TechnoLawyer

Originally published on October 25, 2010 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

I loved Michael Gerber's book, The E-Myth. The first half of the book tells the story of a small business owner named Sarah. Gerber goes on for page after page showing us the life that Sarah is living. He explains what works and what doesn't work in her business. We come to understand her stress, her ups, and, more importantly, her downs. I learned something from this book that I never expected to learn and that Gerber didn't intend to teach.

Work On Your Business Instead of in It — and Understand Your Client's Problems

As I read the book, I kept feeling like Gerber wasn't describing Sarah — he was describing me. It was as if he knew me. I felt he had been watching me in my business. I started to believe Gerber must have been a fly on the wall in my life. It was eerie. It was as if Gerber had looked inside my brain and my heart.

By the time I finished reading The E-Myth, I was sold. I thought Gerber understood me better than my wife. I was ready to buy anything Gerber was selling. I really wanted to meet the guy. I had found my business guru.

Only later did I realize something odd: Gerber had described my problems, but he hadn't really provided me with a solution. He gave me some vague ideas about heading in the right direction, but I didn't know what to do to solve the problems he had described so well. I was still lost except that I was certain that Gerber could help me. I knew he would know what to do.

I went to California to see him. I attended an E-Myth Seminar. I hired an E-Myth coach, and in fact I learned how to solve my problems with the help of the E-Myth approach. I have nothing but fond memories of my time with Gerber's people. I learned plenty from them. We built amazing systems, and I moved from working "in" my business to working "on" my business. But the most important lesson I learned from Gerber came long after the consulting ended.

Only later did I realize that Gerber is much more than a business "fixer." He is also a marketing genius. Although he never tried to sell me anything, I desperately wanted to buy whatever he was selling. I was sold because I knew Gerber understood me. I was convinced that if he understood my problems as well as it seemed, he certainly understood how to solve my problems.

That's the big lesson I learned — show me that you understand my problem, and I'll buy your solution. You don't need to show me the solution. You just need to make it clear that you understand me and my problems. Then you've sold many others and me.

How To Make Prospects Feel Like You Understand Them

How does Gerber's approach to selling apply to my practice and to yours?

If you want to sell your services effectively, you've got to be able to tell your clients their own story. You've got to be able to describe what's happening to them, how they're feeling, what they fear, and what they dream about. When you're able to create that "fly on the wall" feeling, you've got clients for life. They'll know that you understand their problem, and they'll be certain that you know the solution.

How can you be a fly on the wall? How can you create that experience for them?

It's easy. You've been gathering data for as long as you've been practicing law. Your clients have been telling you what's happening in their lives. They talk about their worries and concerns. They talk about what's bothering them and how upset they have become. Unfortunately, we tend to ignore this information — the "legally insignificant" stuff we don't put in our notes.

We've been discounting the most important material when we listen to our clients because it usually doesn't make much difference from a legal perspective. Much of what they've been telling us matters only from an emotional perspective.

It's time to shift gears. We've got to go back and think about what our clients tell us. All that extraneous information turns out to be the most valuable marketing information. It will enable you to retell the client's story and create that fly-on-the-wall feeling.

Master the story. Be able to tell it anytime, anyplace.

Then tell it. Tell it in on your Web site, in your initial consultations, in advertisements, during referral source lunches, and everywhere else you communicate your marketing message.

Let prospective clients know that you understand. Once they know that you know, they'll line up at your door. You'll be their legal guru. You'll be the lawyer with services they want to buy even if you never offer anything for sale.

[Editor's Note: Perhaps because of his experience helping Lee Rosen and other lawyers, Michael Gerber published a new book a few months ago entitled The E-Myth Attorney: Why Most Legal Practices Don't Work and What to Do About It.]

Written by Lee Rosen of Divorce Discourse.

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Originally published on October 18, 2010 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Picture, if you will — a struggling economy (like, oh, the one we've confronted for the past two years), a practice area that has been battered by the economic tides (let's call it "commercial real estate"), and the kind of national mega-firm where top partner billing rates hover somewhere between $750 and $1,000 an hour (say, for example, Latham & Watkins, the third largest law firm by revenue according to the 2010 AmLaw 100).

Now picture a partner at such a firm, whose commercial real estate practice has continued and survived despite a volatile market and epic downturn. If you could flip ahead in this story, you would find this partner battening down the hatches, snuggling into the warm embrace of the large firm where he practices, and waiting for the tough times to pass, safe in the knowledge that he is largely insulated from the day-to-day struggle faced by his counterparts in the cold, hard world of solo practice. Right? Wrong.

Why Jump From BigLaw Success to Solo Practice?

If that practitioner were Joshua Stein — who happens to be the hero of this particular tale and one of the leading commercial real estate lawyers in the United States — you would find him in a newly appointed office suite in midtown Manhattan — alone. Or virtually alone. In August 2010, Stein left Latham & Watkins to form Joshua Stein PLLC, a one-man practice that he manages singlehandedly, in what he calls "efficient solitude."

Specifically, unlike the mega-firm he left behind (which employs thousands), Stein has chosen the more traditional superhero route, with a modern twist: he has taken on one trusty administrative sidekick, but she is not an on-site secretary, or even a constant presence. Instead, he hired an hourly virtual assistant who works from Redmond, Washington, and with whom he communicates almost exclusively by email and file sharing. "I think we've spoken four times," he says.

So, why leave the security of an established practice at a venerable firm now, and strike out in an unpredictable economy and a wretched commercial real estate market? Perhaps more importantly, if you're bold enough to strike out on your own in such inhospitable conditions, how do you make it work? Well, as a preliminary matter, Stein is clearly not a bitter ex-partner, and has no unkind words for Latham & Watkins. Rather, his departure and his strategy for life as a solo practitioner start from a few basics — freedom, flexibility, and simplicity.

One issue, he explains, is that billing rates at many large law firms have escalated to a level that clients find problematic, though not necessarily because of the high cost of partners' time. The larger point of resistance, says Stein, seems to be associate time, which — at large firms — clients often regard as both overly expensive and inefficient.

As a solo practitioner, Stein enjoys the freedom to bill his clients for completed projects or on any other basis that makes sense, rather than just quantity of hours. Although his billing rate still reflects his years of experience and expertise, he has flexibility thanks to dramatically lower overhead and the autonomy of making (and living with) his own financial decisions, with no need to obtain any approval from any committee. We refer to lawyers like Stein as "BigSolos".

So far, his formula is working. "From a client's perspective," he explains, "it's often a good deal to pay more for someone who has lots of experience and really knows what they're doing," rather than inexperienced associates.

Stein also enjoys the freedom to work on any matters that suit him, including some that are not necessarily a good fit at big firms. For example, he says, expert witness work and certain kinds of transactions can be difficult to take on as a biglaw partner, whether because of the potential conflicts or economic realities they present. At his new practice, Stein can focus on the work he enjoys, unburdened by the fear that a small but very interesting matter will present a conflict for the next mega-deal to come down the pike, or that his views on a particular issue (as an expert or a commenter in the press) will come back to haunt him, his clients, or his partners.

New Technology Powers Stein's New Law Firm

When it came to setting up his new practice, Stein truly appreciated the "freedom and simplicity" of the solo life. He says that he toyed with the idea of not renting office space at all, but ultimately decided that clients are "very interested" in knowing that their attorney has a physical office, and less thrilled about "using someone who works out of their bedroom."

After securing office space, his first priority was "pushing the use of computers as far as I could." Always an early adopter, Stein has made technology an integral part of his practice since the early 1980s. Earlier this year, he published an article in TechnoLawyer in which he shared his favorite software and Web sites

In his new practice, he not only embraces technology, but says that he "really enjoys being my own technology department." He has outfitted his office with 6 or 7 computers ("so far," he adds, like any good tech-junkie), and moved his document management to the cloud with NetDocuments, about which he offers high praise. "It has much the same functionality as Interwoven," he says, "but without the need for care and feeding that comes along with a software-based system." Moreover, it suits the flexibility of Stein's new, nimble way of practicing, which calls for the occasional use of additional staff, and makes it "incredibly easy for me — and anyone I work with — to access my documents online, while also keeping everything totally private and secure."

Hourly Billing Without the Usual Accoutrements

As for billing, Stein says that, while he is "open" to alternative practices, such as flat fees, volume discounts, or monthly retainers for certain clients (for work within a carefully defined scope), he often returns to the "logic of the billable hour." At the end of the day, he reflects, the unequal incentives inherent in both flat fees and hourly billing make them imperfect systems, "parts of which always create concerns for one of the parties." But, he adds, "there is a lot of power in hourly billing at a rate that reflects high quality partner time," which is what he delivers — in streamlined form — to his clients. He does not charge for expense disbursements such as copies, telephone calls, and secretarial time; uses contract attorneys only when a need arises; and does not employ a paralegal.

This minimal approach to staffing has given Stein the opportunity to handle a wide range of projects, with a level of autonomy that he finds refreshing after years as part of a large institution. The change, apparently, suits him. From planning a recent open house at his new office to interacting with the press, he speaks with palpable relish about the freedom of being his own boss.

Indeed, Stein even had a hand in designing his own logo — a Warhol-esque burst of colored skyscrapers, which looks more like the stylized graphic you'd expect from a high-end architectural firm, and less like the tired images of pillars, scales, and serious-looking attorneys carrying briefcases that adorn many law firm marketing materials. It may be a small touch, but it is, perhaps, another symbol of the fresh approach to practicing law that Stein, and others like him can adopt after years in biglaw.

"This is not for everyone," Stein says, "but for the most part, it's allowing me to focus on what I really like. I was worried that I might be lonely without other people around, but truthfully … I find that I'm usually too lost in my work to notice."

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Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers a SharePoint add-in for Outlook and Windows Explorer (see article below), an online tool that creates animated videos from your script, an online file management and sharing service, an app that transforms your iPad into a second monitor, and accounting software for Mac OS X. Don't miss the next issue.

Share and Share Alike

Microsoft SharePoint is a popular collaboration and document management tool in law firms. But legal professionals complain that SharePoint is a bit of a beast and not designed specifically for law firms. As a result, a cottage industry of SharePoint add-ons exists that seek to tame the beast by adding legal-friendly features.

Colligo Contributor Pro 4.2 … in One Sentence
Colligo Networks' Colligo Contributor Pro 4.2 for SharePoint enables you to access SharePoint via Outlook, a desktop application, and Windows Explorer.

The Killer Feature
Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook enables you to access SharePoint libraries and lists from within Microsoft Outlook. With this add-in, you can share client-related email messages and attachments by clicking the "Send & File" button or by dragging and dropping it into SharePoint document libraries and folders.

Your firm can customize your preferred level of integration by devising Outlook rules to automatically capture email and attachments. You can also customize settings for synchronization and version resolution.

Other Notable Features
In addition to the Colligo Contributor Add-In for Outlook, Colligo Contributor Pro 4.2 also includes Contributor Client and Contributor File Manager.

Contributor Client is a Windows desktop application through which you can access SharePoint. It offers a drag-and-drop interface between SharePoint and Microsoft Office desktop applications. Contributor Client enables you to synchronize documents, libraries, or entire SharePoint sites on your PC, or configure a one-way sync for read-only access.

Contributor File Manager is a Windows Explorer extension that makes folders on your file system "SharePoint aware" both online and offline, linking them with SharePoint document libraries. Contributor File Manager enables you to access advanced features such as metadata, content types, and document templates, and open, organize, classify and save SharePoint files.

What Else Should You Know?
Pricing for Colligo Contributor Pro 4.2 starts at $179 with volume pricing available. Colligo provides unlimited email support. You can purchase an enterprise support plan that provides telephone support and software updates. Learn more about Colligo Contributor Pro 4.2.

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The Real World of Virtual Law Firms

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Originally published on October 25, 2010 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

Two years ago, I left my job as a biglaw associate the same day an of counsel who sat on my floor also departed. At our joint going away party (which featured a small cake for me and a larger one for him, naturally), we chatted briefly about why we were leaving. He said he was lateraling to another large law firm in the city to try to make partner. I said I was leaving to pursue writing. Only one of us made it (hint — you're reading my BigLaw column).

It's not that this guy wasn't great at his job. To the contrary, he was a very serious, detail-oriented lawyer who routinely worked long hours even though he had young kids and a wife. And though I personally liked him very much, he could be aloof with clients, and had an awkward phone demeanor — and, occasionally, bad breath. There was good reason he was of counsel and not partner at my old firm. Sadly, he lacked self-awareness if he thought that lateraling would solve the problem.

Biglaw partners are a very specific breed. If you're an associate with great technical skills but no "it" factor, you're doomed to become of counsel, or worse — be asked to leave. Fortunately, you can take steps to dodge the of counsel bullet and gain the "it" factor. Below you'll learn how to fake it 'til you make it.

1. Cultivate Your Partner Personality

I recently met a senior associate at a firm who expects to make partner this year because he's meticulous and a hard worker. However, despite having never seen any of his work, I can guarantee that he'll make of counsel. Why?

He comes across as desperate, exhausted, and uptight. He's also extremely overweight and disheveled. Firms want partners who are socially savvy, self-aware, and confident. They look for well-dressed, well-kempt people who can get the job done for clients and take them to a dinner after the deal closes (case settles).

If life is a schoolyard, partners (aside from tax partners) are the cool kids with decent grades who play sports. Counsel are the straight-A nerds in marching band. If you're a natural-born nerd, you need to fight your inner bookworm and act the part of partner. That may mean polishing your small talk skills, revamping your wardrobe, and/or losing weight. If you're unsure how you come across, consider hiring an image consultant for brutally honest feedback.

2. Get An Important Client To Back You

Once you've finessed your partner personality, it's time to start buttering up your firm's key clients. If you work closely with a particular client and become their go-to lawyer, the client may develop allegiance to you as an individual. You can leverage this loyalty by having the client praise you to your firm's partners or even go to bat for your directly.

Nothing will motivate a firm to make someone partner more than if a client threatens to take its business elsewhere — especially if it's a major blue chip client. Giving you a small equity stake in the firm is a lot cheaper than losing millions of dollars of business.

3. Bring in Business. Lots of It.

Future partners are shameless salespeople who win new clients based on the strength of their personalities. A mid-level associate friend of mine frequents an Irish pub where bankers hang out and has brought in millions of dollars to his firm simply by buying people drinks, schmoozing with them, and handing out his business card.

By contrast, future of counsel hide in their office and work on the matters assigned to them. They find networking oily and uncomfortable and think they prove themselves on the strength of their work. Law firms are businesses like any other, so if you want to make it to upper management, you have to prove your business savvy.

4. Build Your Reputation in the Firm

If you've ever looked at your firm's new partner and of counsel announcements, odds are you recognize the names of all the associates who made partner and few, if any, of the associates promoted to of counsel. That's because associates who eventually become partner wage public relations campaigns and work hard to raise their profiles within the firm. They demonstrate their commitment by sitting on firm committees, spearheading charity events, and taking on highly visible pro bono projects. They build reputations as tough but fair project managers and make it a point to work with as many partners as possible to ensure widespread buy-in.

If you think extracurriculars don't count and that the only variables that matter are your billable hours and work product, you're setting yourself up for counsel and a six- rather than a seven-figure salary. No associate was ever plucked from obscurity and made partner.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on October 18, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

A modern solo practice or small law firm requires rethinking (1) technological tools, (2) procedures, and (3) workspace. We start here in this issue of SmallLaw with the most fundamental and low-tech of these, yet one of critical importance to lawyers, especially those working from "home offices" — your workspace.

From a Traditional Office to One Less Office

It was serendipity that forced me to focus on workspace considerations. I broke, and then re-broke my foot, resulting in being in a boot/cast contraption for nearly a year. Until then, I had thought ideal my move to a downtown loft with living space upstairs and a huge (essentially traditional) office workspace downstairs. Suddenly, "downstairs" sounded like the other side of Mars. And it was not immediately apparent that I could set up an even temporarily efficient workspace in the far more accessible but relatively miniscule upstairs living area.

However, using a four and one-half foot square area in the corner of the living room, I was able to establish a workspace so efficient and so perfect for a technologically advanced practice that the downstairs remains essentially abandoned, except as the parking place for large printers and production scanners, all of which I use less and less as I'll explain in future columns.

Central to the workspace setup is, of course, the desk, and I owe TechnoLawyer my thanks for pointing me to Heckler Design which is the manufacturer of "OneLessDesk."

Heckler Design's desk, constructed of steel, is actually two separate desks forged of metal into the shape of an inverted "U." The larger has a footprint (including sliders) of approximately 39 x 14.5 inches with the other small enough to be snuggled completely within the shelter of the larger piece. The larger piece has what is, from the front, an invisible shelf which is ideal for out-of-sight storage of AC adaptor blocks and electrical cords, among other potential uses. When in use, the smaller desk slides out thus providing a two level workspace.

By way of example, I have sitting on the higher desk a dual 20" monitor set up, a USB postage scale, a Dymo LabelWriter Duo, and a Dymo LabelWriter Twin Turbo that prints mailing labels with one of its two print heads, and postage (using Endicia) with the other. There remains enough real estate on the larger component of the desk to place the charger for my Bluetooth mouse, to lay my iPhone while recharging, and other minor junk.

Various NAS (near area storage) devices, including a wonderful Drobo, fit neatly under the desk yet in plain sight and easily accessible.

The smaller slide-out component of the desk holds my gigantic Lenovo W700 laptop along with its docking station, a Polycom phone speaker, an external LaCie 1TB Drive, and myriad additional pieces of junk.

With OneLessDesk you can forget about the three most dreaded words in the English language — "minor assembly required." Nothing is required other than to unpack the components of your OneLessDesk, and then (which even I can do) screw on the non-skid sliders that permit the desk to move easily over any surface where the desk meets the floor.

Anthro Minicart and Verte Chair

I actually have two "OneLessDesk" sets (a total of four desk surfaces) that I have placed at a 90 degree angle, thus creating an "L" shaped work area. Because I wanted to fully use these desk areas, they do not overlap, which means I have a small square area in the "V" between the two desks into which fit perfectly a small Anthro "MiniCart" (under $300) to which I added an extra bottom shelf.

The MiniCart holds my ScanSnap, telephone base set, an extra large Bluetooth keyboard in its charging stand, another sizeable gizmo, a laser printer, a network switch, an external LightScribe CD/DVD burner by LiteOn, and a Vonage adapter (into which my phone base is plugged).

Rather than using a MiniCart to hold additional equipment, you can place your printers and/or scanners on Heckler Design's "OneLessStands," which is shaped precisely like the components of its "OneLessDesk," but small enough to be snuggled completely within the shelter of the OneLessDesk. Although I prefer always if possible to work with electronic documents, for those who cannot completely cut the cord to paper, or who are forced to deal with paper, Heckler Design also sells a "OneLessFile," which provides Pendaflex storage that fits neatly under the OneLessStand. After happily working for years without them, I have just now ordered both the Stand and File, which will increase my available workspace without adding to my 4.5 foot square "office" footprint.

Such a classy setup demands, of course, the perfect chair. For quite a while I used a Herman Miller Aeron with this set-up, and both functionally and aesthetically, it worked wonderfully. I have now moved on, however, to the Verte Chair sold (but apparently not manufactured) by Anthro, which is a bit odd-looking, in an industrial torture contraption sort of way and expensive ($1,500), but well worth it, especially to anyone with back problems.

Cost and Caveats

Heckler Design has bundled its OneLessDesk ($699), OneLessStand ($299), and OneLessFile ($149) into what, not surprisingly, it calls its "OneLessOffice" ($1047), all prices inclusive of shipping charges.

All of Heckler Design's office components appear incredibly well made and good value, and have that edgy industrial chic appearance so much in demand, but I have a few warnings: Do not stub your toe on the edge of the desk, and do not pinch any part of your body between something else hard and that edge, or it will hurt. In other words, not for klutzes. Also, the desk feet do not have levelers.

Creating a workspace like mine not only solves common space problems in a hip eye-pleasing way, but also encourages economical practices while discouraging reliance on "old-school" routines such as accumulation of paper and post-its and the bad work habits that inevitably ensue.

Written by Yvonne M. Renfrew of Renfrew Law.

How to Receive SmallLaw
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