Beyond knowledge management to better management
Writing Alternative Billing Alternatives gave me an excuse to contact my friend, Jeff Rovner, for some background detail on the superb session he, Jeffrey Brandt,Thomas Gaines, and Eugene Stein presented at ILTA09. In our e-mail exchange today, he provided the following additional insights: In his original example, he proposed a 10% discount in rates for... Continue Reading →
Thinking creatively about alternative billing structures is something increasing numbers of lawyers and law firms are grappling with. To help with this, Thomas Gaines, Jeffrey Brandt, Jeffrey Rovner and Eugene Stein gave a terrific presentation at ILTA09 regarding how technology might assist with alternative billing arrangements. They started by exploding some common alternative billing myths,... Continue Reading →
It used to be so simple, so predictable. Just as night follows day, we followed a well-worn retail pattern: September back-to-school sales, then Columbus Day sales, then Halloween Sales, a pause for Thanksgiving, and then (finally!) Christmas and after Christmas sales. You always knew what kind of discount you could expect to find depending on... Continue Reading →
Yesterday's post, Are Law Firms Ready for Transparency, was retweeted on Twitter quite heavily and generated a fair amount of discussion there and via e-mail. Some of that discussion is now reflected in an update I published this morning clarifying a few of the features of Mallesons Connect. (If you're interested in Mallesons' terrific project,... Continue Reading →
If you blinked at ILTA09 last week, you might have missed it. And, even if you saw it, did you understand its implications? One law firm has found a way to create real transparency in its dealings with its clients. Are other firms ready to do the same? During the session on Technologies That Will... Continue Reading →
Shift happens -- even in law firms. Are you ready? That's the question that kept surfacing at the ILTA09 conference last week. You'd have to be living under a rock not to have noticed the impact of the economy on law firms and their clients alike. Thankfully, ILTA09 didn't just remind us of the bad... Continue Reading →
What sets your law firm apart from its competitors? Your technology? Doubtful. In an interesting conversation today with Gil Yehuda and Livio Hughes on Enterprise 2.0, we discussed the rate at which companies are jumping on the Enterprise 2.0 bandwagon. Gil mentioned that recent figures indicated that anywhere from 25-40% of companies were either in... Continue Reading →
If you're ever asked for a church key, don't assume that the person making the request wants access to a house of worship. They may, in fact, be looking for spiritual assistance of a completely different sort. Are you puzzled? Well, that's perfectly understandable if you aren't familiar with this particular idiom. Idioms of all... Continue Reading →
Richard Susskind likes to be provocative. And, he's good at it. After hearing his talk at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, I found my mind churning with ideas of what it might be like if his vision became our reality. However, I soon felt stymied by the enormity of the challenge of changing... Continue Reading →
Michael Melcher believes that thinking like a lawyer is bad for a lawyer's career. He lays out his interesting arguments in a recent piece for the ABA Journal. Here are the lawyerly attributes that he believes handicap lawyers when thinking about their own careers: • Analyze rather than explore. • Focus on flaws and potential... Continue Reading →
Above and Beyond KM 