Law Times

November 29, 2010

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Law Times • November 29, 2010 NEWS 'Change is coming and it's relentless' Firms need to embrace new models to survive: legal strategist BY GAIL J. COHEN Law Times "Ditch the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' mantra." You have to break things to make them better. That's the advice for law firm managers from Stephen Mayson, a professor of strategy and director of the Legal Ser- vices Institute at the College of Law in Britain. In his view, the legal management system most firms use is broken even if their leaders don't see it. Mayson was speaking at a Canadian Bar Association conference on law firm leader- ship in Toronto last week. He stressed that the legal profes- sion is changing, perhaps not as fast in Canada as elsewhere in the world, which means law firms need to change the way they operate if they hope to survive. Corporate structures need professional management, said Mayson. While that doesn't mean firms should toss the tra- ditional partnership structure, they need to run themselves differently, which may include bringing in external investors or having equity participation Cherish your reputations, veterans tell young lawyers BY MICHAEL McKIERNAN Law Times liss told participants at the Criminal Lawyers' Association's conference for young lawyers at Osgoode Hall last week to protect their good names with their lives. "It's really impossible to overestimate the importance of your R reputation," said Bayliss, who spent 25 years at Pinkofskys be- fore striking out alone earlier this year. "One lie can haunt you for years. I've seen it happen. It's not only judges that talk; it's other lawyers." Greenspan spoke of one occa- sion when he went to extraordinary lengths to ensure he corrected an in- advertent misstatement of the truth in court. He realized the mistake just as he was getting into his car to go home but went back in to seek out the judge and let him know. "He thought I was out of my mind and he embarrassed me a little bit," Greenspan said. "But it didn't matter because every word we speak in court must at least be what we be- lieve to be the truth. We can spin the truth but we don't spin lies." But it's not just lies that can tarnish a lawyer's reputation, ac- Taking on too many files is dangerous, says Brian Greenspan. cording to Bayliss. "The other way is becoming known as a bad lawyer," he said. "A lot of your work comes from referrals from our colleagues, and you're not going to get any if they don't think you're capable." According to Greenspan, younger lawyers in particular are tempted to cram their calendars with matters in order to make ends meet in a competitive marketplace largely dependent on le- gal aid. But it's not worth the risk in the long term, he said. "It's very, very dangerous. It's one of the things that breed mistakes because you don't have the time to properly consider each case and prepare as if it's the only case you had." Segal, meanwhile, said young lawyers should make connections with more experienced colleagues in order to iron out bad habits and repetitive mistakes in their practices and suggested complicated cases can be a convenient way to strike up a relationship with more senior counsel. In fact, she noted she sought help on a case dealing with heroin imports early on in her career because she found the thought of her client going to jail for eight years "overwhelming." "You should be sucking as much information as you can from all of us who have been around the court for a long time," she told the participants. That's exactly the point of the conference, says Jordan Glick, who helped put it together. The associate at Henein and Associ- ates notes the conference shone a light on the business side of criminal law with a lot of practical advice about how to run a successful practice, an issue that often takes a back seat to the technical demands of substantive criminal law. "There are lots of criminal defence lawyers who sadly have very few mentors, and the opportunities to associate at criminal defence firms is drying up," he says. "It's very important to gain the knowl- edge and wisdom and experience of the generation ahead of us and understand the changing dynamic in practice." LT eputation is everything for criminal lawyers, according to a panel of veteran practitioners. Brian Greenspan, Marcy Segal, and David Bay- from non-lawyer staff. "The model is broken," according to Mayson. "It's not even right for what we're in at the moment, never mind the future." At the same time, even those law firms that are on the road to change don't have a clear view of what their strategies are, he added. Part of the rea- son for that is within the part- nerships: lawyers don't really want to boot their colleagues out or upset anyone. The result is a lot of "fudging" rather than real strategic planning. "It's not a lack of willingness but a lack of clear vision to implement good strategies for change," Mayson said. Mayson compared most law firms' strategies to more of a wish list than a real path to change and noted that for the majority of them, the idea isn't change as much as just fol- lowing what their counterparts have done. The whole purpose of stra- tegic planning is to create a competitive advantage, and in order to have that, firms have to differentiate themselves by delivers the strategy. Accord- ing to Mayson, a good business model should: • Create value for clients through a mix of service, case management, cost sav- ings, and other efficiencies. • Use the right resources — what he calls "organization- al capital" — that include both internal and external factors, non-lawyers, and technology. 'It's not a lack of willingness but a lack of clear vision to implement good strategies for change,' says Stephen Mayson. being cheaper, better or some- how unique, Mayson said, something he noted doesn't work for followers. The trick, he pointed out, is to create that value and differ- ence from the resources firms already have. A clear strategic plan in- cludes a business model that • Secure and sufficient in- vestment in the firm, again through both internal and externals sources as well as looking at changing the model from a debt to equity operation. • Capturing returns for the firm with a reward mix that's not just the net profits being disbursed to partners each year but also includes staff who could have equity participation in the firm, as well as looking at income versus capital. "Lawyers cannot sit by and try to push the tide back," Mayson concluded. "Change is coming and it's relentless." LT PAGE 3 Untitled-4 1www.lawtimesnews.com 11/23/10 11:44:28 AM Photo: Gail J. Cohen

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