CaveatA consultant or coach who doesn't first seek to understand your vision and
mission is likely to substitute his or hers for yours.

Are these good days or bad days for the profession of the law and those who practice it? After a decade of practice and a decade on top of that doing market research, client research and assisting firms meet the challenges of the times, the answer to this question is an unequivocal "Yes" as to both.

Jack Trout, in his book The Power of Simplicity, says that it is important to find the 'right horse to ride'. By this he means the right organization and product or service to link your career to. The same is true for lawyers. Changing firms in mid career means one of two things, either you dismounted or got bucked off. Either way, this is a good time to apply Jack's admonition to your horse in the legal profession.

The legal profession, both in its substance and its form is changing rapidly. The voluntary associations of lawyers, called law firms, reflect these changes. If you are changing horses in the middle of your legal career you will either practice the same law as a member of a new firm, get into an new area of the profession or both. Your goal is to be happy with your new horse.

Equine analogies are less imperfect than they seem. When Lincoln used "Don't change horses in the middle of the stream" as a campaign slogan in his run for re-election during the Civil War the message of the analogy was clear. In times of trouble, don't take on the risk of something new, in his case Presidential leadership. For attorneys, the temptation is to eschew risk in times of change by hunkering down to past practice and tradition. However, change in an unpredictable world always involves risk. Tradition only reduces risk if the future will be like the past. If you believe the profession is changing, it is not a question of leaving tradition and the status quo behind, circumstances beyond your control are doing that for you, it is only a matter of what you choose and how you proceed.

Changing firms in changing times is a tricky bit of chaos to manage. The place to start in considering a prospective firm is its leadership. You can not presume that the senior members of an economically successful firm automatically possess the kind of leadership that will take you to the end of your career with success and satisfaction. Leadership in the legal professional is itself changing. It is evolving from institutional to individual. No longer will a 'firm' succeed because it has a tradition of success. The social and business institutions called 'law firms' are being recreated with the speed of the internet. 'Leadership' in the legal profession is increasingly a personal - not institutional - attribute and this trend will continue. In this regard, the primary attribute of leadership is vision. Your success in finding a happy law firm home is in matching your vision to that to the existing members of the firm.

Vision is that to which an individual aspires. Since groups don't aspire - only individuals - matching your professional vision to that of leaders of the firm you are considering is the most important predictor of a satisfying future relationship. Vision is not what you want. (That always comes down to prestige/respect, discretionary control of your time and money.) Vision is what is valuable in your life, it is what makes your career worthwhile. The trick in picking a 'value' horse is getting past the kind of stuff the Miss America contestants always tell the smiling guy holding the microphone. This applies both to you and the leaders of the firm you're considering. It's not that saying 'Miss America' stuff is wrong or false so much as its incomplete. The 'vision' of the law is both intellectual and socially positive, while the vision of the individuals is at least partially emotional and partially unrelated to the commonweal. The practice of law is now in free and open competition and compatible visions within the firm are more important than ever before.

Vision is always personal. You and another may have similar visions, but each is unique and each will evolve as the individual evolves. For example, if the emotional component of your vision is the excitement of competition in the courtroom, you won't fulfill that vision by the victories of your partners. 'Mission' is the action expression of vision. Finding a close match between your vision and the collective mission of the members of the firm you are to join is the most important element of a long term comfortable fit in the new saddle.

Lets consider some examples of how this vision - mission stuff shows up in the real world so you can apply it to your situation.

STAFFING

We're familiar with successful firms that has a staffing ratio of .33 to 1: three attorneys sharing one major domo. We are also familiar with a firm where the ratio is 23 to 1. In this firm there are two attorneys and 46 'production' staffers. As Butch said while Sundance looked on, "the only rule is, 'there ain't no rules'"

Consider staff ratios from two perspectives, that of the attorney and that of the client. How will staff, within the mission of the prospective firm, help you realize your vision? There is continuum in how law firms view staff. On one end of the continuum is the convenience of the attorneys and on the other end is the satisfaction of clients. Few firms are at one extreme or the other but most are skewed to one concept or the other. If your vision includes trying cases to verdict, you'll be happier in a firm where staff is seen as assistants to the lawyers. If your vision is getting home in time to play with the kids, a firm where the staff is seen as delivering benefit to clients, if not independent of the lawyers, at least in some sense parallel to them, will better suit you. In 'interviewing' the firm, talk to a few staff persons, preferably outside the presence of the attorneys. Are they there as servants to the attorneys or as more direct agents of client satisfaction and how does this enhance your vision?

MARKET RESEARCH

Introducing the concept of market research to most management committees produces the single greatest non sequitur in law practice development. When you ask a firm about their market research, most respond with their position on media advertising. If you believe that the law business will continue to change, and further believe that competition between legal service providers will continue to grow, the only question about market research is how best to do it. The only area of practice where lawyers are secure for the time being is in the Courtroom. Even litigation is becoming less a cult of personality, especially in areas such as insurance defense, but for now at least, leg biters compete on a different plane from the rest. For all but dedicated courtroom junkies, if members of the firm use phrases like 'client driven' they're either imitating Miss America candidates or they recognize that the practice is getting more competitive. In a competitive environment, market research is the information asset that gets one firm a lead against its competitors. This research is like driving with high beam headlights while your competitors are using low beams; it allows you to see a little further ahead and to safely drive a little faster. Look at the research they've done, with past, as well as, prospective clients. Is the firm taking itself where your vision and mission say you must go?

TECHNOLOGY

There are two ways to look upon technology in the law firm: doing old stuff faster and using the technology to recreate the way value and satisfaction are delivered to clients. Leadership and vision apply here as well. As to leadership, the question is 'Can the old man dance?' Can the senior partner 'dance' with the computer at his or her desk? Has the computer been used it to take personal productivity (as opposed to their secretary's) to a new level? Does he or she know it well enough to teach it to you? Like every other service business in America, the legal profession is being pressured to understand and focus on the core values it delivers to those who pay the bills. Technology should be used to enhance value, not just enhance profits. The value component will help make sure that the horse you choose will have the stamina to finish the race. To choose wisely in this regard, you don't need to understand the technology so much as to understand the people who are using it.

Staying put - but not stagnating

Even if you're not changing horses, you can still use these questions to check your mount.

• What vision makes your professional life valuable?
• What is your action plan to make the vision a reality?
• How do your co-workers, especially those lower on the law firm food chain, contribute to your vision?
• How do you gather and use information that predicts changes in your market?
• And finally, how do you use technology to achieve vision as well as enhance productivity?

CONCLUSION

Finally, if you are one of those who got bucked off, because you weren't matched to the horse or because you weren't holding on tight, or because you let your attention lapse or because you weren't properly trained or because you have no talent for this kind of adventure, get back on. Look for the right horse, dust yourself off, come to peace with your vision and any sacrifices to your old self-image it entails and get back on.

                                        By Michael A. Loduha, Esq.

    Most folks understand the concept called the time value of money.   A thousand dollars today is worth more than a thousand dollars tomorrow and a lot more than a thousand dollars five years from now.   That same law of human nature applies to knowledge.   Knowledge today is worth more than that same knowledge tomorrow and a lot more than it will be worth in five years.  The more competitive the environment and the more relevant the knowledge to the competition, the greater the time value effect.

     The time value of knowledge has always been an operational rule within the legal profession.   Trial lawyers understand that advance knowledge as to a critical bit of evidence often leads to advantageous settlement or trial victory.   Real estate lawyers understand that a little advance knowledge of market trends yields negotiations that prove successful in the long run.  Every substantive field within the legal profession has its own examples and now lawyers are coming to realize that the benefits of a little advance knowledge applies to their professional careers as well.

     Just as a trial preparation or lease negotiations are competitive environments where advance knowledge is valuable, the practice of law is quickly becoming a competitive environment where advance knowledge of relevant information can spell the difference between success and mediocrity in the rewards of practice.    Traditionally lawyers have obtained market research (defined as information identifying where the legal business is today and where it is likely to be tomorrow) from two sources: their clients and other lawyers.    As the legal profession becomes more competitive, both sources are drying up.

    The increasing competition in the legal profession is manifesting itself in two aspects:

• Clients are increasingly conscious of their ability to make legal service choices

and are doing so.
• Lawyers are increasingly conscious that, even in a booming economy, 'good' legal  work is a finite commodity and are thus less  willing to share those things related   to obtaining it.  The specter of enhanced competition resulting from  multidisciplinary practices, when they arrive, makes the time value of market knowledge even more beneficial.

 Unlike superficial preference questions associated with consumer market research, market research for law firms deal with topics vital to an individual firm's future.  These topics include ...

• Clients' and potential clients' perceived benefits received from legal services for specific categories of substantive practice.   (By analogy,  it helps you make sure you're pitching what they're catching.)
• Competitive analysis from the perspective of potential clients.  (How potential clients see your firm and your competitors from the perspective by which they will choose a legal service provider in the future.)
• Client satisfaction, for both your firm and that of your competitors.  (Satisfaction is experience judged by expectation.)
• The integration of other demographic and market information with the firm's practice development plans.  (The 'cast a wide net' method of new client acquisition must give way to specific and efficient targeted presentations.)

We all must exercise caution lest a casually tossed line become an aphorism or an epitaph.  Supreme Court Associate Justice Lewis Powell became dangerously close to being remembered for defining pornography when he noted that "I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see it".     'Success' in the practice of law is another of those things that is hard to define but that hold out the promise that we will know it when we achieve it.

There are two formats for the definition of personal success: intellectual and emotional.  For a career in the law to be satisfying, both must be achieved.  In order to work toward achieving both, both must be understood.

Intellectual success is easier to understand but of lesser importance in personal satisfaction.

 Some markers of intellectually defined success...

It is defined by others.   For example, in junior high, it was 'good grades'. Due to our experience, we only knew grades defined success because significant adults, such as our parents, said so.

It is judged by others.   With academic grades as a standard, we all remember "the curve".  The curve was a way of analyzing our academic performance compared to our classmates.  'Good grades' is a relative term;  our success at achieving grades was good or not so good by comparison to others.

Others think they can get a chunk of ours.   After our school days are over, money and / or power becomes one of the markers of intellectually defined success.   The desire of others to acquire for themselves what we have achieved marks our success.

These intellectual markers are societal in nature and are external to us as individuals.

On the surface, the Law as a social institution is primarily intellectual.   That's why exercises such as 'deductive reasoning' and other exercises to develop the intellect eat up so many law school tuition dollars.   The point, before this discussion gets too theoretical, is that law is reason and intellect.   Therein lies the trap for those who think that success in the legal profession lies only in reason and the intellect.  Lawyers are people and as such, reason and intellect aren't all they are cracked up to be in defining 'success'.   This is because lawyers are individual human beings first and only then players on the intellectual stage of the legal system.  To deny this component of our professional life, or even to minimize it below its real importance, is the equivalent of ignoring that plume of blue smoke coming out of your tailpipe because your car is still moving forward.

I recall a discussion with a physician friend as to why the music of Mozart was so satisfying, especially to people who also found satisfaction in pursuits of the mind.  We concluded that Mozart's gift was the ability to express reason without words.  Success in our professional lives likewise has a component that goes beyond words.  That component is the emotional satisfaction of our professional success.

Some markers of emotionally defined success...

The feeling that the 'parts fit'.   In law practice this shows up in such ways as seeing your partners' strengths rather than their weaknesses or in seeing a path through the obstructions that lie in your professional future  rather than the obstructions themselves.

The desire to have those you care for share in the experience.  The most obvious sign of this marker are comments that you would or would not want your children to follow you into the profession.  Another would be the opinions of your significant others, who aren't themselves involved in the profession on a day to day basis of your professional life.  If your spouse remarks to his or her friends that "if it weren't for the damn clients, partners and judges your job would be okay" is a tip off as to the level of emotional success you bring home from the profession of the law.

  Your escape fantasies.    Even the most emotionally successful lawyers have bad days, experience professional disasters and must sometimes stand as uncomfortable witness to a client's or colleague's personal misfortune.   At these times we all retreat to our 'escape place' -- be it a woodworking shop, art gallery or shopping mall.   It is the frequency of these escape fantasies coupled with feelings of regret that tells us of the emotional success we experience in the legal profession.

These emotional markers are idiosyncratic in nature and are internal to us as individuals.

Each of us was a 'person' before we became lawyers and we will remain such after our law practice days are over.  We have chosen the world of reason and the intellect as the vineyard in which we will labor.  For those labors to be successful they must first generate success on a personal level.   Achieving personal success in the practice of a profession requires that we first define and understand what is important to us as individuals.   In law practice development, that is called 'vision'.

Each of us can have several components to our definition of professional success.  Some may primarily define success in financial or social status terms while others may define it in the perceived benefit our work provides to others.   Sometimes these components of success can be mutually exclusive, such as when clients need more services than they can afford.  It is not the conflict between components that degrades our professional success, but the failure to recognize and deal with the conflict.

Practicing law in a group does not eliminate nor lessens the primacy of emotional satisfaction in determining professional success.   It is not necessary that each and every stakeholder have the same personal vision of success.  However, the structure of the firm must recognize the necessity of a basic alignment between the visions of the various stakeholders.  It matters less what the stakeholders' visions are than the fact that they are aligned.

While your firm may have a 'vision statement' there is no such thing as 'collective vision'.  Vision is always unique to the individual.  Because the vision that defines emotional success is hierarchical ranking within each individual, different visions always have an element of mutual exclusion to them. Where the visions of the individual stakeholders vary one from the other, the structure and form of the law firm must consider and reconcile differences in stakeholder vision.   A principle function of practice development is the recognition of individual differences and their incorporation into the management of the firm.

To use the planning process to achieve greater success in the practice of law, we must make sure that our day to day professional activities align with both our emotional and intellectual definitions of success.   Or, as my Dad used to say,  "Make sure you're not barking up the wrong tree".   If the cat you're after isn't up the tree you're at, then barking longer, louder or more aggressively will not help.   Likewise, enhancing your internal operations with new administrative programs will only more efficiently coordinate the useless barking.   Enhancing your visibility to the world outside your firm with new marketing programs will only focus the attention of others to the fact that you're barking up the wrong tree.

Before you can achieve greater success in the practice of law, you must understand what success means for to you.

  If you are already emotionally successful, it may just mean more money (or money's doppelganger, time).  That's easy.

  If your emotional success markers tell you that the issues are deeper than hours worked to maintain the desired checkbook balance, you, either individually or collectively as a firm, need to take a step back and examine your success as you define it intellectually and experience it emotionally.   Taking a step back is an important part of practice development for many if not most practitioners, even those to whom Bentley directs its Wall Street Journal ads.

 At AMI we're consultants and coaches to members of the legal profession, not counselors.  However, our experience tells us that enhancing success starts with the personal vision of the lawyers and the collective vision of the law firm.   No one can run more swiftly until they remove the shackles and clearly focus on the prize.

The State Bar of Wisconsin recently held a two-day conference entitled Seize the Future.   The focus of the conference was the radical change overtaking the profession and impacting everyone in it.  The specific elements of the conference, important to every Wisconsin Practitioner, will be reported elsewhere.  Many practitioners are sailing along, saying to each other "We couldn't have hit an iceberg, the band is still playing".  They don't see any reason to get out of their deck chairs while others move to those smaller boats hanging off the side.  The attendees of the conference have heard the crunch and felt the shudder of the ship.   They don't like the increasingly obvious conclusions they've reached anymore than anyone else.  Liking it is not an option.  No practitioner and no practice area will be unaffected over the next few years.  It is inevitable that some will be left behind.

This discussion in intended to be something like the instruction sheets related to the words 'some assembly required'.   Knowing you have to assemble your future from the box of parts in front of you is one thing, actually making the pieces fit together is another.  The first thing to do is to gather the tools.   This means...

•  Commit the time.   You'll never have more time than right now.  If you lag, you will work harder and harder for less and less.   The most valuable time will be that spent 'getting out of yourself' and seeing the legal profession through the eyes of those outside of it.  After all, they're the ones who pay the fees.
•  Commit to change.    The forces of change are bigger and more powerful than the legal profession.   The question is not whether you will be impacted by the changes, but whether your attitude will obscure your insights into how best serve yourself and others within the changes.
• Get a coach.    Just as in a productive attorney - client relationship, you are not going to turn over decisions about your future to someone else.  But your commitment to that someone and that someone's commitment to the process will get you over the rough spots.

There are five elements to the process of assembling your professional future.  These elements are:  Vision, Mission, Strategy, Tactics and Programs.  Just as following the sequence of instructions is important when assembling a corporeal hereditament for your child's Christmas morning, following a sequence is useful in assembling your firm's professional future.

Articulate your Vision
Vision is the aspirational declaration of values .    Stated vision without commitment is worse than hypocrisy, it will mean failure.   Everyone's vision must be spoken aloud.  Do not presume because someone has the cabin next to you on the ship that you are both on board for the same deep-seated reasons.   The future will compel choices, and your common vision will guide your collective choices.
 The first step in the process is understanding your personal vision, stating it clearly to those who share your future and carefully listening to and understanding their visions.  From this process you must develop the collective vision of the firm.

Choose your Mission
Mission is the action statement of your vision.    The statement of your mission is not a marketing tool.  It is a commitment to the action that will take you to your vision.   Your mission answers the question of what you are going to do, just as your vision answers why you are doing it.
If vision is the decision to travel, mission is the choice of a destination and a means to get there.   If vision is the declaration of what is already in your heart, mission is the declaration of choice of action.    Thus, even when the chosen mission is similar to the preexisting action commitments of the firm, the act of choosing is valuable.

Consider your Strategy
Strategy deals with your practice environment; that is, those things that you must deal with that you can't change or influence .  The need to adopt technology is a strategic necessity.

Select your Tactics
Tactics deal with your market;  that is, those things you control or at least can influence .  You can choose with whom to compete, how to present your firm's particular skill set to the public and the like.

Implement specific Programs
Programs are discrete little bundles of action.   They are the turns of the rudder or change of speed by which you guide your practice forward.  Everything that goes before is preparation for what programs to adopt and which to abandon.  The sooner you start and the further you look ahead, the more likely your program will be to change course rather than abandon ship.
Programs have a beginning, middle and end.  They can be measured.  Everyone should understand what they are for, how they work and what their specific role in the program might be.

 Learning itself is to a large extent a learned activity.   While we have clutched to stare decisis the financial planners have taken our estate planning business and accounts our small business work.   Just as we teach judges and juries what they must know to see and decide issues our way, we must teach ourselves to seize the future.

The first Nuts and Bolts  article discussed taking your law practice into the future focusing on Practice Development from a personal perspective.  Planning from this perspective begins with vision (the expression of aspirations) and gives life to that vision with a declaration of mission (the expression of vision in action).  This method then evaluates strategic issues (things that can’t be influenced by the planner) and tactics (things that the planner can do something about.)  The final stage of this model relates to the programs that implement and measure the progress of his or her law practice toward personal and professional goals.

This discussion lays out an ‘external’ model for planning and development that must be simultaneously considered and applied.  Rather than see the law practice as serving the personal vision of the practitioner, it approaches the venture ‘externally’ considering assets, patterns and values.   If the first model puts primacy on where you want to go and then constructs the system to get you there, the second model considers what already exists and helps select the direction of most efficient progress.

In this second model, assets are the available resources.  For a solo practitioner, it would begin with his or her personal and professional attributes and abilities and expand to include information, financial backing, relationships and technology.
 

· In the nuts and bolts approach, the first step is an honest assessment and inventory of the assets with which you will build your future.

· Market related candor is an absolute necessity for the inventory to be useful.  I once did a comprehensive study of a firm’s client relations and discovered that one of the partner’s listening skills was a major problem.  After as careful a presentation as I could muster, backed with mounds of data, that partner declared – not that I had been mistaken in my research – but that the clients were just wrong.

· Identifying and listing assets is quite different from evaluating them.  If some judgmental ‘filter’ is imposed, you will substantially compromise creativity and limit options.  Remember – things are changing and will continue to change in ways that are hard to predict.  I once had a partner who couldn’t find the courthouse with a seeing eye dog, but his clients brought in more fruitcakes at Christmas than we could fit in the dumpster.  His relationship skills were a substantial asset.

· It is almost impossible to objectively discuss assets that are also personal attributes.  For example, tell your significant other that you want to discuss something they are wearing ‘objectively” and see where it gets you.  Since assets will be evaluated and used based on their value to your future market of potential clients, outside assistance is invaluable in this process.

· There are various ways to develop a firm asset inventory – at a retreat, the divide and conquer method, etc. – but each method results in a written assets inventory.