I joined Dan Lear on the Gravity Legal Podcast to share some of the valuable lessons I have learned from my experience while consulting for law firms and working for Getty Images. Show Highlights: John explains who he is, what he does, and how he thinks about the economics of law firms and legal services. One of the strongest lessons that John took away from Getty Images. Some of the key insights from Getty that John has brought into his consulting business. Bringing agile and lean to lawyers and law firms. The internet has made vast amounts of information available to everyone, for free - how does this affect law? ... (Keep reading)
The Agile Attorney Blog
Capturing an authentic, purpose-driven mission statement can have surprising benefits for your entire law practice or law firm. While most people think of a mission as something you do for marketing, studies have shown that purpose-oriented organizations outperform the competition when it comes to engaging customers and employees alike. Read on to learn how to craft purpose-driven mission statement that is succinct, authentic, and motivational. Or, if you prefer interactive learning, be sure to register for my upcoming webinar on the topic. Why Did You Go To Law School? One of my earliest memories from law school was my 1L Property Law professor (now the school’s Dean) asking the 80-some ... (Keep reading)
Agile as a comprehensive methodology is fairly new. Although many concepts that are now considered Agile predate the term, we can trace the unified theory to a gathering of software developers and technology managers in early 2001. Frustrated by traditional methods for managing software projects, they gathered in Snowbird, Utah to adopt a Manifesto for Agile Software Development: We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools; Working software over comprehensive documentation; Customer collaboration over contract negotiation; Responding to change over following a plan. That is, while there ... (Keep reading)
When I ask law firm leaders about their mission, they often try to shake me off with something like “Oh, we already wrote up a mission statement as part of our marketing work.” News flash: If you think your mission is something that is only supposed to attract customers then (1) it probably isn’t working and (2) you’re missing the point. A recent Harvard Business Review Article sums it up nicely: ... (Keep reading)
Lawyers who spend our days squinting to foresee tragedy—usually by cataloging historical harms—tend to grow comfortable with the weight of such dire (if remote) risks. We might forget, then, that our parade of portents can pack a punch for people who are unaccustomed to considering such calamity. John Steinbeck captures it vividly in The Log from the Sea of Cortez. He and Doc Ricketts are chartering a vessel in Monterrey for a six-week scientific expedition in the Gulf of California. Upon agreeing to terms in principle, it is time to put ink on the page. ... (Keep reading)
Quick Take: Clio’s 2019 Legal Trends Report introduced their Law Firm Maturity Model, an interesting framework for evaluating a current state of your firm and how it might improve. Maturity models in general can be an effective tool for reinforcing strengths, illuminating shortcomings, and suggesting opportunities for improvement. But I wonder whether that the Clio model focuses too heavily on revenue growth instead of the business fundamentals and strategies that are needed to drive that growth. ... (Keep reading)
Note: This Post originally appeared on Lawyerist.com in 2017 but has since been deprecated. The information below was current in 2017 but has not been updated since. It was a normal Thursday evening in early January, a relatively nice day for Portland considering the snowmageddon storm we’d had the previous week. I’d decided to work form home that afternoon in part because it was my first chance to have the house to myself after being snowbound with my kids, and I’d perched myself at my favorite spot on the kitchen island where natural light hits from all four sides of our open floor plan. ... (Keep reading)
I’m excited today to launch a new product line, Agile Attorney Learning, and the first product in that line, an online course titled Agile Productivity for Legal Professionals. Here’s how it came to be:I was at ABA Techshow a few weeks ago watching Jess Birken & Charity Anastasio deliver a talk about Kanban for Lawyers, which I think is great. My goal has always been to start a movement around Agile tools for legal professionals, so I love that others are spreading the gospel. Jordan Couch was in the room, who has also been teaching Kanban a fair bit lately. Here’s the thing: I know I taught Kanban to Jess and ... (Keep reading)
Quality standards prevent mistakes. As a standalone sentiment it seems like a no-brainier. Lawyers strive for quality: how often have you seen lawyer marketing with claims like “We provide our clients with the highest quality legal work,” or “We do quality work at an outstanding value”? Of course we strive for quality. It’s why people hire professionals like us, and it’s what we’re trained to do (especially when it is drilled into us by our superiors). Why, then, do lawyers keep messing up? ... (Keep reading)
Unless you’re a lone wolf, your project is going to have hand-offs. Sorry, did I say “project?” I forgot for a moment that this is a legal blog. I meant “matter.” Or “case.” Or whatever else you call that “individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim.”1 For consistency with the rest of the business world, let’s call it a project. ... (Keep reading)
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