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March 31, 2006
Building a Great Culture Is An Inside Job.
Michelle Golden and Allison Shields each have an important post about this. If you are selling your services firm as happy, fun, competent and collaborative professionals, it's got to be real. Ironically, it takes discipline and hard work to get that look and feel and to keep it. Great "cultures" start with great internal communications--both about what is happening in your firm and, in my view, what is happening on a particular project for a client as well. (See Rule 11 re: co-workers, too.) Do read Michelle and Allison's posts. They are worth saving and reading again.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2006
Rule 12: Have Fun.
Rule 12 (of 12): Have Fun.
See Rules 1-6 here and at these links 7,8, 9, 10 and 11.
If you are not having fun, you are doing something wrong. Period.
Any questions?
While you are thinking, a confession: I loved college, and the liberal arts I studied there, because I am in love with ideas. Law school, however, was a different story. It came at me so fast I couldn't see any grand design, purpose or poetry. Except for the companionship of some truly unique and innovative classmates and profs, a girl from Shaker Heights named Amy, the drinking beer part, my administrative law and trade regs courses, some good part-time jobs, and somehow making Law Review, I hated law school with Olympian passions. It was stale and uncreative.
I even quit--twice, for a week each time. I told anyone who would tolerate me for the entire 2 years and eight months and 3 days that I was an "artist" of some sort, imprisoned and daily being abused by talented but sadistic academics who were paid, and paid well, to abuse me. I envied my college friends at J-school at Columbia, in the Peace Corps, traveling in Europe or in Alaska or Florence writing unpublished novels. I felt stagnant. And of course by the time I graduated at the age of 25, I was unhappy, out of shape, addicted to coffee, cigarettes, Hunter Thompson, Henry Miller and all the usual excesses of my generation--in short, a world-class ass.
So I moved to my birthplace Washington, D.C., where I would fit in. Sort of. I was so sure I would hate practicing law as much as law school that I deferred practicing law for nearly 3 years--in the form of being a hard-working, entertaining but equally difficult and troubled Legislative Assistant on Capitol Hill. There I was once served with a small claims complaint for "back-rent" by an angry DC live-in ex-girlfriend in front of my amused U.S. Representative boss, another amused congressman and the not-so-amused but intrigued senior staff of the House Ways and Means Committee at the 96th Congress. But everything changes with time and a different lens for viewing.
Had it not been for a friend from college who was happily clerking at the Supreme Court--who inadvertently shamed me one day in a conversation at the Tune Inn he has likely forgotten--I might never gone into private practice. So I left Capitol Hill and took a job in 1981 practicing law as one of DC's hundreds of "associates" in the branch office of a Midwestern law firm on 15th Street, N.W.
Everything--and I mean everything--changed for me. It was the same way new life sprung up inside me when the Duke undergraduate admissions people changed my life in 1971. Each day was different. I treated all the difficulties--and it was hard on me and mine--of being an associate as a challenge, and a even a privilege, and ever since then I have felt like it's an honor to do what lawyers do. In 1992, I started my own firm. I like the people I work with, the excitement of talented adversaries, a new project or case and the satisfaction of solving high-level problems for high-end clients, who I really like. And they even pay me for it. If you don't feel that way right away, give yourself time. If that fails, try another firm or another part of the profession. For many people, a different mentor, a new firm or a move to government or in-house counsel--even for a short while--can help you get your "sea legs" and make all the difference.
It's supposed to be fun. American law is extremely varied, elastic and constantly presenting new practice areas--especially in the larger cities. It has something for everyone. I am convinced of this. Please keep the faith and keep looking until you find it. Put another way, don't quit before the miracle occurs. It's there, and it's all inside you, in front of you. Simple--but still hard. It's a privilege and joy to do what lawyers do when they do it right.
And it really is fun.
So...any questions?
Posted by JD Hull at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)
Your Brochure: A Detail, A Tool--But Not a Marketing or Client Communications Strategy.
Nathan Burke and Tom Kane have fine, sane recent posts on this. So does Seth Godin, who started them off. In these 3 posts there's a message from real experts and probably all you will ever need to know on the subject. In short, do have a good one ready to go--even an interesting, provocative one--and send it when you are asked to send it. Not having a brochure is an omission you indulge at your peril. Just don't count on a brochure as effective marketing or real client communications. Personally, I don't put that much stock in them either--but we have them ready to go. They are always there. And I am a little concerned when another lawyer who wants me to help sell his or her firm tells me they don't have one but that they "can whip one one up pretty fast". How serious and skillful about marketing and selling could such lawyers really be?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2006
Listen Up...
Listening arts. I've mentioned before that I still need work but am improving in this area. It's a constant focus. And my co-workers seem to like me more whenever I write about it. Two of my favorite bloggers, and each a lawyer I would hire in a heartbeat to serve my firm's clients if needed--Chicago's Patrick Lamb and New York City's Arnie Herz--have been writing a lot about listening lately, here and here. Just follow all the links. Patrick and Arnie have collected some great sources in these posts--and they know what they're talking about. You'll never hear me "instruct" on this subject. I just listen.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)
Blawg Review #50 Is Out, Out There and It Should Wake Us All Up.
The Dark Goddess of Replevin Speaks did Blawg Review #50 this week, and DGR, a/k/a Seattle's Ruth Laura Edlund, did not disappoint. This may be H.L Mencken with a law degree reincarnated in Grunge City. She afflicts the comfortable and comforts, well, the possessed, dispossessed and disinherited: anonymous bloggers, women at BigLaw (are humans just better off as men?), a dusty museum piece in our Constitution called the Establishment Clause and even the tender teachings of one's own flawed human soul. Some new sites here for me, including Howard Friedman's Religion Clause, and Jews on First. The Dark Goddess reminded me that blawging can be more than the same self-congratulatory conversation (i.e., "wankfest", if you're English) between the same people from the same country in the same profession on the same subjects. It made me want more--from her, other bloggers, myself. I think DGR is royally alienated and artfully pissed off, and she would probably not like me at all--and I like her that way. So see Blawg Review #50. For fun, check her post 2 weeks ago "Washington State Barbies". I admit that "Bellevue Barbie" is my type.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2006
At the Canadian Bar Association, Client Service Merits Full-Time Emphasis.
I've noted that, on the subject of clients, the Oklahoma Bar Association's Jim Calloway "gets it". The Canadian bar people seems to get it, too. For months now I've included as a link to this site the Canadian Bar Association's CBA PracticeLink (scroll down bottom right). PracticeLink--which I've also discussed before because it actively advocates sane lawyer writing--even includes a special page for clients called Client Services. Lots of solid resources here. Just one of them is the
Client Care Handbook, originally entitled 30 Best Practices - Strategies for Law Firm Management. The CBA PracticeLink, including that 58-page booklet, is also translated into French. Clients need a few heroes, and here is one more.
J. Daniel Hull
Posted by JD Hull at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
Del Bianco: Net Neutrality - "The Next Broadband Battleground"
Shouldn't we all be able to to access all internet content without having to pay extra to attach adapting devices? And what about the IP rights of the providers? From DC-based telecom lawyer-consultant Mark Del Bianco, the article is here, reprinted from News.com--News of Change. "Network neutrality" has fast become a big tech issue worldwide, with a focus in the U.S. and Europe alike (see also WAC?'s post last week "The French Get Hissy About IP - Part 2"). Note also that Mark's article was published at News.com just 5 days ago and has sparked constant comment from the first hour it was on-line. Broadband giants like telephone companies are responding. Nerves have been hit in regulatory communities and legislatures. Stay tune.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2006
Clients, Litigation and Discovery Disputes.
Evan Schaeffer in his The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog has a wonderful post "Don't Put Discovery Disputes On A Back Burner". It's about my 3 favorite subjects: clients, litigation and discovery. Or, more precisely, about clients in discovery disputes. Even allegedly "good" federal court lawyers have hopelessly poor grasps of how the federal discovery rules really work (so they "guess" or follow local folkways) and, if they do understand them, including the tough deadlines the discovery rules often impose, they readily bend the rules and the timelines for the convenience and schedules of the lawyers in the case. Discovery is not about lawyers. The best reasons to push discovery disputes ahead are that most cases are won or lost on discovery, and that the discovery rules are mainly about clients getting closer to a solution of their dispute. Evan's post is about promptness, which helps clients. Bravo.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)
Nathan Burke: Thinking About Marketing Freshly PLUS Client Polling
Nathan Burke at LawFirmBlogging has a very fine "lawyer wake-up" post called "A New Way Of Thinking About Marketing". He succinctly offers us a new lens for a creative yet common sense "clean-slate" approach to marketing that ignores the status quo. As an example, Nathan gives an exercise in thinking about client interviews--which also contributes to the nearly institutional Hassett-Lamb-Kane-Golden-Collins-Hull discussion over the past months on the importance of client satisfaction interviews and methodologies to do them. In a larger sense, Nathan may be saying that we lawyers--risk-averse serial conformists who over-complicate things and "chew more than we bite off" (my characterizations)--should start thinking about client work simply, freshly and outside the way we've always done things.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2006
"Oh Rare Ben Johnson..."
Great post and heads up from Ed Poll at his LawBiz Blog about how things have changed in our business in the last 35 years through the eyes of an Atlanta attorney at one of Atlanta's leading firms (and one of my favorite BigLaw firms). From a Law.com piece on Ben Johnson, the Managing Partner of Alston & Bird.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2006
Round III of It's All Happening At the Zoo: Australian/New Zealand Blawgs?
Any good and active Australian or New Zealand blawgs out there? Australia is now a "player" and, hey, these folks like to trade, fight, talk and hold forth, too. For background, see this February post on the attempt to put together a list of good non-US blogs in English. So far we've done western European and China blogs. Bill Gratsch's well-known and much visited Blawg.org has collected quite a few blawgs for a number of foreign jurisdictions, including Australia--but I'd like to know what you and the Australian/NZ blawgers think. So pitch us. Courting Disaster, by a Melbourne lawyer now in Cambridge seems like a lively one. So does Australian Legal Eye, which also covers New Zealand and Asia Pacific markets. Any others?
J. Daniel Hull
Posted by JD Hull at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2006
The French Get Hissy About IP--Part 2
Here, from an AP news story. Ironically, the draft on-line copyright bill, which passed the French National Assembly but still needs to pass the French Senate, would force the sharing of proprietary anti-copying technologies of companies like Apple and Sony so that their rivals can compete, as well as punish music pirates. Increasingly, our clients focus on IP issues. This follows up our March 8 post.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)
"Are You Tired of Working For the Man--Or the Woman?"
In either event, or if you're just burned out by meditating too much on the BTI Consulting Study, try something different by checking out Neil Senturia's inspirational, funny and useful-as-hell "I'm There For You Baby..." (subtitled An Entrepreneur's Guide to the Universe") and maybe it will shake something loose. We've posted about Neil's new site and "The Baby Blog" before.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)
March 20, 2006
Are There BTI Consulting-type Studies Out Measuring Whether Clients Are Happy/Unhappy with the Client Service Performance of their Outside CPA's, Stockbrokers, Management Consultants, Financial Planners, Marketing Gurus, Banks, Ad Agencies?
Long title but you get the idea. We live increasingly in a "service-based" global economy. Any studies or stats out there on how good or bad "client/customer service by services" is? The BTI Consulting Study concludes that GC's have been, on the whole, alarmingly unhappy (52% allegedly sacked primary outside counsel) with their law firms over the past few years. Query: Is there reliable non-anecdotal data documenting client feedback on "services by services" other than lawyers?
If despite all the "total quality" rubric over the past 20 years real client and customer service in America is generally a cynical joke--from restaurants, your auto repair shop and that perhaps well-meaning but hopelessly lame Verizon phone person to lawyers, stockbrokers and financial planners--what about other service providers generally? And "professional" service providers? What about their clients? Are they happy with their "primary provider" for accounting, advertising, management consulting, mortgage broking, banking, etc.? Does such data exist? One working theory is--in case you're interested--is that "service for services" is bad everywhere and all service providers are more at risk than they might have thought.
J. Daniel Hull
Posted by JD Hull at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)
Oklahoma, You're OK Department: Blawg Review #49 Is Out.
Good mornin' pards. From his Oklahoma-based Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, Jim Calloway has authored Blawg Review this week and Blawg Review #49 is here. Jim's #49 is a comprehensive one--and covering some great blawgs/blogs which were new to me--by a man on the vanguard of legal weblogs since day one and who cares about the quality of the blawgosphere. Blawg Review itself is a useful digest service if you write and/or read blawgs but like me you struggle to keep up with new blogs and good posts. You can see the previous 48 reviews at Blawg Review.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
Last Call: Asia Law Weblogs, Anyone?
Note the March 2 post here, which shows we still need more Asia law blogs (English versions) regardless of where they originate. So far we have only three--two China and one India--all linked to this blog if you scroll down to the right. We seek good active ones you recommend. Round I was western European blawgs and Round II Asia. Round III will be Australia.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
2 Must-Read Posts By Arnie Herz, Inspirer.
"Lawyering as Soulful Work" is a March 11 post by Wall Street lawyer and consultant Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity as well as part of a phrase I used in yesterday's lengthy post on client dissatisfaction and the BTI Study. And two days later Arnie posted "Law Firm Leadership Roundup". Arnie's notions of the joy of practicing law with everything good you've got inside you--and the right way for the right clients with the right team sharing common goals and values and even having fun--are always inspiring to read. And he describes and explains them as living, breathing ideas you can actually apply and use way better than anyone writing about lawyering and client service. He has no peers there. Importantly, Arnie's blog also regularly reaches for ideas about work and the workplace which come from non-lawyers. Professionals, and lawyers in particular, need fresh ideas to build healthy firms to serve the people who count: clients and customers.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2006
More on the BTI Consulting Study.
It's right here from Law.Com and it follows our March 4 post "High-End Clients Not Happy at All" and great posts earlier this month by Gerry Riskin, Carolyn Elefant and Tom Kane.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)
More On One that Matters: Should We Sell During Client Polling/Interviews?
Great post from Michelle Golden commenting on Jim Hassett's equally thoughtful one on whether or not "to sell" during interviews with clients about how they like your services. This continues the off-and-on 2 month long multi-blog forum on the topic with Lamb-Hassett-Golden-Kane-Hull. Forget about the right answer; the most important thing about the discussion is that it is Even Being Had. The overall questions posed by Michelle, Jim, Patrick Lamb, Tom Kane and me are: (1) Should professional service providers do client interviews? (2) If "yes", just how do we conduct them and use them? Who should conduct them, who should attend, what is their scope, do we sell during them (and what would "selling" be in this context, anyway?) and how do we most effectively follow-up the client/customer interviews? A good post to get your bearings on this discussion is one by Michelle Golden here.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2006
China Law Blog Has Made Some Great Posts Lately.
China Law Blog, a site based in both the U.S and China, has made some great posts lately commenting on China business news and regulatory developments, including reports on the slow but positive changes in Chinese IP enforcement policy. But for people just getting interested in doing business in China there's another interesting and practical CLB March 9 post called "Doing Business in China - A Good List of the Basics", by Dan Harris of Harris & Moure, which runs this great new site. Caution: Don't try to do business or law things in China without experienced "China hands".
Posted by JD Hull at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Do What You Love: Hero 3 - Mark Del Bianco
Speaking of our nation's capitol, I've posted about D.C.-based telecom and lawyer's lawyer Mark C. Del Bianco before, including here a couple of weeks ago. And see this article on "The Law of Telecom" which Mark and I wrote for The Pennsylvania Lawyer. Mark's another Renaissance guy and person-who-gets-it. I've known him for about 20 years, and he loves what he does for clients with legal tech issues.
Telecom issues are Everywhere and in Every Deal these days--and Mark figured that out long before it happened. So Del Bianco became a telecommunications law brand--and yet people want to work with him in other areas where his experience and expertise is both broad and deep. If you practice law long enough, and love it the way he does, that will happen: antitrust law (he's also Vice Chair of the Computers and Internet Committee of the ABA's Antitrust Section), foreign trade law (he used to edit the Yale Journal of International Law) and even litigation (DOJ trained him a long time ago). And anything to do with that exciting yet inscrutable new point where the law intersects with the Internet, Technology and All Things Digital. SuperDad, athlete, well-read, well-traveled, and the guy other lawyers go to first for advice on the hard stuff, Mark is the first person you hire when you get elected President. Some say way too many Yale people have been working in or sniffing around the White House these days. I disagree.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
Kane: "Who You Know" Needs To Be Pondered, Organized and Updated.
This week I'm in my native Washington, D.C. - where the proper care, feeding and upkeep of The Rolodex has been an art form for a very long time. And this post of a few days ago by Tom Kane at his Legal Marketing Blog is one of the better writings I've seen in a while on true networking basics. Who do you really know? And, to take it a couple of steps further, who do they know? And how do you manage and update all this information? You can't really market the services provided by any size law firm unless you start asking and acting on these questions.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2006
The Evil Bookstore Conspiracy Against Us All: "Think and Grow Rich", "Fish!", "The Road Less Traveled", "Good To Great", "The 7 Habits of..."
I'm back East for 2 weeks in my real stomping grounds of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and DC, where the earth is starting to show signs of Spring: re-birth, renewal, energy, hope. And in the bookstores as usual there are writings on growing your business, self-improvement, and how to succeed at something--even if it's just Life Itself. The titles alone give you clues--about some key or "secret" that everyone knows but you. So everyone else reads them, gets rich and buys a second home in Nantucket next to Jack Welch's, marries a modern-day Julie Andrews or Alan Alda, has fine, healthy kids headed for Dartmouth, MIT or Tufts, and then they all do a victory lap around you by appearing on CNN with Larry King. You, however, just keep worrying that your retirement funds will somehow vaporize, that your eldest son's resume reads too much like a police blotter, that your best clients will leave you tomorrow morning and that you will peak in life when you get a guest shot on "Small Business Horizons" on the local PBS channel.
Meanwhile, there's all these, well, "titles", programs and signposts: Dale Carnegie's "How to Make Friends and Influence People", Napolean Hill's "Think and Grow Rich", great stuff by Norman Vincent Peale, Deming's 14 points, "Fish!", "What Clients Love", "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", "The Road Less Traveled", John 14:17, The Upanishads, The Prophet, "Who Victimized My Cheese?" and "The 7 Common Sense Habits of Highly Thought-Of People Who Know Things You Don't and You Better Read This or You Will Fail".
But, seriously, I know what they all mean now. Two things:
(1) It is ALL inside you right now, and
(2) If you visualize it, plan it and work for it, you get it.
Period. So if you don't think you are successful right this minute-- in your worst or best moment--you may never be. The way you think and feel is everything and indeed must be made into a habit. Make it a good one.
Posted by JD Hull at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2006
The Return of Geeklawyer
Here's the fallout from our Geeklawyer post earlier this week. It features Ruthie and GL's motorcycle named "The Terrible and Inexorable Wrath of God". Told you these British bloggers had attitude.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)
Human and Naked: Brits Who Blawg--Part 2
Interesting statistics from The Economist: In 2000, the United Kingdom had a population of about 60 million, and the US had 285 million, or close to 5 times as many people as the UK. Yet in 100 years between 1901 and 2001 the UK boasted 88 Nobel Prize winners (most of them English) and the US 179. So the UK hatches 50% as many Nobel Laureates as the US with an overall talent pool one-fifth the size.
Moreover, 60 of the 88 UK Nobel prizes were in Chemistry, Physics or Medicine. So Brits [heart] science and "tech", too--and they are obviously very good at it. In legal tech and IP, here are two more Brits who blawg with great sites:
1. Justin Patten at Human Law, subtitled "Law, Technology and People" combines, in a novel and interesting way, IP and Employment Law. This is an active blog by a guy in Hertfordshire, just north of Greater London, who can both write and cover the issues even-handedly.
2. Naked Law, "UK Technology Law Laid Bare by Cambridge Lawyers" is written by the Cambridge office of London-based Mills & Reeve, a relatively large UK firm. It focuses on legal and regulatory developments affecting IT and technology in the UK. I'm going to monitor this one as well--lots of talented people in this key UK firm.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
The Word-of-Mouth on Word-of-Mouth...
It's here from Larry Bodine and read The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell if you are really interested in this subject and productive "buzz" generally. This is an important (and fascinating) ground of discussion for any law firm under, say, 100 lawyers, which wants to serve clients normally represented by larger law firms.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
Should We Sell During Client Polling?
Jim Hassett continues an ongoing important discussion amongst top legal marketing thinkers at his Law Firm Business Development blog. It's right here.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
Patrick Lamb: In Search of Perfect Blawgs.
Visit Chicago litigator Patrick J. Lamb's new and improved site at In Search of Perfect Client Service. The man keeps raising the bar on everything. Pat makes it difficult for mere mortals and country lawyer types like me to keep up.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)
March 08, 2006
Fighting Bozo-osity At Your Shop.
From ex-Apple evangelist and guru's guru Guy Kawasaki, who gets more visits to his blog in a day than most people see in a month, these fun but serious two posts on preventing a Bozo explosion and the Bozoification aptitude test (the dreaded GBAT) escaped my attention at first. Law schools and bar associations don't cover this crippling syndrome in ethics classes or CLEs--so feel free to take notes. Consider these a corporate public service announcement.
Posted by JD Hull at 04:29 PM | Comments (0)
IP Piracy: China Gets Religion, French Rockers Get Hissy.
Because it involves our clients and practice, I've posted about this overall issue before. And yesterday both the WSJ Law Blog and China Law Blog discussed efforts by the Chinese government to take patent enforcement "more seriously". A mainland Chinese company just sued an American company for patent infringement in the US. This is a first. The notion is that China--with its infamously "whatever" attitude about protecting non-Chinese inventions and marks--might have to start taking it all more seriously if Chinese firms want justice here in the US. One step toward the solution, per China Law Blog and yours truly: Dude, register your IP in China.
Meanwhile, the French legislature, the National Assembly, consistently earnest if nothing else, is still struggling with file sharing on the Internet. French rock n' roll artists in particular are not happy with efforts both to eliminate a user's downloading fee passed late last year and to reduce punishments for illegal downloaders.
Posted by JD Hull at 07:49 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
And the KeyBlog Stat Is...
See Kevin O'Keefe's recent post containing the secret answer at his Real Lawyers Have Blogs. Brace yourself, because Kevin's answer makes way too much sense. Irish guys who try cases rule.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
Brits Who Blawg with Attitude.
Our firm's practice has taken us to the southern UK quite a bit: London, Suffolk, Kent, and Cardiff, Wales. During one of those trips I detoured to Lindsey, in Suffolk, a still tiny village where my mother's side of the family left in 1632 via Ipswich, England to go to a place called Groton, Massachusetts, named for another tiny village near Lindsey. I got hooked on the countryside, and on the people, too. So I like the English. Not because I "claim" them, or even that they claim me. Indeed, English clients and lawyer friends alike used to openly worry that socially I'm too outgoing and "American friendly" for tea time.
It's true that the English are wordier than Yanks; it's also true that they are about 10 times more careful than Americans are about what actually comes out of their mouths. Socially, an American is always an embarrassing accident waiting to happen. Brits assess the terrain.
But whether they admit it or not--and they generally won't--Brits are very much like Americans, and in ways other than government, law and a shared language base. They mix humor with business, they are driven, they address personal and professional difficulties with optimism, self-deprecation and grit. And they vent, rant and even attack like us. In this sense, two of the English legal weblogs I discovered in our search for good non-U.S. blawgs are operated by true American cousins:
1. Diary of a Criminal Solicitor by "Gavin", who gives you detailed and funny blow-by-blow tours of his often frustrating days through Legal London, along with sounding off about "anything and everything" that gets up his nose; and
2. Geeklawyer, by an IP lawyer who once did R&D in the U.S. for the "evil American empire" and who blogs about IP, civil liberties, the legal system, and "angry liberal" things. He's got a motorcycle named "Ruthie", too.
Both of these are worthy reads-- besides, these guys are fun.
Posted by JD Hull at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
My New Hero U.S. District Judge Clark..."Attaboy!"
See yesterday's WSJ Law Blog at "Judge Rejects Inscrutable Motion, Cites Adam Sandler’s 'Billy Madison'".
Posted by JD Hull at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2006
Blawg Review #47 is Out, and...
...it's a thoughtful, even-handed, spirited and comprehensive scan of last week's posts by Unused and Probably Unusable.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)
Jim Calloway: "The Client-Centered Law Practice"
In two parts by Jim Calloway - Part 1 and Part 2 - and originally appearing in the Oklahoma Bar Journal. These were just included in Jim's new Starting a Law Practice Web Directory by the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program. The title alone shows Jim Calloway gets it.
Posted by JD Hull at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)
"Do Short-Term Victories Mean We're Smart and Our Business is Strong?"
And, more importantly, do those successes keep you from seeing entrenched fallacies and faulty assumptions in your thinking that will bite you in the wazoo when you aren't looking. See "Never Mistake a Bull Market For Brains..." at Adam Smith, where lately there has been post after post of sober thoughts about thinking and planning for the long term.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)
Calling All "Foreign" Blawgs: "Amazing Countries, Amazing Practices!"
And often with legal systems amazingly similar to our own--apologies to Gerry Riskin but I love his blog and its name.
Any more re: western Europe or Asia blawgs out here?...Rupert White at the UK's Law Gazette--a magazine with circulation of 110,000 published by The Law Society of England and Wales, the regulatory and representative body for 116,000 solicitors--was kind enough to do an article about our efforts at What About Clients? to identify, link with and learn from non-U.S. blawgs. The article is "US Litigator Reaches Out To Euro Blogs". In the interest of disclosure, the bracketed expression "[an exercise in navel-gazing]" in the article's quote of me was a prudent and kind substitution by Rupert of my characterization of the sometimes insular nature of American blawging. (I had used the term "wankfest".) Anyway, to break that pattern, a few weeks ago we started asking for recommendations on active but good western European blawgs and Asia blawgs. The idea is at the February 23 post in "It's All Happening At The Zoo". The results so far are in the comments and linked to this site.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2006
Do What You Love: Hero 1 - Chris Abraham
From D.C.-based Chris Abraham--friend, marketing consultant, inspirer, writer, Renaissance dude, interpreter, learner-teacher, person-who-gets-it, and the guy to spend time with when I want new ideas. And he's got the best laugh. I talk to him and read him to get back on track. He actually likes lawyers, and helps them. Those of us who consult him worry he'll go to law school. "Do What You Love", which he's covered better than anyone, is here.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:31 AM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2006
Riskin Post: High-End Clients Not Happy At All.
It's here, from Gerry Riskin's shop, and it's based on a BTI Consulting Group Survey. And it's what I've been telling you for 6 months. Good news for smaller firms and boutiques willing and able to capture, serve and keep BigLaw clients.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)
March 03, 2006
Rule 10: Be Accurate, Thorough and Timely--But Not Perfect.
It's not school. It's no longer about you.
(See Rules 1-6 here and at the links Rules 7, 8 and 9.)
Practicing law is getting it right, saying it right and winning--all with a gun to your head. Being "accurate, thorough and timely" are qualities most of us had in the 6th grade, right? Back when everyone told us we were geniuses and destined for great things? Well, school's out--now it's about real rights, real duties, real money and personal freedom. That's a weight, and it should be.
Suddenly facts are everything--and the actual law less important than you ever imagined. In time you learn to research, think and put things together better and faster. You develop instincts. You learn there is really no boilerplate and no "cookie-cutter" work. You learn there are no "right answers"--but several approaches and solutions to any problem. You are being asked to pick one. But at first, and maybe for a few years, being accurate, thorough and on time is not easy to do.
"I Have Clients?!" One day, you start to visualize your clients as real companies and real people with real problems. These are your clients--not your parents or professors--and they are all different. You "feel their pain", and it's now yours, too.
Mistakes. If you work with the right mentors and senior people, they will allow you to make mistakes. You need freedom to make mistakes. You'll be reminded, however, not to let those mistakes out of the office. It's a balancing act, a hard one.
Really bad days? Your problem, Amber. You are expected to be a professional and put clients first on your worst damn day. A parent is sick, you are coming down with something yourself, your boyfriend is cheating on you, both of your boyfriends are cheating on you (and maybe with each other), your teenage kids "hate" you, and this morning you had to abandon that 12-year-old Honda you had in law school on the 14th Street Bridge.
And minutes before your big afternoon meeting or court appearance, a GC or co-worker calls you with the worst possible development, something unexpected and beyond your control, in a project for your favorite client.
These things will happen. And happen together.
You think you're pretty tough. But you sag visibly--like an animal taking a bullet. And in five minutes, you have to be at your very best. Again, it's not about school. It's no longer about you. You're beaten--but you have to get up and fight for someone other than yourself.
You up for this? Because, in our experience, very few of your peers are.
Bucking Up, Using Fear. And while you can't work in a state of constant worry, fear and paralysis, talking yourself into heroics, getting a little paranoid and even embracing a little fear won't hurt you, and may even help. You are being paid both (1) to be accurate, thorough, timely and (2) to just plain "not screw up".
“Thorough” means "anticipating", too. What makes you really good in a few years is being able to "see the future" and spot a ripple effect in a flash. To take a small example, if your client is in an active dispute with the government or on the brink of a full-blown litigation with a competitor, the client's and many of your own letters and e-mails aren't just letters and e-mails.
Whoa, they are potential exhibits, too. They can be used for you or against you. So they need to be written advisedly and clearly so that they advance your position and so that a judge, jury or someone 5 years from now can look at it cold and figure out what's going on. No "talking to yourself" here; think "future unintended consequences" when you think and write.
"But Not Perfect." Not talking about mistakes here. I refer to the paralysis of high standards. I know something about the second part of Rule 10--because I tended to violate it when I was younger. And I still want to.
Perfectionism is the Great Destroyer of Great Young Associates. Don't go there. Don't be so stiff and scared you can't even turn anything in because you want it "perfect" and you keep asking other lawyers and courts for extensions. It's not school, and it's no longer about you. Think instead about Rule 8: Think Like The Client--and Help Control Costs. Balance efficiency with "being perfect", and err on the side of holding down costs. If a client or senior lawyer in your firm wants your work to be "perfect", and for you to charge for it, believe me, they will let you know.
Finally, and I almost forgot: always use the Blue Book/Maroon Book for your citations. No one gets a pass on that one.
You conventionally religious? We are not. But some days lawyering you will just have to "get your Job thing on". You suffer. But you still perform. Job and His Friends, Vladimir Borovikovsky, 1810s.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:28 AM | Comments (0)
March 02, 2006
Once Again: Asia Law Blawgs, Anyone?
So far Tom Welshonce and I have located (and listed on this site) U.S./China-based China Law Blog by Seattle's Harris & Moure and ChinaBlawger by Beijing's well-known IP and business firm Lehman, Lee & Xu, founded years ago by my visionary IBLC friend Ed Lehman. Any other active and worthwhile English versions ones out there?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)
March 01, 2006
Addictive "Del Bianco" Brand: Telecom Law.
Brands. Some lawyers become brands. In my litigation and environmental practices, I'm still working on it--but some lawyers of ours already are. Especially in telecom and tax. I was even thinking of starting a series showcasing lawyers in our firm called "It's Official: I'm the Least Well-Known and Likely the Least-Credentialed Lawyer in My Law Firm" but Tom Welshonce, the pluperfect associate in Pittsburgh who helps me with this blog, talked me out of it, mostly. Listen, Tom: telecom legal issues lurk in every deal these days. In straight-on telecom deals, obviously. But mainly in non-telecom deals. Mark Del Bianco figured this out long before it happened. See, as many clients and firms sans telecom lawyers are seeing, this link and/or this one and learn about Del Bianco, a telecom wunderkind, DC native, Yale Law grad and long-time friend who is of counsel to us, and you can see why I partially vetoed Tom on the showcasing thing. Del Bianco's so busy we can't even get him to raise his rates. Three months ago, Mark and I penned for The Pennsylvania Lawyer an article entitled "The Law of Telecom: Identifying and Resolving Telecom Issues in Acqusitions and Transactions". Judging from e-mails and inquiries, it's the most popular article we ever published in our 14 years. Enough said. Congratulations, Mark. Sorry, Tom.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)
Tom Collins: "So What's a Good Time to Call?"
I learned something from this one. It's from Tom Collins at MorePartnerIncome. My "best time", until now, was Friday afternoons--a great time to call existing clients in rainmaking mode...but I guess it's not the only time to call. So my excuses to wait until then are now gone. Thanks, Tom.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:14 PM | Comments (0)
Tom Kane's "5 Biggest Marketing Mistakes" Per 4 Big Dogs.
Do see this series at The Legal Marketing Blog if you haven't already. Lots of good ideas from great people in a minimum amount of space. I don't have time to read or post about everything--but I've got time for this. There are "5-mistake" takes by Calloway, Riskin, Bodine, and Tom Kane himself. First-rate, and a fine advertisement for blogs, blawgs and whatever this is that takes an hour of my time every day.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)
Return of Mark Beese, Leadership for Lawyers.
Mark Beese at Denver's Holland & Hart is back with Leadership for Lawyers after a 3-month blog-sabbatical. I for one am very happy about it. When we first launched this site, Mark noticed our efforts and its theme of boutique firms competing with much larger ones, and was encouraging early on. L4L is a first-rate site on lawyers as human beings, innovators and marketers, and on law firms as real laboratories for new ideas. Welcome back, Mark.
Posted by JD Hull at 01:42 AM | Comments (0)