According to a recent survey of General Counsel conducted by Corporate Counsel magazine, 65 percent of in-house legal chiefs are most concerned with one aspect of their relationship with outside law firms – the cost of service.

As a successful former General Counsel, I always found that “partnering” with my outside counsel through communication helped to improve costs much more dramatically than wrangling with them for discounts.

For instance, I always found it helpful to take my key outside counsel to lunch periodically so that I could explain to them the latest developments in our industry and our company, as well as the current internal politics and economics behind our decision-making. This helped our outside counsel to be much more pragmatic and efficient, and it made for a much more pleasant working relationship where they felt more like a part of our company.

Sometimes, I also brought our outside counsel in to consult with management during the planning stages of a new endeavour that might be materially impacted by the law. For instance, I hired one of the world’s foremost experts in one legal specialty to explain, from a practical perspective, why one proposed business strategy was virtually doomed to failure (based on this expert having been called in to clean up the mess left by other companies that had tried a similar strategy sold by slick consultants).

As a result, we decided to forego that strategy and probably saved millions of dollars, which gave management a very positive impression of the value provided by professional legal services. 

Outside counsel and General Counsel can work together to reduce legal costs with more proactive communication and early intervention; and both should be pushing each other to do more of that for the benefit of the client. The more success you have with this strategy, the more often you will be called in “early” by your business partners, instead of late when the die is already cast.

Note: When asked what they would most like to improve, 53 percent of General Counsel said they most wanted to improve being “brought in too late” to be effective. Thus, outside lawyers who can help the GC demonstrate to his business partners the value and the ROI of early intervention will be sure to get a lot more calls !

A recently published survey of lawyers who act as in-house general counsel revealed that GCs are most concerned with improving relations with their CEOs and their boards of directors.

The survey, conducted by Corporate Counsel magazine, demonstrated that 25 percent of GCs most want to improve relations with their boards, and another 24 percent most want to improve relations with their CEOs.

There is a message here for law firms. If you want to improve your relationship with a GC client, try thinking of ways to help him or her to improve the C-suite relationship with the CEO or the board.

As a former GC who ran a law department consistently rated as the best internal service provider, I can also confidently say to GCs that a relationship with the CEO (and other officers) always improves when you can find ways to make your in-house and outside legal professionals better service providers.

It also helps when you can find ways to communicate with the board, the CEO, and other senior officers in their language. Figure out how the legal function delivers or can help to deliver better Earnings Per Share and demonstrate the Return on Legal Investment and you will win the battle for hearts and minds in the C-suite.

I picked up an interesting tidbit from an article by copywriter Virginia Bisek in last month’s Texas Bar Journal, which was provocatively entitled, “Your Online Ad is Boring.”

She notes that several studies have been made on the words that strike the strongest internal chords with consumers – something I did not know. Some of the words that rank highest are :

• You (well, I guess if the ad speaks to “you” it kind of reaches out);
• Save (we all like this concept);
• Easy (another concept of universal appeal, perhaps especially when dealing with otherwise messy and complicated legal issues);
• Safety (does anyone like danger?);
• New (though some precedent-based lawyers might prefer “old”); and
• Discover (which is consistent with the search for something “new”).

So next time you are working up ad copy, you might consider appealing to a reader’s desire to save, to be safe, or to be adventurous and try something new. You might also consider, if you are selling legal services, describing how you make things “easy” for the client (presuming that you do).  But whatever you decide, remember the ad should be all about the reader (which explains the appeal of the word, “you”).

Growing IT Capacity. Law firms are growing their information technology (“IT”) capacities in order to support an explosion in technology utilization and data.

Among other things, law firms need more IT capacity and support to host richer Websites, to support more data management and e-discovery programs, to enable the use of more sophisticated practice management programs, to utilize CRM and ERM tools, to support social media utilization, to facilitate process improvement and project management programs,  to create and store more audio-visual files, and to facilitate more interactive work collaborations.

Even if your firm has few lawyers, you must be able to count on the support of an IT professional or professionals. That is why many law firms are expanding their in-house IT staffing, while many others are turning to the use of SaaS (“Software as a Service”) programs, which are entirely supported on a 24/7 basis from the outside.

According to a 2011 technology survey of law firms published by Law.com:

• IT spending and IT staffing continue to grow at a healthy pace, despite the slumping economy;
• There are now less than 25 lawyers and staffers per in-house IT professional  at 57 percent of law firms;
• The vast majority of Chief Information Officers or other functional heads of IT now earn between $200,000 and $400,000 per year in law firms.

Of course, smaller firms are competing by using more SaaS or “cloud” services, which are also springing up in abundance.

One thing is for sure, however: If you don’t make IT a significant part of your business plan and strategy now, you are competing in a crowded road race without an engine!

 

More Use of Digital Audio-Visuals. Solo lawyers, small law firms and giant mega-firms are making greater use of digital audio-visual creations to enhance their Websites, improve their trial presentations, and boost their recruiting of young, tech-savvy lawyers and professional staff. Furthermore, as the costs of producing and disseminating digital audio-visual presentations drop, the use of such presentations continues rising.

“Talking head” videos are increasingly being used in connection with attorney profiles and managing partner statements. They are particularly popular with consumer clients who seek out lawyers for divorce and personal injury. The Strategic Legal Marketing Group cites studies showing that lawyer videos increase consumer e-mail inquiries by 127 percent and total profile views by 169 percent.

“Day in the Life” videos, which illustrate the typical day for an injured tort victim, are also popular and significant anecdotal evidence from lawyers suggests that these videos are incredibly resonant with juries.

Recruiting videos, which show what it is like to work at a law firm, have also been effectively used to give recruits a sense of the special qualities that any given law firm has to offer.

For those who are looking for assistance in preparing digital audio-visual presentations, the following resources might be considered:

• Legal Insight, which was started by a former partner at Goulston Storrs in Boston;
• Shucon-online.com, which was started by a former Lawyers Weekly advertising professional;
• RealCoolTV, which is a full service production company with lots of video on its site;
• PaperStreet, which does Web, print and video work;
• LitigationTech.com, which offers all kinds of trial presentation technology services; and
• Verdict Videos for use at trial.

Note: The author of this blog posting does not endorse or recommend any of these services, but merely offers them as examples of services being used by lawyers and mentioned by participants at the recent FirmFuture conference in Boston and/or by members of the trade press.

 

Online Survey Services. Law firms that do not have the money or inclination to hire outside consultants to do in-person surveys of customers, employees or other groups, can now go online to get that feedback quickly and relatively inexpensively.

More than half of AmLaw 100 firms are now doing surveys of their very largest clients, according to a recent report. These firms understand that client survey feedback is essential to keeping those clients happy, learning more about their preferences, and obtaining their valuable guidance in setting the course for the future. Some even use surveys to ask about fees and value perceptions, which can help to determine optimal pricing.

Enlightened firms similarly understand the importance of surveying employees who are essential parts of the service supply line, and they also make use of surveys and focus groups for testing trial strategies with mock juries.

Now, with online services, many smaller firms can execute surveys or even focus groups at reasonable expense as well. Some of the online survey services mentioned at the recent FirmFuture conference in Boston include:

• SurveyMonkey.com, which provides free “small” surveys (as defined by numbers of respondents and questions) and larger surveys for a fee;
• Vovici.com, which provides more sophisticated assistance with design, distribution and analysis of questions and responses for larger surveys; and
• Communispace.com, which can also help you identify and assemble online communities (essentially focus super-groups) composed of both customers and potential customers.

Note: The author of the this blog posting does not endorse any of the services listed, but is merely recapping those identified at FirmFuture and/or in the trade press as being utilized by professional service firms. Communispace is more commonly utilized by product sellers, but it is locally based in Boston, and has captured as clients some of the world’s top brands from many different industries.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,900 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 48 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Practice Management Software.  Until recent years, high technology approaches to management often required IT infrastructure and significant expense allocations. But now there are many choices available to firms of all sizes for easy-to-install and easy-to-maintain management software programs.

These tech tools can enable even the smallest law firms to automate billing, collections, financial statement generation, document generation, docketing, calendar management and other key aspects of practice.

There are even programs for real-time tracking of payables, receivables, unbilled time, matters in the pipeline, pitches, presentations and other key data.

With regard to electronic billing management, 71 percent of law firms recently reported to Law.com that they have clients who now require e-billing capability (which automatically scours your bills for items inconsistent with client billing instructions and individual client billing agreements).  So having a sophisticated electronic billing program is particularly important.

Some of the PC-based and cloud-based practice management programs that law firms have increasingly implemented or utilized in recent years include:

• Tabs3.com (billing and financial management software for law firms);
• The Clio program, found at GoClio.com (time slips, billing and document management for small firms);
• HoudiniESQ (which is free for solos and offers remote data storage and retrieval service)
• Firm Manager, an online service for solos from LexisNexis; and
• TimeMatters, a comprehensive practice management kit with multiple programs from LexisNexis.

Note:  The author of this blog posting does not endorse or recommend any of these programs, but merely offers a recap of programs mentioned by participants at FirmFuture and by the trade press.

 

Work Collaboration Technologies.  Collaborative work programs can function across offices or within an office to engage dozens of professionals at one time on a team project, such as a major commercial transaction or a large piece of litigation.

Some law firms are using these technologies to get things done more quickly while capturing the benefit of more input from key professionals.  The days of passing around a document and watching endless numbers of revisions, re-insertions of previous revisions and red-lining ad nauseam are coming to an end. Clients want things done now – one round of negotiations with minimal revisions if at all possible.

Below are links to some of the technologies being used to facilitate faster team efforts and more comprehensive input, often delivered in real time:

• IBM Connections (which can incorporate data from Lotus Notes and other applications for group sharing);
• Microsoft Sharepoint (which can be used in private virtual meetings with shared files and shared desktops for better collaboration); and
• Audio-Visual Collaboration systems with shared desktop capacity produced by Magor TeleCollaboration.

Smaller firms with smaller budgets are also turning to facilities that can deliver these systems as part of shared infrastructure in locations such as the Cambridge Innovation Center.

Note: The author of this post does not endorse or recommend any of these products or services, but merely offers this recap of those services mentioned by the presenter, audience or other sources in connection with the December FirmFuture conference in Boston.

Process Improvement and Project Management: Law firms on the leading edge are adopting tools and even taking courses related to process improvement and project management, which often result in or come coupled with improvements in technology.

Six sigma process improvement principles and basic tenets of project management and leadership have driven many of the improvements in business products and cost efficiency in the last few decades.

These principles can be applied to any business, including a professional service business, and they are essential to understand in a highly competitive environment. They are perhaps the most essential thing that you do not get in law school.

In the past, law firms have not had to understand how to maximize efficiency and manage projects to meet budget forecasts while improving quality. There were not many firms who approached process improvement and project management as a science, and clients just paid the bills.

But oh how times have changed. Larger clients are growing their in-house staff and bringing more work in-house, where lawyers trained in these systems are handling projects more efficiently. Many larger law firms are also adopting process improvement and project management disciplines to reduce their costs and speed up delivery times while improving overall quality.

Some of the many resources available to lawyers for learning about process improvement and project management include the following that were mentioned at the FirmFuture conference in Boston:

• LegalLeanSigma.com;
• Paragon Legal Technology Support (for better e-discovery and trial productions);
• TimeManagementForLawyers.com (for improving the use of precious time to get more done in a shorter amount of time);
• MPmagazine.com (for managing partners);
• “Project Management for Lawyers,” a book by Barbara Boake and Rick Kathuria;
• SharePoint for simply developing step-by-step checklists to make processes uniform, quick and practical;
• Cynapse.com for better approaches to collaboration, information sharing and knowledge management.

Note: The author of this blog is not endorsing any of the products or services mentioned herein, but simply summarizing some of those which have received attention from users and members of the trade press as well.