What I actually do (as opposed to my job description):
I am a lawyers' lawyer. I advise law firms on every aspect of law firm management and risk management, with a strong emphasis on demonstrating how improved management systems translate directly into improved service to clients, client satisfaction and law firm profitability. Most frequently this involves helping firms upgrade their client selection and client intake management policies and systems, but it also encompasses advising firms on calendar and docket systems, fee (especially alternatives to time charging), billing and collection policies, document management, every aspect of practice group and law practice management, and partner and associate compensation structures. Since effective risk management often involves helping to insure that policies and procedures are understood and uniformly operated at every level of a law firm, I spend a great deal of time presenting professional responsibility and risk management continuing legal education programs. I frequently act as an expert witness in disqualification, fee dispute and malpractice cases. I also co-teach a course (Anatomy of Large Law Firms) at Columbia University School of Law and, in addition to occasional law review articles, write the regular bi-monthly Professional Responsibility column for the New York Law Journal.
Most memorable previous job I had:
I began my career as a practicing barrister in London, handling criminal matters, including the trial of a major fraud case at the Central Criminal Court (better known to Americans as the Old Bailey).
What I thought I'd do when I was growing up:
Become a latter day "Rumpole of the Bailey."
Why I ended up in the legal profession:
I envisaged a career as a trial lawyer because I thought I had some aptitude for public performance, but wasn't sure if I could make it as a theatrical actor.
Best aspect of my work:
Positive feedback from lawyers and law firms that they have been helped by my counsel.
Worst aspect of my work:
Time spent in airports and away from home.
Pivotal moment in my career:
In 1992, during the aftermath of the "Savings and Loan" crisis, the federal government sued the Kaye Scholer law firm and I wrote a column in the New York Law Journal the theme of which was in the form of a question: If one was a partner of a prominent law firm and was told that the government had frozen the firm's assets until claims against the firm had been resolved, wouldn't one wonder how this had come about and what might have been done to avoid the problem? For the first time in my awareness, I used the words "risk management" in print. At least one person read my article because shortly afterward Professor Mary Daly called me to say that she had been invited to speak at a symposium on the Kaye Scholer case in Texas to be held the following spring, but since she was unable to attend she had suggested that I might be interested. But she warned me I would have to contribute a full-length law review article. I agreed, and attended the symposium, held at the South Texas School of Law, and indeed I turned my New York Law Journal piece into a full length article. By a series of twists and turns not necessary to relate, that article in turn ultimately led to the writing of the book, "Risk Management: Survival Tools for Law Firms" and its publication by the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA.
The writing of that book, and the efforts that followed to get the attention and interest of the insurers who write lawyers' professional liability insurance for lawyers and law firms, led me to the conclusion that it might indeed be possible to develop a full-time practice advising lawyers and law firms on issues relating to law practice generally, and specifically to risk management. Accordingly, in the mid 1990's I decided to embark on a significant career change, including moving to a law firm that was prepared to support my rather radical practice development scheme. Now, almost fifteen years later, I am at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, a national firm, and part of an entire practice group--Lawyers for the Profession®--that advises lawyers and law firms all over the United States and internationally on every aspect of the law governing lawyers.
Most surprising event in your career to date:
When I learned of the existence of the Association of Professional Lawyers ("APRL") – proving that there were other lawyers around the country with similar interests and practices to my own.
Most influential person(s) in your life:
My high school history teachers (if you have seen the play or movie "The History Boys," you will have an inkling of an idea), and my "Pupil Master" (the barrister with whom I did my mandatory apprenticeship at the English bar), the late Michael Hill, Q.C.
Dream job I'd have if I were independently wealthy:
Exactly what I do now.
Advice I'd give to a college student asking about going to law school:
If the reason you want to be a lawyer is because you believe it is a career that offers the opportunity to earn a substantial income, do something else as you will be very unhappy. On the other hand, if you have some idea as to what you want to accomplish for other people by being a lawyer, go for it!
Best books I read in the past year or two:
Most thought provoking: "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
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Best book on a legal subject: "Eat What You Kill, The Fall of a Wall Street Lawyer" by Mitt Regan.
Historic figure I'd most like to have dinner wi
th:
Winston Churchill.
Favorite City:
Paris.
Favorite art form (performing or otherwise):
Music, especially Country and Western (favorite performer: Patty Griffin), and the music of Handel, Bach and Beethoven (favorite performer: New York Philharmonic).
Ten years from now, how will the legal industry have changed?:
Caveat: I have learned to be very humble when it comes to making predictions – I have never found a crystal ball that worked! That said, I will venture some guesses: (i) The billable hour will not disappear, but it will progressively decrease as the preferred method of billing for legal services. (ii) Leverage will cease to be the principal driver of law firm profitability. Lawyers and firms will be profitable in direct proportion to the way in which they learn to work smarter, not harder. (iii) As a direct corollary to (i) and (ii), the most successful law firms will be those who hire only those associates they wish to retain permanently, that spend significant capital continually training the lawyers that they hire, and that reward based on competences acquired. (iv) "Big Law" will survive, albeit with many fewer players. (v) Boutique law firms with proven special expertise in their chosen arenas will flourish.
Globally, the predominance of the U.S. based law firms may be seriously threatened as a result of the ability of English and, probably other European law firms, to establish true multidisciplinary practices, to partner and share fees with nonlawyers and, to a lesser extent, to accept investment capital from nonlawyers, all as a result of the changing regulatory climate overseas. The U.S. based firms are likely to be hamstrung by the U.S. state based regulatory system unless ways can be found that will permit the separate national regulation of law firms that operate in more than one state.
Anything else you want to add?:
If I have learned only one principle from teaching and practicing law in the United States for 35 years, it is that the debate about whether the practice of law is predominantly a profession or a business is utterly misplaced. The practice of law is both a business and a profession. Lawyers and law firms are most effective in serving clients and in generating an appropriate livelihood when they adopt good business practices that conform to the applicable laws and rules of professional conduct.
Clients are inquiring about alternative fees, which leave most law firms flummoxed. Hourly billing is all that many law firms are familiar with. Now Susan Van Dyke, the president of the Vancouver Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, demystifies several alternative billing models:
The terrain is the result of millions of years of geologic activity with steep ridges the only remnants of a once formidable mountain chain long since broken down by glaciers passing and plain old erosion.
First Posted: 08- 4-09 12:31 PM | Updated: 08- 4-09 12:47 PM