the [non]billable hour

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.

The Creative Counsel: Rethinking the Attorney-Client Relationship

View more presentations from Matthew Homann.

Please turn off your cellphones.

Probably true in the courtroom, too:

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 very seriously if they are paying low rates. When I started out I knew that learning and getting experience was more important than making money at that stage, so I did some very cheap projects. I worked with several people who wanted a website, but it seemed that since they were investing very little into it financially, they just didn’t take it seriously and put in the effort on their end that is needed to have a successful web presence. Not only did that make it more difficult for me to do a good job, but it really did a dis-service to their business because 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 went smoothly and you think you’re about to land the job. Said client asks for your hourly rate, in which you give and explain. Unless you’re underselling your talents greatly, their next question will almost always be: “Great, and how long will it take you?” Suddenly you’re in a corner… and you’re panicked. You don’t want to scare them away, so you feel implied to answer immediately, usually shorting yourself on time simply to appease. Congratulations, you’ve just pigeonholed this project. From here you’ll either be doing some free work or you’ll run the 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 the biggest thing that I personally struggle with. When a client emails to tell me that they aren’t happy with a design, it puts me in a bad mood for a few hours. It’s the number one thing that I try to deal with better every time it happens. Fortunately, 99% of the time, my clients are 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 along one small piece of advice to kids starting out, and even to those who’ve been at it for a while, that’s it. Sometimes it’s really not worth 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 are the ones you do for yourself, including working on your portfolio and re-branding yourself. The devil is in the details… get out your pitchforks.

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 the lab, she lightly and briefly touched some of them on the back of their shoulder. Then researchers asked the subjects whether they would prefer a certain amount of money or whether they'd prefer to gamble for the chance to win more money, receiving nothing if they lost. The people who were touched were 50 percent more likely to take the gamble. 50 percent!

And it's not just any touch. A handshake didn't achieve the same result. A handshake isn't comforting, but a touch on the shoulder or back 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 from a teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as those who did not, studies have found. A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impression that the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates from people 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:

Fishing techniques:

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.

When to 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.

Finding fish:

You don't have to travel far or spend a lot of money to find a body of water with fish you can catch.

Landing bigger fish:

Don't be anxious.  Even if you get the fish close to the boat, that doesn't mean it's done fighting.

Setting the hook:

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.

Caring for your catch:

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:

1. 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"). 
2. Put all the Post-Its up on a wall.
3. Ask your staff to add the kinds of things you do to the wall as well.
4. Group the post-its in logical categories.
5. 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.