TLOMA Today

My fellow TLOMA members: 

It is small wonder that I begin every one of my preztalks with “It’s hard to believe” when, for example, the 2017 TLOMA Conference was three weeks ago.  Can you believe it?  A month ago I was urging you to register for it and now it’s over.  And if you missed it, you missed it, but don’t despair, the 2018 Conference is around the corner and very soon I will be urging you to go to the TLOMA website and take advantage of the much cheaper Early Bird Registration rate.  You can’t lose. 

I don’t know about you but for me a Conference is not over until I have recovered all of my garments and this Conference was no different: 

Driving back to Toronto in the rain, I had the sinking feeling that something was amiss.  And just when the radio was blaring “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain” (The band is America, by the way, and I highly recommend it) it dawned on me – I had left my coat behind.  I could picture it hanging in the wardrobe back at the hotel plotting its escape.  It had succeeded. I pulled over and waited for the panic to subside.  I couldn’t go home without my coat, again!  The dashboard told me I was 150 kilometres away from Deerhurst and my first thought was cover-up.  How much was the coat and could I replace it easily.  When I realized that I would never be able to find the same make and model I called the hotel’s lost-and-found number.  A rookie mistake!  The electronic voice of a twelve year old instructed me to please leave a very detailed message and they would call me back, a promise they kept, albeit a week later.  Then I did what any seasoned TLOMA member would have done in the first place and called Liz Barrington.  Liz, who was just about to leave the hotel when I called, went back and recovered my coat and, being the consummate professional that she is, never mentioned recovering my pants which were hiding behind my coat.  These were not my only pants, in case you were wondering, although I do like to travel light.  Anyway, I got my stuff back at the next Executive Committee meeting, we all had a good laugh about it and only one of us was slightly embarrassed.  I sure hope you couldn’t tell who… 

This is not the first coat that has tried to leave me, by the way.  Years ago at a Microsoft meeting about 30 participants had hung their coats on a self-service coat rack.  Leaving the meeting five minutes before the end to meet with an HVAC technician at my house, I grabbed my coat and jumped in a cab.  Arriving at my house I put on my coat but couldn’t find my keys in its pockets.  I immediately called the taxi company and they contacted the driver of my cab, but he failed to find the keys either.  My wife came to my rescue but the minute she got out of her taxi she gave me the look usually reserved for the gravest of my transgressions (putting a pillow out of place would be a good example).  As I was protesting my innocence she said, “Whose coat are you wearing?”  My heart did not sink right away.  First I remembered that the coat’s pockets felt strangely shallow, but so what?  “It’s mine, it’s blue and it fits”, I was still convinced but somewhat doubtful.  “Your coat does not have brown buttons and brown leather trimming.”  Fair enough.  I took it off, took one look at the label inside and said with all the conviction I could muster, “It’s a London Fog size XXL, it’s mine”.  “You don’t have a London Fog”, she was walking away shaking her head in disbelief. 

What happened to my own coat is truly unbelievable: Another similarly sized participant, who had left the Microsoft meeting 2 minutes before me, grabbed my coat jumped into a cab to the airport to catch a flight back home to Chicago.  It was a warm day and he never put the coat on.  He carried it in one arm all the way to his front door which he attempted to unlock with my keys.  Failing to unlock the door he put on my coat and rang the doorbell.  His wife opened the door and gave him the look usually reserved for his gravest transgressions and said, “Whose coat are you wearing?”   He called me right away and fedexed my coat, keys in pocket, to me and I fedexed his coat to him in the same box.  A year later, back in Toronto, he called me to have a beer.  And that’s how we men make lifelong friendships. 

Speaking of friendships, many new ones were made and old ones strengthened during the 2017 TLOMA Conference at the spectacular Deerhurst resort.  It was a truly memorable event with tons of networking opportunities for members and business partners alike.  The educational sessions were well balanced and perfectly executed and both Keynote Speakers were amazing.   

The Opening Keynote, Dennis Moseley-William, focused on the need to “stay true to oneself and be authentic” if you are to succeed in anything you do.  For success is what you think it is and you are who you think you are.  “Faking it may work for a while, sometimes for a long while, but ultimately you will come to regret it”.  Think about it. 

The Closing Keynote, Craig Kielburger, is one of those truly lucky people who discovered what he wanted to do with his life at the age of twelve and set about doing it never having to work a day of his life, because he loves what he does.  What he has been doing for the past 25 years is change the world one person at a time.  His organization, WE, today connects millions of people all over the world – ordinary people working together for the betterment of humanity.  The power of WE.  Awesome! 

Of course, conferences don’t happen by themselves.  A lot of hard work goes into planning them for a whole year.  Kudos to the 2017 Conference Committee – Bernard, Debbie, Helen, Liz and Karen, and Shannon and David from IC+E – for a job well done!!

This year’s Conference was a lot of fun, you have set a higher standard and we thank you! 

In other TLOMA news, the TLOMA Associate Survey meeting will be held on November 21 at WeirFoulds LLP.  If your firm has participated in and/or purchased the 2017 TLOMA Associate Compensation Survey, we strongly encourage you to attend this session. There is no charge for attending. 

The Fall Professional Development event is coming up soon – November 23 at the St. Andrew's Club & Conference Centre – and holds a lot of promise for anyone who is involved in the implementation of change in a law firm or wishing to improve file and budget management and client satisfaction. 

And last but not least, the December Member Networking event will be held at the Rosewater Room on December 1.  You know it will be fun, so reserve you seat now because space is limited.   

That’s it for now.  And if you were wondering, I gave my much travelled coat to a homeless man two days after it came back from Chicago and bought myself a London Fog.  Yep, the same one I left behind in Deerhurst. 

A likely mythical philosophy exam is said to have posed a one-word question: “Why?” While one answer might be “Because,” any rebel worth their salt will respond “Why not?” “Why not?” isn’t intended to be an argumentative retort; rather, it signals an independent mind and audacious spirit.

Law firms need to embrace rebels if they want to thrive. Those that don’t will be lucky to merely survive.

Lately I’m hearing from lawyers who are frustrated with law firm life. They want to trade it for something other than the traditional up-or-out formula. Instead, they seek opportunities where questioning the status quo — often considered rebellious to the point of anarchy by some firms — is warmly welcome.

These lawyers aren’t alone. An increasing number of senior legal marketing and business development professionals are chafing at being relegated to delivering tactical services rather than participating in the strategic direction of their firms.

What’s going on? Could this dissatisfaction be happening because traditional law firms operating under increasing financial and change pressure are clamping down, preferring that their talent march in lockstep, perhaps right off a cliff?

Rebels Among Us

Whether operating covertly or with all flags flying, rebels have a passion for what they do and want to make an organization better. They embrace diversity, challenge and change: all positive behaviours based in courage and risk. Given that description, it’s no wonder these individuals make management at many traditional law firms clench so tightly that they sit two inches taller. 

One such person is Aly Háji. Bright, personable and a top student, he’s taken a circuitous route to lawyer-dom. After graduating with honours from pharmacy school he didn’t complete the licensing process. Then he declined acceptance to medical school, “which disappointed my parents, who wanted a doctor in the family.”

Craving further challenge, he’s now studying at McGill University, combining two law degrees with the MBA program; he expects to finish in December 2017. He recently applied to 14 traditional law firms for articling, got four interviews and zero offers (hardly surprising, since these firms probably wouldn’t know what to do with him). His triumph, though, is that his dream job will be realized in 2018, when he’ll go to clerk for the Honourable Justice Andromache Karakatsanis of the Supreme Court of Canada. 

Another such individual is self-described maven Geoff Wild, Chief Executive of the UK-based alternative business structure (ABS) firm Invicta Law Ltd., which hatched in July 2016. “An essential ingredient to what I and others like me require is freedom,” Wild said; “to create, express, nurture and explore. And above all to follow my heart, and to close my ears and eyes to the inevitable criticism, ridicule and ostracism that comes from the establishment in response to what I am doing; that strikes such fear in their own hearts, knowing that, like the dinosaurs they are, their days are surely numbered.”

Just Do It

Marketing and business development professionals are challenged to keep their lawyers happy while trying to advance a firm’s agenda. Ironically, “happy lawyers” and “advancing an agenda” often have nothing in common.

Results from an April 2016 Legal Marketing Association and Bloomberg Law® study, Are We There Yet?, indicated that, to be blunt, no, we’re not. It found that the top three tasks for which lawyers relied on marketing and business development people were: gathering company information; responding to RFPs; and coordinating directory ranking and award submission material. The 2017 survey responses weren’t much different, with firms of two to 300-plus lawyers reporting that, on average, the top tasks are client meetings and pitch preparations, responding to RFPs, and content development.

The emphasis on task-based rather than strategic work is reflected in 97 per cent of the marketing and business development professionals who responded, stating that they were highly or somewhat involved in supporting and implementing their firm’s strategic priorities, while only 36 per cent participate in setting them.

Marketing and BD professionals would do well to assert themselves in setting firm priorities (but with care so as not to be drummed out of the lodge). Frustration over not having a say could well be a factor in continuing legal marketing and BD talent churn.

Get Unclenched

A popular definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different result. Accordingly, savvy law firms will favour the square-peg folks who can jump-start change, or as Háji says, “do business as unusual.” What’s the worst that could happen? As Groucho Marx famously quipped: “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” He also said, “Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light.”  

When people face stressful circumstances their automatic reaction is to become conservative and use solutions that worked in the past. This is one instinct that worked in prehistoric times when ‘do or die’ was a regular occurrence. There wasn’t time to be creative while fleeing a tiger or worse. Our ancestors who survived were the ones who did what worked and that ‘what worked’ trait has been passed down through generations. 

Twenty-first century humans instinctively still tend to get conservative when afraid. Think of it as blinkers. We tend to only see the limited range of what we think worked in the past and lose our creativity. But it’s a new world now and we have much more time to be creative when we’re up against it. You’re not likely to be chased by a tiger these days.   

For legal professionals in job transition, individuals need to see well beyond what their blinkers allow. Here are a dozen ideas to build mental energy to help shatter those blinkers:

• Develop a clear and specific goal. Think about what success would look like. Use that vision to continually refocus. Write your vision down. Review it regularly. Update it when you learn something new. Refocusing will produce energy to help you think more creatively.
• Mindfulness builds mental energy. Pay attention to what you are doing. Don’t multi-task. Do one thing well at a time.  
• Build self-esteem. Create a victory list which includes the things you’ve accomplished in your life. Carry it around with you on a 3 x 5 card.  Look at it to build optimism and mental energy.
• Challenge negative beliefs. Specify each of your negative beliefs. Examine each for it’s truthfulness, exaggeration, overgeneralization and distortion. You will develop some new positive truths about yourself.
• Fight back against fear by enrolling others. One way is to simply talk to someone about how you are feeling. The support you receive will cause you to feel less afraid. Less fear will lead to more mental energy. You may also get some good ideas from a friend.
• Join a support and strategy group. This has the added benefit of more sources of creative ideas to deal with your transition.
• Turn barriers into stepping stones. Rather than focusing on the difficulty of reaching your vision, focus instead on the steps to get there one at a time. A good way to do this is to plan “looking backwards from success”. That is, once you decide what success looks like determine the key steps that got you there and then work on those.
• Don’t let worst case scenarios get you down. Examine the worst case scenario and compare its likelihood with best case scenarios. You’ll see that the best case scenario can be more likely especially as you make plans to overcome problems. Seeking support and taking action is always part of a good plan.
• Confidence comes from learning, experience, success, risking, and trial and error. Confidence builds mental energy.
• Confidence also comes from a bias towards being confident. Use the imagery of Velcro and Teflon can help you build confidence. You want good thoughts to stick and negative thoughts to fall away.
• Gain mental energy by habitually taking direct action in one of three ways: a]  by scheduling to do a task or make a decision at a certain future time or b] by dividing big projects into small pieces or c] with a “do it now” mentality for small tasks and decisions.
• Learn to let go of feelings, attitudes, beliefs, fears and policies that are in your way and use the energy created to help you take creative action. For example, when you simply decide to let go of something like a long standing fear – there are so many possibilities for action to take that you have not considered before. 

There are many business development activities that can add to an individual's success when in transition:

• Make a variety of lists that can be the foundation of your personal strategic plan: potential employers, contacts you want to network with, other kinds of careers you might want to explore [teaching, starting a business, consulting, in-house assignments etc.], learning that will benefit you [courses, CLE, degrees etc. ], your strengths and weaknesses that are worth taking action on, your passions.

• As a coach, I find that making lists is a way to think through problems and opportunities and always something my clients can do more of. It’s a kind of thinking that produces excellent rewards. Lists are fertile ground for creating an action orientation which is so necessary when in transition. Having nothing to do is a depressing thought. Making lists and following through on their contents is a great antidote.

Warren Bongard of ZSA Legal Recruitment suggests that people in transition ought to be very aware of their passions as they relate to career choice. “Nothing makes for a better fit than being in the right job for your skills, education and passion” he says.

• Successful transition is a full-time marketing job. And it takes a lot of mental energy, more so when nobody is chasing you. My suggestion is to divide each day into sections devoted to certain types of activities that will focus your efforts.
• The first hour of every day should be dedicated to contacting people to start cultivating relationships. This should be done with a list made at the end of the previous day. If you can have success first thing it will be energy boosting everything else you do that day. Just making a good number of calls, even if you only leave a bunch of messages, can be energy boosting.     
• Other things to focus on in specific day parts: plan tomorrow at the end of each day, have a regular time to exercise, try to have a networking lunch every day, maybe followed by a coffee meeting. Planning that kind of contact as a policy will focus your efforts on the right things.
• In addition to networking spend time building your brand name, essentially raising your level of trustworthiness. To build your brand name you can publish articles, take advantage of speaking opportunities, use social marketing like blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to get your name and expertise out.

You can also continue to learn as a way of brand building. In fact if you are still employed you may get your employer to back your continuing education. Warren Bongard notes that many enlightened firms are funding learning and even coaching for lawyers who may have to be transitioned out. This makes the transition process for the firm and the lawyer that much easier.

• Grow your interviewing skills. Prepare well knowing that people who hire will respond well to candidates who have taken the time to learn about their firm. Learn your script so you can spend your interview time ‘acting’ the necessary role, not creating answers to questions on the fly. Show lots of enthusiasm during and after the interview. People hire others who seem to like them.
• Make sure you’ve done a good self-assessment. In my coaching practice I often work with people who don’t like what they are doing and could be doing something they would prefer to do, and make a good living doing it. Bongard notes that many people he sees “crave an alternative to law, like an entrepreneurial business or consulting that are good fits with their personality and their legal education”. I find that these people just don’t realize they can get what they want, they just have to market themselves to make it successful.

When embroiled in the stress of transition or facing it square on, now is the time to learn how to cope with your stress and make yourself successful by marketing yourself effectively. 

High end cars, vacations, a beautiful home, designer clothing and other luxury items are often some of the perks lawyers associate with being successful in their profession. Unfortunately, many lawyers often do not realize what their lifestyle is costing them.  Very few track their spending to see if the money being spent is actually in line with their priorities. Legal professionals should be encouraged to take a closer look at spending in order to hone in on values.  

It is important to ask questions like: does my spending reflect my priorities; am I spending most of the income I earn?  The truth is, if you do not have a sense of where your money is going, you are likely to spend more of it, even if your income continues to increase.  This leaves you vulnerable in getting caught in the lifestyle trap of always having to work to create income. As legal professionals become more successful and mature, the lifestyle trap means earning a significant income, have all the trappings of wealth, but no real wealth or savings to rely on in the future. 

How Does a Cash Flow Analysis Work?

A cash flow analysis is a process where expenses are analyzed against after tax income.  Fixed and discretionary expenses are listed on a lifestyle sheet and are captured weekly monthly or yearly. All monthly payments and debts are listed and any savings programs including savings set up by an employer are also taken into account.  Expenses, debts and savings programs are tallied up on an annual basis and then subtracted from income.  After all expenses, debts and savings are subtracted from income there may be surplus income or a deficit in cash flow.  A surplus in cash flow could mean the cash earned in is not being put to good use.  This cash could be put towards long term or short term savings goals.  A deficit in cash flow often means spending more than what is earned, which requires spending adjustments.   

Tips for Making the Most of Cash Flow 

• Consider retirement goals/timeline
• Analyze current lifestyle expenses and think about how they may change down the road based on 3 to 5 year plans
• If self-employed, consider how predictable income is and average out income based on the last 3 years of earnings
• Plan to pay off non tax deductible debt as soon as possible and consolidate high interest debt to the lowest interest rate available to reduce borrowing costs
• Set up a contingency plan that addresses threats to cash flow based on what is needed to fund monthly lifestyle expenses
• For job loss or emergency, consider setting aside 3 - 6 months of savings
• Organize a low interest line of credit as a backup
• Look for insurance plans that will replace current lifestyle costs and give the option to purchase additional coverage as needs change
  
  

According to MoneySense, earning the big bucks alone, doesn’t make you rich. Real wealth is determined by net worth, what you own – minus what you owe.   (MoneySense, January 2015) .  A financial plan is designed to help build net worth and get more from the money earned.

Taking Responsibility for the Future:  Are You Ready? 

Lawyer Norm Keith is 58 and laughs hard when asked about his readiness for retirement.  "There is an old adage that most good lawyers live well work hard and die poor", he says referencing the quote from American lawyer and statesman, Daniel Webster.  “Many probably for appearances sake, life enjoyment, or because they are not thinking or planning ahead.”  (Canadian Lawyer Mag, June 1^st 2015)

For lawyers who own or work for a small or large firm, or in the capacity as a sole practitioner, it is important to be prepared to take responsibility for the future. Most firms don’t offer group retirement plans and even when they do, would not properly address what would be required to replace lifestyle expenses at retirement or earlier. It is important for legal professionals to embrace the fact that in most cases, it is up to them to plan for the future.

Begin with the end in mind. Waiting too long to think about retirement means, working because you have to, not because you want to.  A plan should be put in motion that will allow assets to work efficiently in order to achieve retirement goals. Keep in mind, planning to retire can occur only when there are sufficient assets or capital available to replace the current lifestyle.    

Threats That Can Derail Retirement Plans  

• Loss of employment 
• Divorce
• Income Decline/Stagnation 
• Market Conditions
• Illness

(Source for points 1-4,  Canadian Lawyer Magazine, June 2015)

Tips for Planning for The Future 

• Set a deadline as to when investments should start to work
• Identify cash that can be saved for the future sooner rather than later
• Pay off debt as soon as possible
• Set up a forced savings plan to ensure money is being set aside for future goals
• Purchase insurance plans that meet cash flow requirements and can be adjusted as needs change

An IT platform can help keep a business at the top of the heap. It can also help that business potentially squander tens of thousands of dollars a year. So how do leading businesses ensure their IT systems work for them, and not against them? They make sure it’s boring.

In this case, “boring” means a rock-solid, standardized, non-creative, and ruthlessly efficient platform - exactly what a company should want for the system that underpins almost every one of that company’s functions. Identifying and examining how companies lose money through IT helps reinforce the value that a strong IT platform can bring to your office.

An IT Strategy: Expect the Best, Plan for the Worst

A wise fellow once said: “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.” The same can be said for a company that doesn’t have a strategy for its IT platform that’s closely aligned to its business objectives. Lack of an IT strategy results in poor IT management - which, in turn, will inevitably lead to reactive and costly IT services when something goes wrong. To prevent such a scenario, a proper IT plan should be in place - one that starts from the top down, and supports business objectives. 

A firm wouldn’t let its greenest associate lead a high-profile trial. Similarly, a firm wouldn’t want its IT team using internet wisdom during a techno-crisis. An IT team needs to have an appropriate level, and variety, of IT professionals. IT generalists should be teamed with IT specialists, and outsourcing should be done judiciously. A company’s IT strategy will help to dictate what its IT team should look like, and an annual review of the strategy will ensure changes are made when they’re necessary. 

IT Security: Protecting, Evolving, Adapting

In the legal world, firms handle extremely confidential information on an hour-by-hour basis. In the digital age, that information needs more safeguards than ever before to keep it secure. Malware, ransomware and phishing are becoming more common, and system failures can create a lack of confidence with clients or potential clients, as well as employees. A company’s IT strategy must incorporate risk awareness and mitigation. Disasters and outages will happen, but being prepared can help firms recover quickly and effectively. As risk and attack vectors change, IT security needs to evolve and adapt. 

A small local company doesn’t need the bandwidth to have its 100 employees using the system at one time. Nor does it need the same architecture as a large 1,000-employee company downtown. Creating a solid IT foundation, one that can scale as needed, while incorporating suitable service level agreements will ensure money isn’t wasted on systems that are superfluous and overinflated.

Procurement: Keep it Simple, Keep it Standardized

Greater complexity means higher cost. The same can be said for an IT platform.

Complexity is added by multiple vendors, contracts, systems, processes, standards, and people. Various employees and departments using multiple makes and models of equipment, from laptops to cellphones to printers, adds even more complexity. 

A company’s IT strategy should include a procurement element that addresses standardization to reduce the complexity. Savvy businesses choose strategic vendors who bring best practices, execution, and advice based on experience.

Avoid Telecom Thoughtlessness, Cloud Complacency 

Telecom plans, contracts, and decisions shouldn’t be taken lightly. Nor should they be handled by staff without experience and expertise in the world of mobility. 

Data and voice need to be considered as one, because today’s conversations may begin in person, but are likely to be continued on the phone, via text, by e-mail, and beyond. By having IT manage mobility and mobile devices, costs can be better controlled, while at the same time, security, functionality, and capability of apps and devices will better align with business needs. Mobile device management can help manage security and risk, and IT-enforced employee policies will further enhance security and set employee expectations around roaming costs and texting and data limits.

The cloud, meanwhile, isn’t a low-cost panacea. Nor does it do the system justice to just set it and forget it. Complacency with the cloud can be dangerous, and while having more servers and technology likely means more IT jobs, it isn’t always the most cost-effective way of handling IT storage. A proper IT strategy should help a company find the right solutions, recognizing that a hybrid system, consisting of cloud-based storage and physical servers, is likely required. Learning from key partners’ experience can help demystify storage, and will help to ensure capital isn’t invested in depreciating assets. 

In the legal world, as with many other professions, a strong, stable, resilient, and boring IT platform is critical for business success. A solid IT strategy will help firms mitigate potential risks, and ensure the right people are doing the right work.

IT security is of the utmost importance, as nearly every firm deals exclusively with confidential information—but that doesn’t mean the highest-tech solution is always the best. What’s even more important is stability, simplicity and efficiency.

Work with an IT service provider who can leverage their expertise to ensure your firm is receiving what you need most—a personalized, boring and appropriate solution.