Here’s something I don’t understand: clients who are late for meetings. They set up the meeting based on their availability, and even confirm it the day before—yet sometimes I find myself sitting in a conference room waiting for them after the appointment was supposed to have started. Most of my clients do arrive on time, but this happens often enough that it annoys me. What happened to the rule, "If You’re On Time, You’re Late"? ...

Like you, I hate keeping track of my billable time. I used to spend hours each week going through sent emails, my calendar and my notes to figure out what I did every day.I knew there had to be a better answer than notepads and start/stop timers. The problem with the start/stop timer, for me, […]

Law school provides aspiring lawyers with a ton of information. For example, I learned about the Constitution and I learned how to panic. While studying for the bar, I learned about commercial paper and I learned that I cannot grow a full beard. What law school fails to teach aspiring attorneys is how to act like a normal, functional, regular business adult. Most law students go straight from college to law school without stepping a foot outside of their childhood bedroom. These “lawyers” can draft a brilliantly researched brief on the substantive and statutory procedural requirements of the admissibility of expert testimony in federal court. These “lawyers” cannot conduct a client meeting, cannot figure out how to bill time, and oftentimes cannot find the bathroom. Unlike other professions, we lawyers are simply not properly trained. ...

In his book The Checklist Manifesto, surgeon Atul Gawande asserts that checklists are a “cognitive net,” a mechanism that can help prevent experienced people from making errors due to flawed memory and attention, and ensure that teams work together. Or, as Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame put it, “the book’s main point is simple: no matter how expert you may be, well-designed checklists can improve outcomes.” In a law office, checklists help reduce errors and increase efficiency. They ensure that work is done, and in an order that makes the most sense. They can also be used as part of a task management system, showing each person in the organization how her responsibilities on the checklist affect the entire procedure. Two collaboration tools specifically focused on lists and tasks recently launched online. One, Asana, created by former Facebook employees, provides a web-based “to do” list for up to 30 people. The other, Trello, lets users create shared boards with task cards. Both are free. So which one is better for task and project management based on procedural checklists? Let’s compare.

Okay, we know the business of practicing law is in transition. (Some say "crisis"). It is evolving into ... something. But what? That's the question the College of Law Practice Management wrestles with each year at its Futures Conference. Some of the best minds on the topic will gather this month in Washington, DC, to discuss the future of managing partners, the nuances of value, new models for law firms, the consumer law revolution and the "new normal" perspective of in-house counsel. It's bound to be one of the best conversations all year. We hope you will be there, but even if you're not, let's get your juices flowing for your next after-hours roundtable with these five likely topics

We know it sounds like an oxymoron, but a “Red-Tape Reduction Committee” might actually be the thing your practice needs. Today, Vivian Manning describes how forming just such a committee is helping her newly merged firm dispense with frustration and “silent suffering” among lawyers and staff, tighten up processes and, yes, get rid of some […]

Who are these “enterprising lawyers”? Actually, they are easy to spot. Look for the happier, more engaged lawyers. Deeply invested in the power of the work they do for their clients, they have ample interests beyond the practice of law as well. And they seem to have more energy for getting things done than anyone in the crowd. You probably know one or two—you may even be one yourself! In this interview, we talk with Lee Rosen of the Rosen Law Firm, a family law practice in North Carolina. Lee is widely known for his Divorce Discourse blog and the innovative ways he's leveraged technology in his virtual practice.

The market for your talent today is an imbalanced one with far more talent than there are opportunities. In other words, employers are the buyers and it is definitely a buyers’ market. Given that, how should you think about and develop your career growth strategies? Simple. You need to understand the business of you. You […]

YouTube. The word evokes images of cute kittens, crazy stunts and viral video classics, like what happens when you mix Diet Coke and Mentos. It’s not where you would expect to find interesting and helpful videos on timely legal topics by some of the leading lawyers on the planet. Yet. In September, I was a panelist in a webinar focused on using video in the legal marketing mix, along with marketing innovators Adam Stock and Adam Severson. The webinar, sponsored by the Legal Marketing Association Social Media SIG, offered a primer on marketing videos for lawyers, and here are some key points.

Procrastination is a beast we all battle. Some days it feels like you'd rather do anything else but get work done. But you can't get away with that all the time. And sometimes the work just has to get completed posthaste, no matter what. So for this week's Friday Five, here are my personal five favorite tips for knocking out procrastination and just getting stuff done! ...