TLOMA Today

Well, we “Marched into Spring” with a fantastic event at The Duke of Westminster last month.  Please join me in thanking Pamela Harris, Angela Kirkpatrick, Liz Barrington and Karen Gerhardt for a wonderful evening! Chatting over a glass of wine and seeing so many of you while not having to “rush” back to the office was very much needed.  

As some of you may be aware, I have been a TLOMA member since 1996 (I know, 12 years old was pretty young to be in HR, but I was very mature for my age!). After “Marching into Spring” I was feeling very nostalgic and while walking down memory lane began thinking back to when I joined TLOMA. I couldn’t help but reflect upon the major role our Association played in my career, the wonderful friendships I have developed and the fantastic mentors I’ve had along the way.

For most, creating professional relationships is important, and joining a group like TLOMA provides a sense of security and trust. I encourage all of you to get out there, show up and be part of things, start a conversation and make it a goal to meet at least 3 new people at each event. As TLOMA members, we support and assist one another in reaching professional goals. At numerous events held throughout the year, we have the opportunity to connect with peers. This allows us to share ideas, ask for advice, volunteer to assist at SIGS, Conference, or become members of Committees and the Board.

At our SIGS, Professional Development events, Conference and Networking events, we participate and have the opportunity to discuss breaking news in our career areas, learn "best practices" or new ideas, hear about key achievers in our fields and also meet and brainstorm with each other to share and learn new information. Enhancing our networks is best of all. What’s truly magical is finding a mentor or mentors to assist you with your professional needs/goals. Or, even better, the gift of discovering that you may be in a position to become a mentor to someone else.

We are very fortunate!  So, perhaps, take a moment to think about the best mentors you have had over your career. For me, two names immediately come to my mind, Karen and Susan. Mentors come in all forms; they can be your manager, a colleague, a parent, a friend, a coach, a university professor... anyone who has had a meaningful impact at some point in your life. Karen and Susan are two of mine and not coincidentally both are members of TLOMA. They were an integral part of my journey from the beginning and remain important people in my life to this day.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone cited you as their mentor? Someone who had a significant impact on their career? For me, it would be the greatest compliment. At some (or many) points in your career, you will have this opportunity. This can be both exciting and challenging. What exactly does it mean to be someone's mentor, and how can you really stand out? It all comes down to making yourself available to support and advise someone when they need it, delivering that support in a way that makes sense to them, and always keeping that person's best interests and trust in mind. These relationships, like mine, can last for years. When you mentor someone long-term, you really get to know and understand their personality, learning style and goals, which can set you up to offer richer and more relevant advice. Maybe there is someone you’ve met at the last SIG, Professional Development event, Networking Event, Conference or at the office.  A great benefit of enhancing your network is that you may find a mentor to help you with your professional needs or you may be in a position to become a mentor to someone else. I was blessed to have two outstanding female mentors; they made me aware of opportunities, invited me to attend meetings, and engaged me in conversations about my goals, power dynamics in the workplace, and key issues. I have done my best to pay it forward with TLOMA and in my working relationships. Be a mentor, the value you provide will pay it back many times over!  

Now that you are in mentor-mode and planning on when you are going to meet those 3 new people take a peek at what we have on the go for April. Also, please don’t forget to give us your feedback when you attend SIG sessions. We like to know how we are doing and what we can do better.

• April 5th – Everything You Wanted To Know To Ensure a Productive and Successful CRM Adoption within Your Firm
• Apr 10th - Financial Wellness - Why it Matters
• April 16th - Building High Performance Teams
• April 18th - New Member Breakfast 
  
  

So ends another of Medel’s Musings. Wishing you all an Amazing April!

Cheers,
Michelle

Great leaders add immense value and provide competitive leverage to any law firm. Others in leadership positions merely confuse those around them.

What Makes Some Law Firm Leaders Visionaries?

They are not trapped in the here and now. They can see a destination. They have focus, and are not distracted by bumps in the road, trends or mirages. First they see a result to be accomplished, then they figure out how to get there. Process is not their default first step. Process is the vehicle to get there. The prize is in the destination. En route, everyone at the firm makes

money.

There is a difference between a Mission and a Vision, yet so many firms use the terms interchangeably and, in so doing, diminish their value.

“Mission” is your core purpose, your reason for being as a law firm – it doesn’t merely describe your output, process or target clients. It captures the essence of why you practice and what you stand for.  And, surprise… it’s not ‘to make money’ – that’s the (important) by-product of a productive practice.

“Vision” is about ambition – a vivid description of what it will be like to achieve your law firm’s long term goal. 

Blah, Blah, Blah?.... or What?

Vision. Mission. Values. Isn’t this just a bunch of ‘stuff’ that large organizations spend inordinate amounts of time fussing about so they can justify their existence?  Not at all. If you have a firm of 5 lawyers or 500 lawyers, to ensure that there is support and understanding for your business model, everyone needs to appreciate the ambitions of the firm apart from achieving monthly billable targets. Not for today or tomorrow, but for some time in the future. How do you set priorities if members of your firm don’t understand the vision, where you are trying to go and what is most important? Working at a law firm must provide more intellectual satisfaction than merely punching a time clock in and out on files. 

Smaller Firms Have an Advantage

It’s a lot easier for a few individuals to sit around a table and agree that you are all on the same page. It’s hard to share ideas and have meaningful conversations with 500 lawyers. Try asking, ‘What’s important to you?  What motivates you?  What do you want to have happen at this firm?’ to this assembled partnership and hope for a usable response.

Don’t Sculpt Smoke

Every business enterprise needs vision, values and purpose that are not bland, trite, generic or interchangeable with the firm downstairs. How does the small firm do it in a meaningful way that doesn’t feel like you are sculpting smoke or blindly following a consultant?  In a smaller firm, these statements will reflect the values and the wishes of the principals.  It’s their business, their money, their investment, their lives, and their wishes. It should reflect who they are, and permeate the firm.  A key point to understand when crafting your vision, values and purpose is that you don’t have to create a literary award winning statement.  Keep it clear and simple.  Make it something that everyone on your team at every level knows, understands and can be behaviorally responsive to.

You Don’t Need Universal Buy-In

Once the leaders have created the model it becomes the personality, culture and direction of the firm. Those who are attracted to these sentiments will want to join or stay. Those who find any personal conflict with these sentiments and strategy should not be forced to ‘buy in’ to them. It is not a popularity contest; the leadership should not try to please everyone - Merely those who share their chosen philosophies.

Build a Quality Law Firm and a Fun Place to Work

By the way, there is nothing wrong with a Mission (‘our purpose, why we are practicing law here’) that says we will build a quality law firm that will take care of all our lawyers and employees, create a great life for us, allow us to have fun at work… and make a decent income along the way. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have and to build a quality of life firm with no grandiose ambition of taking over the world, or any other aspirations of greatness. Just keep your statements focused, single-minded and relevant to what business model you (the leader/s) wish to have in place.

Lose the Fancy Consultant - Your Statements Must be Authentic

Overriding everything, it’s important that your statements be authentic. Please, never seek deep inspiration from textbooks and be very wary of earnest consultant-speak. It’s great to make up rallying cries and rousing slogans at a retreat, but you have to truly live them to derive any business benefit. There are no right or wrong statements – they are YOUR statements and what your firm stands for. Vision, values and purpose have to emanate from your group, not from a textbook, or what you think the profession wants to hear or what you feel clients want to hear.

If you are a Leader, Then Lead

Today you can’t afford just to say, ‘We’re a law firm with smart, hardworking, client-centered lawyers’ and hope that your business will flourish, your lawyers and staff will be happy and productive, and all will be well. In business, as in life, you must know who you are, what you stand for, and, very importantly, where the destination of your efforts lies. Great leaders lead, add practical value and provide leverage to all in a law firm.  Others in leadership positions merely confuse everyone in their organization to the delight of their competitors.

Are you a successful delegator?

Learning how to delegate and ensuring your work is completed correctly, on time and within budget is an essential skill all managers should have. Unfortunately, many managers do not pay enough attention to the delegation process and often struggle with relinquishing some of their responsibilities. Successful managers know what tasks to delegate so they can have more time to plan, to collaborate with others, and to monitor the performance of their team. The process of delegation in the workplace involves the sharing or transfer of authority and responsibility from manager or peer to another employee. Through delegation, you as a leader can coach your people and boost the productivity of your team. Here are ways to ensure your approach to delegation will allow you to optimize your time and accomplish your goals.

When planning to delegate, ask yourself…

• Do I hold onto tasks that I enjoy doing but make sense for someone else to be doing?
• Do I hold onto work to ensure the work is done “correctly"?
• Do I use delegation to motivate my direct reports?
• When I delegate, do I set clear expectations? (i.e) setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.

Conditions for Delegating

When deciding on tasks to delegate, make sure the conditions for delegating are right. The person that you choose to delegate to must be able to do the job or at least have the aptitude to learn the skills needed to complete the task.

Discerning whether the individual wants to learn how to do a certain task can be difficult, ensure to observe body language and facial expressions when talking about the task. Extremely motivated employees will typically be excited they have been chosen for a task, and feel empowered by it.  Paying attention to subtle cues will aid you in deciding what tasks should be given to which team members.

Next, define the task and clearly articulate the desired outcome to the employee. Once it is established that you and your team member are comfortable with the task, set goals with timelines and try to ensure the delegated task provides the individual the opportunity to complete the full task. Once delegated, give the employee control over the task and follow up, but make sure the employee feels they are trusted with the work that has been given to them.

It is important to know when to delegate, but it is equally important to know when not to delegate.

Do not delegate tasks when:

• The task is exclusively in your area of responsibility
• The team member is not qualified
• Your superiors requested that you complete this task
• The deadline is unreasonable and requires your immediate attention

Approaches to Delegation

When delegating, it is essential to consider the approach that best fits the task, the employee and your own preferences. Based on the confidence you have in the employee to complete the task and the importance of the task itself, a variety of approaches may be considered.

When dealing with a highly important task, but the individual you are delegating to may not be able to fully complete the task correctly, use a more direct approach. Let the employee know why you are using this approach and use specific, clear instructions that will not require a high level of decision-making when undertaking the task. You can ask the individual to “follow these instructions precisely” when going over the task.  

For tasks with flexible timelines, requiring limited skills, and little risk, the work can be delegated to new team members who can use this opportunity to develop and grow their skills. Using a development approach, ask the team member to research, conduct an analysis and propose a course of action in order to complete the task. You can tell the employee to, "look into this and let me know what options there are. We'll decide together."

Conversely, if a task is extremely important and the employee you are delegating to is highly capable, use more of a dialogue approach. The individual will have the authority to do their own analysis of the situation, come up with recommendations and provide you with the chance to make the final review. This can involve you asking the employee to, “give me your analysis of the situation and recommendations. I'll let you know whether or not to proceed."

Finally, if the task has very little importance and you have high confidence in the employee you are delegating to, you can use more of a disengaged approach. Once you have delegated the task, disengage and be “hands-off.” Do not get involved in the process until the task is completed and you are informed of the results. You can tell the individual to, “decide on your own, take action, let me know what you did and what the outcome was."

Delegation is a powerful tool that, if used effectively, will ease stress and improve efficiency. When delegating work, the right people will be completing the right tasks which will not only contribute to the quality of work, but improve team cohesion. Using delegation to allow for learning opportunities for your team will allow for members of your team to develop and grow. This is not only an opportunity for the development of your team; delegation presents opportunities for the delegator to learn as well. Through coaching and mentoring, opportunities will present themselves which will allow you to practice your delegation skills while developing your team.   

Business owners are responsible for managing all aspects of their business. From sales to procurement to delivery and staffing, everything needs to be in sync for the business to succeed. However, when it comes to technology, business owners fall into two camps – they are either afraid of it because it is too foreign to them or they think they know everything there is to know about technology and don’t need help. Both points of view are dangerous and could lead to problems.

Now, more than ever, external (and sometimes internal) agents are working to get to your firm’s data, to compromise information or to deceive you all with one goal in mind – making money. These agents do not care how they make the money, just that they make it. To protect yourself and your business you need to know the basics. These should either be researched by you, the owner, or requested from your IT company.

So what are some of those basics?

Firewall

Do you have a business grade firewall? Usually these will cost more than $1,000 and they can be programmed to do things like separate your wireless network from your internal network at the office, block IP’s from specific countries and block specific categories of web sites. Having the firewall is one thing, but you also need to be sure it is programmed correctly to provide at least some level of protection to your business.   Most people have a fully open Internet connection and that may be okay, but you should be aware that these capabilities are there and take advantage of them if you feel they will be of benefit to the business.

What should I know?

• Do I have a business grade firewall?
• Is my firewall doing any screening for me?
• Is my wireless network connected to my internal network?

Backup

Do you have an adequate backup system? Many would respond yes right away, but let’s delve into that a bit more. What should an adequate backup system have the ability to do in order to completely protect the business?

• Support on site backup to a destination that is not directly visible from the network using standard Windows File Explorer.
• Support off site backup to a location at least 30km from the office location.
• Have the ability to backup not only files, but Exchange databases, SQL databases and all the content of your servers.
• Have the ability to restore single files, folders, mailboxes or individual email messages.
• Have the ability to restore a complete server in the event of a Crypto style virus.
• Have the ability to restore your firm’s systems in the event that the server room is irreparably damaged.
• Is the backup system monitored for errors?
• Are restore tests done on a regular basis to ensure that data can be recovered?

The next thing to think about is if you get hit at your most vulnerable time, how long can you wait for the system to come back up? Timing may differ between email and files for example. You may be able to live without files for a day but you may need email up within 4 hours. Does your backup system support these objectives – because that’s what’s needed to ensure that your business keeps running.

The frequency of backup should be known. Gone are the days of backing up once a day. You need to be backing up every few hours to ensure that you don’t lose too much data if you experience an event that requires recovery.

What should I know?

• Is your backup isolated from the rest of the system – both on and off site?
• Do you have offsite backup at least 30km away from the office?
• Do you know what is important to recover first in the event of a disaster?
• Can you granularly recover your email if need be?
• How fast can you recovery your system in the event of a complete failure?

The best way to find this out is to request a test of the backup and recovery system now in use. The test will reveal where there are issues and allow you to fix them before you really need them.

Antivirus

Are you using a free antivirus system? If so, you are getting exactly what you paid for.  Use a reputable antivirus system, one that is not based on definitions but instead on heuristics. Things are changing too fast nowadays to relay on regular definition updates. You need a Cloud sourced antivirus system that is continually scanning endpoints around the world and reporting back to “head office.” Head office then lets all systems know of any threats quickly.

What should I know?

• Is your antivirus system paid for or free?
• Is it managed from a single console that lets you discover if there is an issue from one location?
• Is your antivirus system definition based or heuristics based?
• When does the antivirus system expire?

Domain and SSL Certificates

My client shared with me recently the “insight” that “clients hire lawyers, not law firms ...” If I had a bitcoin for the number of times I’ve been on the receiving end of that comment ... well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be writing these articles.

I don’t mean to suggest that the opposite is true – the truth is that many clients do in fact hire individual lawyers and not the law firms for which they work. This of course begs the central question: Why should law firm leaders accept this expectation? When you think about it, it’s pretty disrespectful to your law firm as an institution – “You mean to tell me that after spending many years operating in our marketplace, our law firm can’t claim any credit for attracting business to the firm?” What are law firms doing wrong to support this expectation, and what could they be doing right to connect their entire firm to prospects and clients?

The truth is that even some of the most successful firms are an assemblage of great artists. In the eyes of clients and prospects, firms are only as good as the relationship partners they deal with. But law firms can do much better, and I spend a lot of time with Edge clients helping firms establish their own firm wide connection with prospects and clients. Building this kind of brand equity is a bit of a multi-front war and can be operationally intensive, but described below are a few example strategies firms can undertake:

• Unconventional cross-functional teams within law firms create new pathways – for example, use the collective currency that your L&E and ERISA practice groups enjoy with the corporate HR function, and have those practice groups partner with your corporate practice group on structuring HR outsourcing relationships.
• Purpose can be promoted – law firms often take for granted the way they go about their business. From onboarding lateral partners, to training younger lawyers, to managing the adoption of technology by lawyers, these are all essential and potentially compelling portions of your firm’s operating model. If your firm is purposeful about the way it goes about these things, then educate the marketplace about this important operational DNA.
• Cross-disciplinary wisdom is in short supply – train your lawyers to look for opportunities to bleed into other non-legal business advisory disciplines. For example, your litigators could become front-end risk-assessment and mitigation advisors as much as are AON and Marsh, or your corporate lawyers could get their hands as dirty with post-acquisition business and process integration issues as do your client’s outside management consultants and technology consultants.
• Firmwide relationship brokerage awakens a dormant asset – it’s one thing for your lawyers to put prospects and clients in touch with business actors the lawyers themselves know directly – tier I lawyer rainmakers do this all of the time; however, it’s quite another thing for law firms to make use of the important relationships all firm partners enjoy across the firm. Moreover, your firm’s relationship assets extend well beyond your client roster, and include the non-client relationships with business people each partner enjoys.
• Process! Process! Process! – process is the mother’s milk of enterprise brand equity. For example, even if the market perceives your people to be better than the human capital at competing peer firms, it is your recruiting and professional development processes that undergird that success. You should exploit this objective asset by educating your lawyers about why your firm’s professional development and recruiting processes are different – and, therefore, better.
• The “Playbook” – most great companies – in fact, most great business services companies – are able to define, articulate, and reduce to writing “The XYZ Company Way.” Professionals at these special companies know what is their firm’s secret sauce – the operating elements, methods, processes and incentives that make how they do what they do special, different, and better. These great companies all put together some form of “playbook,” reflecting their secret sauce. I strongly encourage my law firm clients to put together their own playbook, as it usually triggers important cultural and operating advances at the firm. When I help law firms create a playbook, I use it as an opportunity to layer in some important innovation opportunities (technologies, new processes, new fee structures, etc.). Through this process, they also begin to think of what they do as a “whole product” rather than as isolated technical legal output.

Of course, establishing firm wide relevance and brand equity with your market is no trivial endeavor – do not lament if you don’t see your firm becoming the next Cravath, McKinsey, or Goldman Sachs overnight. As dynamic as we like to think the legal market is today, it’s still early days and the bar is low. Firms can gain real competitive advantage by putting together a playbook and educating their sales and delivery resources – their lawyers – about what’s in it. So have at it – make your own playbook!

Name of Organization / Company: Stanton Allen Limited

Organization / Company Overview: Stanton Allen is an organization specializing in helping firms to define, implement and manage a practical, clear and effective data management strategy. Our team has more than 50 years collective experience working with and for professional services firms. Whether they are looking to move their data to a new CRM or rejuvenate and relaunch their current platform we help guide firms to realize the full potential of their data, based on tangible business requirements, and with measurable results.

Stanton Allen was founded ten years ago, and has worked with over 150 Professional Services firms, across Europe, Australia, the US and Canada.

Service Overview: We have developed a range of services, tools, products, scripts and routines for CRM users and can provide these tools and consultancy in all areas of:

- Data Cleaning & Migration
- CRM System selection & strategy
- Data Integration Solutions
- Data Management Resources
- Report Development

What has been your partnership experience with TLOMA over the years?  We have previously spoken at a workshop/ panel session with TLOMA organized in 2015 by Alison Janzen.

Where was the last place you vacationed?  Spain, making the most of the fact we can still go there before Brexit.

What is the name of your favorite restaurant?  In Toronto I love sushi at the Drake or Pad Thai at the Queen Mother.

What is your favorite movie?  California Suite by Neil Simon. 

What is your favorite comfort food?  Bloody Caesar, that’s a food right? It’s got clams in it.

What is your favorite sports team?  I guess I had better say the Blue Jays.