for? Choose the three you long for most. If you see different variations of the same concept on your list, maybe that concept should be in your top three.

Now find a word or phrase that captures the essence of what you want to have or be this year. As a lawyer and wordsmith, you know how to find the word(s) that resonate for you and stand for what you want to create this year.

My Theme
My theme for this year is “Ease.” Last year I wanted lots of business and unintentionally created the “year of overload.” This year I am setting the intention for just the right amount of business. I’ll take several vacations and long weekends. Solutions will come with ease and I won’t stress over deadlines and other things still in the future. I’ll have some quiet time each day, and keep my body feeling limber and relaxed. When I start to worry or stress, I’ll remember this is the “Year of Ease” and let it go. Answers will come.

I am already noticing that when I begin to feel stressed, if I remember my theme, I am able to consciously relax and release the worry. I have been surprised at the way things have sorted themselves out. Without my request, deadlines have gotten reset. Ideas and solutions have come to me. Someone even arrived to help me as soon as I stepped out of my car when a problem developed.

Other Examples
Some themes my coaching clients have chosen include “Balance”, “Pride”, and “Feeling Good”. Some have reported a change in perspective brought on by choosing a theme. Some have become more intentional. You can use your theme to keep you on track, to remind you to make short term choices in alignment with your long-term goals, and to inspire you to create what you really want in your life and your law practice.

I hope some of you will choose to share with me the theme you set for yourself this year.

© 2008 Debra Bruce

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

An Inexpensive Solution for Improving Cell Phone Reception Inside

2008-01-17T16:35:00.000-06:00

By Gerry Morris

A lot of us have become dependent on our smartphones and cell phones for calls, emails and other functions. Most of us can take for granted that we’ll have an adequate signal to allow us to use the functions on our Treos, Blackberrys, iPhones, etc., that require network access. But, there are exceptions to signal availability even in areas serviced by your carrier.

There are times when the signal may be degraded by the building that you are in to the point where it is unreliable, or terrain features such as hills may block the signal. My wife and I recently moved to a home in a hilly area of Travis County. Our house sits on the side of a hill and is of stucco construction. The net effect of the location and construction was that we received only a very weak Sprint signal inside our home. The signal was so weak that almost all calls of any length were dropped. It was also difficult to download email or use the other web enabled functions on our Treos. Like many of you, we use our cell phones as our primary means of placing and receiving calls even at home, so this was a problem.

We had adequate signal strength outside and at the height of our rooftop, so I looked at ways to bring that signal into our home. There turned out to be a simple, inexpensive solution. Several companies make devices most often referred to as signal extenders or signal repeaters. They all work basically the same. An antenna is placed in an area where there is adequate signal, usually outdoors or in an attic. The antenna is connected, usually by coaxial cable, to a device located inside a structure that receives the signal and rebroadcasts it into the area where the signal is weak or non-existent.

I looked at a few of these devices and decided to purchase the zBoost YX500 PCS manufactured by Wi-Ex. You can read more about their products at www.wi-ex.com. The zBoost is available in three models. There is a model that works with PCS (1900 MHz) phones except Nextel. Basically, it works with CDMA, GSM and TDMA networks operating at that frequency. That is the model I purchased for my Sprint phones. This model also works with T-Mobile, Metro PCS, Cricket and Suncom. There is a model that works only with CEL phones in the 800MHz range used by Cingular, Verizon and Altel. It supports the associated networks, CDMA, GSM, TDMA AMPS, GPRS, EDGE, 1xRTT and EVDO. This model is designated YX500-CEL. There is also a model that works with both in case you want to provide coverage for phones on different frequencies. That model is designated YX510-PCS-CEL.

If all this alphabet soup of networks is confusing, there are a couple of ways to determine which model is the correct one for your phone to save you from having to spend about $100 dollars more for the model that covers both band ranges. Most phones have an info screen that tells you on which frequency the phone operates. For instance, on my Treo 755p pressing the dropdown menu button from the phone screen and selecting “Options” gets you to a menu selection called “phone info.” There, a screen lists the operating frequency of the phone as 1900 MHz. You can also call your carrier if you have the time and patience and find out the operating specs of your phone or visit their web site. Fry’s Electronics, where I bought my zBoost, had one of the dual band units set up so that I could place a call on my cell phone near it and the indicator lights on the unit would reveal which model would work with my phone.

As I said, the single band units are less expensive. I paid about $210 for my YX500-PCS. The reason I chose this brand was primarily because of its review on CNet.com. I’ve come to rely on CNet over the years to help me pick a product out of the competitors. CNet gave zBoost an “excellent” rating scoring it as 8.6 out of a possible 10. Also, the product appeared to be easy to set up. It proved to be so.

The product comes with a small antenna and mounting bracket that can be placed inside an attic or outside in an area where there is sufficient signal. The antenna connects to the indoor repeating unit via high quality coaxial cable of the type used in most homes now for cable or satellite TV. It comes with a 35’ cable. Of course, it is often a challenge to figure out how to get the cable from the outside to the inside of the structure with the least amount of damage to the wall. Wi-Ex sells an accessory that is basically a piece of thin, flat coaxial cable with connections on either end. This piece can be placed at the bottom of a window to allow the cable to enter through the closed window. Fortunately, our house was constructed with wiring for both satellite and cable TV. I hooked the antenna to the unused satellite TV input on the outside of the house and hooked the repeater to the satellite TV connection inside.

Once the cable has been run and connected to the unit on the inside, all you have to do is plug in the AC power cord for the repeater unit. The extended signal radiates out from the unit so I placed it more or less in a central location in the living area of our home.

The product works as advertised. The Sprint signal in our home is much improved. I haven’t had a single dropped call when I’m in range of the repeater unit. If I am out of range I can walk into the area that is covered without interrupting my call. The manufacturer says that the coverage can be up to 2500 sq. ft. That can only be achieved under ideal conditions and with outdoor antenna upgrade. The range also depends on the strength of the signal at the location of the antenna. In my case, the signal, even outside, is average, so my unit out of the box probably covers about half that area. I intend to upgrade the antenna and possibly add another unit in a different area of the house.

The bottom line is the zBoost is a quick fix for low signal strength inside of a building where there is adequate signal outside or in the attic area. Make sure you get the right model for your phone. The only installation challenge is bringing the cable inside to the repeater unit. Other than that it’s just a matter of connecting the cable and plugging it in.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

Resolve to Get Organized

2008-01-17T16:24:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce

Resolve to Get Organized

Did you set a New Year’s resolution to get organized? Getting organized and losing weight seem to be the most common resolutions I hear people make, whether lawyers or not. What does “getting organized” look like for the law office? And how do you do it?

Paper comprises the biggest organizing challenge in most law offices. Lawyers still wade through paper every day, and some drown in it. This article has a few tips that may help you actually move into action on this year’s resolution to get organized. You don’t have to turn your office upside down. Just take a few baby steps.

1. One project at a time. As much as possible, keep only the one file you are currently using on your desktop. When folders and papers pile up on your desk, you waste time digging through them to find the document you need. Additionally, stray papers distract you. A page floats into your field of vision, and suddenly you switch gears to deal with it. Maybe you were keeping that document in sight to remind you to handle it, but that’s like having a snooze alarm ring every five minutes for something you want to do three hours later.

2. Reasons for desk junk. Junk piling up on your desk indicates that (i) you have a decision to make that you’re postponing, (ii) you don’t have an obvious place to store the item, or (iii) you are afraid you’ll forget to do something if the item is out of sight. Once something else gets piled on top, it’s out of sight anyway. Instead of piling it, file it, and put a reminder on your to-do list. Create a proper place for your things. The most frequently used items should be most conveniently at hand. That commemorative gavel you received for speaking can go on a shelf, or in your “commemorative trinkets” box. The paper that represents an unmade decision may belong in the hanging folder rack described in #4 below.

3. A compromise for the “piler.” If you are an incorrigible “piler” or just have to have several files visible on your desktop, use a graduated file holder that will allow you to see the label of six to eight folders standing up. Rotate folders out of the graduated file holder to the file cabinet as soon as possible.

4. Organizing pending matters. As an alternative to the graduated file holder, you can use a hanging folder rack with labels on the hanging folders like “read,” “take home,” “urgent,” “pending,” “bills,” “decide,” or whatever categories apply to those things you tend to keep on top of your desk. (Of course, the same hanging folders could go in a desk drawer.) An “upcoming events” category can hold the brochures for those seminars that you haven’t decided whether to register for, invitations to judicial candidate receptions, directions to holiday parties, etc. Use a “discuss” folder to hold the associate’s draft that you revised and sent to the client, but which you want for feedback to the associate. The folder might also hold a staff person’s vacation request that you want to discuss with a partner before approving.

5. In and out trays. Put 2 stacking trays on the corner of your desk. Tray 1 is the inbox where your assistant puts incoming mail, documents that need your signature, phone messages, etc. You should empty that box several times per day. Tray 2 is the outbox. Your assistant empties that box every time he comes into your office. It will contain folders and papers ready to be filed, documents you have signed or marked with instructions or revisions, and notes to your assistant about non-urgent tasks to be done, like “make a copy of this article and send it to Joe.”

6. The “read” box. You may want a third tray to hold papers you intend to read later, but which are not urgent. Don’t let those items pile up in your inbox, because they will camouflage the important and urgent arriving items. Stuff a few “read” items in your briefcase as you leave the office. They are great to pull out while waiting for a hearing, sitting in a waiting room, or even standing in line. The time goes by faster, and you get something done.

7. Hot projects file cabinet. Keep a file cabinet in your office for currently active projects and frequently used items. (Many lawyers may be surprised to learn that the floor is not a file cabinet.) During trial preparation or in the middle of a big deal, attorneys need frequent access to the same large files. A lateral desk-height file cabinet can be reached without getting up, by just rolling your chair a few inches. You are much more likely to put away frequently used items if it doesn’t require much physical exertion.

8. Schedule a de-clutter day. Sometimes, despite your best intentions, your office just gets out of control. Enlist your assistant for help and use the first day back after you close a big deal or complete a trial as an office organizing day. Your brain is probably too fried to accomplish much real legal work then anyway. Alternatively, just block off a day on your calendar for you and your assistant to spend organizing. You will be surprised at the energy boost you feel when you walk into a clean office the next day. Those stacks of paper and other clutter had invisible strings tied to you that siphoned off your energy and concentration.

9. Delegate more organizing. If you have outdated materials piled up in your office, that’s a sign that you don’t do a good job of delegating. Let your assistant calendar events and sort through papers periodically to trash items representing expired opportunities. Let him gather up and file documents you don’t currently need. They won’t be lost or destroyed, they’ll just be easier to find.

10. Dedicate 15 minutes per day to planning. Just 10 to 15 minutes of planning and organizing at the end of the day can keep your office manageable. You’ll know where things are, and be better prepared to hit the ground running the next day, with a clearer idea of your priorities.

11. Location of file cabinets. Ideally, the cabinet containing your current files will be located not far from your assistant’s desk, just outside your office. That will make it easy for you to find the file you need and for your assistant to refile it every day, if necessary. It’s better for him to repeatedly replace that file than to have it get buried in your office. Closed files or infrequently used files can be stored down the hall or on those hard to reach high shelves.

12. Brad down papers. Hole punch and brad down documents in the folder in chronological order, with the most recent date on top. This may seem obvious, but I have been surprised to learn how many lawyers have loose papers tossed into files. That increases the risk that something will get lost because it falls out of the folder, or someone pulls it out and fails to replace it, or accidentally stuffs it back into the wrong folder. It also requires more time to sort through those documents to identify the most recent one. If the file has more than 10 documents in it, separate them into appropriate folders labeled “pleadings,” “correspondence,” “drafts,” “executed documents,” etc.

13. Create checklists. Checklists save time and reduce errors, while making delegation easier. For any task or project that you do repeatedly, create a checklist. You may have one for new client interviews, forming a new business entity, opening a new case, filing a lawsuit, setting up an estate plan, etc. A thorough checklist can guide a new associate or legal assistant to take the necessary steps without requiring much of your time. It will help you avoid forgetting some small, but essential aspect of the process. Put the checked-off list in the file. When you can’t remember whether you completed that one detail, you can just review the checklist to rest easy. If you travel frequently, a briefcase packing list can save time and frustration at the airport, as well as allow your assistant to take care of more details for you. A binder or computer file of checklists comes in handy and keeps them accessible.

14. Electronic organization. Today email clutter causes some of the most common disorganization woes. That subject merits its own forum. For tips on managing your email, read my article called “10 Tips for Surviving the Email Avalanche.” To cut down on paper altogether, establish a “paperless” or “less-paper” office. You can find great tips in various articles by Gerry Morris about the paperless office in The Practice Manager. The most recent one was published November 27, 2007.

Don’t get discouraged by this long list. You probably don’t need all these tips. If you only implement one suggestion on this list, but do it consistently, you’ll notice a difference.

Debra Bruce (www.lawyer-coach.com) practiced law for 18 years before becoming a professionally trained Executive Coach for lawyers. She is Vice Chair of the Law Practice Management Committee of the State Bar of Texas, and board member and past leader of Houston Coaches Network, the Houston Chapter of the International Coach Federation. She welcomes your questions and comments at debra@lawyercoach.com or in the comments section of this newsletter.

Another Voice Over IP Alternative

2007-12-18T09:00:00.000-06:00

By Gerry Morris

Several columns ago I wrote about voice over IP (VOIP) phone systems as an alternative to traditional Ma Bell type hard wired phones. VOIP systems convert the analogue sound to digital information that is then transmitted over the Internet and again converted to analogue sound on the other end. The advantage of VOIP systems over traditional systems is lower monthly cost for the same features and minimal capital investment. The downside has been historically been inferior sound quality and consistency. We all know that the Internet has good days and slow days. Sound quality for a VOIP system depends on consistent Internet speed. From my conversations with my colleagues that have made the jump to VOIP I’ve learned that the quality has improved dramatically to the point where it is seldom an issue.

In the past year I faced having to make the choice between buying out my office mate’s share of our Panasonic phone and voicemail system or starting over from scratch. As it turned out my office mate moved to an office where it would have been impractical to install our phone system so I kept it. Before I decided to keep my existing system, however, I looked into VOIP.

At the time the best recommendation I received was for a product from Packet 8. Their system amounts to an offsite virtual PBX. You purchase the VOIP phones from them that connect directly to your Ethernet network. The system uses whatever Internet access provider you have chosen for your office. Unless you dedicate an Internet connection specifically for your phone system your VOIP will share bandwidth with every other Internet user in your office. After a modest initial installation charge the Packet 8 system costs around $40 per phone. The service includes voicemail, and a host of call management features. One great feature common to most VOIP systems is that a phone can be plugged into the Internet in Austin, Texas or Sydney, Australia and be connected to the same office system. The phone in a location remote from the main office can have a phone number from the same series of numbers as the main office and can be configured as an extension of the main system. The drawback of the Packet 8 system is that the sound quality and reliability is a function of your ISP and the amount of bandwidth available.

Recently, I had a conversation with Amy Hess, a lawyer with an office practice in East Texas, about some of the technology she uses in her office. Amy’s practice involves transaction work for clients located overseas and in several major cities in the United States rather than in the area where her physical office is. Her phone system and long distance service is very important to her and she doesn’t want to spend a bundle every month on a receptionist. She told me about a product called AccessLine that she uses and has had good results. I checked it out at www.accerssline.com.

AccessLine offers the features common to other VOIP setups: voicemail, low cost long distance, no geographical limits for extensions, etc. There are two aspects of the product that distinguish it from Packet 8.

First, AccessLine works over a dedicated Internet connection maintained by AccessLine. Nothing else uses the bandwidth and the speed of the connection is tailored to the size of the phone system. Second, the system can be configured to provide phone service to an existing hard wired PBX system. This means that, for instance, if I want to go with VOIP to reduce my monthly costs because of the lower monthly service charge and long distance rates, I can get rid of my existing phone lines and plug in “lines” from the VOIP interface in their place. I could continue to use the phone system I paid dearly for and wouldn’t have to rewire my office for a new system.

The monthly cost of AccessLline depends on how many lines are needed, which basically means how many simultaneous calls the system must be capable of handing since the digital packets travel to the Internet system over one line. A hardware device is provided to split the access to the Internet into individual analogue lines to interface with a traditional PBX. Four lines cost $150 per month which includes 2000 minutes of free long distance. There is a $400 one time installation fee. The medium package offers capabilities of from 5 to 24 lines. Five lines are $184 per month with each additional line costing $34.

A full list of the features appears on the web site linked above. The web site says that your AccessLine numbers can be listed in the white pages of the local phone book. I was curious to find out if the number could be listed in the Yellow Pages. I contacted AccessLine customer service and found out that listings in the Yellow Pages can be had for a price. I suppose I should have known that.

The bottom line is that AccessLine appears to be a good alternative to Packet 8 if you want dedicated bandwidth for your phone system, especially if you already have an analogue PBX that you want to continue to use.

I want to take a moment to wish all my readers Happy Holidays and to thank you for the great feedback you’ve given me on this column. I’ve received a lot of emails and several calls from you with questions and comments. I try to return them all as my practice permits. I really enjoy hearing about how you’ve put technology to work in your offices. It gives me ideas for my practice as well as for my office.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at egm@egmlaw.com.

Send Holiday Greetings That Really Connect

2007-12-18T08:58:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce

December 2007
Send Holiday Greetings That Really Connect

The holidays and year end present many opportunities for enhancing existing client relationships and developing new prospects. Many attorneys don’t take full advantage of the opportunities, however, because they fail to invest a little forethought. Here are some ideas to consider if you engage in the venerable tradition of sending out holiday greetings.

When to Send Out Greetings

Although the number of holiday cards sent out has declined over the last decade, it is still difficult to stand out in the flurry of holiday communication. Some lawyers have migrated to sending Thanksgiving cards. What an excellent opportunity to express gratitude for your clients’ trust and confidence in you, as demonstrated by their business. Alternatively, you might choose to adopt the French tradition of sending New Year’s cards. Either way, at least your card won’t be buried in a stack of other cards. If you want to showcase your firm’s experience in representing clients who do business in China, perhaps you should consider sending out Chinese New Year cards.

Personalize Your Greetings

I urge my clients to find a way to include a personal message in each card, especially if the card is signed with the law firm name. Without a personal touch, the card does not have optimal impact. You risk disappointing the client who had a strong relationship with you, when you obviously treat them like one of the masses. Clients suspect that a staff member prepared the cards from a mailing list, without actual lawyer involvement. Even individually signed cards can conjure up an image of an assembly line signing process.

Personalizing a Mass Mailing

If you have extensive contacts, how can you personalize all those cards? You really may not be able to invest the time and imagination required to add a meaningful note to each card. You can still support the bond with your contacts by inserting an enclosure with something personal about yourself, even though it is mass produced. When you give your clients, prospects and referral sources a personal glimpse of you, they feel like they know you, and it fosters loyalty. Oprah Winfrey is a master of revealing just enough about herself to give millions of strangers the feeling that they are in relationship with her, and her impact is legendary.

Here are a few examples of how to add a personal touch to your holiday greetings:

1. Write up a paragraph or two that describes something about your family. You might describe a holiday tradition in your home and tell a funny or touching anecdote about your kids now, or your childhood in relation to that tradition. Alternatively, the anecdotes can be about people or activities in your office or practice group. Tie it to wishes for the recipient like “may your holidays be filled with laughter and memories in the making.”
2. Enclose a copy of a favorite poem or the lyrics to a favorite song related to the season, and tell why it’s meaningful to you.
3. Describe one of the highlights of your year and share something from it. For example, you might have traveled to Italy, and you can enclose a recipe for a delicious marinara sauce translated from an Italian cookbook you purchased there, as a little gift.
4. Enclose a picture of you and your staff or your family, especially in holiday attire or doing something related to the holiday. You might have a photo of you and staff or family wrapping presents for an adopted family, carting donations to a food bank, decorating the office, or sledding in the snow. Of course, you’ll include a brief explanation of what you were doing, and tie it to your wishes for the recipient. You could say something like “may the season fill your heart with the joy of giving and receiving,” or “may the holidays awaken the kid in you again!”
5. Write a holiday newsletter. Yes, some people complain or make fun about those, but they are usually referring to the letters that sound like brag sheets. Instead of reciting honors and accolades, tell stories and anecdotes that give your reader the flavor of your year or important events that transpired. Don’t be afraid to include personal disappointment or loss. It makes you human and approachable. I wouldn’t suggest mentioning that big trial you lost, however, unless it was plastered all over the newspapers and television screens. In that case I would simply mention my disappointment about the outcome.

External Resources

If you like the idea of sending out more personalized greetings, but need help with simplifying such an overwhelming project, check out some of the services available at www.SendOutCards.com, and www.LongTermClients.com. They have some nice cards to choose from, and many suggestions about personalizing content. You upload the mailing list, and they’ll send the cards out for you. Or they’ll send you the fully addressed and stamped cards just waiting for you to sign them and put them in the mail.

Email Greetings

Finally, you may be wondering about whether it’s ok to send out email greetings instead of cards. I would say “That depends.” How traditional is your audience? You might just come across as cheap. If you have the tradition of sending a newsletter, I think email works well for that. Just be aware that your communication risks getting lost in an even bigger flurry of unread email.

With regard to those online greeting cards: they may not be opened or received. Many IT departments block executable files from delivery to protect against viruses. Many individuals don’t click on the link to electronic cards to avoid cookies and other spyware.

Some people receive hundreds of legitimate emails per day, and get annoyed at anything that further clogs their mailbox. Others tend to be more responsive to email, and might actually engage in a conversation with you as a result. Know your audience.

My Holiday Greeting to You

Please consider these ideas as a little holiday gift from me in appreciation for being a reader who makes this column successful. I would love for you to share your holiday greetings with me. May these ideas cause you to relive some happy memories and come a little closer to your friends and clients during the holidays.

Differentiation by Design

2007-11-18T09:03:00.000-06:00

By Debra Bruce

Recently I ran into a Houston lawyer at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. As we chatted, he extolled the virtues of the hotel. He began with his amazement that, although he had only stayed there once before, the doorman called him by name when he arrived. Then he gushed about the impact of walking into the luxurious bathroom in his room.

At the Vintage Inn in Napa, California, as I unlocked the door and stepped into my room, I heard gentle strains of soothing music. Lamplight and a fire flickering in a fireplace created a romantic mood and warmed me from the chill of the night air. A small table held a complimentary bottle of wine, with glasses and a corkscrew. I sprawled on the bed, and felt like I had landed on a fluffy cloud. This was not my usual business trip experience. When I got home I started planning how I could get back to that hotel.

What do these stories have to do with your law practice? They illustrate the marketing power of focusing on a client’s experience when delivering service. These hotels stood out in an industry with competitors literally around the corner. Would your clients say that about your firm?

An article in the October 2007 issue of Fast Company magazine reported that “a three-year study of more than 40 Fortune 500 companies by the research firm Peer Insight found that companies focused on customer experience design outperformed the S&P 500 by a 10-to-1 margin from 2000 to 2005.” Jeneanne Rae, co-founder of Peer Insight LLC, says “Customers will gladly pay more for an experience that is not only functionally but also emotionally rewarding (emphasis added).”

Psychologist and marketing experts say that most buying decisions are emotional, and the buyer’s analysis is really just designed to support the emotional decision already made. That’s why Madison Avenue uses sex to sell cars, beer and soap.

I work with lawyers in large firms all over the U.S., and when we survey them about what differentiates their law firm from their competitors, a high percentage of them respond that they provide superior legal services. These top notch firms compete against other top notch firms, and if there is any real difference in legal ability at that level, I doubt that most clients can discern it. Clients can discern, however, differences in how they feel when they receive legal services. The lawyers surveyed, however, tended to focus on functional needs, and rarely considered the emotional needs of their clients.

What would effective “customer experience design” look like for your law firm? Begin by identifying the emotional needs, concerns and preferences of your client base. What do your clients want? There are probably a number of core needs in common with most clients, regardless of the kind of legal services sought. They want relief from stress and worry about the legal issue they have entrusted to you. They want to feel important and know that you have their interests uppermost in your mind. They want to feel safe. They want to feel taken care of. They want to feel valued and appreciated for choosing you. They want to feel understood. They want to feel special.

Now think about the “touchpoints” with your clients and the ideas, emotions and memories that these interactions trigger. It may help to think of them not as “clients,” but as “participants” in an experience of sights, sounds and smells that you create.

Don Norman, a nationally-known design guru, says “attractive things work better.” Norman asserts that a pleasant aesthetic design can help people be more flexible and creative in finding solutions to challenges. Stress, however, makes people less able to cope with difficulties and less flexible in their approach to problem solving. So it is important to minimize distractions, bottlenecks and difficulties, and to maximize aesthetics. A well-designed experience for your clients may actually help them be more creative participants in problem solving.

For most clients, situations involving legal representation involve stress. To improve interactions with clients, begin by creating a pleasant experience for them when they come to your office. Difficulties in parking, or a late start for an appointment, can reduce your client’s ability to deal with unexpected news or to be flexible and creative in negotiations.

By way of example, I went to a new dentist, and thought it was odd that a dental office would have coffee and chocolate chip cookies in the waiting room. The snacks were attractively presented, as if Martha Stewart had chosen the table cloth, napkins, serving plates and containers for cream and sugar. Several of the chairs in the waiting room had vibrating back massagers. I felt comfortable and welcome, and found I even wanted to linger there. I found I didn’t mind dealing with all of the usually bothersome new patient questionnaires and insurance paperwork. That dental office used good customer experience design to improve my impression of their services, and after my first visit I told several people about those dental offices.

One Houston family lawyer has offices in an old house with a large attractive flower garden at the entrance. She keeps homemade cookies on hand and burns scented candles in the office. Her clients have commented that the environment helps them calm down.

Give your own office a client experience audit. Contact your own office as though you were a client.

When your clients call your office, does the person answering the phone recognize their name? How many times did the phone ring before they picked up? If it is necessary to put the caller on hold, does your assistant or receptionist ask permission first? Does he or she actually wait to hear the response? If a client informs you of an unsatisfactory telephone experience, what do you do about it? Do you thank the client for letting you know?

If you serve elderly, injured or disabled clients, can they get to your office without climbing steps? Is the physical environment pleasant and soothing, or noisy and chaotic? Do your clients have the sense that their matters are truly confidential, or can they overhear telephone conversations as they walk down the hall? Do they see other clients’ documents as they meet in your office?

Do you give the clients the experience of feeling special? Does your receptionist know to expect their arrival and address them by name? Do you promptly greet them, or do you keep them waiting? If they meet in your office, do you put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” and turn off the email alerts so that you can give the clients your full attention? Do you offer your client a beverage? Does the client have a comfortable place to sit? Do you stay behind a fortress of a desk, or do you join your client in a symbolic gesture of your partnership with them?

In rendering legal services, do you help your clients know what to expect and keep them informed of developments? Evidently many lawyers do not, because I repeatedly hear General Counsels say that surprises are their pet peeves about outside counsel. How quickly do you respond to emails and phone calls? The most frequent complaints received against lawyers by the State Bar of Texas have to do with poor communication and failing to respond to client request for information.

What other ways can you give your clients a positive experience when working with you? It is worth some thought if you want to stand out in a crowd of competitors.

Online Accounting

2007-11-18T09:01:00.000-06:00

By Gerry Morris

An Alternative to Traditional Workstation Installed Programs

Over the years I’ve tried several different accounting packages for my practice. The various brands of accounting software have faded in and out of prominence and market share much as have word processing programs. For the past several years Quckbooks from Intuit has been a leader in the field.

I’ve used Quickbooks in one form or the other now for about 15 years. For the first 10 years or so I used Quickbooks Pro, a version of Quickbooks that was loaded on an individual workstation at my office dedicated primarily to accounting. One staff member was assigned to make accounting entries and to perform tasks such as reconciliation of the checkbooks and general maintenance of the accounting records.

The problem with a one computer installation is that access to the accounting records was limited to the user of that computer. In order for me to monitor the finances of my firm I had to request that reports be generated, or go to the computer where Quickbooks Pro was loaded and peruse the program myself. A networked version of the program to allow multiple user access would have cost another few hundred dollars.

Additionally, at year end when it was time to prepare tax returns, we had to load a backup copy of our data onto a CD and mail it to our accountant. Our accountant would reconcile our records and send a disk back to us to correct our data. The system was fairly cumbersome.

About five years ago when I decided to go back to a solo practice, I explored different alternatives to traditional Quickbooks. I discovered that Quickbooks had begun offering an online version of its accounting program. I found that it was a good fit for a practice the size and type of mine.

Quickbooks Online is a subscription service that costs from around $25.00 to $50.00 per month depending on which features you sign up for. The $300 to $600 dollars per year may seem high at first glance. However, I decided it was worth it for the extra convenience and considering that I was usually paying about $200 to $300 per year for upgrades to my computer installed version.

The Online addition operates entirely through your web browser. Once you’re signed up and signed on, the home page automatically downloads java script to your computer to format the browser to display the interface. The program has many of the features familiar to traditional Quickbooks users and to users of other accounting programs. Accounts for income and expenses are set up by the user with templates available for different business types including law offices. Lists of venders are created either one by one or on the fly when bills are paid. Likewise, a client list is created with new entries either added manually or with new income transactions. Check registers are integrated so that when checks are created and printed; entries are made in the appropriate journals. Bills can be generated and printed for mailing or can be emailed to clients. A payroll module can be added that will automatically calculate withholding. The report module provides easy generation of standard reports and is easily configurable for custom reports.

In short, most features available on Quickbooks Pro and on most popular accounting programs are available on Quickbooks Online Edition. The advantage of the online version is convenience. I can access my accounting records from any Internet connected computer at anytime. I frequently access my records to check account balances, payables and receivables. I can generate financial reports quickly from my office or home. I often look at my “books” after hours from home after all the transactions of the day have been entered and make financial decisions in the less hectic atmosphere there.

Communicating my firm’s financial information to my accountant is much easier with Quickbooks Online Edition. The basic monthly rate includes access for three users plus your accountant. My accountant has the password to my accounting records and can access them from his office. His staff can reconcile our banking records and make corrections that appear in real time to the users in our office. We can easily outsource periodic bank account reconciliation and other routine tasks because there is no longer a need to physically transfer the electronic data.

More than one person can easily make accounting entries within the office, if desired, or the same person can use any Internet enabled workstation to work on the books.

With Quickbooks Online Edition, you accounting data is kept by Intuit in its data center. It is secured in accordance VeriSign®, the leading secure sockets layer (SSL) Certificate Authority. I’m not entirely sure what that means but I’m told it’s good enough. The server on which the data is stored is backed up and protected by an uninterruptible power supply. There is hardware redundancy and a host of high tech safeguards that keep the data secure and accessible. I think it is safe to say that Intuit is better at preserving and protecting data than most of us. The data is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week except during short periods of shutdown for periodic maintenance usually scheduled for late evenings. Information on data security can be found at
http://oe.quickbooks.com/security.cfm.

There are some drawbacks to the online edition. Some time keeping and billing packages as well as some case management programs integrate with Quickbooks Pro and other workstation loaded accounting programs. There are no links available to enable those programs to exchange data with Quickbooks Online Edition. I generate my hourly billing statements with Amicus Attorney and enter the total in Quickbooks Online Edition to generate an invoice and bill. Also, I have been told that practices subject to the privacy restrictions of HIPAA cannot use online accounting programs. I am not sure what types of practices have accounting data subject to HIPAA, but if you have that type of practice, online accounting isn’t for you.

After five years of use of the system, I can recommend Quickbooks Online Edition for a small practice. The convenience factors outweigh the drawbacks. You can check out this product at http://oe.quickbooks.com/index.cfm.

The Trouble with Email

2007-10-18T09:05:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

“I send out this simple, straight-forward email, then I get all this negative reaction. I don’t get it.”

Misconstrued Emails

Lawyers and law firm administrators that I coach report this to me a lot. Emails are informal and easy to send quickly, so we often zip them off without rereading them to see how they might sound to the reader. The recipients of the email then supply the tone of voice, cadence and volume to it, which can dramatically affect the tenor of the message.

We send out something like “Don’t forget to sign up by Tuesday!” In our minds we hear the polite, encouraging voice of a flight attendant on the intercom reminding us to keep our seatbelts fastened during the flight. Our reader, however, hears the edgy voice of an eighth grade math teacher admonishing an unruly class. If there is any history of friction or conflict between sender and reader (as frequently happens with opposing counsel, subordinates who have been “counseled” or partners in competition for firm resources), the reader may hear the threatening bark of a drill sergeant.

Why is that? Most of us can’t type as fast as we can speak, so we tend toward brevity and directness in our emails. Brevity in conversation often comes across as curt, disinterested, rude or commanding, unless we soften it with a cheery or concerned tone. In email, the reader inserts the tone themselves, and they often don’t supply the most cordial tone.

Tips for Avoiding Misunderstandings

To establish the intended tone in an email, we can either sacrifice brevity and become more formal, or adopt the extreme brevity and informality that teenagers use in text messaging. “When are you going to send the documents?” might sound abrasive and nagging in some circumstances. You can soften that by substituting “It would be helpful to know when we might expect to receive the documents.” Alternatively, a message that says “When r u sending docs?” is so abbreviated that the reader is now more likely to understand that the sender is just saving time, and not being curt. Readers are particularly likely to grant that extra bit of grace when the email obviously comes from a Blackberry or other PDA.

By the way, just in case you are not already aware of the little rules of email etiquette, upper case typing in email is the equivalent of raising the voice in person. In some circumstances colored fonts or bold face can also be interpreted that way. If you are a poor typist, it is better to type in all lower case than all upper case. That’s an accepted way to manage the challenge of sending messages using the little buttons on a PDA or when typing rapid fire to keep the conversation flowing in an online chat.

Please Don’t Make This Mistake

Some writers think their readers are unreasonably sensitive and just looking for something to complain about. “I said ‘Please’ for Pete’s sake!” they grumble. Unfortunately, however, in many circumstances the word “please” has become the signal that a command will follow, such as “Please keep off the grass” or “Please don’t touch.”

To avoid that implication, instead of “Please respond by Friday,” try going a little more formal as in one of the following:

“Kindly respond by Friday.”
“We would greatly appreciate a response by Friday.”
“Would you be so kind as to let us know your intentions by Friday?”

Email is No Substitute

I can’t talk about avoiding misunderstandings in emails without addressing one other issue. Today co-workers officing next door to each other often communicate by email. With email we can talk without having to make a real-time connection between two busy people. Such written correspondence also serves the valuable purpose of making it easy to track the communication and document agreements and instructions for future reference.

Unfortunately, however, people also use email to avoid direct confrontation in sticky situations. I coached a lawyer who was having difficulties with a co-worker in another department. My client was a likeable guy and his requests seemed reasonable in the situation, yet he experienced friction and resistance for weeks. I asked whether he had tried having a conversation with his co-worker to figure out the problem.

“I sent him an email,” he said.
“Is he in your building?” I asked, incredulous.
“Yes, he’s down one floor.”
“Are your legs broken?” I chided.

He held a face to face conversation that day and got the issue resolved.

When things are already testy, email communication has a high risk of exacerbating the situation. Save time and conflict by picking up the phone or meeting in person. If you need documentation of the understanding reached or the information communicated, you can send a confirming email afterwards.

Use More Personal Touch in Touchy Situations

In summary, email is a great time-saver in day-to-day situations. When communication has the potential to get touchy, however, we need to slow down and pay attention to the possible ways that our language might be misconstrued. We can save ourselves a lot of time in the long run by taking the extra steps necessary to make sure that the positive intent of our message comes through, whether by adjusting our language or picking up the phone.

More on the Latest Amicus Attorney Upgrade

2007-10-18T09:04:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris

Last month I wrote about information I had just received concerning a new product offering by Amicus Attorney. Amicus Attorney is a widely used law practice management application. The interesting thing about the new product, Small Office Edition, is that it is an upgrade from Amicus’ previous Version V+ rather than from its newer Version 7. I wrote about some of the problems Amicus has experienced with Version 7 and how I have decided to wait until the kinks are worked out before upgrading .from Version V+.

In my office Version V+ has been bulletproof. I have five users and we use most of the features extensively. Because I work mostly on a flat fee basis, I have not utilized the time keeping features to a great extent but we rely heavily on the calendaring, contacts, tasks, document generation, note taking and document management features. However, there were a few features lacking from Version V+ that I thought would have made it more convenient and useful. Most if not all of these were addressed in Version 7 but I didn’t want to risk the upgrade. I did purchase the upgrade to Small Business Edition last month and am happy to report that the upgrade went well with only minor problems. SBE basically amounts to Version V+ Advanced Edition with several features added that I’m sure were often requested. Since I have written some negative things about Amicus Attorney in past columns I thought it only fair that I report my mostly positive experiences with this upgrade. Also, I’ll give you the practical view of the upgraded features with my wholly gratuitous suggestions to Amicus for future enhancements.

First of all, as I said, the upgrade went smoothly. One of the attractive things to me about Amicus Attorney is that the program is relatively simple to install and configure. I do these tasks myself so I want it to stay simple and not take much time. The upgrade of my system from Version V+ Advanced Edition to the new Small Business Edition took about three hours including installing the new workstation software on each user’s computer. The only small glitch was that I had to reinstall the program on one workstation because of some problem with the server recognizing the user’s license. This problem took about 15 minutes to diagnose and solve.

Once the system was up and running one new feature was immediately apparent. There is a new navigation pane to the left of the program windows that makes it easier to go from one module to another. This is a bit easier than the floating task bar of previous versions. Once I started typing notes on a phone call, I discovered the new spell check feature. It pops up with suggestions for misspelled words. Unfortunately, the users in my office including me use a lot of abbreviations in notes and messages. The spell check interpreted the abbreviations as misspelled words and quickly became an annoyance. We unanimously decided to disabled it. I suggest that Amicus change this feature to work like Microsoft Word to flag misspelled words and offer the option of running spell check rather than making it real time interactive.

One of the most useful new features is the improved task management module. One problem with Version V+ and previous versions was that assigning tasks to someone else and tracking progress on the task was extremely cumbersome. If I assigned the task to myself and my associate or paralegal it would show up on the todo list of my calendar along with the ones I assigned to only myself. This made the todo list too long to use efficiently. If I assigned the task only to another person in my office I had to go to the group calendar and view their tasks one day at a time or go to each individual file and view the todos to monitor progress on the assigned tasks. The new task module in the Small Business Edition allows me to filter all assigned tasks in my office by the person to whom they are assigned and view only those I want to view. From the task module I can click on a task and send an email to the team member to whom it is assigned inquiring of the status. This is a big improvement. However, I still suggest that Amicus consider a separate task window view for those tasks assigned by a particular user to others so that only tasks so assigned can be viewed. Outlook has a similar feature that allows tasks to be viewed by assignment.

Amicus Small Firm Edition adds new Outlook email integration functions to those found in Version V+ Advanced Edition. SFE allows electronic signatures to be automatically placed on outgoing emails generated from within Amicus. Heretofore, I had to manually add the signature before sending the email. More robust integration with the email function of Outlook would be a welcomed improvement. I don’t use the communication module of Amicus to manage my email because it doesn’t provide me with enough options. I receive a lot of email that I scan the content of in the preview pane of Outlook and then move to another folder for storage. I can’t do this from within Amicus Version V+ or SME. It is time consuming to use the communications module to view the mail I want to save with a file and use Outlook to move emails to storage folders. I find myself not saving very many of my incoming emails to files. They remain in my Outlook folders and I retrieve them with Google Desktop Search.

Amicus Small Firm Edition adds Outlook synchronization for appointments, tasks and contacts. This feature was previously available only on the Client Server Edition of Amicus Attorney. The main benefit of this feature, in my opinion, is to give users a means to use Blackberrys and Windows devices with Amicus by syncing them with Outlook rather than directly with the Amicus program. The sync feature is a bit tricky to set up because the various fields have to be mapped between the two applications. I synced my Amicus SBE with Outlook and found that new appointments synced fine but preexisting appointments sometimes didn’t. Since I use a Palm device this feature is not currently important to me, so I didn’t spend any time trying to correct the problem, nor did I call Amicus support to get their help. I haven’t seen an outcry about this on the Amicus user forum so I’m going to assume it’s a fixable problem. Otherwise, if I ever decide to permanently turn on the calendar sync feature, I’ll either figure out how to fix it or devise a workaround until all my future appointments have been created after the date I activated the process. I probably will continue to sync my contacts with Outlook so I can use email distribution lists generated by Outlook. Also, when someone emails be their contact information in a vcard attachment, I can save it to Outlook and it will appear in Amicus. I would like to see Amicus provide direct conduits for syncing Windows devices. There is really no compelling reason to worry with Outlook calendar and task integration other than to sync with a non-Palm handheld device.

Another feature added to SFE that has previously been available in the Client Server Edition of V+ is automatic timed backups. I’ve tried to remember to do periodic backups of my data but I don’t always. SFE can be set to do periodic backups as often as necessary.

Duplicate contacts can be combined by individual users of SFE rather than just by the administrator. I find that dispute our best efforts we have duplicated several contacts with each entry assigned to several files. By using the combining feature the two contacts can be merged so that the files with which each copy of the contact was associated retains an entry for that contact. Here I might add that the ability to create a distribution list independent of a file would be nice. There are several workarounds to accomplish this but none I’ve found are as easy to use as the Outlook distribution list feature.

Small Business Edition retains the Secondary Office feature that allows installation of the program on a laptop and transfer of data back and forth by packing a “briefcase” with the data from one for transfer to the other. This is an extremely useful feature that has not yet been incorporated into Version 7.

The drawback of SBE is that it is limited to 10 users. I haven’t yet determined if the database size is limited to around 2 gig as was V+ Advanced Edition but I suspect that it is.. The Client Server Edition of V+ with unlimited user capability has not been upgraded. Larger installation will have to go with Amicus Attorney 7 or stick with Version V+ Client Server Edition if already installed. Amicus’ web site no longer offers any of the V+ versions for sale on line.

It cost me almost $600 to upgrade my five users to SBE. The main reason I upgraded was for the enhanced task management, automatic backups and Outlook integration in case I want to change to a Windows based smartphone. I probably would have spent the money just for the task module and automatic backups.

Amicus V+ and SBE are still very reliable and usable products. They are not as feature rich as Time Matters or even Amicus Version 7, but for a small office like mine, that’s part of the appeal. Amicus does what I want it to do, especially with the latest enhancements. A program can be too complex much like a cell phone with 200 features, 195 of which are never used. I just want Amicus to do well the things I want it to do and nothing else. It is still the most intuitive practice management system on the market as far as I am concerned meaning that learning curve for new users flattens quickly. Hopefully, Version 7 will evolve into as reliable an application as its predecessor. Until it does, I’m sticking with the Small Business Edition.

Achieving Balance from the Inside Out

2007-09-18T09:08:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

Lately I have received a rash of requests for coaching and speaking on the topic of attorney work/life balance. You can find some specific suggestions on that topic in my article titled Work/Life Balance: Are You Tottering on the Brink? first published on December 11, 2006 in The Practice Manager.

Clients as Mirrors
Coaches remark that their clients often bring to them the very challenges that the coaches themselves need to address. What a blessing! It is so much easier to see the options available to someone else. Then we can just listen to the ideas and observations we offer our clients, and apply them to our own lives.

I have been struggling to keep my own workload in balance. In my practice I see attorneys reluctant to ask for help. I see them postpone the investment in hiring the additional quality assistance they need. I see lawyers hold themselves to an impossible standard. I see lawyers say “yes” to too many commitments. I see them promise a document delivery at the earliest date possible, without finding out when the client really needs it, or without assessing how much time they need to meet their existing commitments. I see attorneys spend time on low priority squeaky wheels and distractions, instead of protecting their time for more important projects. I warn them to “put your own oxygen mask on first” as I watch them put the needs of family and clients ahead of their own, once again. At one time or another I do all the same things.

Internal Experience as a Mirror
Sometimes the flip side occurs. I recognize something in my own life that I can share with my clients for application to their situation. This week I traveled to Chicago for business. One of my meetings got postponed, and I took the opportunity to visit The Art Institute, with its remarkable collection of Impressionist art.

To my own surprise, I felt a sense of exhilaration and anticipation as I entered the doors. I planned to just sit and soak up some of my favorite paintings. As I entered the Impressionist corridor and caught my first glimpse of some of the paintings, emotion welled up in me and my eyes watered.

“What’s this about?” I asked myself. I became aware of a deep longing. A longing for spaciousness. For beauty. For unleashing my creativity. For permission to just be, without doing. For listening to the still small voice within.

I spent two hours luxuriating in those rooms, and the experience renewed my mind and body. I sat that evening in an airport waiting for a flight delayed by three hours. I knew it would be well after midnight when I touched down in Houston. Yet, I felt refreshed and optimistic.

Nurturing the Soul
Sitting in The Art Institute, I rediscovered the vital importance of taking time to nurture my soul. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The soul’s emphasis is always right.” I had not allowed time to listen for that emphasis.

What nurtures and renews you? Listening to music? Walking in nature? Exercising? Staring out the window or at an aquarium? Laughing? Petting a beloved animal? Watching a baby sleep? Singing? Gardening? Sitting in silence? Painting? Gazing at a fire or a burning candle? These are a few activities that renew and refresh people. They unlock our muscles and free our minds from that compulsive whirring.

Creating Stillpoints
As I sat in The Art Institute of Chicago, I realized how far I had fallen out of the habit of my morning quiet time. As little as 15 minutes in the quiet makes a big difference in the quality of the rest of the day. My clients who try it report more resilience and reduced reactivity to the stressors of the day. A wise person said, “Meditate half an hour every day, except when you are really busy, of course. Then meditate an hour.”

Steven Keeva, author of Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life, recommends finding several brief times during the day in which to create “stillpoints,” even if only a couple of minutes. Stop when you hang up the phone, or before you start the next project. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Put your mind on a peaceful place or an inspirational phrase or something for which you are grateful. These little stillpoints can increase our mindfulness, and return us to being “at choice” in our lives.

I’m starting a new regime of daily quite time and stillpoints, in which I will allow the renewing of my mind. Will you join me in seeking balance from the inside out? If you do, please share your experience with me.

Amicus Attorney Steps Back and Goes Forward with a New Version

2007-09-18T09:07:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris

One of the major players in the case management software market Amicus Attorney, has released a new product, Small Firm Edition 2008. The interesting thing is that Small Firm is based on Amicus’ V+ platform that was supposed to superseded by last years release of Version 7.

Let me back up a minute and make a few general comments about case management software. As I written in previous columns, case management software is the backbone of a reduced paper office. The software organizes all file information including scanned and generated documents in an easy to use interface. The two leading players in the market are Amicus Attorney and Lexis Nexis’ Time Matters. I use Amicus because the interface is extremely intuitive. Each client file appears on an index list and, when opened, appears on the computer screen as an image of a manila folder with different categories of information under labeled “clasps”. Please refer back to my previous articles for a more in depth description.

When I purchased Amicus some five years ago, it was also feature for feature the equivalent of Time Matters. Since then, Lexis Nexis has acquired Time Matters and pumped a lot of resources into its development. I have some experience with Time Matters from teaching a clinical program at UT Law School. We implemented it there last year for one of the clinics. It is indeed a very feature rich and highly configurable program. However, I wouldn’t tackle setting it up myself. Amicus, on the other hand, (at least Version 5+ ) is simpler to install and configure. Time Matters has a longer learning curve because of a less intuitive interface. Once it’s installed and everyone gets up to speed it is a great program.

Amicus has made a couple of attempts in the past few years to add new features with new versions of their software. Their first try at an upgrade was Amicus X, a product with a web based interface that was supposed to be accessible over an Internet connection. The product was a disaster. Amicus followed up with Version 7 and had mixed success. The initial release of the product was buggy and sales were slow. Version 7.1 cured many of the problems and I’ve generally heard good reports about it. However, my experience and that of several colleagues has been that Version V+ was the best software ever released by Amicus.

Version V+ , I’m told, is based on the FoxPro database engine while Version 7 is a complete revision based on Microsoft’s newer SQL Server. The software thus required a complete rewrite and the kinks have been slow to resolve. There are benefits to the SQL platform but not if the rest of the software doesn’t work correctly.

Version V+ lacked some useful features that competitors long ago added. I had hoped that Amicus would someday upgrade that version but I had heard from consultants that Amicus had decided to phase out support of Version V+. All of a sudden a brochure arrived at my office today offering Small Firm Addition 2008, which is basically V+ with a lot of the features I have been wanting.

Small Firm Addition features an improved interface similar to that of Version 7 with a row of buttons on the side of the screen to make navigation through the program easier. One great new feature is an improved task management module. According to the literature, task assigned out to others can now be monitored through Amicus. It was difficult to do this in the original V+ and I ended up making a task entry to remind me to follow up on the task I had assigned. And, if you don’t like the way Amicus keeps up with tasks, Version V+ Advanced Edition users will now have full Microsoft Outlook synchronization so that tasks, as well as contacts and calendar setting entered in Amicus will automatically be synced with Outlook and will appear there, and vice versa. You can use great task management features in Outlook and changes will sync back to Amicus. .Also, a PDA can be synced with Outlook rather than directly to Amicus so that PDA other than Palm products can now be used with the Advanced Edition. Basically, if the PDA can be synced with Outlook you can get your Amicus calendar, tasks and contacts on your PDA.

Some of the less complex but still handy changes include real time spell checking; auto text for inserting frequently used words and phrases; an explorer view of documents; and automatic email signatures for messages sent from within Amicus.

Amicus recommend the Small Firm Addition for offices with under ten users. That will be sufficient for most solos and many small firms. The hardware requirements are modest. Also, the upgrade price is affordable. See www.amicusattorney.com for details.

Law Practice Management Tip - August 2007

2007-08-18T09:10:00.002-05:00

Management Tips are provided by the State Bar of Texas and ABA Practice Management Advisors. The tips are not meant as legal advice, nor binding on the State Bar of Texas or the ABA.

If you are a solo practitioner or an attorney in small firm, consider including language in your client contract / fee agreement, notifying the client of the necessity for a backup attorney to fill in for you should you become incapacitated for some reason and not able to continue representation.

An attorney is human, meaning that he / she is just as vulnerable to illness and accidents as any lay person. That being said, you want to make sure that should you ever be put in this position, you're clients will be taken care of. Speak with your colleagues and ask if they would be willing to pinch hit for you should there ever be a need.

Once you have a designated backup attorney(s), let your clients know during their initial interview that you have agreements worked out with other attorneys to fill in for you, should something prevent you from continuing representation. Include this information in your contract and / or fee agreement and make sure the client understands and agrees to it.

Things to Consider When Buying a Printer

2007-07-18T09:14:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris

If you have a computer in your office you’ve got to have a printer. That is unless your office and every person or business you deal with has gone completely paperless. Unless you have a highly specialized practice with just one or two clients, that’s not likely. Selecting a printer can be a bit confusing. There are different technologies available, and a lot of manufacturers and models out there. Here are some considerations that may help.

As with purchasing any piece of office equipment, I suggest that you start with analyzing your needs. What will the printer be used for? How many pages per month will be printed? How much, if any, of the printing will be in color. Will photographs be printed? How important is print speed? How many computers will print through the same printer? Would it make sense to buy a multifunction machine that also scans and faxes?

The two major technologies available for office printers are inkjet and laser. Inkjet printers make an image by squirting small quantities of ink out of near microscopic jets. The jets are contained in the ink cartridge itself and are replaced with every cartridge change. The precision of this technology is amazing. The jets are like tiny guns that go off several times per second shooting out just the right amount of ink to make the letters in this column or an 8” x10” photo print from your digital camera.

Laser printers statically charge the paper on the areas where the ink should go, pass it by an ink source where the ink sticks to the static charge and then presses and heats the ink to make it stick. There are variations of the basic technology, but it’s all relatively similar. I’ve recently read about a new inkjet technology that prints up to sixty pages per minute utilizing a print cartridge that is the width of a piece of paper. The cartridge is not required to move from side to side so the printing process is much faster. Printers with this technology will be available in a year or so.

Inkjet and laser printers each have their advantages and disadvantages. Inkjets do colors better than lasers. Color lasers are good, but a good photo quality inkjet printer can produce amazing photo quality prints, so much so that the photofinishing industry is in trouble. However, inkjet printers are, on average, slower than lasers and, in the long run more costly.

The purchase price of an inkjet can create the false impression that they are the better value. However, purchase price isn’t the whole story. Quoted in the July issue of Small Business Computing.com, Jeremy Shulman, an executive with a company that makes remanufactured ink cartridges said, “What manufacturers of these printers don’t fully explain to consumers is the true cost of ownership of a low-cost color printer. The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for refills and so on.” The articles goes on to compare the per page cost for a popular inkjet printer to a popular laser. The inkjet’s total cost for 2100 pages worked out to be an ink bill of 235.60 for a Canon i320 Color Bubble Jet Printer. Let’s say that you print about 40,000 pages a year (3333.3 pages a month). The cost with the Canon printer would be about $4,487.71 plus the cost of the printer, around $50 bucks back in 2005.

In comparison, an HP Laserjet printer costing about $400 can do the job for about $460 worth of toner. As some point the drum will have to be replaced in most laser printers costing maybe $150. Even with this cost the per page printing cost is much less than that of an inkjet.

Of course the technology is getting better and the per page price of an inkjet has come down some since the 2005 article. But, so has the cost per page from laser jets. Basically, the industry is not set up to provide low cost consumables for inkjet printers. For instance the same article quoted above states that the major printer manufactures profit tremendously from the sales of inkjet cartridges. HP, for example, according to the 2005 article, makes over $10 billion from ink supplies, more than half its total revenue.

So why buy an inkjet? The answer is that they are superior in their ability to print color images. I have an HP 6122 Deskjet in my office that we use to print photos. I also used it for several years to print letterhead. It does an excellent job of both. For color printing you can’t go wrong with a photo quality printer from HP, Epson, Canon, Dell, or Lexmark. I prefer the HP models because they are extremely reliable. Epson and Canon are rated higher for image quality but I can’t tell the difference. The purchase price of a good inkjet printer is so low that having one around just for photos makes sense.

However, for the usual printing in my law office, pleadings, correspondence and miscellaneous documents in black and white, a laser printer is the obvious choice. When I recently upgraded our workgroup printer I looked at cost, of course, but there were other considerations. Print speed was important. While most of the six computer users in my office have a small desktop printer in their offices for quick small print jobs, the large jobs are directed to a workgroup printer. I decided to upgrade because the HP Laserjet 1200 I’d had for years was just too slow. At about 10 pages per minute, it was a bottleneck. Also, in order to be accessible over the network the computer to which it was attached had to be running. That wasn’t always the case after hours or on weekends. Also, it is occasionally convenient for me to print a document on both sides of the page so that it can be placed in a notebook and read in book format. Double sided printing was a feature I was interested in.

I settled on the Brother HL-5250DN. It was hard for me to abandon HP after years of faithful service but the Brother printer appeared to be too good a deal to pass up. This model is rated at 30 pages per minute and it will come fairly close to that speed when printing pleadings and other documents that are comprised of double spaced fonts rather than graphics. It will print on both sides of the paper by printing the first side, then sucking the page back into the printer to print the other side. This is a fairly quick process. The printer is network ready when mean that you can plug it into your Ethernet network and it appears as a device like any other network member. The driver for the printer installs on all computers connected to network that will use the primter. Printing goes directly to the printer and it operates without being dependent on any computer in the network for spooling or any other function.

A review of the HL-5250 DN in the December 20, 2005 addition of PC Magazine gives it a four out of five star rating for heavy duty use in a home office or small office. It lists its pros as “compact size, fast performance. Excellent text and good graphics. Ethernet connections.” It lists its cons as “photo quality just fair.” I think PC Magazine was really reaching to come up with a negative about the HL-5250. Who would expect a black and white laser printer to have great photo quality?

The article lists the duty cycle for the printer at 20,000 pages per month. That’s a lot more than my six user office (three attorneys) will need. The cost per page is estimated at 1.4 cents. I shopped on line for mine and found one for $250 with an extra 300 sheet paper tray included. The standard setup includes one 300 sheet paper tray.

My experience with all-in-one printer fax copier scanner devices hasn’t been especially good. As I’ve written before, a good scanner is essential to the efficiency of my reduced paper office. I haven’t found a small office all-in-one machine that includes a decent scanner. It is helpful though, to have the printing and faxing function combined just to save space. We use the laser all-in-one machine we have as our primary fax and a backup printer. We don’t use the scanner function at all.

If your printing needs require more speed, color, greater paper capacity or more paper handling functions (such as collating and stapling) the higher end models such as the high end HP color or black and white laserjets may be the best choice. Also, Xerox and other companies offer document management systems with printing, copying, scanning and faxing wrapped up into one machine that looks like a traditional copier. The scanning function on these machines is first class. These alternatives are a bit pricy for the average small law office but may be a consideration for any office that outputs a high volume of printed material. I would suggest shopping the different brands and perhaps hiring an office technology expert for consultation when choosing one of these high end systems.

The bottom line for the typical small office is that a laser printer is the better choice for production printing. Inkjets are superior for photo printing so you may want to have one around just for that purpose. Color lasers are an option where the quality doesn’t have to the “picture perfect.” For most small offices the 20,000 page duty cycle of the Brother HL-5250 DN is more than adequate. The initial cost and the cost per page of that printer makes it an attractive choice. However, HP has a near 50% market share for a reason. HP printers just keep going and going. I have replaced several because of obsolescence, but never because of malfunction. I’ll have to see how the Brother printer is doing in ten years before I can pronounce the two brands comparable as far as durability is concerned.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

A Revolution in the Legal World?

2007-07-18T09:12:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

A landmark event in the legal world launched in May. This event will ultimately change the course of the practice of law. Or perhaps it is just further evidence of how dramatically the legal world has already changed in the last 10 years.
Australian Law Firm Goes Public

An Australian law firm went public and was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on May 21, 2007. Australia adopted legislation that permits non-lawyers to invest in the ownership of a law firm, and capital to be raised publicly. The 140-lawyer firm, Slater & Gordon, will initially have shares owned by 42 lawyers and staff, according to a June 1, 2007 article in The American Lawyer. Legislation has also been introduced in the United Kingdom to permit law firms there to sell stock publicly.

Big Partnerships Taking on Corporate Attributes
The expanding global economy has already fueled corporate-like merger and acquisition activity among U.S. mega law firms, as clients seek firms that can meet their needs across the country and around the world. With more than 75 U.S. law firms growing to over 500 attorneys and 20 exceeding 1000 attorneys, the traditional partnership structure has become less and less manageable.

Very large firms have already adopted many aspects of corporate structure with tiered management through practice group leaders, local office managing partners, and regional directors. Most large firms have non-lawyer executive directors, business managers, and human resource directors who report directly to the executive committee, or even sit on the executive committee. The firms also depend on the capability and experience of information technology experts and marketing professionals to keep pace in the legal world, competing with the corporate world for the best providers. Thus a shift in ownership structure authorized under Australian law in many ways merely formalizes the already accomplished transition of the legal profession to a business.

Predictable Impact of Legislation
Although the UK legislation is not without opposition, if it gets adopted it will probably launch a wholesale shift in the legal business. When law firms in two major English-speaking economies have superior access to capital and a mechanism for long-term wealth-building beyond the billable hour, U.S. law firms will find themselves scrambling even more than they already do to compete for talent.

Legions of detractors will resist the change, citing many good reasons for their resistance. They will not be able to stop the wheels of commerce, once set in motion, however. Despite the inevitable lamentations about the “loss of professionalism and the rise of commercialism,” there may be a bright side to publicly held law firms, and this article will mention a few.

The Bright Side
Few would argue that today’s large law firms have a highly desirable culture and working environment. One need only observe the rampant and sometimes crippling associate attrition that most large firms experience, to recognize the dysfunction plaguing their ranks. While I wouldn’t suggest public ownership of law firms as the solution to that problem, such a stunning and revolutionary change may have ancillary benefits that affect the firm culture positively.
Shifting mega-firms away from the traditional partnership structure to a more corporate structure with outside investors may generate significant benefits to the firms and even to the legal profession. As Prof. Milton Regan at the Georgetown University Law Center wrote, “Currently, there is no influential stakeholder whose financial stake in the firm encourages profitable lawyers to curb self-interest for the sake of the firm. Those with the most business are the most mobile, and often the least inclined to make this compromise.”

Self-interested behavior threatens the stability of the firm and would make the firm unattractive to investors. Indeed, allegations in court papers relating to the 2003 demise of the mega-firm Brobeck Phleger & Harrison LLP claimed that self-interested behavior destroyed the firm. It was alleged that partners continued taking large distributions even when economic downturns affected the firm, and then a mass defection triggered a freefall.

Prof. Regan suggests that “firms may decide that a compensation system weighted heavily toward ‘eat what you kill’ is counterproductive in a world in which stability and commitment to the firm are key considerations for investors. This may lead to a more productive balance of cooperative and competitive incentives within the firm, as well as simply a more pleasant and supportive atmosphere.” To read more discussion by Prof. Regan on this and related topics, go to http://www.law.georgetown.edu/legalprofession/documents/firmsethicsequity.pdf.

Bridging the Chasm
As true business managers and marketing experts have the opportunity to share in the profits they generate in a law firm, the great class chasm between lawyers and non-lawyers within the firm may diminish. Firms may develop more balanced methods of valuing the contributions of its employees, as training and mentoring become recognized as being essential to the stability and productivity of the firm. Perhaps even teamwork could become popular. As Prof. Regan puts it, “investor preference for stability thus could temper what some see as excessively individualistic tendencies in modern law practice.”

As financial distinctions between lawyers and other contributors blur, the “up or out” cultures that still exist in many large firms due to the stigma of not making partner, will also transform. Law firms will probably stratify more, with associates, paralegals and staff having the opportunity to share in the profits that their efforts create.

Lawyers who have family or lifestyle reasons for working reduced hours may find a comfortable way to stay with the firm when success or failure is not marked by the bright line of partnership. Stock options and employee stock ownership can provide additional opportunities for all lawyers and other employees to share in the success of the firm as the result of their extraordinary performance, contributing to improved talent retention.

Commoditization of Legal Services
I confess that I have some difficulty imagining how a public law firm would work in the near term. I can imagine the possibility of a serious decline in the professionalism of law practice and the commoditization of many legal services. Largely due to the Internet, we already see the beginning of the commoditization of legal services. I’m not sure that public opinion of lawyers can sink much lower, so the public may welcome lower prices and fail to notice any decline in professionalism.

One result may be that many lawyers will make less money, with most becoming part of the working middle class, instead of the professional elite, and a few becoming ultra-wealthy titans. When we compare the income of lawyers in mega-firms to those in most of the smaller firms, one could say that trend launched a decade ago.

Your Thoughts?
I suspect that my musings may trigger some heart palpitations. I welcome your thoughts on the potential impact of law firms going public.

A New Palm Product to Watch

2007-06-18T09:17:00.000-05:00

By Gerry Morris

I use my Palm Treo for email when I’m out of the office and am not carrying my laptop. It works fine for receiving and reading emails. However, composing or answering emails is a challenge on the small keypad. I sometimes carry a folding IR keypad for my Treo but the two models I’ve tried don’t work reliably. Palm has just announced the beginning of a new product line designed to make the smartphone more useable for email and other tasks requiring typed input.

The Foleo is a device that looks like a small laptop computer. It has a 10 inch screen and a more or less full sized keyboard. Since the item won’t be available for sale until the Fall, its full capabilities are still somewhat unknown. However, the Palm website, www.palm.com, has a flash media presentation that let’s us in on its basic functions.

The Foleo will sync email folders with your smartphone, either Palm or Microsoft based, via a Bluetooth connection. Emails can be read, edited and composed on the Foleo and then sent through the smartphone’s Internet connection. Additionally, users will be able to surf the web on the Foleo’s screen utilizing the smartphone as a modem or through its built-in Wi-Fi capabilities.

Additionally, email attachments, such as Microsoft Office documents can be opened and edited. Palm’s website lists Powerpoint presentations as one of the device’s capabilities. Adobe pdf files can be viewed. I can’t tell from Palm’s info or from the numerous web articles about the device whether it has the capability of creating a new Microsoft Office document or of just editing one downloaded as an email attachment. Photos can also be transferred from the phone to the device and viewed.

The Foleo runs a Linux based operating system. Its stripped down functionality allows it to be “instant on” at startup. Palm says its battery life is about 5 hours between recharges. The device weights just a tad over two pound.

The initial price tag for the Foleo will be around $600. As an introductory offer Palm will include a $100 rebate to bring the price down to $500 for a while.

Palm’s founder, Jeff Hawkins, touts the Foleo as the beginning of a new generation of devices. He describes the product as the extension of the smartphone that users have long asked for. Judging from the blog articles about the device, its reception in the techie community has been mixed. However, the criticism has been of an interesting sort. Those who have actually been able to try out a prototype haven’t complained about its functionality but rather what it won’t do. The main criticism from those who’ve tried it as well as those who have simply read about it is that it won’t do what a laptop will do. But, as one blogger pointed out, that’s the whole point of the thing. It doesn’t have all the software and operating system components of a laptop so it can be “instant on,” go for five hours on a charge, weigh two pounds and cost around $600.

Still, the bloggers critical of the Foleo ask a legitimate question. “Why would you want one?” If you have a laptop, you can download your email and do anything else your software allows. Why get a device that only does a few things? Some writers go so far as to predict that the Foleo will turn out to be a serious boondoggle for Palm. Given Palm’s past success, I expect the future will be brighter for the Foleo.

Palm and Jeff Hawkins have displayed a genius for developing simple devices that perform popular tasks well. The Foleo is set to be the latest edition of this tradition. Yes, a laptop can do a lot more. But, a two pound laptop costs three to four times as much and has shorter battery life. And, laptops don’t turn on instantly.

In my day to day professional life, I am out of my office frequently. When I’m out, I often communicate with my office and others throughout the day via email. I also make notes to myself and for my files by sending myself emails. I can’t do this very effectively on my Treo keypad and I don’t like carrying my relatively heavy laptop with me all day. I think a device like the Foleo could be real handy for me. Most of the time I simply don’t need to do anything with an Internet enabled device but send and receive email, or view an email attachment. Given Palm’s past history of making good products I expect that the Foleo will do these simple tasks well. I’ll probably give one a try.

Get Remembered

2007-06-18T09:16:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

Years ago at an early morning meeting Jimmy Brill, a board certified estate planning lawyer and the founder of Solos Supporting Solos, asked each of 30 lawyers to introduce themselves and their practices. I didn’t know any of them, and they all faded into a blur, except for one tall gentleman in a straw hat and seersucker suit. He said, “I’m a proctologist in the courtroom.” He got some chuckles and my attention.

I often ask the attorneys I coach on business development to analyze their client list to determine how they obtained their previous clients. Most of them report that the majority of their new clients come as referrals. If your business depends on referrals, your success depends on the likelihood that others will remember you when someone has a problem you can solve.

A couple of months after that morning meeting, I asked someone in the group, “What’s the name of that guy who’s the proctologist in the courtroom?” “Ted Hirtz,” he responded immediately. Ted’s introduction stood out and triggered the memory of enough people for me to locate him again.

What made Ted memorable? Chip Heath and Don Heath, the authors of Made to Stick, would say that one reason Ted stuck in my mind was that his description “broke my guessing machine.” I anticipated that he would say he was a trial lawyer, a real estate lawyer, or something else predictable. Unexpectedness grabs our attention and enhances memory.

In their book Made to Stick, the Heath brothers analyzed what makes stories, events and sayings memorable. They distilled it down to six factors that create “stickiness,” which they express in an acronym that (almost) spells success: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories.

Ted Hirtz used concrete words that created an image in my mind. (Let’s not go any further with that.) We remember concrete images more easily than abstract concepts. He also kept it simple. He conveyed one straight-forward message: that he is a tough trial lawyer.

Ted’s statement also evoked some emotion. Most of us either winced or chuckled. Studies show that people remember thoughts paired with emotion longer. No wonder we remembered Ted’s statement. In one sentence he utilized at least 4 of the stickiness factors.

People also remember what you do if your description triggers them to imagine that you can help with a problem they struggle with or know someone else who does. So keep those legal concepts simple and easy to understand, and try to illustrate the benefit of using you. Don Graul, a lawyer who handles family law mediations before attorneys get locked in battle, says that he helps parents get divorced with less pain for themselves and their children.

Sometimes Don says he does “early intervention mediation,” but he recently remarked that often even lawyers don’t seem to get it. That approach doesn’t employ the principles of simplicity and concreteness. Big words often float right over our mental retention pond. It also lacks the emotional depth of Don’s other description.

What if what you do is just naturally complex and difficult for a lay person to understand? Boil it down to the most basic issues, or the most meaningful concrete benefits. Kevin Maguire switched from saying that he is a condemnation lawyer to saying he helps resolve land disputes. His listeners responded with questions about his work. Lisa Thorp, a public finance lawyer, said her descriptions of what she did bored people. Now she speaks with pride about helping communities build hospitals and schools. Chris Kotlarz, a tax lawyer, says he helps keep the government’s hand out of your pocket. Who doesn’t want that?

Notice that none of the previous examples started with “I’m a lawyer.” Most people already have in mind an image of what it means to be a lawyer. Unfortunately, today that may not be the image you want to invoke. Once you stick a concrete image in their minds of the benefit you provide, however, you will often get a follow-up question like “How do you do that?” There’s your opportunity to tell a brief success story, illustrating the point and strengthening your listener’s memory. It might start with, “Well, I’m a lawyer and, for example, when my client had a problem with X, I helped him by doing Y.”

How will you know when your introduction works for you? Here are some good signs. One: you get a follow-up question indicating curiosity about how you do what you do. Two: Your listener asks for your card. Three: You hear other people repeating some version of what you said. An acquaintance may introduce you to a third person using your words, or even better, someone may call to hire you because they heard you can help with whatever you said.

By way of example, Steve Scholl got trained in a specialized form of mediation called peacemaking. He began introducing himself as “a trial lawyer and peacemaker.” I knew he had achieved stickiness when someone at my church remarked to me that she met a man who is “a lawyer and a peacemaker,” with a certain tone of surprise in her voice.

If these ideas sound effective to you, but you keep drawing a blank when you try to apply them to your practice, perhaps coaching will help. Find a buddy to brainstorm and experiment with, or contact your favorite lawyer-coach.

The Unwritten Rules for Associates

2007-05-18T09:18:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

When I was a young associate in a big law firm, I began to fear that there were unwritten rules to the game that everyone knew except me. Sometimes I wanted to cry out, “What are the rules? Just tell me what they are! I’ll follow them!”

Gradually over the years I began to figure them out, one by one, often as the result of transgressing them. Sometimes I was fortunate enough to learn a rule by merely observing the consequences of a transgression by another associate. On rare occasions a more senior associate, or even a partner, would bless me by privately advising me about one of the rules.

Law firms really do want their associates to succeed, so why do they seem to hide the rules of the game? Here are my guesses at a few possible explanations:

1. By the time you get to high school, it is hard to remember what you didn’t know in first grade. Sometimes something seems so obvious to partners, that it never occurs to them to point it out to the associates.
2. The rule is so patently unfair or illogical (or perhaps illegal) that it is embarrassing to admit it.
3. The rules are not actually the same for everyone, which creates some confusion when they are applied unevenly.

Here are a dozen of the unwritten rules I have observed in some law firms, described in an admittedly jaded way. Please share with me those you’ve observed that I failed to include.

1. Turning down work from a partner will give you a black mark. If the same partner has already filled your plate, remind her of what you already have to do and ask her to prioritize the workload. If a different partner is adding to your pile, you can tell him how delighted to work on the project you will be, and that based on your current commitments, you can get started on it in about three weeks. He’ll probably take the project elsewhere. If you really do want to work on the new project, you can ask to conference in the first partner to discuss schedules and priorities, but there is a risk of igniting a turf war.

2. Learn as quickly as possible who the super stars are (whether partners or senior associates). Try to get work from them, and be sure to do an excellent job. Their opinions of you will carry more weight with the other partners, and they will also have the best projects with the most valuable experience. Even if you don’t get to work with them often, this will give them an opportunity to form their own opinion about you.

3. About the only acceptable reason for not being available when requested is your commitment to other work. If you’ll be unavailable because you’re going to the school play or have front row tickets to the most important professional sports event of the season, just say your plate’s too full or you’re all booked up. Better to be mysterious than to confirm that you have a priority higher than work. Most associates have stories similar to the one told to me by an attorney who received a call from a partner while in the recovery room following surgery.

4. You can fail to make partner by misplacing a comma. When they say “just do good work and you’ll be ok,” they mean just do perfect work. Long gone are the school days where someone feeds you the answers and you just have to remember the correct ones to regurgitate. You are expected to figure most of it out yourself, and you’ll be lucky if you get to watch someone else do it first. B+ is not an acceptable grade, and 97% is not an A.

5. Laughing in the halls can knock you off partnership track. It’s a sign that you are not serious about your work. Someone who will never work with you may witness it, and form a nearly unshakeable opinion about you, which they will then share without remembering its genesis.

6. Don’t believe the partner who tells you “Don’t worry about developing business. Just keep your billable hours up doing quality work.” He probably just wants to get his projects done. Your perceived ability to generate business will be an important factor in the decision about whether to let you into the partnership. The moment you make partner, you will be expected to start generating business to sustain yourself. Your billable hours may drop as partners give work to associates that they used to give to you.

7. While many law firms today have alternative career tracks, in most, the only track that counts is the full out equity partnership track. If you choose an alternate track, be prepared to pay the price of diminished respect and lower quality work assignments that will stunt your professional growth.

8. Each firm has its own cultural definition of how commitment to the firm and its work should be demonstrated. In some firms, lawyers demonstrate their dedication by arriving early, in others by staying late. If your natural rhythm runs against the grain, you may be judged a slacker, regardless of the volume of paper you generate or the hours you bill.

9. Court your administrative assistant as your respected teammate and ally. An admin can protect your back or feed you to the wolves. For example, when I call lawyers in the morning, one admin might say “He hasn’t made it in yet,” while another says, “He must have stepped down the hall.”

10. It’s virtually impossible to make it up the ladder without a mentor of some sort. You need someone to show you the ropes, warn you about the hidden booby traps, funnel the kind of work to you that will make your experience valuable, and go to bat for you during bonus and partnership discussions. Most partners don’t feel much obligation to mentor someone, even if they were formally assigned a protégé. If they do mentor someone, it is most likely to be informal and someone they see as like them—a Mini-Me. You must assertively seek out a mentor if you don’t have one.

11. There is a good chance that you will take home less money as a first year partner than you did as a senior associate, so prepare your finances accordingly. You’ll have to start making payments on your capital account buy-in, and you’ll be responsible for self-employment tax (instead of having your employer pay half of your F.I.C.A.). You’ll also have to make estimated quarterly tax payments on income that you may not actually receive until December.

12. Becoming partner is like graduating from middle school to high school. Just when you think you’ve made it and can stop to breathe, you discover that you’re at the bottom of a whole new totem pole.

If you know any young associates, kindly leave this article on their desks in the dark of night. You won’t have to admit whether you subscribe to the rules. Of course, the foregoing are the opinions and observations of the author (after coaching hundreds of law firm partners), and do not represent the opinions or policies of the State Bar of Texas.

Paperless Office Revisited

2007-04-18T09:22:00.001-05:00

By Gerry Morris

On April 4, I participated in a Texas Bar webcast on the topic of the paperless office. Also participating were attorney Ed Goldner of San Antonio and Nancy Griffing, owner of Griffing Networks, a Houston based IT services firm. Ed’s social security and personal injury firm has been paperless for several years as has my office. Nancy has assisted firms, from solos to international, in setting up the computer systems and providing the training to go paperless. Each of us spent about 40 minutes discussing our experience with setting up and operating paperless offices and answering questions forwarded to us via email from the webcast’s attendees.

The number of attendees for the webcast and the volume of questions tell me that interest in the paperless office concept is growing. It was interesting to me that all three of us on the program were in agreement about what we considered to be among the most important considerations for setting up a paperless system. Although I’ve touched on most of the points in prior columns I think it would be helpful to repeat them for those of you about to make the transition to paperless.

“Paperless” in most law offices means that all documents generated by or received by the firm are stored in digital format, either as a graphic image, pdf file or in the native file type of the application used to generate it. Usually, but not always, a hard copy of the document is kept in a traditional file as a backup for use where the electronic documents are not accessible or where the original document must be preserved (i.e. deeds, wills and instruments of title). If the document is not generated by the law firm or received in digital format, it must be scanned and converted to digital format. This requires that a system be instituted within the law office to make sure that all incoming documents are promptly scanned, placed in the correct folder on the network file system, and correctly linked to the appropriate file in the case management software.

Critical Consideration Number One. Dedication to the System.

All the high-priced software and hardware money can buy won’t make a paperless office work unless everyone who uses the system is dedicated to following the procedures necessary for it to function. That means that the person assigned the task of scanning the incoming documents must do so promptly and properly file and link the resulting electronic files. It’s a task that cannot be delayed or done haphazardly. One of the main benefits of the paperless system is quick access to file information and documents. If the documents aren’t scanned and linked you’ll have to find them the old fashion way – walk around the office looking on desktops and in wire baskets until the one you need turns up. Documents generated in the firm likewise must be properly linked to the appropriate client matter in the case management system so that they can be quickly located.

Critical Consideration Number Two. Chose a Good Scanner.

For the input of documents into the system to work well it is important to choose a fast, reliable sheet feed scanner. Otherwise, it will simply take too much time to scan incoming documents. Both speed and reliability are important. A scanner rated at 50 pages per minute isn’t worth much if it jams every 5 copies and requires the attention of the operator to clear. Ed Godner and I both use Fujitsu scanners. I use the 620C model and Ed uses a newer model. We have both had the same experience with our respective machines. They are virtually jam proof. My scanners produce black and white images at about 20 pages per minute which is plenty fast for the work load in my office. Nancy recommended the Xerox Documate line. They also are very reliable and fast. Some Fujitsu and Xerox models are capable of two sided scanning, a feature that may be worth the money if you frequently received documents with information on both sides.

Critical Consideration Number Three. Place the Scanner in a Convenient Place.

If the person scanning the documents has to walk across the office use the scanner, her of she will be less likely to keep caught up. There are a lot of things to do in a law office. Especially in small offices, support staff likely performs several functions. If the person tasked with scanning has to stop and walk across the room to answer the telephone, it’s less likely that the document input will be done on a timely basis. It’s simple ergonomics.

Critical Consideration Number Four. Choose Case Management Software that Meets Your Needs.

There are several case management applications out there. The two most prominent are Lexis Nexis’ Time Matters and Gavel and Gown Software’s Amicus Attorney. Ed and I both use Amicus. We chose it because of the simple graphical user interface that makes it intuitive to use. Time Matters is more feature rich and has the resources of Lexis Nexis behind it. Amicus has sputtered recently with a couple of new versions that didn’t measure up. They have just released version 7.1, an update of their major revision, 7.0. Initial reviews of 7.1 are positive and Amicus appears to be back on track. Nancy installed Time Matters for the clinical program I co-teach at the University of Texas Law School. We chose Time Matters for that application because it is available in a version that can be accessed over the Internet via a browser. We’ve found it to be a great product but a little less user friendly than Amicus. Feature for feature though, it is a more versatile program.

Before setting up your paperless system, spend some time researching the different programs. Talk to lawyers who use the ones you’re considering and get their input. Also, you might consider hiring someone like Nancy to help you make the choice.

Critical Consideration Number Four. Choose The Right Hardware.

Once you’ve chosen a case management application, make sure that you purchase computer hardware that is powerful enough to run correctly. Look at the hardware requirements provided by the software manufacturer. The published minimum hardware requirements should be strictly observed. There is usually a higher level of performance listed under “recommended” in the hardware requirements. I suggest following those recommendations. It makes sense to buy a system that will handle future upgrades at least for a few years. If you have an existing system that you would rather keep, the hardware requirements may be a significant factor in deciding which software to buy. For instance Amicus requires a more substantial system than Time Matters. Neither requires supercomputers, however.

Critical Consideration Number Five. Have an Effective Backup Routine.

Hard drives and other computer components fail. If all your critical data is on a computer hard drive you must have a backup that can be restored efficiently to a new computer. An effective backup routine involves a locally stored backup and a backup stored offsite. In my office I use a three tiered strategy. Firstly, I have a RAID array that creates the same data on two drives simultaneously. If one drives fails, the other one continues to function. If the failed drive is the one that the computer boots from, I can simply switch the drive cables and the computer boots up from the good drive. I can then replace the bad drive and resync the drives to again make them mirror images of each other.

Secondly, I have an external hard drive connected to my computer via USB. My Maxtor One Touch drive is recognized by my server as an additional physical drive. I use the simple backup program native to my server software to daily back up my server to the external drive. In the event of failure I can restore my system from the external drive.

Thirdly, I now back up my system offsite via the Internet. There are numerous data backup services available in the market place. I use IBackup Professional from www.Ibackup.com. Nancy suggests Abacus Backup. Iron Mountain has an Internet Backup product. All these service provide you with a client application that is installed on your server. The client application is user configured to back up selected files by sending them in encrypted form to an offsite storage facility. If my building burns, I will be able to restore my data by downloading the backup set over the Internet. The first backup takes a while since it will be a full backup all the selected files. It took my system about 24 hours to initially complete the task over a DSL connection. Subsequent backups are incremental which means that only the files not previously back up are added to storage. These backups take a couple of hours and are scheduled for the middle of the night. The monthly cost of this service depends on the amount of storage space required. I pay about 40 dollars a month for 15 GB.

There are other ways of storing backup sets off site such as rotating two external hard drives and alternately take one and then the other home each night. I tried making backups on DVDs about twice a week and taking them home. I found that I couldn’t keep up the routine. Consequently, I recently switched to the Internet service.

Critical Consideration Number Six. Have Good Anti Virus Software Installed.

A virus can ruin your data in a hurry. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them out there. Each computer in your office should be protected. Norton and McAfee are the two most popular products. Each can be purchased over the web. One strategy that Ed suggested during our webcast was to purchase enterprise versions of anti virus software that allows an administrator to configure the software for all the computers. Conversely, the individual computer users are not able to disable any of the features on their machines. This allows the system administrator to ensure that the entire system remains protected.

I hope these suggestions help you as you set up your system. I’ll continue to write about the topic in the future. I’m also happy to answer you email questions.

E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 28 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.

10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

2007-04-18T09:20:00.000-05:00

By Debra Bruce

Today most law firms, large and small, expect partners to bring in business. In determining whether an associate makes partner, the firm usually considers whether the associate has the capability to bring in business.

Some firms don’t do a very good job of communicating this expectation to their young lawyers, however. In fact, some partners may actively discourage associates from spending time on business development activities, if that takes any time away from doing billable legal work. The firm then unrealistically expects a new partner to support himself with his own business like turning on a water faucet.

While firms that think longer-range may not begrudge the time an associate spends on client development, they don’t all have a policy for reimbursing associates for business development expenses. Young lawyers still trying to pay off student loans are expected to pay for any marketing lunches or other outside activities, bar association and section dues, and community association dues. Asking associates to lay out their cash to benefit the firm they are not yet members of can have a significant tempering effect on their efforts. Finally, some savvy law firms actively support mid-level and senior associate efforts to develop clients by providing time and financial resources, but very few provide real guidance to young lawyers about how to market themselves.

If you want the associates in your firm to one day become contributing rainmakers, here are 10 things you can do to promote and encourage their rainmaking efforts:

1. Take an associate along on lunches and other events for business development purposes, especially if that lawyer does work for that client. Introduce the associate to clients and prospects whenever possible, and allow her to witness your business development style. Debrief with her afterwards to explain why you approached the client or prospect in the way you did.

2. Talk to associates about what your firm expects of them. Share with them your experience in successful business development, including how long you knew or courted your clients before first getting business from them.

3. Encourage associates to get involved in state and local bar association activities, and reimburse local and section dues if they actively participate on committees. Attorneys give referrals to people they recognize. Speaking at bar association events increases credibility and visibility, but those opportunities tend to go to the lawyers who work to support the section.

4. If an associate does the research for a speech you give or an article you publish, share the authorship credit. Invite the associate to attend the speech and publicly acknowledge him.

5. Suggest topics that an associate might write an article about or give a talk on for a community organization. She may not realize that she already has sufficient expertise to be an author or speaker. Provide her name to program chairs and editors as a potential contributor.

6. Encourage associates to maintain contacts with former classmates. Some of them will one day be the CEO, CFO or GC who makes or influences decisions about where to purchase legal services. They will have more trust in lawyers who valued the relationship with them before they gained such power.

7. Invest in business development training for senior associates and newer partners. The old maxim that “you can get business just by doing good work” doesn’t hold true anymore. There is too much competition today. If training costs exceed your firm’s budget, insist that your associates read about client development. One of the best books for lawyers is Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know by Mark Maraia. I must disclose that I do follow-on coaching for Maraia’s training programs, but my opinion preceded my work with the Maraia organization.

8. Ask your experienced associates to develop a 3-year marketing plan. Help them to see that business development requires sustained effort and delayed gratification, so they should start sooner rather than later.

9. Acknowledge the efforts your associates make, even before they result in new clients. Their business development activities make take years to really pay off, and they’ll need your encouragement to persevere.

10. Track business development hours and provide some sort of associate bonus for successful efforts that bring in work fitting your firm’s guidelines for new clients. People do what gets measured and rewarded.

The health of any law firm depends upon its ability to continually develop new business. The number of lawyers has more than doubled in the last few decades, significantly increasing competition. To keep ahead of the pack, good law firm management dictates grooming associates to become full financial contributors at their earliest opportunity.