When I was growing up, among my favorite heroes were Atticus Finch, Perry Mason and Clarence Darrow. Yes, I know it could have had something to do with Gregory Peck, Raymond Burr and Spencer Tracey. But to me they represented an ideal of what the legal profession stood for, not... Continue reading

When I was an associate, the most prominent item on my desk was a big, black, ugly toad that sat on the front corner and stared at me expectantly all day, every day. Occasionally it would ring and I would be jerked from the safe haven of legal research and... Continue reading

I got an email from one of the younger partners the other day and, frankly, I couldn’t figure it out: ”snicker77: why not? @fiddle @sweaterneck @sideways = Curmudgeon?” Upon investigation, I learned that he had pasted a “tweet” into an email for me, since he knows I don’t use Twitter... Continue reading

There’s a straight stretch of freeway along my morning commute where most people in the left lane drive well above the 65 mph speed limit. Today, some guy in a big, fancy SUV was driving about 60 in the left lane, and he wouldn’t move over for anything. Other drivers... Continue reading

Fred sat at the end of the table, sweating and looking at the six of us as we waited expectantly for his decision. He hemmed, he hawed. And he asked to go over the options yet one more time. “It’s easy, Fred. Settle or sue. We’ve been here over an... Continue reading

“It’s the silence that gets me most,” he said. We were sitting in his small office in a 1950’s building just off the main drag. His name was stenciled on the frosted glass door. He looked at the silent phone and absent-mindedly checked his e-mail, again. There were no calls... Continue reading

“She’s late.” “Yeah, she’s always late, but she’s a good attorney.” “At these rates, she’d better be!” It didn’t matter whether she had asked for the meeting, or how much her secretary or associates cajoled her. Rebecca always arrived late, in a flurry of activity and perfunctory apologies. Her coworkers... Continue reading

As I entered my firm’s building the other day, I held the outer door open for several of our young attorneys. When a young woman then turned to hold the inside door open for us, one of the men made a bit of a scene (partly for my benefit, no... Continue reading

The other day, in a team review of new hire candidates, I was stunned to hear someone say they’d never be able to work with “someone like that.” All three candidates were at the top of their classes. Each had interviewed superbly and came highly recommended. It turned out the... Continue reading

Otto Sorts has been reading law since before Martindale met Hubbell. Of Counsel at a large corporate firm that prefers to remain anonymous, Otto is a respected attorney in his area of practice and champion of the grand tradition of the law. He is, however, suspicious of “new-fangled” management ideas... Continue reading

I took one of our new aggressive associates with me the other day to meet with my oldest client, who was bringing along his 20-something son. Over lunch, the talk turned to Twitter and Facebook, and the two kids discussed how far behind the technology curve the old fogies are... Continue reading

There's a very interesting article by Cali Williams Yost at Fast Company online: http://preview.tinyurl.com/26tr3rs. QUARTERLY EARNINGS KILL PEOPLE BASED INNOVATION. To quote, "If super smart people believe that innovation is the only way out of this Great Recession, then they... Continue reading

Any leader of any organization who determines to make radical changes must assume that he or she will take (and absorb) some pretty big hits as part of the process. It is naive to assume otherwise. Continue reading

If you've been thinking that the standard old law firm business model is getting more rickety and less functional, you may want to join in on a webinar sponsored over the lunch hour by the Legal Marketing Association this Wednesday,... Continue reading

In the Myers-Briggs view of the world, lawyers tend to prefer thinking more conceptually than specifically. Perhaps that's one explanation for all the recent chatter about the need to "change business models" among the law practice management groupies. I think... Continue reading