The Bottom Line
November 1999 Vol. 21, No. 2
Statements or expressions of opinion or comments appearing herein are those of the editors or contributors, and not necessarily those of the association or section.
Contents
* From the chair: the wisdom of Bill Gates
From the chair: the wisdom of Bill Gates
By Paul Bernstein
Another message from the chair? Well, what confidence might the senior partner in your law firm, or you (if you are a solo practitioner) have in my introductory remarks to this newsletter? A bit, perhaps.
On the other hand, everyone knows Bill Gates, the richest man in the world. In an exciting, must-read book by Mr. Gates, Business@The Speed of Thought, Mr. Gates tells lawyers all we need to know about the revolution in technology that exists now and how to use technology in your law firm. My guess is that everyone in your firm will be interested in Mr. Gates' remarks.
Business@The Speed of Thought is must reading!
Bill Gates, father of Microsoft Corporation, has, as noted above, published a new book which should be required reading for all members of all law firms, particularly the senior partners and, of course, solo practitioners. The name of the book is "Business @ The Speed of Thought, Using a Digital Nervous System.
Lawyers, first and foremost, deal with information
We lawyers deal with information and, today, all of the information we deal with can and, indeed, should be and must be in digital form. As Mr. Gates indicates in the introduction to his book, at page xiv:
Very few companies are using digital technology for new processes that radically improve how they function, that give them the full benefit of all their employees' capabilities, and that give them the speed of response they will need to compete in the emerging high-speed business world. Most companies don't realize that the tools to accomplish these changes are now available to everyone. Though at heart most business problems are information problems, almost no one is using information well.
At page xvii, Mr. Gates notes:
Already, the Web workstyle is changing business processes, at Microsoft and other companies. Replacing paper processes with collaborative digital processes has cut weeks out of our budgeting and other potential processes. Groups of people are using electronic tools to act together almost as fast as a single person could act, but with the insights of the entire team.
At Page xix, Mr. Gates makes it clear for whom this book is written: "I've written this book for CEOs, other organizational leaders, and managers at all levels."
Lawyers, are you listening?
On page 3, Mr. Gates makes further clear what his message is when he states:
I have a simple but strong belief. The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd, is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose. There are more competitors.
Yes, in a world, long, long ago, lawyers did not compete with each other and there were not too many lawyers. Today, particularly with the new generation of young adults, we lawyers must deal with the realities of the world, and using information well and quickly is as important, today, as anything else we may do or choose to do.
At page 39, in the chapter entitled "Create a Paperless Office," Mr. Gates quotes Michael Hammer and James Champy, authors of the book, Reengineering Your Business, and notes their quotation as follows:
It is sobering to reflect on the extent to which the structure of our business processes has been dictated by the limitations of the file folder.
In commenting on this, Mr. Gates observes at the same page:
Replacing paper processes with digital processes liberates knowledge workers to do productive work. The all-digital workplace is usually called "the paperless office," a phrase that goes back to at least 1973.
The Internet changes everything!
He observes further at page 59:
A good network, a good e-mail system, and easy-to-build Web pages have everything you need for eliminating internal paper forms, too. You can add any number of Intranet applications easily once this infrastructure is in place.
One of the great concerns with senior lawyers and solo practitioners is that they do not really understand how to use the Internet, e-mail, and the like. Mr. Gates' comments on that at page 68 where he suggests to all of us:
Practice hands-on usage. Senior executives should use e-mail and other electronic tools to get familiar with the new way of doing things. They should see what their competitors' Internet sites look like. They should become Internet users and consumers. Buy some books and arrange some travel over the Internet, I told them, and see what it's like.
Striking to the heart of the matter, Mr. Gates notes on page 72 at the very beginning of Chapter Five:
Here on the edge of the twenty-first century, a fundamental new rule of business is that the Internet changes everything . . . as essential as the telephone and a mailing address have been.
ROI? It's bunk!
Could one say it more clearly and more succinctly? At the beginning of Chapter Six, which is entitled, "Touch Your Customers" Mr. Gates quotes from Andrew Grove, Chairman of Intel Corporation. Mr. Grove is quoted at page 91:
What's my return on investment on e-commerce? Are you crazy? This is Columbus and the New World. What was his ROI?
The Internet has revolutionized law practice
The fact is that the world has changed forever. The Internet is a miracle of communications and a miracle of publishing. It is, indeed, not only a miracle but a revolution, and a revolution we are in the middle of at this very moment. It cannot be ignored any more than the dinosaurs of long ago may have ignored the ice flows and the glaciers that were causing their world to change. The world has changed for lawyers, the law firm, the law practice, the law profession, and for our clients, and we must change with it. It is important, we can do it, and we must do it.
The Internet, again, changed everything!
Mr. Gates, properly so, continues to repeat and, indeed, it is the theme of the entire book, that the Internet has changed everything. This is a concept with which I fully agree. At page 166 of Mr. Gates' eye-opening book, he states:
The Internet's sudden growth in popularity changed all the rules, and its growth kept accelerating.
Training is imperative
Mr. Gates does not ignore, and neither should you, the need for expensive training. Indeed, it is this author's opinion that most law firms ignore the need for very intense training of all personnel in the firm, including the senior attorneys, and that such training must not only be intense at the beginning of the adoption of new software, but it must be ongoing. Mr. Gates makes this observation at page 248 of his book where he says:
Training is the most basic and sometimes most overlooked form of knowledge sharing that needs to go on in a company.
The owners of the law firm must lead the way
Mr. Gates addresses the need for the owners of the law firm to own the processes of change and notes how there have been spectacular failures with even very large corporations where such has not been the case. At page 314, Mr. Gates observes the following and notes the following quotes from others who he cites as authority for his very correct position:
What caused big technology failures? Ralph Larsen, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, said that the most frequent cause of 'spectacular failures' is that business people simply turn over good projects to their IT departments or outside consultants 'and then run because it's such hard work.' Ralph said, 'you absolutely cannot do that. All the successes you see come because of strong business-line ownership, not IT ownership. Business-line ownership with strong IT support. The project doesn't belong to the consultants or to IT. It doesn't belong to anyone else but the business owner.
How to properly measure cost
At page 328, Mr. Gates has additional words of wisdom for all law firms:
When you review project costs, be particularly careful to avoid the trap of assigning the underlying cost of infra-structure improvement to the first application that will take advantage of it. This approach could make a valuable business solution appear to be financially infeasible. Instead ask how much the second and third business applications will cost. Additional solutions should come in at relatively low incremental costs. A good messaging system, for instance, is expensive; but additional work-flow applications built on that messaging system should be relatively cheap.
More on training
Training should be included in infra-structure costs, too. Often companies invest huge amounts of money in hardware and software and neglect to fund the training of the people who use it. What's the point? Every successful application of technology involves generous and ongoing doses of training. Build training into the annual budgets. It'll be the best investment you'll ever make.
Mr. Gates winds up his book at pages 411-415, not including the Appendix and additional materials included after that point, with very forceful words which are to be followed by every law firm, whether in private practice or corporate or governmental agencies, when he says the following at page 411:
Every bit of data in a company should be in digital form and easily retrieved. This data will include every file, every record, every piece of e-mail, every Web page. Every internal process should be digital and integrated with every other. A unified view of each customer, for instance, should record every business process related to that customer. Every transaction with partners and customers should be digital. You should give access to customers and partners to every bit of data that is appropriate to them, and vice versa.
Instead of the word "customer" insert the work "client" and you'll understand where Mr. Gates is coming from.
Lawyers must have positive attitudes about technology
In regard to lawyers' attitudes (as well as all other business people), Mr. Gates observes at page 414:
If we are reactive and let change overwhelm us or pass us by, we will perceive change negatively. If we are proactive, seek to understand the future now, and embrace change, the idea of the unexpected can be positive and uplifting.
Redefining the law business as we know it
He further states at page 414:
A digital nervous system can help business redefine itself and its role in the future, but energy or paralysis, success or failure, depends on business leaders. Only you can prepare your organization and make the investments necessary to capitalize on the rapidly dawning digital age.
In his concluding paragraph at Page 415, Mr. Gates:
Digital tools magnify the abilities that make us unique in the world: the ability to think, the ability to articulate our thoughts, the ability to work together to act on those thoughts. I strongly believe that if companies empower their employees to solve problems and give them potent tools to do this with, they will always be amazed at how much creativity and initiative will blossom forth.
Recommendation? Get Mr. Gates' book and read it
All lawyers should take the following from reading this article:
* You must get Mr. Gates' new book. I am sure it is available on www.amazon.com, although I bought my copy of Mr. Gates' book at a real book store when I was visiting with one of my grandchildren.
* You should read the book as soon as you can, cover to cover. Use copious underlining, yellow ink, highlights, and the like, so that you can talk to your partners and all others in your firm, and buy enough copies so that everyone in your firm can read this book.
Use this book as your "bible" and justification and "citation of authority" for what needs to be done and how to do it. Paul Bernstein is but one voice in the desert, but Bill Gates, the richest man in the world....ahhhh, that's something else and hopefully, Business @ The Speed Of Thought will be your citation of authority that allows you to win your case with your law firm.
Concentrated law practice versus general practice
By Thomas M. Keating
Years ago and fresh out of law school, I experienced the struggle that many lawyers go through in deciding how their career should develop. As with other new lawyers, finding that first job was of course essential to make a living, but even more important was finding the right legal career. Statistics show that it is the rare attorney in the recent years that spends their career with their first employer. However, the first legal job an attorney has may well formulate the direction of an entire career, in that often permanent career directions are established, although firms or employers may change. Of course, not only are work habits and practices developed early in a career, but often a decision as to whether or not to concentrate your legal practice is also made.
Over 16 years ago, my first position out of law school as an associate attorney was with a firm that concentrated its practice in customs and international trade law. After four years, I decided to form my own firm with some other lawyers who also practiced in that area. After yet another four years, several other lawyers and I founded another firm which was to have concentrated its practice in international business law, with concentration in various boutique areas: customs, immigration, joint venture, representation of foreign individuals and entities in the U.S., as well as foreign substantive practice areas: Italy, France, China and Poland. The idea was that a group of practitioners with experience in each of these and related areas could provide a variety of boutique services of interest to U.S. companies interested in international business or foreign clients interested in conducting business in the U.S. "Cross-pollinization," "synergy" and similar practice growth euphemisms peppered our everyday conversation and every international marketing opportunity within our budget was employed. Last year, after seven years and the growth of the firm to 14 lawyers, I gave up the struggle and decided to reconcentrate my efforts in a smaller firm with just a few partners, all concentrating in the same practice area. What lessons have been learned from my past foray into "general practice," albeit still limited to the international area?
1. Life in a limited practice area simplifies your life. No longer need you attempt to find someone in your firm who can handle issues that you are not equipped to handle but for which you still need to manage or supervise.
2. Matters can be effectively referred to attorneys outside your firm who hopefully will remember you when they have a client with needs in your practice areas. Thus, the other members of the bar become not your competitors but rather part of your overall network of friends and referral sources in the legal community.
3. Efficiency. Both your client and you benefit from your being able to provide services in a more efficient, timely and cost effective manner.
4. Collegiality with your partners. Having partners and other lawyers in the firm in the same practice area allows the opportunity to intelligently plan and discuss strategies and options with practitioners also having experience in your practice area.
5. There is a certain gratification of being able to meet with a client with a high degree of confidence that, in your chosen area of concentration, you can provide advice, even in an initial meeting, that will usually be of immediate assistance to the client's business.
6. Library and publications costs are minimized.
7. Continuing legal education efforts are targeted to your practice area only.
8. Fee pressures, due to the abundance of attorneys, can more effectively be met by addressing your "real competition" in your area of practice. By redefining your practice area, your clients will look to you as their trusted advisor within it.
9. Marketing efforts are concentrated in a smaller client niche to whom communications and advertising can be more easily and cost effectively targeted.
10. There is truly a feeling of well being that you no longer need to seemingly track every one of the latest Illinois, federal and administrative decisions outside of your practice, area, unless you so choose to do so. For example, in my particular practice area, there are probably 15-20 court decisions per week, several hundred administrative rulings, 10-20 pieces of federal legislation introduced and another 10-30 notices of administrative rule making, plus various trade and business publications commenting on developments in international trade. I can now effectively keep up with developments in my work and still have enough time to enjoy reading the latest Harry Potter book with my children and even some recreational reading for myself. By concentrating efforts in updating my knowledge only in my practice area, I have also lost the guilt associated with knowing that I could never keep up with all the case law, legislation and administrative law developments that I would deem necessary to be a competent general practitioner.
While I have had to forego any illusions of being just like that wonderful literary creation, Atticus Finch, providing any and all legal services to his community, there is a tradeoff. It comes in knowing that, in these complex times, we may need to redefine our concept of "community" and recognize that our abilities may appeal to a more specific, but geographically broader and grateful, client base which both understands and needs our services.
Author's note: The Illinois Rules of Professional Conduct state in Article VIII, Rule 7.4(b)(1)-(3), (similarly stated in most other jurisdictions) that certifications of specialties in the law are not recognized in Illinois but that special designations are authorized only for the limited areas of patents, trademarks and admiralty law.
_______________
Thomas M. Keating is a partner with the law firm of Hodes, Keating & Pilon in Chicago. The attorneys of the firm concentrate their practice in the area of customs law, international trade and related administrative law matters.
By Thomas J. Brannan
When was the last time you were completely caught up?....I mean, a clean desk, no files awaiting work or discovery, or research, and no telephone calls to return? And how many of your colleagues have complained: "There just is not enough time--I can never catch up!"
The plight seems to be pervasive in the legal community. And why? Are we all taking on more so we can make more money? Are we beating ourselves up because of greed? Frankly, taking into consideration inflation, many in the legal profession are not making as much now as they did in years past. Is it not logical that those in the profession should be making more or working less? Consider the transition since the advent of technology. Spread sheet analysis, word processing, document assembly: all tools that I would venture to say all attorneys are now utilizing (except those few who are still reading their law books by candlelight). The work product of our predecessors pales by comparison to that which an attorney can produce today. Our research capability, because of technology, probably makes some of our departed colleagues roll in their graves. Where in years past, weeks or months would pass as contracts, agreements, or proposed orders passed between counsel and parties, service is provided now in merely days or even minutes as we e-mail and fax one another. Then again I ask, why is there not more income or time?