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Legal services has shifted to a buyer’s market. “Old news” you say? Perhaps. What’s different now is we all feel it. Good news for behavior-change types. Course correcting a law firm is a team sport, and each of us has a key role to play. Note: the game has changed drastically as well.  

PPP ≠ Profits and Client Loyalty ≠ Guaranteed

Scoring points these days requires a basic understanding of the new game, the positions, the clients, the plays, the competition, and most importantly how to practice and win together. Coincidentally, this is precisely what our ILTACON LPM session is about (read: Legal Practice Management). Wednesday. September 2^nd. 11:00 a.m.

As a giver of information, purveyor of transparency, and spreader of ideas—on behalf of our kick-butt session team—I’ve prepared a brief list of six ways to help you decide whether to invest 90 minutes with us. (The conference is in Vegas for goodness’ sake. Tough to compete with that!): 

1. You believe the word “value” is so abused that reading it actually elicits irritation. (And therefore we still have no clue what to make of it.)

Every single client perceives the value of each legal service (think: matter-type) differently. Each of the firm’s clients have multiple stakeholders, many of whom do not reside in legal departments. (GCs are now accountable to corporate executives.) Corporate executives—plural—each need, want, and expect different things.

Each individual’s understanding of efficiency and optimization varies drastically as well. Some struggle with budgeting and reporting themselves. Others leverage predictive analytics and dissect matter-level cost of delivery for breakfast. 

Read: solving for value consistently requires EXTREMELY sophisticated amounts of communication.

Call it project management, process improvement, client services, professional development, practice group leadership, KM, information governance, pixie dust, whatever—building and delivering customizable solutions or designing systems that support those that build and deliver customizable solutions is no longer a luxury. This is what “a buyer’s market” means. And the clock is ticking.

Today, firms actually lose clients if the price (aka fee arrangement) or project plan do not align and/or are not delivered properly. And many exceptional business development teams convert this into profit margins daily.

So yes, we’re starting with how to define and capture “value.” 

2. You or someone you know has built it and ”they” have yet to come. (Same applies for bought it or implemented it.)

Wouldn’t it be lovely to live in a Field of Dreams? Sadly, this is the real world where changing behaviors is hard work. New systems, dashboards, reports, newsletters, etc. are all equally easy to ignore. But there is hope. And we will walk through it.

Yes, we can talk SharePoint cloud integration in conjunction with appropriate KPIs, UX design—read: end users involved in the design process, and successful internal communication plans. (See how I did that? Inserted “SharePoint” into an ILTA dialogue. #SorryNotSorry)

3.  You don’t believe consulting the stars for decision making is as effective as using data.

Must I really elaborate on this? I think not. To be fair, our session is not the “big data” session. However, streamlining taxonomies and capturing clean data—at the matter level, client level, and attorney level—across all systems (which is a function of the process!) is a must. Period.

Matter intake, time and billing, matter management, experience, CRM, DMS, conflicts, the website, etc. must all align. Again starting at the matter, attorney, and client level. Statisticians call this “correlation”, and it’s going to be big! <Insert hint of sarcasm>

So, yes—we will cover how to identify and attack “low-hanging fruit” projects.

4.  You or someone you know has tried to pitch an idea or start a project that never happened, or worse, was not “successful.”

As the old adage goes, nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. What this go-to proverb fails to note is how to gather said crowd in the first place. Recall kinetic energy lessons from high school:

A body in motion stays in motion. A body at rest stays at rest.

We call this leveraging momentum, and learning to do so is a game changer. But it’s only a part of the solution. Another primary skill set required to create crowds—quickly—is an ability to identify and quantify problems or opportunities, benchmark starting points, and demonstrate results. (My personal favorite is quantifying the cost of doing nothing.)

Yes, we’re covering basics. No, calculators will not be necessary. (Seriously, this has very little to do with math.)

 5. You or someone you know is waiting for the firm, finance, leadership, attorneys, etc. to:  

Yes, we’ll cover all this. For purposes of this article, the rest is a surprise.

6. You enjoy laughing.

I can’t say enough about the crew that helped create this session and presenting alongside of me. Patrick Fuller,Director of Legal Analytics at FKA TyMetrix; Peter Secor, Director of Strategic Pricing and Project Management at Pepper Hamilton; and Cindy Holbrook Managing Director of Global Practice Development at Winston Strawn. All wicked smart, accomplished, and funny! I’m proud to call each of them a friend.

Together, we understand the importance of this topic and spreading ideas. Making sure you—the would-be audience member—enjoys our time together is equally as important as any formal takeaway we provide.

Note: Special thank you to our ILTA handler Rhenda Kouvarakis, Legal Project Manager / Attorney at Baker Donelson: and John Duggan, Senior Legal Project Manager at Seyfarth Lean Consulting.

Wrap Up

Have no fear. Great change brings great opportunity. And “The Information Age” doesn’t discriminate. The lines between traditional job descriptions continue to blur. New functions and activities are up for grabs. (I see you Bennett Borden, 1st law firm Chief Data Scientist.) And the spoils are there for those brave enough to set aside silo differences, secure leadership buy in, test and pilot new things, and go after it—together. And LPM touches it all.

If you’ve read this far, you’re most likely on the right path. Come join us in Vegas on Wednesday September 2^nd at 11:00 a.m. There are always new things to learn. Until then:

Be thankful it isn’t easy. If it were, everyone would do it.