With great pleasure I am able to announce the (e-)publication of the Inaugural Summer 2006 issue of "Innovaction" Magazine, published by the College of Law Practice Management.
Available here, its theme is "celebrating innovation in the practice of law," and contains contributions by, among others:
- David Maister
- Patrick McKenna
- Gerry Riskin
and yours truly.
David profiles Exemplar Law, a nonconformist startup law firm if ever there were one, which I’ve written about as well, and which::
- refuses to bill by the hour, instituting fixed fees only;
- interviews 300 applications for every lawyer it hires (interviews, not reading applications);
- requires business degrees or experience from lawyer-candidates;
- offerings clients a "satisfaction guarantee;" and
- invokes a "No Grinch" approach, meaning you cannot buy your way into Exemplar Law with a book of business; teamwork is the order of the day.
David closes with eight trenchant questions about Exemplar, including "If you were a client, would you hire them?" "If you were a competitor, what would you worry about?" "If you were an experienced partner, would you join Exemplar?" and "If you wanted Exemplar to succeed, what piece of advice would you offer?"
Silvia Coulter writes on "Innovation in Leadership," and reprises that it
all begins at the top: "The managing
partner facilitates the breaking down of
barriers across the firm’s management team. Her
actions set the stage for the success of the professional
team, the innovative undertakings they
produce, and ultimately, the firm." And if you have a different kind
of managing partner? "Yet in many firms, we still see partners undermining
the professional team, and managing
partners succumbing to strong voices and individuals
who think only of themselves. Innovation
stops dead in its tracks; the rhythm goes flat and
the firm takes a step backwards."
My piece, on Reed Smith’s and DLA Piper’s alliances
with Wharton and Harvard Business School, begins:
"When invited to write about “innovation” among large law
firms, one’s immediate temptation
might be to ask for a different
assignment—one with a
real, not an imaginary, subject matter."
To read the rest, you’ll just have to go there (it’s at pages 16 through 25).
Next in the publication is Patrick McKenna, with "The Road to Innovation: Ten
implementable steps to enhancing innovation in your firm." Here
are my favorites:
- "Invest a portion of your management time living in the future." Devote
at least 25% of your time in meetings not to the present but to ideas for
changing and improving things. - "Steal the best ideas from other professions." Brainstorm
with clients, academics, and researchers; I guarantee they’ll have a different
perspective. - "Champion your internal entreprenurs." Change isn’t always
top-down. As Patrick puts it: "One of my most startling discoveries
has been
this: innovations do not usually come about because
of any direction, intervention or incentive
provided by your management committee. They
came about largely from, as Peter Drucker first
expressed, “having a mono-maniac with a mission!”"
It’s no longer "lead, follow, or get out of the way:" It’s
"lead, or get blown away."
Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, Simon Chester,
Matt Homann, Dennis Kennedy & Dan Pinnington populate a roundtable that considers:
- billing
- client relations
- management
- marketing, and
- talent recruitment
All I can say on this is, will the billable hour ever die?
Finally, my friend Gerry Riskin wraps things up with this challenge (emphasis
supplied):
"The birth of innovation must
follow the death of perfection.The legal profession is all about
perfection—perfection is a legal
deity, and to speak against it is
heresy! Legal agreements are
never completed, after all—
they just reach the stage where
clients are allowed to sign them."
Wisdom distilled: To midwfe innovation, you must slay perfection.
Ponder that.
