Microsoft Office 2007 for Lawyers
Donna Payne is president and founder of Payne Consulting Group, a training and development company headquartered in Seattle, WA. She and the company have authored 12 books on Microsoft Office including the best-selling series: Word for Law Firms and Excel for Law Firms. She was an original member of the Microsoft Legal Advisory Counsel and is a frequent speaker at legal and technical conferences.
Donna discusses with Ed the new Microsoft Office 2007 and the dramatic differences between this edition and all of Microsoft's previous formats.
This edition is truly a remarkable switch in format that will require users to pay attention.
25 minutes, 27 seconds
6.0MB
Law firm billing opportunities
When a client calls to inquire about your bill, opportunity is knocking!
Continue Reading...Leadership is a missing element in today's world
I wrote about Lee Iacocca's new book on leadership. (See my last blog.)
Serendipity how some things come together. Just after writing that blog post, I was asked to read John Gardner's book, On Leadership. He wrote the book in 1990 with a paperback edition in 1993. I recommend this book very highly - especially the paperback version with his new preface.
Iacocca created his list of 9 C's. Gardner's list consists of the following:
1. Physical vitality and stamina
2. Intelligence and judgment-in-action
3. Eagerness to accept responsibilities
4. Competence
5. Understanding of followers' and their needs
6. Skill in dealing with people
7. Need to achieve
8. Capacity to motivate
9. Courage, resolution, steadiness
10. Capacity to win and hold trust
11. Capacity to manage, decide, set priorities
12. Confidence
13.Assertiveness
14. Flexibility of approach
Gardner suggests that not all leaders have all these qualities. But, the better leaders will have many of them. Another point he makes that resonated well for me is that "leaders" is not defined solely as our politicians, but rather "ordinary folks placed in extraordianry circumstances."
Another aspect of his writing concerned "power." We all have it ... dependent on the circumstances. And how we use that power is a significant element of great leadership.
This is a classic work in the leadership field and I highly recommnd it to you.
Law firm leadership
Lee Iacocca suggests in his new book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? that there are factors that can be used to predict whether someone will be a good leader. After chastising both the President of the United States and presidents of many American companies, he sets forth his list of 9 C's:
Continue Reading...Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Planning for Law Firms
LawBiz Management's new Special Report, Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Planning for Law Firms is en route to the printer.
Michael Hirsch, former FEMA Deputy General Counsel, said: "I highly recommend it for attorneys and law firms as a basic document on how to be prepared to respond to and recover from disasters."
Tom Edwards, Executive Director of Munger, Tolles & Olson, said: "... Ed deserves much of the credit for the plan you'll read about. Ed is the primary architect for my colleagues' and my firm's disaster recovery plans ... For that, we are deeply indebted."
Pre-publication discount of 20% is available to all who contact our office, (800) 837-5880 or edpoll@lawbiz.com, to place a "hold" on the new book. This special offer will remain in effect until May 31, 2007.
Law firm compensation yet again
In today's Los Angeles Times, front page, there is an article ostensibly about the House of Representatives enactment to require public companies to put executive pay packages before shareholders for an advisory vote. The enactment faces an uncertain future in the Senate and a certain veto by President Bush.
Continue Reading...How to productize your law practice
Evan brings to light a new product. It's not a substitute for law school, but certainly places law school in a new light. Coincidentally, I saw this "Law School in a Box" last evening at Borders Bookstore for the first time. It is intriguing.
It shows the creativity of this young Philadelphia lawyer. My hat's off in admiration for what, based on the book store's display, is quite likely to be a very successful venture and great marketing ploy.
Filing tax returns "late" -- If only we knew!
If only we knew that we could file late and not get penalized! We could have kept our money in the bank longer ... or not sold the securities needed to raise the cash to pay the taxes.
IRS noted that Taxpayers, Tax Professionals with TurboTax problems have until midnight April 19 to e-file (IR-2007-91, April 18, 2007)
This has not been a good few days for technology: TurboTax and Blackberry both went down! This would have made for a good bet. But, perhaps with so many technological devices at hand, it should not be a surprise when crashes occur.
Blackberry fails - Big time!
"In this day and age, not having a backup plan is equivalent to jumping out of a plane without a parachute: it's simply not done," according to Carmi Levy, Senior Research Analyst, with InfoTech Research Group in London, Ont.
Continue Reading...What makes a good managing partner?
The question seems appropos at this time. I was just interviewed by a leading legal publication, asking me the question, "How do lawyers become good managers of other lawyers?" Since law schools frown on providing this type of information -- and, in fact, generally refuse to provide law practice management courses, how DO lawyers become skill practice management leaders?
Edge International recently conducted a survey. Adam Smith, Esq. discusses some of the qualities valued by respondents in that survey:
Continue Reading...New postal regulations effective next month
New postal regulations may not be understood. They go into effect in May. If you don't want your costs to go up by as much as 50%, you need to pay attention.
Fraudulent cashier's checks
I must have been naive, but I always thought cashier's checks meant that the money represented by the check was segregated by the bank and awaited deposit to give the bearer the funds. It seems that isn't necessarily true, as it turns out. But, the real fraud is committed by the criminal mind in counterfeiting those cashier's checks, something I didn't think possible.
Continue Reading...Civil liberties further threatened or Bush paranoia?
A Princeton prof of noted repute in constitutional law was labeled a terrorist when attempting to board a plane. He was delayed and ultimately his luggage was "lost." Is this paranoia or a true incident.
Continue Reading...Challenge of Building a Law Firm
Ed Interviews Peter Loewy, Senior Counsel and former Managing Partner of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP. Peter talks about the challenges he faced in building his West Coast practice from one lawyer (himself) to a staff of over 70 lawyers and 400 staff in just 20 years!
Today, the Fragomen firm is recognized as the preeminent player in the immigration field, representing major corporate players around the world.
Listen now and learn techniques that you can apply for your own practice growth.
19 minutes, 7 seconds
4.5MB
"Could you repeat the question?"
When I first read this headline, I thought the article was about trial tactics. But, alas, it's not.
Continue Reading...Corporate Counsel Seek New Ways to Price Legal Work
March 19, 2007
BUSINESS FINDS LEGAL SALARIES HARDER TO STOMACH
To Contain Costs, Corporate Counsel Seek New Ways to Price Legal Work
By Bobbi Murray
Daily Journal Staff Writer
LOS ANGELES - A fresh raise for law firm associates this year has renewed discussions among corporate counsels about how to trim legal costs.
In-house lawyers say they aren't unwilling to foot an outsized bill for bet-the-company cases. But they are increasingly looking askance at bills larded up with high associate salaries working on routine matters.
Embezzlement - again - in law firms
Tom Collins wonders out loud about how law firms can experience embezzlement. This is not the first time he has wondered about it. In fact, I commented about his earlier comment in my blog and my web-zine. He raises good questions ... and we both wonder why lawyers don't pay more attention to the processes needed to avoid such catastrophes.
Bloggers are journalists - Or are they?
Yesterday, Josh Wolf, a blogger, was released from prison in Northern California. He spent 226 days (7 1/2 months) in prison for refusing to testify or turn over videotape he had taken of a San Francisco street demonstration where a police officer was injured.
