Five by Five - Fred Faulkner
These Five ideas come from Fred Faulkner, a blogger I met at the ABA Techshow blogger's dinner. Fred works for the ABA and maintains the ABA TECHSHOW site.
While I'm not a lawyer, my past three years working in the legal industry has led me to these observations about the practice of law and what needs to change for it to survive for the future. These are in no particular order, but are somewhat all related.
1) Embrace Technology -
Get with the program folks. There are a plethora of technological tools that will help you not only practice law better, but give you more time to have that balanced life everyone is talking about. Those who have found the balance have learned to leverage technology to give them the freedom they need to get away from the office.
2) Loose the Billable Hour -
It may have been a profitable way of doing business in the past, but there are proven ways that show lawyers can get a better ROI on their time and investment in their practice by <em>not</em> being in a billable hour environment.
3) Understand That Practicing Law is Not Any Different Than a Regular Business -
It doesn't matter if you are a solo, small firm, or a multi-national firm, you still need to understand overhead, payroll, management, administration, cost-per-employee, and other "business" activities to make sure you are in the black at the end of the month.
4) The Practice of Law is Not a Boys Club Anymore -
Women are here to stay in this profession, and in many cases they are better than men in the courtroom. Every individual brings certain qualities to the courtroom, male or female. Women can also bring the rain into the firm just as much as a male, so they should get equal opportunities.
5) Practicing Law is a Service, and Therefore Should Be Able to Marketed as One -
I know that marketing is a little taboo in the legal profession. Not that it isn't allowed, but just not like most any other business. There are ethics that must be followed in any profession, but marketing your ability to be able to provide a service should not be as restricted as it is. Firms need to understand that marketing is crucial to the future of the profession (as well as all mentioned above). I know it is still in its infant stages, but lawyers need to understand that it can be done ethically, as part of everyday business, not be penalized than working on billable hours, and still be done right.
Those are my five things. If we can get off this high horse of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" attitude, the legal profession will be better off.