Asked and AnsweredBy John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMCQ. Our firm is a 34 lawyer litigation boutique based in San Antonio, Texas. We have 20 partners and 14 associates. I serve as managing partner at the will of the partnership and spend 35% of my time on firm management matters and the remainder of my time practicing law. A legal administrator and accounting manager assist me with managing the firm. While I have the general support of the partnership, maybe because no one else wants the job, I serve more as a filter and still find that I have to run most of the firm's management decisions before the full partnership. Often I feel that my staff and I are second guessed, management decisions take too long to make and are diluted and watered down, and the firm has missed out on opportunities due to our structure or lack of structure. Other law firms that we have competed against for years have passed us by and have grown while we have stagnated. Do you have any suggestions concerning our approach to managing the firm?A. Your firm has reached a size where more structure is usually required. The democratic system of all partners being involved in virtually every management decision might have worked when you were five or six attorneys but has now outgrown this structure. Think about how some of your business clients are organized and structured. Ask around and talk with other law firms and accounting firms your size. I think that you will find that they have put in place more structure to support their business models.I suggest that you:

The Illinois Bar Foundation will host its annual Baseball Classic on July 20 at 7:15 p.m. The game will feature the Chicago Cubs vs. the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.Tickets are $225 and include all food and beverages. Sponsorships are available. Contact the IBF at (312) 726-6072 for more information or click here to purchase tickets.

The Illinois Judges Foundation & the Auxiliary Committee are hosting a comedy night on Tuesday, July 24. This event starts with a reception at 6 and show at 7:15. It will be held at The Second City e.t.c. Stage, 230 W. North.Register online at IJF Second City EventQuestions? Contact Kathy Hosty at 312-554-2008 or Christine Athanasoulis at (708) 705-4355.

Kevin Harris’ recent post in Attorney at Work, It’s About Time You Got Paid, reminds lawyers that they are in business to make money; and that they need to employ good management practices in order to accomplish that goal.  However, in today’s economic climate, lawyers are expected to draw up budget and staffing plans at the outset of an undertaking and stick to them using a technique called LPM, or Legal Project Management, as explained by Pam Woldow in her posting, LPM, Going for Broke and Turning up the Heat.  However,despite LPM having become the buzzword for law practice management this year, Toby Brown suggests that a better term might be BFC, or “Better, Faster, Cheaper,” in the article he posted at 3 Geeks and the Law Blog: Legal Project Management Versus Process Improvement - Which Drives BFC?.In order to assist lawyers in their efforts to accomplish these goals, software vendors are constantly offering new products and upgrades, which bloggers then review.  Hence, Basha Systems posted a review of a Actionstep, a new legal management program imported from Australia.  Also, TL Answers, at Legal Technology Review contains reviews of new products and advice about setting up software.  Legal Technology Review is a free subscription e-mail service with several offerings from which to choose.