Ad Arguendo

You Are Already There--You Just Don't Know it Yet

2009-11-02T13:41:00.000-08:00

Executive Summary: I'm on the move. Look for me at a theatre near you. Soonish.

Long version:

I've been having TONS of fun by presenting my seven-part lecture series on professional development to folks at a special program set up between the City of San Francisco and the local Goodwill.

We have an ever-growing group of individuals who are interested to hear all about growing professionally 'from the ground up.' It is so motivating and encouraging to hear their stories and their new-found motivation.

Looks like we're going to be having a chance to record the sessions in a two-day weekend format and even invite the paying public for the chance to hear about how folks can revolutionize their job-search and their professional networks, and themselves as professionals to boot. That professional production may be soon finding its way across this great country and, what the heck, the world. Watch this space!

The secret revealed in today's lecture: You are ALREADY "all that and a bag of chips." The idea is to do the work to let our exo-skeleton of denial, fear and trepidation melt away, or at least open a crack.

Get yourself out there and make it happen!

On the other hand, you also need your posse. Get a coach (consider your humble servant for that). Get someone in your industry that can give you pointers. Bottom line: we are 'sharks' in the professional sense: we have to keep moving, growing, eating, adding skills, experiences and colleagues. If we try to stop, we start atrophying. And that can get serious.

No need! You already have what it take to succeed! Now just get the right folks around you to help you let that light shine.

Go for it!

Not your usual blog post: But Let's be Colleagues Anyway

2009-07-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

I've been told that no one wants to read a blog about ideas, philosophy, art, culture: you know, boring stuff that "doesn't make money."

We'll see about that. In my view what we need more of if folks who are busy thinking about their respective industries--and their respective lives, cultures, countries, political parties and favorite novels---and start putting it all together. What do you say? Shall we start a dialog about life, zen, business and sales all at once? I think so.

I can tell you this: And I've said it elsewhere in this blog: You need to start thinking about the 'colleague' paradigm. Every person who meet in a business context or any superficial social context is a potential colleague. What is a colleague? It's someone who talk to about business; someone who exchange interesting and pertinent articles with; it's someone who swap leads with; it's someone who eventually wind up doing business with.

But keep the crazy stuff to yourself--or your 'secret' blog.

Bottom line: you need like, oh, 500 'colleagues'---folks you can call, remember their kids names, remember their company's last merger (it's all written down in your notes, dammit!) and think about ways to help each other out. It's an economy of give and take. Not take. That's over.

It's especially over right now: "jobs" are not only scarce, they're almost a thing of the past. The concept of "contract" work, "project" work, "consultancy" is king. It's more than that, it's king, queen, jack and 10 of spades. Get affiliated with a quality agency, and start getting work and experience in a safe, legal and gratifying way (might I suggest my own business here?).

Let's face it---everything, everything, everything is up to you---so start GETTING relationships started. Oh. Did I mention this is time-consuming! That's right. Hours. Hours you didn't know you have. Surprise! You just found them. I did!

Write your experiences below. I'm interested to hear what you think?

(The photo above? A 'great wealth talisman'--slap it on your own site!)

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2008-11-14T23:04:00.000-08:00

Things are not so different as they seem. What is right, what is prudent, what is good business and networking sense are all still true. And will remain so.

It has been difficult the past couple of weeks to write anything on a blog such as this which is really all about commentary on the practice and management of law practice. Maybe it's because I read about 75 different news sources on a given day, but it is all sounding more the same than it even usually does.

Yes, we all hear every day that:

no one knows whether the lay-offs we are seeing are simply 'normal' adjustment given the economic volatility;
no one knows whether the recent large law firm collapses of Thelen and Heller are indicative of future failures, or whether they were weak firms that otherwise would have withstood the recent market gyrations.
no one knows whether the entire business and/or legal community is still falling off a cliff and if so whether we'll bounce or crash./li>
one one knows if, alternatively, we'll pull a rabbit out of a hat and avert serious repercussions (unemployment in double-digits, major negative growth, serious deflation).

It's definitely time to get beyond mental hand-wringing.

It is tempting to wonder if everything we do in terms of marketing and selling our practices is now obsolete.

I am reminded of a scene out of Tolkien. In the dead center of his sprawling trilogy, Tolkien places a loyal warrior of conservative outlook (small "c") and juxtaposes him with: 1) an imminent war with a large and agressive neighboring state (Saruman); 2) real instability in the home political front (Theoden supplanted by Wormtongue); and 3) the 'chance' meeting of a political upstart (Aragorn), a representative of an enemy race (Gimli the dwar), and a vaguely untrustworthy representative of an exotic and dangerous land (Legolas the elf of Mirkwood). Eomer rights asks Aragorn: "what shall a man judge as right in these strange days?"

Aragorn answers: "as he ever did." Right, in "Middle Earth" did not change. Well, right does not change for us either in our early 21st Century, at least as it applies to growing our practices and our respective networks and our outreach.

We must continue to reach out to known contacts, seek profitable introductions through trusted colleagues, and keep on building, improving and expanding our print and internet 'footprints.'

Let's all get back out there. For those of us who haven't yet faltered but are unsure, be confident. Even if there are set-backs, the basic human needs that drive our economy will continue to make the demand for our services, no matter what our place in the legal market, strong.

For some step-by-step reminders on how to build your network, click here.

Stay on course!

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Narcissism 2.0: 'Homework' for My Candidates; 'Homework' for Life

2008-11-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

In a quiet pool near a silent grove, Narcissus fell in love with a reflection of his youthful face, and died. Not a complicated plot. Curiously, while short, this story is recounted numerous times in Greek mythology, and in a variety of interesting forms. Obviously, the myth must have communicated something important in Greek culture. With the proper understanding, it can provide vital information to us in our time as well. My hypothesis is that this illusive character from Greek mythology presents us with a profound mystery and potentially an important insight into the human psyche. Understanding the deeper message presented by Narcissus' challenges, and failure, can have a direct impact upon our understanding of ourselves, and upon our productivity and career satisfaction-ultimately, perhaps more than that.

Introduction

At the most basic level, this article is specifically designed for my candidates to give them a framework (and comprehensive list) of information that I as your recruiter need to represent you. The story as told by the Greeks and many of their apologists, is of a young man who was unable to see himself for who he really was, and by means of this, was unable to relate to others. He was thus destined to be consumed with a superficial understanding of his own worth (valuing only his reflection and not his own true self) and therefore foreclosed from success in relationships or life.

This understanding of the unexamined or faultily-examined life also characterizes the modern understanding of clinical narcissism. What I propose for anyone seeking to reach higher levels of productivity and fulfillment from their profession, is that they combine what to some may seem a 'narcissistic' attention on one's self, but in order to avoid the pitfalls of the true meaning of the word. In short, I propose a way through the contradiction between the popular meaning of the word on the one hand, and the classical and clinic definitions on the other. Thus, the challenge that I lay before my candidates is: that they find a greater and more accurate understanding of their owns strengths and weaknesses through a thorough examination and profound attention on themselves, in order to escape from the pitfalls of a failure of self-knowledge (which is often a false esteem, called narcissism), and thereby access and hone their strengths and abilities for greater professional productivity.

How To Read This Article

This piece, while long, is NOT intended to 'scare you away' or overwhelm you. Rather, it is designed to give you ideas and serve as a starting point for conveying what you believe is of note in your career path. There is no need to provide answers to all of the below questions, nor to do it in any particular form or order, or to follow any particular format at all. Rather, please view the below as merely a brain-storming experience to get your creative juices flowing.

Further, feel free to skip around. You may want to read only the overview below, and perhaps the conclusion, or perhaps get ideas for only one aspect of the project you are having difficulty with. The danger in giving anyone 'guidelines' for a creative experience is that it will rather stifle creativity. Don't let that happen to you!

If you find this explanation restrictive, or, if you have a very defined, and limited set of information that you feel best describes you, great! There are a number of ways to get to our common goal, which is: to present as much information about you as a professional and a person to give a potential hiring partner a sufficiently detailed understanding of what you can bring to his or her organization.

Confidential Nature of the Information

From my candidates, I am asking for a free-form, stream-of-consciousness email, written confidentially to me, with the purpose being to communicate as much about your experience as a professional (and student, businessperson, etc.) as possible-the good, the bad, the ugly, but most especially the wonderful, unique, inspiring, shamelessly name-dropping, and personal. As we will have already discussed in person or by telephone, the information will stay between us-no one else sees it (no staff person and no database entry person-neither will it be saved on any system accessible by others). Further, as it has always been and remains my policy for all candidates to sign off on the text of all cover letters, there should be no concern that any particular revelation will find its way into a cover letter without your knowledge and consent.

The Overall Gist

The point of the exercise is for the candidate to divulge as much as possible of the information and detail that they would eventually like me to be able to mine for a compelling cover letter. On the most banal level, I need great one-liners for the text of that letter! On a higher level, I need to have a critical mass of information about your professional and academic (and other) experiences to get a sufficiently intuitive sense of what you bring to the table so that I can develop themes that will form as the superstructure for that letter. Further still, I need to know who my candidate is to a sufficient degree to know how to answer those little "pertinent questions" that law firm recruiting coordinators tend to ask-and to answer them in a way that is accurate, compelling and presents you in the best possible light. My goal is for the candidate to take the project wherever it goes-it is not necessary to use the document as an outline. Every candidate has unique experiences and attitudes toward life, their career, the law-everything. Thus, each time the process is engaged in, there is a different result-which is entirely the point.

Nevertheless, there is a wide range of information that is suitable subject-matter area. In order to prime the pump of your imagination, I provide the below outline of possible avenues to take. I have hesitated long before putting these suggestions in writing, as I certainly do not intend this exercise to descend to a "deposition by interrogatory." Rather, these are provided only as placemarkers in the process. With that important caveat, please refer to the below list of topics when beginning the process:

Your current practice:

Try to give me a narrative that explains the arc of your career. How and why did you begin in your first practice group and how and why did that evolve (it may have been chance, it may have been by design). Importantly, what is your current practice, what do you like about it, and what do you want to do in the next phase of your career? The following are provided by way of illustration:
Provide a laundry list of each component part of the process that you have actually engaged in with respect to your core specialty. When people hear that you are a "corporate" lawyer, for example, they want to know specifically what parts of that global set of practices you have experience with, and what tasks you have actually performed within that.

---Describe the types of industries that your clients are in.
---Begin at the beginning: list each subject-matter area that you have practiced in throughout your career.
---If your career is sufficiently lengthy (5 years and up) you may have some meta-analysis to provide. By that I mean that you likely have a broader understanding of how all the component work you have completed fits into the arc of a particular business process. If so, tell me about it.
---Talk about the parts of your practice that you like and those that you don't. Further, tell me about the parts that you have excelled at and those you haven't (it will be interesting to see the slippage between those two sets of criteria). Your Academic Career

I am interested in understanding not only all about your law school career, but also about your other graduate experiences as well as your undergraduate career. If your secondary education was overseas or otherwise remarkable, it too may be worth discussing. Try to use the following as a guide for the detail to provide:

---Discuss why you picked the institution (banal, Machiavellian and climatic reasons are all valid!). Disclose your grade-point-average and your class standing. If you took a particular interest in one topic, discuss what it is, why it was interesting, any particular recognition you garnered from that interest, etc.
---Make sure to list every single award, extra-curricular activity, and all organizations in which you had any sort of leadership role (academic, professional, pro-bono, civic, service, community, fraternal, etc.).
---Discuss any personal triumphs you enjoyed or challenges you overcame.
---Discuss any particularly important influences (professors, other mentors, formative events going on in society during your educational experience, etc.), how they influenced you, and how they impact your current approach to your career.

Your Transitions.

It is exceedingly important to handle properly the issue of a candidate's transition from one work experience to another. Further, no matter what degree of success you perceive that you have in your career, please understand that your understanding of what a law firm may perceive as a "good" or "bad" reason for moving is probably other than your immediate reaction. Thus, it is good to trust your recruiter on this point-they deal with this issue literally every day and are generally free from any particular bias-they simply know what the current trends are and can help advise you in managing this particular issue. That being said, the recruiter cannot help you if you do not actually disclose all of the reasons you left or are intending to leave your current position and why you think another position will be better. Therefore, as the candidate generally is not in the relatively knowledgeable position regarding 'good' and 'bad' reasons, it is best to think long and hard about what they are and then disclose them to your recruiter for advice.

There are two types of transitions to consider-the immediate change between your current (or immediately preceding employment) to the next (with respect to which you are asking your recruiter to assist you).

The Current Job Change:

As stated, rational thinking and full disclosure to your recruiter are key. To that end, it may be beneficial to consider the following issues that often come up in any particular transition:
---unfulfilled in the current position due to corporate culture;
---unfulfilled in the current position due to lack of appropriate type, caliber or volume of work;
---unhappy because of a particular co-worker or set of co-workers in the current organization;
---personal, non-work-related need to change geographical markets;
---personal judgment about the viability of advancement in the current position;
---personal judgment about the continued vitality of the current firm;
---personal judgment about the future direction of the current firm;
---professional decision that a different (more prestigious, larger, smaller, more focused, more generalized, etc.) firm is better in terms of your overall professional plan;
---perception that you have enemies at your current firm;
---perception that you have burned bridges and/or otherwise made yourself unable to advance in the current firm.
In addition to the above issues, it is important to think about what questions may be raised by large changes in direction in your career-past or present.

Past or Present Changes in Direction

It is important to think about the reasons you have left a particular position, as stated. Moreover, it is important to explain to your recruiter any sea-change in your overall career direction. For example, if your prior experience was heavily weighted in one practice group, and you are looking to change subject-matter areas, or, rather, if you are seeking to move from government work to the private sector, your recruiter needs to understand this. Further, any such change in your past career must be similarly explained. For example, I once had a candidate that had a JD, two LLMs and a JSD; the burning question in my mind, and in everyone else's, was why this candidate now wanted to move from academia into private practice. The point is, moving from one sector of a market (from government service or academe to private practice or from an overseas practice to the US or from one region to another) raises a question in the mind of the potential employer-and you must answer the question on your own terms rather than leave the employer to guess. To be sure, such changes do not go unnoticed.

Positive Feedback.

It is certainly true that firms are interested in hearing positive feedback that you may have received in the past-the more specific the better. While firms often ask for references at or near the time of making an offer, they certainly would benefit from hearing about past praise that you have received to assist them in evaluating whether they want to get that far. The key is to be specific: what sort of skills have you demonstrated, what positive outcome was the result, what was the context of those skills (whom did they benefit), etc. Consider the following:
---Review any and all prior written evaluations. Provide a sampling of specific positive feedback. Try to avoid banalities. Solid observations are what are needed. For example: "seems to have great rapport with clients", "is able to hone in immediately on the core issues", "judgment is trusted in the firm" are all positive. Conversely, banalities such as "fitting in well" or "doing a great job" do not communicate anything helpful.
---Think back to positive statements made by colleagues, clients, partners, co-workers, professors and the like. Provide quotes or near quotations if possible.
---Be free to name names, or at least to identify the rank or position of those that have had an influence in your professional career, or have given you positive feedback. It is helpful to know that you relate to clients, but better to know that the CEO of Chevron thinks so if that is the case. Likewise, it is certainly positive that you participated in symposia and gave lectures that were well-received by the attendants, and better to know that the attendants included senior trade officials, diplomats of several industrialized nations and an ambassador or two.
---On the topic of 'naming names', please be as thorough as possible with respect to the names of friends that you may have potential target firms. We can use those names (if you believe it appropriate under the particular circumstances) to use those names as internal references to follow on any submission.
---Remember, one of great advantages to working with a recruiter is that he or she can sing your praises (effectively and appropriate to be sure) but nonetheless sing them. To do that, your recruiter needs the raw materials to draw upon. Our opinion (while valued!) will not get you an interview-the candidate must demonstrate that he or she is respected in their current and/or former milieu.

Conclusions

The process of a legal search can be a mere blip on your professional radar, a minor catastrophe, or, conversely, the beginning of something new, wonderful, and even life-changing. It all depends on how much of the real, down-and-dirty thinking that you are willing to put in to the process. When it comes down to it, we must be willing to face ourselves, and do so on a far deeper level than Narcissus did. He saw only his face, the mask that he presented to the world. As passionate professionals, however, we are challenged to look still deeper, into all the wonder and majesty behind our façade, and even behind our conscious thoughts. To the extent we can gather the full quantum of data about our preferences, temperaments, experiences, skills and limitations, and apply thoughtful analysis to the same, we can become far more successful than ever imagined. Please enjoy the process, but engage in it nonetheless!

In-House Counsel Withholding, and to Withhold, More Work from their Law Firms

2008-10-20T16:28:00.001-07:00

If you've been around as long as I have, you've seen this headline and the cycle it refers to, at least a half-dozen times. Click here for a concise summary from the AmLaw Daily. Yet, this time around, the move toward keeping more work in-house will be (more or less) permanent. That's because the current trend is not the usual economic see-saw that corporate management usually indulges in. Rather, it's a function of the in-house bar increasing its relative strenght within corporate management, as well as its collective sophistication as a distinct legal perspective.

So, the real questions are: a) what work is staying in-house; and b) what can firms do about it to maximize profits.

First, the kind of work that is staying in-house is not high-level analysis, but rather more high-volume (repeatable) work. Notably, they are keeping inside the lower-level document review work as it pertains to litigation, due diligence and compliance. That work can easily be monitored in-house. Frankly, folks like me (director of a contract attorney agency) are increasing convincing in-house counsel that several types of work can be done far more economically (and frankly BETTER) by a contract legal force, than by their white-shoe law firms.

Second, law firms can capture some of that work by utilizing contract agencies themselves. That way they: 1) keep more control over more of the work; 2) still get to save their clients money without sacrificing their partners' A-rates; and 3) get to minimize their own overhead and expand their own reach by being able to take on larger projects than every before--without committing to great numbers of associates.

All you need now is a reputable, professional agency that actually screens its folks and takes an aggressive role in making projects actually work smoothly.

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2008-10-14T14:00:00.000-07:00

Picking a law firm is like picking a mail-order bride, only worse. You start with a healthy number of glossy marketing flyers in your hand; you see a hundred smiling faces; you read a hundred vapid, nearly identical descriptions of each firm’s “culture” and how “nurturing” each is. Just as untrustworthy as you may conceive of a “bride” (or “groom”!) catalog to be, don’t believe a word of this nonsense. Worse, neither should you take at face value the bracing assurances from third-year associates who promise the firm isn’t too harsh and the partners are really great people after all (even if a few do scream just a little).

Get a New Paradigm for Analyzing Firms

Likewise, take with a grain of salt what interviewers say about firm training and “development.” Nor should you put stock in the dark and usually spurious rumors spread by disenchanted senior or mid-level associates that their firm (otherwise stable and highly respected) really has some deep flaw or is about to “go under.” None of these sources can give you the information you really need. At best, this information is irrelevant to a proper analysis.

On the other hand, neither do I suggest that you pick at firm at random. Instead, I suggest that you take an entirely different look at what “firm culture” is and apply this new paradigm to your analysis. Doing this is both easier and harder than you may think.

Cultural Shift

First of all, just what “firm culture” is has changed in the last 10 years. It used to be that even the larger firms truly had unique approaches. There was a slightly different mix of perspectives, attitudes, and energies. Some firms just felt right; other didn’t. That quantum of culture was never easy to describe, but “you knew it when you saw it.” Things have changed.

If I may rely on a rather humble analogy: Recall to mind your high school physics class. You may have conducted a simple experiment of taking water chilled to below the freezing mark, but under pressure. Amazingly, although the temperature of the water was below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the pressure applied to it would not permit the water to freeze; it remained a chilled, uniform liquid. Something like that has happened to many law firms.

While it is almost by definition that we could say each firm has a nascent cultural “feel,” you often can’t “feel” it anymore. Previously, the pressures upon partners to manage cases, market existing clients, cross-sell with other departments, lecture and write, serve on committees, and, oh yes, “mentor” junior associates were not as great, nor as varied. Now, however, I perceive that the immense pressure on partners to perform all of these tasks (and well) has created an atmosphere of pressure so pronounced that what would otherwise coalesce into a cognizable firm “culture” remains cold, immobile, and sterile. Thus, I posit that an aspiring lawyer cannot trust whatever “cultural” signals he or she is receiving; they are being transmitted in a necessarily distorted way. Rely on these signals to your peril.

"Culture" and "Fit"

Next, what validity does “culture” still have in terms of law firm “fit”? I still believe that some firms are better suited to certain lawyers than others. But there is a better way to divine which is which. As alluded to above, partners (and by extension their firms) simply cannot and do not take the time and effort to put their individual stamps on their firms. Instead, these functions are being carried out by professional vendors.

Marketing companies help write flyers; consultants help write mission statements; specialists are brought in to conduct training classes; coaches are brought in to groom the up-and-coming (at best). With all these mixed and often disharmonious voices added to the mix, how does a prospective associate decide what is a good fit? By returning to basics. I hate to betray my deterministic leanings, but the best way to find out if a particular firm is a “fit” is by looking at the market forces that will inevitably shape the firm’s practice.

Use These New Tools:

Here are the criteria I look at:

What region did this firm originate in?

What are the component merged entities that have led to the current monstrous mega-firm you are considering?

What is the firm footprint (where are they now, and what has been the progression through markets)?

What are the firm’s stated goals in terms of growth?

What are the last few “leaked” merger partners that may have fallen through?
Where did their managing partner come from (is she homegrown or a fairly recent lateral)?

What is the mix between litigation and transactional work?\

Who are the firm’s clients (are they “mid-market,” Global 50, or merely Fortune 500)?

The above and other similar questions attempt to understand where a particular firm is going. This is all you can realistically hope to see as an associate.

A Gestalt of Analysis

In reality, how the firm “feels” for the first several years of your career is not terribly relevant anyway. You are, as a junior associate, shielded from the forces that are really shaping the firm; and by the time you do begin to discern them, you may be confronted with the necessity of a lateral move to find a better “fit”—or with the realization that you are going to have to shape your career in a way inimical to your temperament if you want to continue to thrive. Thus, what I have tried to describe is more a gestalt of culture rather than seeing culture as a static state of being.

All firms are going through growth pains as the legal industry begins to catch up to the market realities that have been shaping corporate America for the past 25 years. Culture-as-process is the new paradigm. The insightful attorney is the one that understands her or his own interests, working style, and goals and finds a firm that has demonstrated through its market decisions the intention to create a practice that is in sync with those personal traits.

Face it, firms are larger now; they are almost small societies in and of themselves. They are being shaped by individuals, but the totals are greater than the sum of their respective parts—and more complex than perhaps any one attorney can really get his or her arms around. Frankly, the realities of the direction of a particular firm may not be in sync with the “culture” exhibited by the current rank and file. If you want to succeed, you need to think a little beyond whether the firm offers margarita parties or yearly retreats. You need to think about a future practice.

Thus, my proposed “gestalt” of law firm cultural analysis becomes a nearly “zen” approach. This is because no matter how much you analyze a firm, it is hard to know whether the “right” firm is really the “best” for you. You are going to grow and change as an attorney: Your interests will change; your skills will change; your temperament will change; your personality itself is definitely going to undergo some realignment. It comes down to a gut-level decision—but a gut-level decision made after an appropriate analysis. Regardless, you have to make your choice and run with it—and be prepared to be flexible down the road. Good luck!

Manage, Lead, Direct: Using People Skills to Solve Problems

2008-10-14T12:03:00.000-07:00

If "credit" is synonymous with "trust", and it is, then there was never a more potent dramatization of the fact than observing the current global financial realignment. Governments will and are doing everything in their power to influence everyone in a position to lend or borrow that it is safe to do so. That's management. That's leadership. In your own firm or legal department, the same is true. You must inspire confidence, and then get down to the business of solving problems for your client or clients.

Implementing a Winning Perspective

How to do that in period of economic shift? Get back to basics. Think in terms of cash, saving, and cautious investment. The great economic and legal minds agree, so how to begin? One way: manage the cost of your project. The typical reader of this blog is a law firm or legal department manager. As the leader of a legal team you need the best talent you can afford, but you need to keep your expenses down (in-house perspective) or your product value-driven (law firm perspective). Same result either way: get your best talent doing what they do--analyzing, formulating solutions, and setting priorities. For everything else, think division of labor.

A Nod to "Father Abraham (Maslow)"

"To him who has only a hammer in his toolkit, every problem looks like a nail." Implicit message: get some more tools. A huge (new?) tool in your toolkit can be the use of legal professionals on a temporary, project-based basis. White shoe law firms and their equally status- and value-conscious clients are going down this path--indeed, have gone down it--so here are further data points if you are on the fence about it:

Litany of Virtue (aka a shameless commercial for using contract attorneys):

Value: The obvious: The cost involved in using contract attorneys for document review in the litigation, compliance and transactions contexts is around 80% less than standard law firm rates. Not so obvious: That means on a typically large document reviewing requiring 20 reviewers for four weeks, your client could easily realize a $1MM savings. For some clients, that’s the difference between being able to afford your A-rate for A-work, and going to another firm. On the other hand, lots of law firms treat their contract pool as a profit center.

Efficiency: The obvious: You can hire as many contract attorneys or paralegals as you need to for a particular service, with precisely the experience and credentials you need, and then say goodbye when a particular project is over. A win-win. Thus, you never need worry about your department’s capacity to handle large, plum assignments, yet keep your firm’s associate ranks lean. No-so-obvious: With modern hiring practices, a document review or other project requiring instant dedication of 20, 30 or even just 5 individuals, cannot easily be accommodated. Plus, your associates have competing demands for their time. You and they know that certain tasks do not help them on their career path—document review is one of them. Your client needs a dedicated team, committed 100% to their project. Your associates should be getting experience managing other attorneys, not reviewing documents.

Convenience: The obvious: Basically, you pay us an hourly rate for the work, a temporary agency does everything else. That means all employment issues, payroll (and payroll tax!); withholding; workers’ compensation insurance; attorney malpractice insurance; everything. We are the employers for our temps; you aren’t. No-so-obvious: There is no question of walking down the murky pathway of “independent contractors.”

Breadth: A good agency call upon an amazing well-spring of legal professionals. Let them do the searching and staffing.

1001 Nights

2008-05-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

The style takes some getting used to, but reading Burton's translation of 'Elf Laila wa Lail"--known to us as the Thousand and One Nights, or just The Arabian Nights, is really a very satisfying treat. I guarantee that if you do, you will never again see such a rich smorgasbord of ribald humor, breathless prose, classical poetry, and downright fun--and on every page!

It is also a treat to read Burton's informative and surprising entertaining footnotes. Some contain wry witticisms on the state of man, others an extended explication of etymology, and still others some insightful detail providing essential cultural background.

In my edition, there is an excellent introduction by A. S. Byatt. I highly recommend it because it contains a very compelling explanation of the nature of the "circular story"--the "story-within-a-story-within-a-story."

In a sense the entire "novel" is one long story of a young girl fighting for her life by keeping her husband and would-be murderer entertained with outlandish tails--all with the purpose of distracting him nightly from his purpose to kill her the following day. Woven within this framework is a rabbit hole or porous looking-glass of tales all woven together. A story about a storyteller with a main character who tells a story about a traveller with an interesting story to tell. It is at once breathless and captivating.

I've found the experience of actually reading through this voluminous compendium of tales as a metaphor for my life right now. In a way, I am, and we are all, storytellers telling ourselves a narrative about our experiences as we live them.

Of course, there isn't just a single story to relate. Rather, there are multiple tales all going on simultaneously, the threads to which we pick up and lay down almost at random, depending on what catches our eye at the moment.

For part of my morning, I tell myself the tale of the headhunter who attempts to woe attorneys from their comfortable offices and help them see where the walls of their offices are sometimes cages.

At other times I am the harassed dad who tries to field phone calls from school principals, an irate wife complaining over some misdeed (or, more usually, un-done deed!), a late bill or yet another health insurance bill bounced back.

Later in the day I tell myself the story of the frustrated career counsellor and sympathetic listener to the trials and tribulations of today's practicing attorney.

Many times at night, I hear myself complain of the too-few hours in my evening to do all my household chores, help the kids with their homework, find time for my spouse and perhaps squeeze in a quiet moment for reflection.

In all, our lives are all tales-within-a-tale. It helps sometimes to remember that we can, as the tellers, and should, elaborate the highs, hyperbolize the woes, and dramatize the stresses. If we can do that, we can keep it all in perspective, and remember to treat the bard to an extra glass of wine.

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The Book of Disquiet

2008-01-11T15:33:00.000-08:00

I have a strange book recommendation for you. It is "The Book of Disquiet" by Fernando Pessoa. This diminutive volume (Penguin Classics) is an amalgam of sometimes short, sometimes long stream-of-consciousness chapters that are supposed to constitute an "auto-biography without facts." In fact, the book is entirely fictional, but that isn't the point.

What amazes and astounds is the alternately lyrical, stealthily chilling and by turns incredibly insightful musings of this unique work of fiction. Typical American novels tend to praise the outlandish, the famous, the cheap, the flashy and the superlative. Pessoa, however, writes in praise of the obscure, the dismal, the small, the ordinary and the sometimes desperate inner life that most of us ignore.

What emerges is a testament to the brilliance of life lived in ordinary, even bleak circumstances, circumstances that mirror and analogize the sometimes grueling inner turmoil of the average thinking person. The average thinking person I refer to, of course, if the working lawyer. Scratch the surface of a practicing lawyer and you will find a frustrated philosopher, a stunted author, a hyper-sensitive soul with a dramatic flair for observation. Lawyers will find a kindred spirit in Pessoa--one that rivals anyone's pursuit of knowledge, and of truth.

Philosophical "Pragmatism"--Yeah, It Matters

2008-01-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

Charles Sanders Pierce began a philosophical movement in the late 1800's he called philosophical pragmatism. At the time, he quipped that he adopted the least attractive name possible in order to forestall others from stealing his ideas. In all, it turned out to be a rather robust theory, or set of theories, and continues to have vitality to this day.

The point of philosophical pragmatism is NOT some Machiavellian "situational ethics" as the name might imply (not that there's anything wrong with that!). Rather, the point is that any philosophy of the mind, of knowing, of science or of ultimate truth would be grounded in experience, combined together with our theories, and not somehow separate from experience in a classical a priori-type world.Part of the idea is to realize that the utility of ideas somehow matters--consequences matter and current theories and assumptions are a part of the mix. Being a philosophical pragmatist is one part philosophical archaeologist. You are understanding what has been known, as well as looking around you trying to figure out what truth is.

What does it matter? Well, it matters on all sorts of levels, but I think it applies to our career advancement most particularly. In all the talk about "fit" and "firm culture", there is much emphasis put on self-evaluation and self-analysis. Part of what constitutes our "selves" is as much our prior beliefs about our performance, as well as what is actually "true" about our abilities--get it? We have to delve into the history of our own belief-systems to get down to "facts" and "observations" that can awaken us and take us on to the next level.

If we can really take into account all of our prior beliefs and current observations into account, and review them continuously over time, we can begin to participate in "creating" truth as the pragmatists say. Their favorite analogy? The carpenter builds a chair, but he does not create it from nothing. In the same way, the truth about ourselves is "out there", beyond our capacity (in some degree) to control. However, we can take parts of that created tree and saw and bend and join until we find something of utility and beauty.

Think about it.

The Window of Opportunity

2007-11-26T06:57:00.000-08:00

Well. Thank goodness for the quirks of the calendar! This added week in November is, I'm sure you have already grasped, a great opportunity! "December-Holiday-mind" has a one-week buffer! We can all get into a true rhythm, one that might must carry us us to mid-December if we are lucky.

As far as law firms are concerned, this gives them time to actually make decisions on interviews of corporate candidates that have been pending--some pending since the original August credit revelations. Thus, if you are in the midst of a search, I can assure you your recruiter is or should be humming along and exceedingly busy.

To all my own candidates, you can believe that I am either already embroiled in analysis and calls on your behalf, or figuring out how to get just one more profile through the system. This is like a "mini-tax" season (by analogy) and we are burning the midnight oil. Further, if you are considering initiating a search, this is a good time. Getting your hat in the ring now during this fairly optimistic period in terms of market perceptions (yes, really), is a good thing--even if no movement can happen due to logistics until the New Year.

In all, forget shopping for trinkets, get out there and shop for your next gig. Early worm and all that . . . .

Just a thought.

Open Letter to the Lawyers of Pakistan

2007-11-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Bar of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan,

I am only one humble lawyer, but I salute those of you who have risked your livelihoods, your lives, and most importantly, your liberty, in the protest again the naked attempt to undermine the rule of law in Pakistan.

What paltry information we Americans receive about the situation, claims that in the past there have been questions about the integrity of some members of the Pakistani bar and judiciary. If that is so, after seeing your brave protests in the streets of Islamabad, all is now forgiven and more than forgiven.

I cannot tell you how moving it is to see hundreds, thousands of suited and cravatted lawyers yelling in the streets, arms and faces raised against tyranny. You as attorneys are truly perhaps the last bastion against absolute rule by fiat in your nation.

I only have to ask: what can we as American lawyers do for you????

For us American Lawyers, would we have the courage to do the same??? Our forefathers did, and put their lives and livelihoods similarly on the line.

The MARKET Will Decide the Price of Services, Not WalMart

2007-11-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

I got quoted in IPLaw360 on Saturday in a piece on Walmart's ill-conceived memo trying to rein in associate rates charged them for work. The upshot is that Walmart wants no rate increases unless an individual memo is approved as to the individual worth of each attorney billing on a matter. Other than the fact that I cannot believe such a procedure would ever be put into practice on a consistent, to say nothing of a long-term, basis, the plan will of course backfire on Walmart, at least from the law firm point of view.

First, I have to say that I was quoted somewhat incorrectly. The author of the piece indicates that I thought firms would use "tricks" to keep up hourly rates. This is not precisely the case. What will happen, however, is that firms will do everything within their power to keep their stated rates at the premium/premier levels, and use tools such as blended rates, and other devices, to keep clients happy, without admitting to lowering fee rates.

Second, there is no way in hell Walmart or anyone else is going to rein in legal fees. If it is not feasible to control "prices" on a national level with the full support of the federal government behind it, then a single firm, or even a group of corporate concerns is not going to keep this in check. Hello, people!!! The MARKET decides prices, not individual companies. Of course, Walmart and anyone else can price themselves down into the sub-prime market (if you will). There are plenty of attorneys who work work for Walmart at even $120/hour--but does Walmart want there people? Basically, the white shoe firms of the world (using the phrase loosely) will simply move on. If you want premier help, you pay premier prices. Period.

What Walmart surprising cannot figure out (as they are supposed to be savvy retailers as I recall) is that market demand and supply control price. Not testosterone-heavy corporate counsel's departments. Such a move by Walmart to enforce a "slow-down" of fee increases only helps some. It will help their current firms to decide whether they want to continue representing Walmart, and it will help the next-lower-tier firm who is willing to charge less for their less-then-premier services (as perceived by the market, of course) garner a new client. Add to that the well-known fact that as an industry, demand for legal services is incredibly inelastic. Just browse over to Bruce's blog for a primer.

The fact that the greatest global labor shortage of all time in the professional ranks of all professions is upon us and will continue for the foreseeable future means that premier prices--and all prices--will continue to rise because the cost of labor will necessarily continue to rise to attract and retain talent.

There isn't a damn thing Walmart--or anyone else--can do about that.

Just a thought.

Don't Go There: Faust, Law Firm Managment & Profits

2007-11-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

The legend of Dr. Faustus is more than half a millennium old. A German folktale with some basis in historical fact, the legend of the polymath, omni-lingual philosopher-turned-occultist dominates the German psyche, and has had immeasurable effect in our own literary tradition. The story, simply put, is that Dr. Faustus has plumbed all human knowledge, but yet wants more. Eventually, he makes a pact with the Devil to gain greater occult power, seduces a maiden, and eventually finds redemption. It's a long story, a poem really, that has an extremely devoted following (sort of along the order of the Wagnerian-groupie effect).

What does the Faustus myth have to do with law firm management? Plenty. The whole idea of the originally-well-intentioned ingenue of knowledge-turned-lawyer who eventually becomes the rapacious firm-merging blunt instrument/capitalist-tool is so ingrained in our profession's collected psyche as to be a paradigm. The funny thing along the path of such a person is that while brilliant, charming and incredibly competent, such persons tend to have a phoenix-like quality. In other words, while they may temporarily build something grand, they have a distinct tendency to crash and burn--bringing their friends, family and devoted employees and colleagues with them.

The irony is that the Faustian former king or king-maker in the legal industry may retire peacefully to a rural retreat and muse philosophical about his/her professional and personal triumphs and failures. Redeemed, out of the profession, at peace. The trick is, one wonders whether the said now-redeemed Faustus could have made the journey without all the drama, and without seducing the "maiden" (read: believing associates and partners alike). Are you listening, Tower?????

Just a thought.

I'll provide the link to Tower Snow's recent interview with The Recorder as soon as it becomes available. If you read it in light of Tower's meteoric rise, the Brobeck break-up, Tower's family blow-out, and the Clifford Chance debacle, his zen-like hubris is stunning.

San Francisco as Sanctuary: The Region's Diversity Buoys Fall-out from Questions in the Corporate Market

2007-11-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Some pundits relate a perceptible slow-down in corporate hiring and the traditional fleshing out in the litigation ranks. As far as the validity of this observation in the Bay Area, I have to say it is more nascent than fully realized, but the following are telling:

1. Firms at all levels are still SEEKING corporate candidates. This is an important point. It belies the fact that the economy is still fundamentally strong, which is to say that there is as-yet-untapped demand for legal services. The drivers here? Globalization, and a relatively stable and functioning global financial and transport/trade infrastructures. As long as these fundamental stay in play-and they have and will in spite of (or as a result of, depending on your politics) the current "pax Americana" wars.

2. Actual "trigger-pulling" has slowed perceptively in terms of corporate hires, however. While the process has continued unabated through the Summer and early Fall, I have noticed that some firms are slower on the draw than they otherwise have been in the past 24 months. The slow-down has been nearly perfectly contemporaneous with the credit debacle. Yet, after Citibank and other wrote off their 10-figure losses, the market rebounded and firms started hiring again.

3. Litigation needs have always been strong, if unremarkable, but there are rumblings about further needs. Standards for interview invitations have relaxed by a small, yet perceptible degree. It is not as bad as it was during early summer where Circuit Court of Appeals clerks could barely get a blink out of the top-tier firms.

4. The main-line "niche" practices are stronger, and ever more so. Labor & employment, real estate, estate planning, ERISA, energy, and even tax are growing. This is the result of the echo-effect of globalization. While the largest firms globally consolidate, those same firms, while unable to eschew the "all things to all people" paradigm, are unable to sustain the relatively depressed rates of these practices. Thus, they are fleeing rather precipitately to well-known boutiques. There are many, many opportunities here.

5. All IP-related practices are of course still untouched by any wobbles in the credit crunch. Even the still faint but perceptible visceral (and inaccurate) prognostications of world-wide recession cannot stop this juggernaut. Intellectual property is the "new" real property, folks. Gotta get some. Trouble is, they keep "making more." Oh yeah, I forgot, that's why it is the legal services side of the house that is so strong!

6. Population trends favor sustained growth in this market. I won't quote you the numbers, but suffice it to say that the Bay Area's population is continuing to grow unchecked. The need for legal talent continues to increase, and the pool of the 'right kind' of candidates continues to shrink as a percentage of the available pool of talent. Thus, these are, and will continue to be, salad days for attorneys. Even better for all of us are the continual seismic threats. That keeps away the merely idle on-lookers and attracts just that many fewer to flesh out the ranks.

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Network, Dammit! (A Reprise)

2007-11-05T22:28:00.000-08:00

Just got home from a great little marketing event especially for law-bloggers. It was a homely little event, although with some stellar attendees. Basically, we all sat around (about 50 of us at a single huge conference table) and chatted about a few central issues about blogging and how it affected our respective careers.

The content itself: dull, dull, dull--nothing I couldn't have thought up myself. I only say that (other than it being true) to give voice to what most of you are thinking about the next (or last) marketing event you went to. Bottom line: sure!, the content was weak, with maybe "one or two" little nuggets of thought to take "away."

But think! Those one or two nuggets might just be the "single grain of rice" that puts you over the top in your next negotiation. To say nothing of the chance to meet lawyers from across disciplines--an occasion fraught with marketing possibilities for now and in the future.

Again, no matter how simple, homely, or down-right boring your next marketing event may be, it, in addition to all the others you have already participated in and those you'll be participating in next week and next month and next year, will all add up.

Yup! I've got a new client (candidate) out of this event. Got some advice for improving my blog, found out about a better (and cheaper) hosting company, etc., etc., all from one short little two-hour event. Think of each marketing event as one brick in your overall career structure. One brick doesn't matter? Try leaving out a few and see where it gets you.

It's not so much being the "early bird", it's being the EverReady bunny. Being there really does matter.

Just a thought.

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