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The CREATIVE COUNSEL
   Rethinking the Attorney - Client Relationship




                                            by Matthew Homann
                                                   LexThink LLC



                             © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
LexThink                 .com
   innovation: for lawyers
@matthomann
              © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
www.nonbillablehour.com
                   © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
© Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
© Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
The practice of law depends
upon precedents. The
business of law does not.




            © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Just because everyone is doing
it doesn’t make it right.




                                 © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Ready to party
like it is 1999?




     © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
The one thing that’s changing in
     law practice is: everything.




                  © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Lawyers rarely sell
what their clients
are buying.




     © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Time is not a
valid metric.




  © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
... but it sure is an
easy one to measure.




      © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Price




        Time
          © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Things change faster
than we expect.




    © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
© Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Proximity to information is now: irrelevant.
                                 © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Email is not a
collaboration tool.




    © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
True innovation
requires more
than using
different tools
to do the same
thing.



    © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
True innovation
requires more
than charging a
different way for
the same thing.




                    © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
The money that
matters now belongs
to everybody.




      © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Faster doesn’t
always mean better.




     © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
A business
model based
upon uncertainty
is: unsustainable.




   © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
A business
model that
keeps customers
from calling is:
indefensible.



                   © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Just because you
can buy everything
at one place doesn’t
mean you have to.




     © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
How?
   © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Teamwork is
     necessary.
© Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
You can’t get
what you want,
‘til you know
what you want.




  © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Convene a client - counsel summit.

                           © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Ask how “we”
can serve our
mutual client
best.




  © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Learn to play well together.




              © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Our lawyers need to:
- Visit us once in a while.
- Know our business.
- Stop charging us for phone calls.

- Help us learn more about the law.    Ask your users
- Stop faxing, e-mailing and sending
   us every document.                  what they want
                                       and need from
                                       their lawyers.




                                          © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Our clients need to:

                     - Stop waiting ‘til the last minute, and
                     Call us at the beginning of a problem.

Ask your lawyers     - Help us learn more about their biz.
                     - Stop faxing, e-mailing and sending
                       us every document.
what they want and
need from you.




                                        © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Make sure you
and your firms
are measuring
the same things.




                   © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Grade your firms
(and their lawyers)
on a regular basis.




     © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Stop negotiating
rates.
Start negotiating
price.




                    © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
One size doesn’t
have to fit all.




 © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Tinker and
experiment until
you get it right.




  © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Take seriously
your obligation
to nurture
young lawyers.




 © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
© Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved
Matthew Homann is the founder of LexThink
and the author of the [non]billable hour blog.

You can reach him at Matt @ LexThink.com
or follow him on Twitter @MattHomann.




                     © Matthew Homann 2010 All Rights Reserved

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The Creative Counsel

Notes de l'éditeur

  1. My company is LexThink. I have a unique “job” I get to work with lawyers and law firms, often as a “fly on the wall” during their conversations about client service, billing, fees, etc. I also get a chance to work with senior executives of big companies as I facilitate their meetings. Once they find out I’m a lawyer, I get to hear a litany of the things they hate about their counsel.
  2. My goal for today is to give you a few more ---- ideas. One of the big challenges with lawyers, is that we spend all of our “creative thinking time” solving our clients’ problems.
  3. Ideas than you had before you got here -- and to challenge you to think a bit differently about the relationship between lawyer and client. “client”
  4. So, I challenge you to ignore “precedent” for a bit. Don’t ask “what other firms” are doing that? Instead, think about how you (or the firms you work with) can be first/innovative/etc. First mover advantage
  5. Firms run by other lawyers just like you. They’re scared, too.... A bunch of inventors waiting to be the second to have a great idea. Innovators.
  6. So, why innovate? Economy’s on the rebound. Consumer (and lawyer) confidence is up. Even the Schwag is better. Who wants to go back to the same model as before? Sure would be easier. but the Genie has left the bottle. Can we even go back? Some big changes.... Only partially driven by the economy Truth is, it seems like everything has changed.....
  7. Things seem different. I recently witnessed the managing partners for a large firm, in a firm-wide meeting, predict the demise of the billable hour. With a straight face, and to thunderous applause.
  8. What does the time spent have to do with the result? Overhead of time?
  9. I’m no economist or spreadsheet guru, but even I can figure out this one. A spreadsheet chart nobody should have to see again.
  10. Still, that doesn’t mean we shouln’t try.... Retreat for BR
  11. Instant collaboration, required. File metaphor.... Home experience drives work expectations.... Facebook, Twitter,,, want to know what counsel is thinking as they’re thinking it.
  12. “I’ll have to look at the file and get back to you” doesn’t fly. Let’s look at it together. Or, client has seen work first.
  13. If apple’s only innovation was selling five year ipods using a different pricing scheme every year, who’d keep buying them? Yet lawyers do the same thing.
  14. Want to wail about costs/fees/profits/etc.?, prepare to share them.
  15. Lawyers worth not measured by a stopwatch. Time to think... Think when you need to, not when you want to make more money Also, when lack of speed is difference between a bigger profit for a lawyer and bigger bill for a client, struggle
  16. Uncertain outcome with an uncertain delivery date for an uncertain price. The first three phrases they teach in law school? I don’t know, it depends and maybe. Although “I don’t know” often goes by the alternative term: “Let me research that....”
  17. Constantly hearing “we hire lawyers, not firms” from clients, but from lawyers at even mid-sized boutiques, I hear “we hire firms, not lawyers.” Which is it?
  18. Obvious, but true. The best businesses are built to serve the best customers. And looking around the room at some of the lawyers and sponsors here, I’m guessing they’ve identified you as the best customers.
  19. Apologies to Joe Jackson, but ...
  20. If you’re law firms aren’t asking “How can we serve you better?” Tell them, here’s our wish-list and our non-negotiables.
  21. What should be easier than it is? What’s your biggest headache? What do you do now, but wish you could get legal advice for before you do? What’s your biggest fear when you call or meet with our lawyers? Our lawyers should ... Our lawyers are ...
  22. Once you know what matters, share it with the firm and make certain you’re measuring the same thing.
  23. And share the result. Firms, you should be doing the same thing.
  24. Growing lawyers. Brain drain. Cost/ Incentivize use of young lawyers by firms, not discourage it.