Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC., Author at Lawyer-Coach

15 08, 2007

Avoiding the Commoditization of Your Law Practice

2007-08-15T16:57:47+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|1 Comment

My last article about some of the potential ramifications of law firms going public generated quite a number of reader responses. Thanks to each of you for sharing your thoughts with me.

One email asked a question that intrigued me. The reader asked how he could keep his law practice from becoming commoditized. Both small and large law firms should be asking themselves that, because the tide has already turned toward the commoditization of many legal services.

What are commodity legal services? Generally legal services that involve routine and predictable legal issues that can be systematized into forms and processes. They don’t involve complex legal issues, or the issues have already been addressed with such frequency and regularity that they have become routine. Often each individual claim or matter involves a relatively small amount of money at risk, necessitating an inexpensive process or the economies of large volume. Through the use of questionnaires, checklists, decision trees, step-by-step instructions, standard processes and similar methods, technology enables rapid and cheap production of the relevant legal advice and documentation.
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20 07, 2007

A Revolution in the Legal World?

2019-02-10T23:15:55+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|5 Comments

A landmark event in the legal world launched in May. This event will ultimately change the course of the practice of law. Or perhaps it is just further evidence of how dramatically the legal world has already changed in the last 10 years.

Australian Law Firm Goes Public

An Australian law firm went public and was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on May 21, 2007. Australia adopted legislation that permits non-lawyers to invest in the ownership of a law firm, and capital to be raised publicly. The 140-lawyer firm, Slater & Gordon, will initially have shares owned by 42 lawyers and staff, according to a June 1, 2007 article in The American Lawyer. Legislation has also been introduced in the United Kingdom to permit law firms there to sell stock publicly.
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16 06, 2007

Dining Out in France: Go with the Flow

2007-06-16T19:03:48+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Dining Out in France: Go with the Flow

It seems that a number of clients and readers like reading about my adventures in France. Over 8 years ago I took a sabbatical from practicing law from which I never actually returned. I segued into becoming a coach for lawyers, eventually. During that sabbatical in France I did some travel writing. The following article appeared in the Orlando Sentinel in 1999.

Successful dining in France requires one of two personal qualifications: (a) extensive training in French linguistics, etiquette and cuisine, or (b) a devil-may-care attitude. In my case, hunger and impatience mandate the latter. Forget etiquette. I cannot comply with the only rule I have learned. Here in France it is impolite to place your hand in your lap while dining. My mother would tell you I never did that anyway, but my hyper-conscious teenager has been repeatedly mortified by my infractions of this rule. Evidently the nudity on French beaches, billboards and television commercials subconsciously affects the French as much as the Americans, because the French wonder what you are doing with your hand if it is under the table.

All menus contain a number of indiscernible choices, even if I can literally understand the words (which I often can’t). A dictionary does not help. What kind of lunch item is a ”crunchy mister” or a “crunchy madam?” Or a “hot goat?” The answers: a croque monsieur is sort of a toasted ham sandwich with cheese melted on top, which populates every brasserie menu. A croque madame is more of the same, with a runny fried egg on top of the cheese. The French don’t eat fried eggs for breakfast. They prefer them on top of their pizza…or sandwich…or salad. Salads abound as a main course during the day. Chevre chaud (hot goat) is actually a green salad served with goat cheese slightly melted over small pieces of […]

10 06, 2007

Get Remembered

2007-06-10T07:36:39+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|1 Comment

Years ago at an early morning meeting Jimmy Brill, a veteran estate planning lawyer and the founder of Solos Supporting Solos, asked each of 30 lawyers to introduce themselves and their practices. I didn’t know any of them, and they all faded into a blur, except for one tall gentleman in a straw hat and seersucker suit. He said, “I’m a proctologist in the courtroom.” He got some chuckles and my attention.

I often ask the attorneys I coach on business development to analyze their client list to determine how they obtained their previous clients. Most of them report that the majority of their new clients come as referrals. If your business depends on referrals, your success depends on the likelihood that others will remember you when someone has a problem you can solve.

A couple of months after that morning meeting, I asked someone in the group, “What’s the name of that guy who’s the proctologist in the courtroom?” “Ted Hirtz,” he responded immediately. Ted’s introduction stood out and triggered the memory of enough people for me to locate him again.

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6 06, 2007

Law Firm Goes Public!

2019-02-10T23:15:55+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Law Firm Goes Public!

An Australian law firm went public and was listed on the Austrailan Stock Exchange on May 21, 2007. Australia adopted legislation that permits non-lawyers to invest in the ownership of a law firm, and capital to be raised publicly. The 140-lawyer firm, Slater & Gordon, will initially have shares owned by 42 lawyers and staff, according to The American Lawyer. Legislation has also been introduced in the U.K. to permit law firm IPOs.

If the UK permits law firms to go public,it will probably be the beginning of a wholesale shift in the lawbiz. There will be many detractors and much resistance in the U.S., but moving mega-firms away from the partnership structure to a real corporate structure may have significant benefits. As true business managers and marketing experts have the opportunity to share in the profits of a law firm, the great class chasm between lawyers and non-lawyers may finally disappear. Innovation may become more valued in firms. The billable hour may fall away to value-billing or other creative structures. Firms may develop more balanced methods of valuing the contributions of its employees. Hey! Perhaps even teamwork could become popular.

I confess that I am having some difficulty imagining how a public law firm would work in the near term. I can imagine the possibility of a serious decline in the professionalism of law practice. Even commoditization of many legal services. We are already headed that way, however, and I’m not sure that the public opinion of lawyers can sink much lower.

One result may be that many lawyers will make less money, with most becoming part of the working middle class, instead of the professional elite, and a few becoming ultra-wealthy titans. One could say we are seeing that trend already, however. As firms go public, they will probably stratify more, with legions of paralegals and other non-lawyers. As bright line distinctions […]

1 06, 2007

Marketing: What Are You Already Doing Right?

2007-06-01T12:54:51+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Marketing: What Are You Already Doing Right?

On a panel for a webcast by the Law Practice Management Program about “Finding and Keeping Good Clients,” we discussed the efficacy of public speaking. Rick Albers, a real estate lawyer in Austin, recounted that another lawyer once told him that he had spoken many times at continuing legal education programs, and never got any business from it. Rick’s mouth dropped open. He himself had referred four matters to that lawyer over the last several years. Rick made those referrals because he knew from hearing the lawyer speak that he was knowledgeable in the relevant area of practice.

Many years ago, when I had my own law firm, my father asked me how I got my clients. I blinked, dumbfounded by the question, and finally responded, “I wish I knew, Dad, so I could get more of them.” That question spurred me to examine my list of current and former clients. I discovered that 75% of my business came from referrals from other lawyers. To my surprise, many of those referrals came from my competitors!

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25 05, 2007

Don’t Wait to Read This: Tips for Procrastinators

2007-05-25T13:11:03+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Don’t Wait to Read This: Tips for Procrastinators

I procrastinated in writing this column. Many wise people have said that we teach what we need to learn, so overcoming procrastination is the topic for this month. Let’s start with why we procrastinate. Here are some common reasons:

It involves an unpleasant task.
We don’t know or are unsure about how to do it.
The task involves a tough decision.
We don’t have all the materials or information we need.
The project is too big and overwhelming.
We underestimate the time required and have a lot to do.

What do we do to get past procrastination? In my coaching I find there are very few one-size-fits-all solutions. There are patterns and tendencies, however, so we experiment, and we understand that what worked yesterday may not work with a different project today. Here are some tips for your experimentation:

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15 05, 2007

Questions May Be the Answer for Performance Problems

2007-05-15T12:24:37+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Questions May Be the Answer for Performance Problems

Do you have an employee who just doesn’t seem to be performing up to snuff? Is there a way to rehabilitate that employee? Or do you have to choose between termination and tolerating inferior performance? Employee turnover is time consuming, disruptive, costly and often bad for office morale (including yours). Before jumping to the conclusion that the employee just isn’t working out, it’s worth making sure that the problem does not lie elsewhere. If you don’t eliminate that possibility, you may be doomed to experience the same song, second verse with the next employee.

Managers often think that employees don’t do what they are supposed to do because they don’t want to, don’t care or are incompetent. That would lead to the conclusion that the manager must terminate the employee or settle for poor performance. However, in his bestseller Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to Do and What to Do About It, Ferdinand Fournies points out that managers sometimes unwittingly create situations that cause the poor performance they complain about. What if getting better performance from your employee were as simple as changing your own behavior […]

3 05, 2007

The Unwritten Rules for Associates

2007-05-03T15:09:53+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on The Unwritten Rules for Associates

When I was a young associate in a big law firm, I began to fear that there were unwritten rules to the game that everyone knew except me. Sometimes I wanted to cry out, “What are the rules? Just tell me what they are! I’ll follow them!”

Gradually over the years I began to figure them out, one by one, often as the result of transgressing them. Sometimes I was fortunate enough to learn a rule by merely observing the consequences of a transgression by another associate. On rare occasions a more senior associate, or even a partner, would bless me by privately advising me about one of the rules.

Law firms really do want their associates to succeed, so why do they seem to hide the rules of the game? Here are my guesses at a few possible explanations:
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27 04, 2007

10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

2007-04-27T13:38:50+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on 10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

Today most law firms, large and small, expect partners to bring in business. In determining whether an associate makes partner, the firm usually considers whether the associate has the capability to bring in business.

Some firms don’t do a very good job of communicating this expectation to their young lawyers, however. In fact, some partners may actively discourage associates from spending time on business development activities, if that takes any time away from doing billable legal work. The firm then unrealistically expects a new partner to support himself with his own business like turning on a water faucet.

While firms that think longer-range may not begrudge the time an associate spends on client development, they don’t all have a policy for reimbursing associates for business development expenses. Young lawyers still trying to pay off student loans are expected to pay for any marketing lunches or other outside activities, bar association and section dues, and community association dues. Asking associates to lay out their cash to benefit the firm they are not yet members of can have a significant tempering effect on their efforts. Finally, some savvy law firms actively support mid-level and senior associate efforts to develop clients by providing time and financial resources, but very few provide real guidance to young lawyers about how to market themselves.

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About Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.

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About Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.

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Setting goals for your life and career?

Setting goals for
your life and career?