Press coverage is good
My father, when I first started my law practice, gave me sage advice: Be by the phone when a customer calls.'
The same advice is true for when the press calls for they have deadlines that generally can't be moved. If they reach you, you are likely to get quoted. If they don't reach you, you'll read someone else's quote.
This week, I was fortuitously by the phone when two reporters called.
The article in the LA Times (and the following day in the Chicago Tribune, the Times' parent) was about Facebook. 
The CNN.com article was about the employment plight of recent law school graduates.
Very cool to sit by the phone and actually have it ring with a reporter at the other end.
Of course, reporters don't call people who have little expertise. The challenge, then, is to increase one's expertise and to increase the awareness of that expertise by others. As marketing folks have told me for years, it's a "snowball effect." Once the ball starts rolling, others will see who you are ... learn how much you have to offer your client base ... and then seek you out even more.
Thanks go to all of my clients and readers.
Civil Gideon statute - Are we ready for this?
California now has the nation's first "Civil Gideon" statute, which provides a lawyer to people who cannot afford one in civil cases related to critical basic human needs.
Is the cloud ready for prime time?
Some folks are now advising the implementation of a hosted exchange server. They appear to have become more stable and reliable. Is this true? Is the "cloud" now being effectively seeded by qualified and capable technology?
What are the pros and cons of hosted exchange servers?
There is no "I" in Team
Yesterday, a jury rendered a unanimous verdict in a very much watched criminal trial in Los Angeles Superior Court. This wasn't so spectacular as the O.J. Simpson trial, but to those involved, it was equally dramatic.
The courtroom gallery was filled to capacity Monday as a jury of seven women and five men announced it had convicted former emergency room doctor Christopher Thomas Thompson of assaulting a pair of cyclists last year by abruptly stopping his car in front of them. The jury found that Dr. Thompson ignored the rules of his profession and allowed road rage against cyclists in general to get the better of him in attacking two cyclists in particular. He will now pay the penalty.
So, too, lawyers must share the road ... involve staff and clients in the development of strategy and implementation of tactics in order to provide the best and most effective representation for the client. As I said in another context, there is no "I" in Team ... and teams almost always achieve better results.
Apprenticeship for Lawyers
It’s always gratifying when one’s opinions receive outside support. Sometime ago, I wrote that law schools really don’t teach the day-to-day aspects of being a lawyer – interacting with clients and running a practice – because such skills are seen as too “trade-oriented.”
That viewpoint was echoed in a Wall Street Journal column by Cameron Stracher, professor at the New York Law School. Stracher observed that law school students are “reading about the law rather than engaging in it,” with the result that “when they graduate, young lawyers rarely know how to interview clients, advocate for their positions, negotiate a settlement or perform any number of other tasks that lawyers do every day.”
What especially struck me in Stracher’s column, as I noted in previous writings, was the observation that, until our modern era, most lawyers learned their profession by apprenticing themselves to practicing lawyers, learning from them by watching and doing. It brought to mind the difference between the way lawyers and doctors are trained. Doctors, of course, put in years of residency as part of their training. They work in hospitals and clinics, treat patients, observe other doctors as they go on their rounds. Most doctors begin their medical careers with a very good idea of what they will face.
A number of larger law firms have or are creating education programs for their new, and even some continuing, associates. Just this morning, I learned from an “alumna” of the former Thacher law firm that she enjoyed her time with Big Law because this firm believed in continuing education for its associates. Also, Howrey recently announced the creation of an apprentice program for all of its new associates, rather than delaying their new hires as other large firms have done. And, in both Canada and England, there is a tradition of “articling,” very similar to an apprentice program. In other professions, such as accounting, an apprenticeship is required before granting the Certificate. There are other examples.
Should we return to an apprentice system for law school graduates before licensing them as lawyers? What's your opinion? Click here to take our short survey. Our survey will end at midnight, November 11th.
Competency of lawyers - Solo and otherwise
It has been suggested that I was a bit harsh in asserting that sole practitioners are not competent.
Far from that! Many sole practitioners are the leading experts in their practice area. In fact, most lawyers are sole practitioners, even those that find themselves in BigLaw environments. There are few law firms that are truly collegial in nature.
Nor do I think that law school graduates leaving school to start their own practice immediately are necessarily incompetent. What is true, however, is that they are less competent than they will be a few years hence ... and generally they have few, if any, colleagues to guide them through the murky competency waters of law practice. That being said, however, the nature of the cases "new" lawyers take on tend to be matters where they can learn the needed skills as they grow in their practice, without prejudice to clients. And everyone is benefited, the client who may receive service at a lower price and the lawyer who learns on the job ... the point being that he/she learns and is better for the following client.
Because of the financial difficulties faced by law firms in the last couple of years, with declining client demand, declining revenue and declining profitability, the nature of the profession is changing ... and private apprentice programs are being developed. If these are successful ... and I have every reason to believe that programs like Howrey's will be ... law schools and bar associations may be motivated to participate in developing meaningful apprenticeship programs and perhaps even change the requirements for becoming a lawyer.
Something to watch on the landscape while others such as Richard Susskind actually challenge the very foundation of today's law firm business model.
As an aside, but on the subject of the economic impact of being a sole practitioner, I encourage you to participate in an upcoming West LegalEdcenter tele-seminar on the issue of required disclosure to clients of the lack of malpractice insurance. This is a topic that impacts, almost exclusively, about 20% of the lawyer population, almost all solos, in approximately 23 states. These State Bars have given only lip service to helping sole practitioners while at the same time adopting mandatory malpractice insurance disclosure with significant economic consequences, among many other similar increased cost programs.
I also encourage you to join our new community for lawyers at http://www.lawbizforum.com and invite your colleagues as well to express your legitimate opinions and concerns of the profession.
