Here’s Why Many Private Practice Lawyers and Managers Should Not go to Workshops/Seminars on the Current State, and Possible Future, of The Profession

Lawyer/Manager Health Warning…To save your precious time, and potentially, your sanity…Please don’t read further, unless…

You accept:

1.  That almost all legal practices are businesses…

2.  That those practices are in the business of professionally looking after the interests of clients, whether they be individuals, corporates, organisations, not-for-profits, Governments or whatever…whoever they choose to take on as clients…

3.  That for 99.9% of law practice businesses decent genuine profits, after proper Owner-Principals’ salaries for their work in the practice (not their capital investment and level of risk), are essential to sustainability now and in the future…

4.  That almost every practice faces huge challenges…see a lot of them below…many of which could create market conditions that could literally be terminal for many of today’s small-medium practices if they are not aware and agile and do not adjust quickly enough…

5.  That owners themselves are usually a big stumbling block, but obviously can also be the key (sometimes the only key) to opening the door to prosperous survival…properly recognizing challenges and opportunities, prioritising, setting strategy, and arranging and ensuring implementation and continuous tweaking and improvement…in all areas most suited to each individual unique practice…what is “right” for others may well be not right for you…

Here’s a short excerpt from a LinkedIn article I posted in early January you may not have seen…

“A profitable business becomes profitable by doing a lot of important things right, for a good period of time...and a profitable business has the financial wherewithal to invest in everything important from time to time...service development, people, processes, IT, marketing, innovation in everything.

Businesses that are not particularly profitable wear down Principals and managers focussed on juggling available cash, usually to the point where they can no longer work with enough of the right quality team members to create the best future for everyone...good people leave, bad people stay, good new people are not attracted to join the team, there is a downward spiral with a strong smell of inevitability about the final outcome.

My small idea for my law firm followers for 2018 is to stick with the basics of ensuring profitability...clear focus, leadership, time to ensure all team members are the best they can be, brilliant service firm-wide, intelligent and innovative pricing, and consistent effective marketing”.

6.  That even in an enervating workshop like this I cannot give you specifics of what you “should do” in 7, 19, 28, or 44 key initiatives you may feel might be necessary going forward.

All I can do is facilitate a powerful round-table discussion in which I contribute fully my insights from the successes, and earlier failures, of 1350 small-medium firms in all Australian States and Territories, New Zealand and Canada.

I’ll show you the specifics of what I do in some critical areas of course…areas I know from experience always make a phenomenal contribution in all firms when you get the culture, philosophy, approaches and processes right….and stick with them until there is a genuine need for further re-calibrating.

But, (I hear many readers ask) isn’t Law a Profession?

Yes, it is, and a small-medium law practice has many inherent differences from other businesses…but not to the point where no common sense approaches can be adopted from “mainstream” business without destroying the firm or the Profession. Far from it!

OK, that health warning and discussion over…for everyone still reading, let’s get down to it…

The immense change happening about us in the Profession at an increasing rate is both challenging and exciting…

On the challenging front…will the main services you derive your revenues from now be sought from firms like yours, or anyone else, by clients in ten years’ time? Five years?

How much will they need done at all, need to do themselves, and how much will someone else appear to be able to provide for them at prices you don’t think would allow you to make a dollar?

 Lawyers keen to stay ahead of the game, or even “in the game”, need to have an awareness of what is happening, and how they may need to react, depending on the circumstances, plans, community-facing stance, and aspirations of their particular firm.

 Here are just “one or two” issues that face most lawyers in private practice…

 # Numbers of practicing lawyers are still rising…and increasing numbers of Law Schools and other organisations are continuing to pump out newbie aspiring lawyers. Google or click this link...  Institutionnumberscurrent 2018…many of you will be blown away by the number of institutions in Australia competing for aspiring law student dollars! NB Some Australian students also study at New Zealand’s many universities…a much cheaper option with no loss of quality in the qualification.

 # Competition is expanding rapidly from traditional firms getting smarter and up to “2018 speed”, and, in parallel, from “virtual’ firms operating totally online in a big variety of ways…

 # Aside from virtual firms, On-line “pay as you go” legal advice is expanding rapidly…who cares who the providers are if they are perceived to be effective competition to you?

 # Artificial Intelligence in law firms service delivery is not just something interesting… perhaps coming down the pipeline… to have half an eye on…it’s already here, and being used in various ways by early-adopters in small-medium firms in New Zealand and Australia to serve both clients and prospects better…more cost-effectively.

Smart contracts are well-advanced, and robots can at least “rough out” some advices already for you to review. Who is across Blockchain’s implications for even smarter contracts? It’s not just about crypto-currencies…

 # Clients are segmenting strongly…with many choosing perceived cheaper fee options, while others truly value relationships and will pay more for what they perceive to be greater value. How do you decide where to be in the various markets you hope to remain interested in, and how to achieve what is necessary…without just “fiddling about” around the edges?

 # Many firms are getting smarter with their pricing and sophistication of service offerings…and improved pricing smarts is a massive driver in protecting profit margins in a deteriorating market. Are you doing enough to up-skill to benefit from huge changes in the way legal services can be packaged and are now more clearly allowed to be priced? Don’t be mistaken…the shackles are well and truly off to charge properly, and still fairly and reasonably, if you’re up to it.

 # Professional staff with experience, and the right attitude, are harder to find and keep, and firms need to be wise about how to remunerate, how to provide career paths and professional satisfaction, and work/home flexibility, while making a proper profit in the practice…to properly reward Principals and generate sufficient funds for all the necessary investment in adapting, innovation, and growth.

# Smart out-sourcing to lower-cost centres continues.

 # Other Profession-disrupters are popping up each week…including those offering opportunities for lawyers to operate ultra-flexibly as freelancers…making it potentially harder for you to get fully suitable new team members…or even access professionals who simply prefer the gig economy…how much of what you do could just as easily be done well…better perhaps…within the Gig economy?

# The Internet is rife with possibilities for the smart and careful to disseminate helpful, relevant, content to appropriate targets…you can reach more audiences appropriate to your business and its services more easily, and faster, than ever before in history…who is asleep at the wheel and may well retire without participating effectively and benefiting?

# Social media is clearly not going away, even if it is constantly morphing (sometimes it seems overnight while we sleep), but what to use, and how to use it with a good ROI, is challenging lawyers everywhere…and there is no single “one-size-fits-all” answer… surprise, surprise…it’s all about your own unique firm…

 # New IT options become available to us seemingly every day, many of them ultra-practical in making life easier, cheap (even free), and easy to use.

# Too many people are still going round in circles over the paperless office…while others have been there fully for many, many, years…

# Team members are seeking more flexible working arrangements…are your strategies and processes set up to cope, assisting in keeping team members you want to keep, and happy and fully productive?

 # New firms are emerging whose (typically younger) Principals consider effective Marketing a business fundamental…as it is…and some traditional firms are also well-awakened from their slumbers and doing very well in various aspects of Business Development.

# We are being urged daily to innovate, and being deluged with examples, but what really makes the most sense to hang our hats on?

 # While many litigious matters are involving mind-boggling amounts of e-documents and hard copy material, all of which may need to be carefully reviewed for useful evidence, courts are trying to force the costs of litigation down (and naturally many clients have some interest here too), and intelligent software solutions to assist need to be mastered.

# Cyber Warfare…Your data security is under daily (24/7) threat from criminals who are already using much better technology to attack you than most of you do to run your business and protect your data and that of your clients, and the risk to firms without proper precautions for data protection and privacy is immense…in terms of the costs of disruption, ransoms, loss of reputation and business, and potentially, damages/prosecution!

# The experience of clients, prospects and referrers is changing their level of expectation in terms of service from lawyers…”Great service, great communication, now, at a very reasonable fee”, is becoming the norm in many market segments!

# The days of lawyers “wandering along” through matters, funded by clients in their wanderings, are gone, and it’s vital that all matters are properly scoped, priced and conducted...especially very substantial ones. Are you across at least the fundamentals of Legal Project Management?

# Thinking about how to react to all the above and more while remaining fully Professional, ethical, community-facing, charitable, resilient, healthy, and profitable…

# As most of you will already have discovered, hopefully not at too great a cost, there are lots of “false prophets” out there, with promises of help that turns out to not be deeply rooted in practical experience.

 I’ve been working closely with law firms and law firm stakeholders throughout each year since early 1988, and have been in the law in one way or other for 48 years. I really do know where you are coming from, having been there myself in depth.

Having assisted 1350 small-medium firms in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada as a consultant in the last thirty years I’ve been deeply involved with developments at a practical level, assisting some of those firms continuously for well over twenty-five years.

I bring a depth of awareness to the smart management of the small-medium law firm that my clients find particularly helpful, assisting them to see both the big and small pictures… “the forest and the relevant trees"…with real skill in assisting you prioritise which trees to cultivate and which to prune…or chop down promptly to save the forest.

In January and February 2018 I am running 4-hour CPD workshops on “The State of Play in the Profession for Small-Medium Firms” in the six cities below:

Wellington - 31 January 2018…done and dusted! Many thanks again to all participants for being there and your incredible contributions.

Sydney - 21 February 2018 am

Melbourne - 27 February 2018 am

Brisbane – 28 February 2018 am

Followed by Toronto and Vancouver in the Northern spring. Dates to be advised.

 As usual for the last thirty years, numbers will be strictly limited to ensure maximum attendee participation, and question/answer flow…

 All cities CBD venues to be advised…9am-1.15pm (4 hours exclusive of refreshment break)…Sydney slightly later start time…see Rego form.

 This is a great opportunity to get out of the office with like-minded professionals, get a wealth of stimulating information, and a handle on what is happening in areas of current and future legal service provision you are interested in…

As usual for the last thirty years my unique guarantee means you have absolutely nothing to lose… if for any reason you are not completely satisfied with the workshop…email me with your concerns set out within 24 hours after the workshop concludes, and if I cannot rectify the situation for you promptly at my cost, I will without further question refund you as much of your registration fee as you think reasonable.

KMSManagementSupport? members free as usual.

Here’s to a superb 2018 and well beyond!

To request a Registration Form please email me [email protected]

A Rego form will be emailed back to you promptly…or even faster! :-)