Managing a Quality Legal Practice - Sunshine Through the Rain

Work like you don't need money
Love like you've never been hurt
Sing like no one can hear you
And dance like no one's watching

Most of us entered law school - subjecting ourselves to aptitude tests and all - wanting to become lawyers, and good lawyers at that; we had dreams: our parents and loved ones too. Yet, increasingly, there is talk of being burnt-out - stress being the principal cause.

A good number of lawyers did not renew their practising certificates in March/April 2001, 335 in all, mainly in the Junior Category (associates/legal assistants (69%)), with women forming 56% of the total. Reasons vary (a survey will soon be done by the Secretariat of the Law Society). Financial pressures, self-doubt, meeting deadlines, 'unless-orders' worries, working long hours - frustrations which can cloud your life; we sometimes feel pushed to the edge.

The impact of burn out on a lawyer or a firm is so substantial that it should be avoided by all means possible - there being no work or task more important than maintaining good professional mental health. Fortunately, creative solutions and regular use of good systems for quality of life issues can minimise professional burn out.

Much of the dissatisfaction associated with the practice of law can be attributed to a lack of consideration of our quality of life. Lawyers are so busy performing - for their clients, for their partners, for their associates, for their staff, and perhaps for their own families; trying to impress everyone - striving for perfection. But none of us is perfect. We are just struggling human beings trying to do the best that we can in our aim towards providing better customer care, and, hopefully, receiving better billings in the process.

Yet, managing one's practice is not just about billing clients, hiring and firing staff or buying computers. One important aspect of good practice management must be to put in place policies which can help improve the quality of a lawyer's professional life and minimise the prospect of disillusionment or even withdrawal from the practice of law.

I would like to share four obvious, but cardinal truths in keeping oneself on the path of legal practice satisfaction:

• Loving What You Do

It is difficult, if not impossible, to develop, sustain, and expand your law practice when you find your substantive areas of practice unpleasant. Identify tasks or interests that provide you emotional, intellectual, or spiritual satisfaction, and do not restrict this analysis to matters of the law.

Fine tune your antennae by creating a list of all of your interests in life that provide real and sustaining personal pleasure or satisfaction, and apply this list to existing or projected practice areas.

Remember that law is ever-evolving, and its practice even more so. What used to be part of law practice may now have shifted to paralegals and non-lawyers or down-loadable forms. Conversely, new areas of legal services are developing. Think outside the box and create a legal practice that incorporates your identified interests and skills. Consider innovative ways in which such interest areas can be marketed to a targeted audience - involve others with the same interests.

Actively consider how to differentiate your practice from others that are or may appear to be similar to prospective clients. Create a plan to extend such a practice and ensure that others in the firm or the office are equally committed to the change or supportive of the decision. The final measure: do you actively look forward to going to work? If so, you may have just found the right practice area or areas. If not, keep looking!

• Recognising Your Niche

Adjunct to identifying what you would love to do is identifying those areas in which you are especially skilled. Some of us are naturally at ease with clients - others are more comfortable working away from human interaction, content to generating the work for a client at arm's length. Some enjoy negotiation, mediation, and have an attitude of resolution. Others embrace adversarial work and revel in the battle of the courtroom and the problem-solving involved in complex litigation of transactional or jurisdictional issues, or dabbling in the fact management process and unravelling the theory of a case.

Evaluate your area of expertise. Strengths vary widely in the profession and no one lawyer has prowess in all substantive areas - not even the Senior Counsel! Choose the niche that appears to be the best for meeting the 'do what you love' principle.

• Defining Success for Yourself

Success has many possible measurements. For some, it is measured purely by finances. For others, it is from the satisfaction of helping people. For yet some others, it is the prestige and recognition of being a lawyer in a particular practice. However, in reality, many lawyers are willing to accept lower financial rewards for a higher quality of personal life - as can perhaps be seen by the departing ones.

Regardless of why lawyers leave, it will be impossible to create a satisfying practice unless you have carefully and clearly identified your individual indicia of success. Are your objectives being met by your current practice? Can your objectives be measured reliably? Take a stock-check periodically, but do not be swayed too much by the measure of others; they may be doing so at a price you may not be prepared to pay.

• Setting Reasonable Expectations

Setting reasonable expectations is essential for any 'quality of life' - focused practice. Just as a new lawyer will lack a portfolio of clients, so will the law firm attempting to substantially change or alter the course of its practice. It is reasonable to assume that measurable success might be some distance or time away.

Regardless, it is important to plan for success and to expect accomplishments at a measured rate. The task may seem daunting, like answering the question, 'How do you eat an elephant?' (or undertake the re-organisation of your law practice) - 'Take one bite at a time' (or accomplish a series of much smaller segments in the overall task).

Law practices in this century are in the midst of seismic changes; it is a revolution indeed that we face. Regulating this revolution through sound management practices and policies, has - sooner, not later - to be the order of the day. Firms will face increased pricing pressures and intense competition for clients.

Clients may no longer buy one-stop shopping; instead they may offer work to firms on a case-by-case basis, considering the firms' expertise in a particular sub-specialty and ability to compete on price.

Legal firms will have to meet the challenge as legal bills will be scrutinised, forcing firms to maximise productivity, produce quality work and yet reduce costs so as to remain profitable, yet competitive.

Three core management principles will arise - if it has not already arisen - centred on:

• organisational effectiveness processes;
• training and development; and
• recruitment systems.

Communication is the key to client-care, and obtaining client feedback online in an attempt to improve services will be the next 'e-volution' in legal practice.

There will evolve a climate for innovation and risk-taking by rewarding creativity, 'e-nnovation' and the ability to respond quickly to the changing business and legal environment. Firms will act more like businesses in planning for revenue-growth and expanding their client base and venturing into emerging virgin practice areas.

Flexi-wages, too, will additionally reward a lawyer's ability to manage a credible caseload, undertake business development and work as a team. Motivating non-productive partners to become part of the solution is a better answer than cutting the dead wood right off the branch. Moving away from seniority-based compensation towards true performance bonuses may be the way for future remuneration to go.

Whilst firms may change their business culture, they will have to revive job satisfaction and quality of work-life, which would include supporting health-enriching initiatives such as stress management, tailoring benefits to individual's needs and preferences, mentoring, training and development.

Where does the Law Society stand in all this? Perhaps in introducing an accreditation scheme to focus on the importance of quality standards, not just in aspects of service delivery to clients, but also lawyer welfare. With it, serial poor performance, compounded by increased workloads, but reduced revenue and profits, may be a thing of the past.

Client-care is after all the foundation of practice excellence, and pro tanto, good risk management. Lawyers need to take a more holistic view of their practice and appreciate that the implementation of well-thought-through management systems and procedures are designed to achieve service excellence and promote a culture of internal self-motivation, not driven exclusively by the profit-carrot or the threat-of-sanctions stick.

True love has never had a smooth ride: it is a question of service, and we already know that real customer care is required. But good practice care will go a long way to sustain this, and our lawyers.

Having a career design, followed by conscious career-building, is the key to a lawyer's successful life. It is not just a question of who wants to be a millionaire, but truly seeing sunshine through the rain!

Palakrishnan, SC
President
The Law Society of Singapore

Your President Listens Members of the Law Society will continue to have the opportunity to meetMr Palakrishnan, SC, President of the Law Society, at his fortnightly Saturday sessions at the Law Society's premises between 10.30am to 12noon. The sessions next month will be on 7 and 21 July 2001.