Legal Rebels Video
Here's my six-minute / twenty-slide presentation on Building the Service-Centered Firm I delivered as part of the ABA Journal's Legal Rebels project.
A Well Trained Lawyer ...
I really love this quote, as it goes to the heart of the value (vs. time) of what lawyers provide:
"A well-trained man knows how to answer questions; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking."
-- E. Digby Baltzell (1955)
Hat tip: Kevin Kelly
Beef Up Your Clipboards
Want the judge to consider your arguments as more substantive than opposing counsel's? Hand the judge your brief attached to a heavy-duty clipboard. Want your opponent to drive a softer bargain? Make certain they're sitting in the plush seat across from you. Sound crazy? These are some of the surprising results from new studies on touch:
In one study, subjects were asked to review resumés that had been placed on either heavy or light clipboards. Resumés that were read on hard clipboards were judged to be more substantive than those read on softer ones. Other test subjects engaged in mock negotiations over the price of a new car. Those who sat in firm chairs drove harder bargains than those ensconced in plusher seats. When another group of subjects were told an ambiguous story about an interaction between an employee and a supervisor, and subsequently asked to offer an opinion, those who had handled a wood block beforehand judged the employee's behavior more harshly than those who had touched a soft blanket.
(Image from Jason Aaberg)
The Creative Counsel
Here's the slide deck from my presentation to the Association of Corporate Counsel's meeting in St. Louis last month. The audience was (mostly) in-house counsel, and the presentation was geared at getting them to think a bit differently about their relationship with outside counsel. I hope you like it.
Tell Your Clients What's True
Seth Godin is fed up with the traditional business plan, suggesting they're "often misused to obfuscate, bore and show an ability to comply with expectations." Instead, he'd like to see the modern business plan divided into five sections:
- Truth
- Assertions
- Alternatives
- People
- Money
It seems to me that this breakdown would also be a great way to subdivide the traditional client status update (or case analysis) letter. Instead of burying tons of information in multiple paragraphs, break down the letter into the five sections Seth suggests. Your clients will better comprehend the information your giving them, and you'll have an easy-to-use template for all your client correspondence.
Some Great Advice from Design Pros
I ran across this article titled I Wish I Would Have Known: Answers From 11 Top Freelancers, where several design professionals share their hardest lessons learned. Here are a few of my favorites:
From Steven Snell:
I wish I would have known that clients tend to not take a project veryseriously if they are paying low rates. When I started out I knew thatlearning and getting experience was more important than making money atthat stage, so I did some very cheap projects. I worked with severalpeople who wanted a website, but it seemed that since they wereinvesting very little into it financially, they just didn’t take itseriously and put in the effort on their end that is needed to have asuccessful web presence. Not only did that make it more difficult forme to do a good job, but it really did a dis-service to their businessbecause their websites weren’t as effective as they could have been.
From Sean Baker:
You’re closing up your meeting with a potential client. Everything wentsmoothly and you think you’re about to land the job. Said client asksfor your hourly rate, in which you give and explain. Unless you’reunderselling your talents greatly, their next question will almostalways be: “Great, and how long will it take you?” Suddenly you’re in acorner… and you’re panicked. You don’t want to scare them away, so youfeel implied to answer immediately, usually shorting yourself on timesimply to appease. Congratulations, you’ve just pigeonholed thisproject. From here you’ll either be doing some free work or you’ll runthe client off once they see a higher rate than you originally gave.
From Brian Yerkes:
You have to ensure that you don’t take it personally, ever. This is thebiggest thing that I personally struggle with. When a client emails totell me that they aren’t happy with a design, it puts me in a bad moodfor a few hours. It’s the number one thing that I try to deal withbetter every time it happens. Fortunately, 99% of the time, my clientsare happy with my work, but you can never win them all.
From Kostandinos:
Don’t be afraid to say “no” to a project. If I could only pass alongone small piece of advice to kids starting out, and even to thosewho’ve been at it for a while, that’s it. Sometimes it’s really notworth it… in more ways than one. Have a bad feeling about a client?Trust your gut and walk away. One more thing: Sometimes the most important and best projects arethe ones you do for yourself, including working on your portfolio andre-branding yourself. The devil is in the details… get out yourpitchforks.
This advice could have just as easily be given by (and to) lawyers. Remember, your clients, peers and friends often face the exact same challenges in their (non-legal) businesses. Engage them, learn from them, and don't make the same mistakes they have.
Should You Touch Your Clients More?
There's some very interesting research on the power of touch in business situations. In this Harvard Business Review post, author Peter Bregman, shares this experiment that found that a brief, light touch affects people's decision making:
In one experiment, as a woman showed subjects to their seats in thelab, she lightly and briefly touched some of them on the back of theirshoulder. Then researchers asked the subjects whether they would prefera certain amount of money or whether they'd prefer to gamble for thechance to win more money, receiving nothing if they lost. The peoplewho were touched were 50 percent more likely to take the gamble. 50percent!
And it's not just any touch. A handshake didn't achieve the sameresult. A handshake isn't comforting, but a touch on the shoulder orback is.
Another study, profiled in the New York Times, found that touch can result in:
almost immediate changes in how people think and behave .... Students who received a supportive touch on the back or arm froma teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as thosewho did not, studies have found.A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impressionthat the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates frompeople who were untouched.
Obviously, good taste and propriety should rule the day when it comes to touch, but perhaps next time, instead of expecting that pat on the back from your client, you should give one instead.
Resolve to Land a Big Fish
Almost every lawyer has a "big fish" they'd like to land. Whether that fish is an individual client, a corporation, an insurance company or even a great referral source, your big fish isn't going to catch itself.
And what better place to find advice on catching "big fish" than on a website called TakeMeFishing? Some fishing wisdom to keep in mind when you're Resolving to Land a Big Fish:
The cool thing about fishing is that there are hundreds of species of fish to catch. What's even cooler is that there are multiple ways to catch a particular kind of fish.
You'll soon learn that when it's a bad day for fishing in one location, it could be a good day in another, and the locations may not be far apart.
You don't have to travel far or spend a lot of money to find a body of water with fish you can catch.
Don't be anxious. Even if you get the fish close to the boat, that doesn't mean it's done fighting.
It takes a lot of experience to know when to set the hook. It also takes a lot of patience.
Some fish will nibble on your bait or lure, causing your line to tick or wiggle. And some fish will try to swallow the entire bait, hook and rig all at once with one big hit.
Different fish strike differently. And the same fish will go after your bait differently depending on the time of day or time of year.
Fish spoil quickly if you don't handle them properly from the moment you land them.
So as you plan on landing one big fish in 2010, make certain you're prepared: know who they are, where they hang out, what you'll use to attract them and what you'll do with them once they're caught.
Know the answers to each of these questions before you "go fishing" for big fish, or all you will end up catching are small ones you'd rather throw back.
Resolve to Juggle Less
This is one for the general practitioners out there: Resolve to Juggle Less. Remember, your clients don't have "general" problems, they have specific ones -- and if you're the lawyer who will do "anything for anyone" they are far less likely to hire you do that "one thing" for them.
So, how do you know if you're doing too many things? Here's an exercise that just might help:
- Take a pad of Post-It notes, and on each one, write a type of matter you handle. Err on the side of inclusiveness (write "Divorce," "Child Custody," "Legal Separations," etc. on separate notes instead of just "Family Law").
- Put all the Post-Its up on a wall.
- Ask your staff to add the kinds of things you do to the wall as well.
- Group the post-its in logical categories.
- Step back and look at the wall.
If there are more than 3 groups of Post-Its in front of you, you're probably doing too many different things.
In 2010, work hard to focus on the one or two categories that are most profitable, most challenging and most fun. You'll have a much easier time finding clients, and a much better time serving them.
Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers
My friend Reid Trautz is back with his fifth Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers. I want the Zvox Incredibase!
Prepare Better for High-Stakes Meetings
Here's a checklist from The Eloquent Woman that she uses to prepare herself for every presentation she gives. As I was reading it, I realized that her list isn't just for presenters. Instead, it is the perfect preparation for nearly every client meeting, negotiation and court appearance.
My favorite section are the questions about intent:
- Do I know what the audience wants from me?
- Is that what I'm going to give them? Do my goals match theirs? If not, why am I speaking to them? How will I reach them?
- What do I want to get out of this speaking experience?
- What do I need to learn from the audience? How will I find out?
- Do I intend to engage the audience? Do I just want them to listen? Do I intend to get them to act on something?
Before your next high-stakes meeting, answer each question, first replacing "Audience" with Client, Judge or even Opposing Counsel. I suspect you'll gain answers that make asking the questions worthwhile.
Some Tips for the Suddenly Solo
The fellas at Lawyerist caught up with me in Duluth after one of my presentations at Minnesota CLE's "Strategic Solutions for Solo and Small Firms" conference. Sam Glover asked me to share some tips for the "Suddenly Solo" lawyers out there. Here's the video:
Interview with Matt Homann from Lawyerist Media on Vimeo.
Because You Can Do It Doesn't Mean You Should
A quick tip that popped into my head while speaking in Minnesota earlier this week:
Tape the telephone number of your IT/Tech professional under your desk near the tangle of cords coming from your PC (and on your server, router, etc.) so you see it when you're most likely to try to work on your tech stuff yourself.Still tempted? Next to the number, write your billable rate and write theirs.
Culture Lessons from NetFlix
Netflix recently released a "Reference Guide" titled "Culture" on Slideshare, giving everyone a chance to peek "behind the curtain" at the values the innovative company expects from its employees. There are some real nuggets in the presentation. Here are a few of my favorites:
The "Keeper Test" for managers:
Which of my people, if they told me they were leaving in two months for a similar job at a peer company, whould I fight hard to keep..."
The irrelevance of "hard" work:
It is about effectiveness -- not effort -- even though effectiveness is harder to asses than effort. We don't measure people by how many evenings or weekends they are in their cube. We do try to measure peole by how much, how quickly and how well they get work done -- especially under deadline.
The refusal to tolerate "Brilliant Jerks" in the workplace:
For us, the cost to teamwork is too high.
The preference of "Rapid Recovery" from vs. Preventing error:
You may have heard preventing error is cheaper than fixing it ... not so in creative environments.
The entire policy for expensing, entertainment, gifts and travel:
Act in Netflix's Best Interests.
Please read the whole thing, and while you do, imagine how a law firm would thrive (or fail) if it adopted a similar culture as Netflix's.
Thanks to the Emerging Leadership Circle blog for the pointer to the presentation!
Get Your Writing to Flow
Want some great tips to get your writing to flow? Check out How to Add Flow to Your Writing from Men With Pens. The author suggests you read your writing aloud with a pen or marker in hand -- not to find grammatical errors, but to evaluate flow. Here's why:
When you read aloud, you’ll find certain sentences don’t sound right. Your tongue trips over them. You lose track of what you were trying to say. You find that the comma you inserted in the middle there makes you sound like you have a mild speech disorder.
Great advice!
Blocked? Stop Typing!
The title of this short post from the 37 Signals Blog says it all: Writer's Block is Sometimes Just Typer's Block. If you're having trouble writing, try this:
Record the conversation where you get it out right. When you speak an idea, it engages a different part of your brain than when you write it. You often say it clearer when you’re just riffing aloud. And you get to more gut-level stuff too. You bypass that “should I say this?” filter. You get it straight from your gut/brain instead of your fingers.
As someone who used to dictate all the time, I've gotten away from the think first, type later model of writing, but am going to break out my digital recorder and give it another try.
A Legal Blogging Roundtable
Last month, I participated in a legal blogging roundtable for the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis that was published in their subscription-only newsletter. My partners in crime were Dennis Kennedy (DennisKennedy.Blog), George Lenard (George's Employment Blawg), and Evan Schaeffer (Trial Practice Tips and The Legal Underground). Together, we have combined for more than 20 years of blogging experience.
Dennis took our contributions and republished them to his blog as A Blogging Guide for St. Louis (and Other) Lawyers (and Others). Here's one of our takes on the future of blogging:
Matt Homann: I think we'll see the continued adoption of blogs by legal professionals as much by choice as necessity. The next generation of law firm clients have lived their entire lives online, interact with Twitter and Facebook constantly, and read blogs everyday. They may have never used the Yellow Pages, and instead look to the web before making any major purchasing decision. They'll expect a robust online presence from the professionals they hire, and a blog is one of the easiest and most effective ways to build that presence.
George Lenard: Integration with the surviving remnants of mainstream media into enriched, customized streams of information in manageable chunks for busy readers, plus continuing contributions to the wealth of information available to web users through ever-more-sophisticated search technologies. I was recently told by a web-content distribution company that my posts now have the potential of appearing in a news stream on the Wall Street Journal's law pages amidst conventional sources such as the ABA Journal, if they match the WSJ search criteria, with no distinction in appearance that would suggest that my content is in any way inferior or less professional than that written by professional journalists.
Evan Schaeffer: I don't have any predictions about the future of blogging. If you think of blogging as merely a means of publishing one's writing, which it is, you don't have to be too worried about the future. Get into the habit of writing, and if you like it, you can always migrate to the next technological platform, if and when there is one.
Dennis Kennedy: Among bloggers, Twitter and microblogging is all the rage. That will continue to affect blogging, but blogging still has great potential, especially to cover niche topics. I remain bullish on blogging. As for predicting the future, I still like what Ernest "Ernie the Attorney" Svenson said in an article on the future of blogging from four years ago in Law Practice Magazine: "Perhaps the biggest question that remains is: How quickly will law firms move to develop blogs? It depends on a lot of internal and external factors. But the clock is certainly ticking. For some firms that sound is just loud and annoying, while for others it is stirring and prompting them to act. So when will your firm create a blog? Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick . . . ."
Twelve Truths About Time
In early August, I'm headed to Duluth, Minnesota to speak at the Strategic Solutions for Solo and Small Firms conference. One of the presentations I'm giving is called the Twelve Truths About Time. In it, I share twelve reasons why attorneys should abandon the billable hour. Here's the slide deck for that presentation.
It is still in "draft" form, and I expect to tweak it a bit before I use it live, so please let me know what you think. My friend and artist/designer, M. Jason Robards, drew the clocks. We're working next on a "Real Innovation for Real Lawyers" slide deck. I'll share that as soon as it is done. Thanks!
Let Your Clients Pick Your Next Associates
Seth Godin shares how he narrowed down 27 finalists for his "Alternative MBA" program to just ten participants: he let the applicants decide. Here's how he describes the process:
More than 48,000 people visited the page that described the program and 350 really cool, talented people applied. I picked 27 finalists and all of them flew out to New York to meet each other. This was the most fun I’ve ever had at a cocktail party (it helped that it was at eight o’clock in the morning).The conversations that day were stunning. Motivated people, all with something to teach, something to learn and something to prove. I asked each person to interview as many other people as they could. After three hours, I asked everyone to privately rank their favorite choices... “who would you like to be in the program with you?”
After they left, I tallied up the results. It was just as you might predict: nine or ten people kept coming up over and over in the top picks. I had crowdsourced the selection, and the crowd agreed. (It turns out that the people they picked were also the people I would have picked).
On January 20th, the most selective (one in 40 got in) MBA program in the world got started. Since then, they’ve never failed to live up to my hopes.
What if your firm choose its associates this way, by letting the applicants choose the others they'd like to work with? Or be even bolder, and bring your applicants in to spend a day with a mixture of your best clients -- and let the clients decide!
Meet Me in Missouri
I'm headed down to Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks this week for the Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference to speak about marketing, innovation, technology and the web. There will be over 900 lawyers there this year -- which makes it the largest solo and small firm conference in the country.
If you'll be there, be certain to say hello. If you can't make it, I'll be covering as much as I can on Twitter and will be using the hashtag #mossfc