Practice News

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Last week I discussed the characteristics of successful law firms and introduced the basic building blocks that successful firms typically have in place. These are:

• Partner Relations
• Leadership
• Firm Management
• Partner Compensation
• Planning
• Client Service
• Marketing
• Last week we focused on partner relations as a core foundational building block.

The second basic building block is leadership. Successful firms have good leadership in place. This may be a single individual or a core group of individuals. Leadership does not always come from the formalized management structure of the firm. Leadership is one of the major problems facing law firms. Leaders are needed for managing partner posts, executive committee chairs, and practice group heads. Leadership behaviors include:

• Developing people
• Being able to influence others
• Encouraging teamwork
• Empowering people
• Using multiple options thinking
• Taking intelligent risks
• Being passionate about work
• Having a strong clear vision.
• Leadership skills will need to be included in compensation systems.

Seven traits of effective leaders include:

[caption id="attachment_14321" align="alignright" width="211" caption="Courtney Cox is stepping down from his post as a U.S. Attorney. Photo credit: Steve Jahnke/The Southern"][/caption] Note: This story is reprinted with permisson of The Southern Illinoisan By Becky Malkovich, The Southern BENTON - When A. Courtney Cox got the call to serve as one of only 93 U.S. attorneys, he wasn't sure answering it was the right thing to do. "I wasn't sure it was something I would be able to do," he said. "As I thought about what I was being asked to do, I realized it was a job that was important and in the nature of service to country and that I did want." But the Benton native was still skeptical. He called a trusted friend who assured him he could and should do the job. Still, there was the four-day-a-week drive from Benton to Fairview Heights to consider. "I talked to my wife, who said, ‘Your brother, Jon, is going to Afghanistan to serve the country. I think you can drive to Fairview Heights,' " he said with a laugh. "So I accepted." Appointed by the judges of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Cox became the district's top prosecutor in November 2007. His last day in office was Friday, when Stephen Wigginton was sworn in as the new U.S. attorney for the southern district. Entering the office after a long career in private practice was a learning experience, Cox said. "When I became U.S. attorney, I was naive about child exploitation," Cox said. "I very quickly learned of the magnitude of the problem of child pornography and exploitation. It has changed the way I look at the Internet and how I view people in general. There are 50,000 predators online looking to molest children and it's not talked about enough or dealt with enough by parents and educators. We vigorously prosecuted many but there are many, many more. "I think a society is judged by how it treats its children and elderly and I think we can do more to protect our children from this epidemic, because that's what it is ... an epidemic."

The Illinois Supreme Court has appointed Lorna E. Propes as a Circuit Judge of Cook County, Seventh Subcircuit. This appointment is effective Sept. 10, 2010, and terminates on Dec. 3, 2012. This fills the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Lawrence W. Terrell.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Rita B. Garman announced Friday the formation of a judicial screening committee to help fill a vacancy in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit. Justice Garman established the screening committee to assess the qualifications of those persons who have applied for appointment to the Circuit Court vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of Judge G. Michael Prall on Nov. 2, 2010. Under the Illinois Constitution, the vacancy will be filled by Supreme Court appointment. After the committee has received public input, gathered information and interviewed each of the applicants, it will report its findings to Justice Garman, who will make a recommendation to the Supreme Court from among those applicants submitting their credentials to the committee. The person appointed will serve until the position is filled by General Election in November 2012.