Reducing Culture Clashes in a Small Firm Merger
“We’re thinking about combining our firm of three lawyers with another small law firm. Do you have any guidance for us on what to consider in making our decision?” Clients ask me questions like this more frequently these days.
In some cases, a booming law practice has rainmakers looking for experienced help. Some senior lawyers in solo and small firms consider mergers as they begin thinking about succession planning. Sometimes young lawyers with developing practices seek to cut per capita overhead by spreading fixed costs across more fee earners. For some small firms, the merger mania in BigLaw has stimulated them to consider their options.
When contemplating a merger, many risks and rewards must be considered and due diligence investigations should be conducted. Culture clashes undermine mergers more frequently than any other factor, however.
When there are only 5 lawyers in the whole office, common values become even more critical. There is nowhere to hide. Variances in strongly held beliefs and values tend to grow from cracks to chasms. They can threaten the productivity, health and work satisfaction of everyone in the office, as well as the success of the firm as a whole.
Fortunately, with fewer people involved in a small firm, it can be a little easier to identify and discuss issues that may develop into rifts in a law firm partnership. Here are a few subjects to discuss.
1. What is your attitude toward money and the firm’s fiscal policy? Do you advocate leveraging debt to help the firm advance quickly and to weather dry spells? Or do you prefer a more conservative pay-as-you-go approach, relying on partners for any bridge loans required during slower periods? Read more
Post Date: May 10, 2012
Warning: Avon May Call You, But Microsoft Won’t
The internet crawls with scam artists circulating myths, bogus horror stories, urban legends and snake oil sales pitches. I often use the Snopes website to verify or debunk any weird or cautionary emails I receive. According to a New York Times article about the Snopes founders, their fact-checking website gets around 8 million unique visitors per month. This time I didn’t need Snopes to verify the warning I received in a recent email. It came from our trustworthy IT consultant, Lee McAdory. Here’s what Lee wrote: Read more
Post Date: May 3, 2012
Is Your Law Practice Evolving or Devolving?
Most lawyers evolve as they develop experience. They learn from mistakes and from observing other lawyers. Although every lawyer is different, most go through some of the same predictable stages.
Conscious Incompetence
You’ve just graduated from law school and passed the bar. Whether it’s your first client or your first assignment from a partner, your excitement is mixed with anxiety. You’ve never done this before. You don’t really know what you are doing. You’re scared that someone will find out.
Unconscious Incompetence
You have some experience under your belt. You feel like you know what you’re doing. In fact, in some circumstances you actually do know what you’re doing, but you don’t know what you don’t know.
As a young lawyer negotiating agreements, I carefully examined every aspect of the proposed contract. I was trained in a prestigious firm that expected perfection from its lawyers. I sought to achieve a pristine document that gave my client maximal protection from every conceivable mishap.
I was quick-thinking and articulate. I had good reasons why my client should prevail on every point. I approached the negotiations with what I regarded as healthy suspicion. Sometimes negotiations dragged on and tension developed. I gained most of the concessions I sought. However, they came at a price that I wasn’t really aware of. Read more
Post Date: April 12, 2012
Are Smartphones Confidentiality Risks for Lawyers?
Jared Correia of LOMAP posted some important factors attorneys should consider in response to a question he frequently gets: Should solos use a smartphone as their primary telephone? He pointed out a number of concerns that the lawyer should address, including the ability to “wipe” a lost or stolen phone, and Plan B for practical issues such as dead zones and dead batteries, for a mobile lawyer.
I would like to add another security issue that should be taken into account. All lawyers, including those who also have a regular land line at the office, should give some thought to this. More and more issues are surfacing about apps having unexpected access to data stored on or transmitted by smartphones. Today the Washington Post reported that “Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called on the FTC to investigate Apple and Google after reports that smartphone and tablet apps could pick up more data from consumer’s phones than they realize.”
Last fall HTC Android phones were reported to have security flaws that would expose access through some apps to email addresses, call logs, GPS information and other data on the smartphones. Gizmodo posted a video showing hidden spyware on Android and Apple smartphones that Read more
Post Date: March 7, 2012