idealawg

Is teamwork overrated? Maybe for lawyers

The authors of I Hate People! are not big fans of teams in the workplace. I agree with them to a certain extent and believe teams are often used unwisely, particularly with lawyers, and have written about teams in law firms before. From my post The profession of half-empty glasses: The unique personalities of lawyers and an antidote:

In my article "Team-Building Frenzy Reaches Law Firms," [pdf] I talk about what I learned from Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (and later from the Highlands Assessment Battery) about the lawyer's need for autonomy, critical approach, and competitiveness.

And now an excerpt from "Troubles in Cubicles," a Wall Street Journal review of I Hate People!:

Littman and Hershon [the authors] insist that contemporary corporate America puts too much emphasis on teamwork. "Four decades ago, Fortune did a study of the most valued characteristics in an employee. The magazine found that teamwork was ranked tenth. . . . Jump forward to 2005, and Fortune's follow-up survey showed that teamwork had climbed to #1."

Teamwork, the authors say, suffocates creativity and has its own limitations. They describe a classic experiment done nearly a century ago by French agricultural engineer Maximilien Ringelmann. He

Hot, cool and cold worms: A contrarian look at work-life balance and so-called "workaholism"

 Positions all along the work-life balance (WLB) continuum can coexist. There will be those who want to work hard and serve the client well and they have the right—and responsibility—to populate their firms with others embracing that same work ethic. Those who want to take life a bit easier will find havens where they can balance their needs with that of the client.

I get exasperated when those in the latter group, the WLB people, want to work in the former firms. I hear some WLBers shouting, "I am different; you change." No wonder the debate is so heated.

In the legal profession, we see lawyers of different temperaments and with varying ideas of what it means to be a member of a service profession. Yes, they can coexist, although maybe not in the same firms. Hot worms and cold worms may not belong in the same pond.

What's this about hot worms? Last year TRIAL magazine contacted me to write an article for their edition on work-life balance. They wanted me to write from the contrarian point of view, putting together some of my thoughts from past blog posts. The article I wrote is called "What we can learn from hot worms, or why it's okay to be a 'workaholic'." I link to it with permission. They asked me to include this:

Reprinted with permission of TRIAL (December 2008). Copyright American Association for Justice, formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA®).

Let me know what you think of the article, please.

Article about a presentation on generational differences: If only it were this simple

I am guessing and hoping that the program described in this article was not as simplistic as it might appear from reading. Nevertheless "In-House Lawyers Discuss Pitfalls of Generation Gaps" (In-House Counsel) reminded me of how easy it can be to fall into mindless stereotypes of the generations.

From the article:

Ben F. Johnson III, the recently retired managing partner of Alston & Bird who has been with the firm for 37 years, didn't buy all of the talk about generational diversity. He took exception to being lumped into a category with everyone born between 1900 and 1945. "What do Dick Cheney, Jane Fonda and Joan Baez have in common?" he asked. "Well, they were all in the '60s."

While stereotypes can sometimes be helpful, it is very important to be alert to triggering confirmation bias, that is observing only that which confirms what we already believe. And part of avoiding confirmation bias is to examine our stereotypes on a regular basis. What do you believe about each of the generations now in the legal workplace?

One of these articles says the generation behind Gen Y are "more loyal, smarter and harder working"

The media are full of programs and articles about the Millennials. Here are just a couple of the most recent articles and posts. The first one listed describes the generation coming along after Gen Y.

• "Advice for the gen Y brigade: heads down, bums up" (Sydney Morning Herald)
• "Managing millennials: speed, openness, balance" (Globe and Mail)
• "Panelists Trade Barbs at Debate on Work Ethic of Millennial Generation" (ABA Journal)
• "Tips for managing the Millennial Generation (Office Politics Examiner)
• "The death of one-size-fits-all benefits: Tailor rewards to generational differences" (Business Management Daily)
• "Generations in the work place" (Explorer)
• Five Ways Millenials Can Prepare to Change the Legal Industry (Fearfully Optimistic)

Apology training as a growth business? Rosabeth Moss Kanter writes about three words every leader needs to know

Those words are: "I am sorry." From Three Little Words Every Leader Needs to Learn (Harvard Business Publishing blog):

If a leader cannot admit being wrong in a timely fashion, he or she can never correct mistakes, change direction, and restore success. The consequences get worse the longer denial prevails. Hiding bad news from stockholders and creditors while offering rosy forecasts has brought down many a CEO. Samsung's 20-year chairman stepped down after being indicted on tax evasion charges, but this was not his first mistake. He faced corruption scandals and a bribery charge in the 1990s. Had he said then "I was wrong" and chosen a more ethical course, perhaps he could have preserved his job and his legacy.

Some people find it so hard to admit a mistake that they dig themselves into a deeper hole even when given an easy chance to correct themselves. Eason Jordan's inability to back down from an extreme position taken at a World Economic Forum session in Davos cost him his job. On a panel in a

"'Best Lawyers' Panels Agree That Law Schools, Firms Need Retooling"

I did not want you to miss this article; you may join me in considering it thought-provoking. From "'Best Lawyers' Panels Agree That Law Schools, Firms Need Retooling":

Law schools must retool legal education, the deans agreed, but exactly how still is not clear.

"You're producing a product that very few people want. Firms have hiring freezes. Why not stop producing the product -- or create new markets for what you're producing?" one lawyer challenged the deans. "You're like the auto manufacturers who produce a product for which there is no demand."

Matasar replied that some law schools likely will go out of business while those that survive will have to provide a legal education at a lower cost.

Shortening the time spent in law school would make it cheaper for students, which would mean firms could pay them a lower starting salary, Matasar pointed out, adding that in Europe, a legal education is an undergraduate degree.

Offering courses online and increasing credit for externships are two ways that law schools could offer degrees more quickly and cheaply, he said.

But Matasar said law schools are hamstrung by requirements of the American Bar Association, 

April edition of the ABA's Law Practice now online

The theme of this issue is "Innovation: Getting It Done." Lots of excellent articles for you. And don't miss my "Reading Minds" In which Niki Black, Jeena Belil, and Tom Mighell recommend books that serve as guideposts during changing times.

I see my friend Merrilyn Astin Tarlton wrote one of the feature articles; she is always worth reading. Other feature articles are "Running Ahead of the Pack: Trailblazers in the Law Firm World," "Six Common Pitfalls to Change and How to Avoid Them," and "Signs of Innovative Life in the Practice of Law."

Blog Glob: Killing the Roach: The Incredibly Illogical, Fundamentally Odious — but Seemingly Ineradicable — Billable Hour

Excerpt:

Welcome to the improbable and seemingly impregnable world of the lawyers' billable hour — perhaps the only pervasive, virtually undisputed commercial standard in existence that puts almost all of the risk on the buyer, and where the cost of the commoditized product goes up, not down, year after year.

...

The billable hour did not initially propagate, kudzu-like, through the legal world. After all, commoditizing a profession seemed demeaning to many attorneys. And in order to be effective, lawyers needed to submit to another annoying ... invention: the paper time sheet. On that rigid, ruled rectangle, every lawyer was required to record the time, client name, and task description for everything he did during the day. As if to rub it in, Mr. Smith's time sheet was marked in six minute increments.

...

So why does the much-loathed and unwelcome billable hour, like the *censored*roach, continue to infest the legal kitchen?

The explanation, if not an adequate answer, is pure and simple. On the law firm side, the culprit

Blog Glob: Despite decimated job market, top law students gather to further goal of changing big law firms

Excerpt:

PALO ALTO, Calif. — A decimated job market has turned the tables on top law graduates who not long ago were in high demand at big law firms. But a group of students from some of the best schools in the country sees power in numbers.

Gathering at Stanford Law School over the weekend, about 50 students from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford and other premier law schools were part of Building a Better Legal Profession's National Conference of Student Leaders. The two-day event focused on changing what were often painted as the evil ways of big law firms and included presentations and discussion from well-known practitioners and professors.

The goal of Building a Better Legal Profession (BBLP) is to create collective action among students and associates from top schools to prod large law firms to implement what it says are

Wall Street Lawyers Dumped for Lower-Priced Boutiques

Excerpt:

April 6 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. companies, adopting a model used by DuPont Co., are adding firms with 300 or fewer lawyers to their outside-counsel roster and saving as much as half compared with fees of Wall Street firms more than triple that size.

DuPont and other clients, hit by the recession, are pressing firms for fixed fees or 10 to 25 percent discounts, industry consultants said. Lower overhead of smaller firms, such as 210-lawyer Hiscock & Barclay LLP, permit them to charge less than DLA Piper LLP or Latham & Watkins LLP, which have thousands of lawyers. Partners at smaller firms charge $500 to $600 an hour as top fees compared with as much as $1,000 at large New York firms.

...

Small firms offer quality work at a discount because they are more conservatively managed, with fewer offices, fewer junior attorneys and less debt, said Todd Phillips, managing partner at Wick Phillips LLP, a 12-lawyer Dallas law firm.

“At many big law firms, the overhead is so high it pushes the rates through the roofs,” Phillips said. “They are less able, or willing, to negotiate a different fee structure for fear of cutting their own throats.”

...

A firm with fewer than 50 lawyers that specializes in a few areas of law is commonly known as a boutique. Smith Gambrell and others in the headcount range of 50 to 300 lawyers are