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Successful Lawyer Time Management

2019-03-05T18:55:05+00:00By debralbruce|

A lot of lawyers struggle with time management. Many lament the unpredictability of their schedules and the volume of last minute client “emergencies.” Some get so many interruptions during the day that they don’t actually get a good start on their most important projects until after 5:00 pm. They work long hours just to make a little progress.

Some attorneys want to please their clients, so they promise to deliver the client’s work at the earliest date they can get it out. Unfortunately, they usually make the assessment in a vacuum, without first assessing the other commitments they have already made, and without allowing space for unexpected contingencies.

There are many such issues that affect an attorney’s productivity. Here is my top ten list of time management behaviors of productive lawyers:

1. Update your to-do list daily. Of course, that first requires that you keep a written to-do list. Attorneys who keep their upcoming tasks in their heads tend to feel more stressed and frazzled. They’re also more likely to overcommit themselves, get started too late, or forget things.

2. Prioritize your 3 most important tasks. Lawyers who don’t keep the focus on what’s most important to get done today get distracted by the papers on their desk or the latest email. You can’t afford that with so many genuinely urgent matters also derailing your plans during the day.

3. Delegate as much as possible. Savvy lawyers push the work they don’t enjoy off their desks and onto someone else’s. Chances are, if you procrastinate on it, it’s not your strength or it’s too far below your competency level. Either way, it’s better for you and your client if you can delegate it.

4. Identify activities slipping through the cracks weekly. Effective lawyers take a strategic approach. That includes stepping back regularly to assess where they are. At either the beginning or end of the […]

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Should A Solo Buy Law Practice Management Software?

2019-03-21T20:06:29+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

When a client calls unexpectedly about his matter, do you fumble to find the information you need, while the client wonders why you can’t answer the question? Do you have trouble sorting through all the appointments and deadlines on your calendar to identify the ones that relate to a particular case? Do you rely on your increasingly overloaded memory bank for conflict checks? Do you waste time locating old emails or pink message slips? Do you lose money because you can’t remember how much time you spent on a dozen different phone calls during the day? Do you ever wish you had access to something on your desk while out of the office? Have you lost hope of ever getting organized? […]

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What You Don’t Know CAN Hurt You

2019-03-21T20:09:07+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

I have had my business and personal accounts at the same bank for 16 years, but for over a year, I have been thinking of changing banks. In fact, I would have already moved my accounts if it weren’t such a hassle to transfer all those automatic payments. I had the intention to find a better bank one day.

What does my bank account have to do with your law practice? […]

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Blogging Can Make the Difference in a Landing a Law Job

2019-03-21T20:14:35+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

Jack Whittington posted his tips for law students on getting that dream job out of law school at the Solo Practice University Blog. Jack credited blogging and using Twitter and LinkedIn with helping him nab a rare opportunity at a sports law firm. He submitted his resume to the firm as a result of some networking. When he finally got a call to interview, Jack says “the attorney already knew a great deal about me just from reading my blogs and information I had broadcast through social media.” Read here to get Jack’s in-depth story.

Last year I did a little coaching with NYU law student John Strohmeyer as he searched for a job in a tough market. […]

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On Presidents Day: Abraham Lincoln’s Advice on Lawyering

2019-04-01T20:43:35+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

Around 1850 Abraham Lincoln wrote some sound advice to lawyers and those contemplating becoming lawyers. Over 160 years later, his advice is still worth heeding. Hat tip to Tom Adolph, a partner at Jackson Walker L.L.P., for sharing this with me. Here are Lincoln’s words:

“I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful. The leading rule for the lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. […]

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Got Clients? How Did THAT Happen?

2019-04-01T20:49:16+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

“I’ve spoken many times at CLE programs, and I never got any business from it.” Rick Albers’ jaw dropped when he heard that. Why was Rick so surprised? A lot of lawyers (and legal marketing experts) say that speaking at CLE programs is a waste of time. It just educates your competition.

Rick was stunned because he himself had referred four different matters to the lawyer who said that. Rick, a Texas real estate lawyer, chose that attorney because he heard him speak at bar association programs, and concluded that he was very knowledgeable. In fact, it was because they both got involved in bar association work that Rick came to know him in the first place. Perhaps the lawyer thought Rick referred the matters to him just because of their acquaintance. If so…he was wrong. […]

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Improving Your Resume & Cover Letter

2019-04-01T21:29:55+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

I recently received a request from a stranger to review his resume and cover letter and provide feedback to him. I don’t really hold myself out as an expert in reviewing resumes, but I do sometimes give clients my reaction to theirs. Frankly, however, my interest in reading resumes ranks just slightly above reading my homeowner’s insurance policy. I think I already read more than my quota of resumes back in my law firm days.

I have empathy for law students, recent grads and laid-off lawyers who hope to find a job in this challenging economy. So from time to time, I write articles and give talks that provide tips that may help make their job search more successful. I decline, however, to read unsolicited resumes unless I get paid to do it, or until I determine that I owe penance for some crime against humanity. […]

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3 Inspired Tips for a Happier Holiday

2010-12-24T12:36:23+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

This is a time when we come together with people we love, hoping to share smiles, laughter and warm feelings. Yet despite our best intentions, sometimes things go awry. Maybe we have so many preparations to complete that we get stressed and irritable. Maybe we want all the food, decorations and our clothes to be just right and beautiful, and we get a little rigid or persnickety when someone else has a different vision of what that would look like. Maybe someone does that thing they always do that annoys us so much. This year we can choose to react differently, opening the way to different results.

It is Christmas Eve morning and I woke from a dream of 5 guidelines for enjoying family time during the holidays. Unfortunately I only heard 3 before I woke up, but if I remember to follow these 3, I think that will be enough. I share the strategies with you, along with my interpretations, in hopes that these reminders will help you have the holiday you intend.

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Before You Make New Year’s Resolutions…

2010-12-15T18:11:03+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

There’s an old story about a guy who walked down the street and fell into a giant hole. He yelled for help for a long time, but no one came. Finally he managed to scratch out some notches in the wall, and with some difficulty, he clambered out.

The next day he walked down the same street and fell into the same hole. He didn’t yell very long before he remembered the notches he had scratched before. He dug them out a little more, and then climbed out much more quickly.

When he walked down that street the third day, he caught himself as he teetered on the brink of falling into the hole again. He walked gingerly around the hole and went on his way.

On the fourth day… […]

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How New or Re-tooling Lawyers Can Get Experience They Need

2019-02-10T23:05:52+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|

Many lawyers today find themselves in the unexpected position of trying to practice law in an area where they have insufficient experience and are finding it necessary to develop a new area of proficiency due to not being hired after graduation, downsized in the recession, a slow market for their existing expertise, or just wanting to make a change into a different type of practice. Here are a number of ideas on how to gain the needed experience through Texas programs (other jurisdictions have similar options) when you don’t already have the support system to provide it.

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