During their Livestream show last week, Tegan and Sara (Canadian Indie Band… and identical twin sisters) were asked a question about what life was like on the road during their first tour in the 1990’s. One of the first things they mentioned was how hard it was to communicate while on the road, and how things we take for granted now weren’t available then.

Tegan stressed that “The word ‘update’ did not happen. Nobody ever said, ‘We need to update your blog!'” Communications back then was much more basic. “Are you alive? Call us from a payphone!”

Sara then goes into the one way that they used to get to email, and that was by going into local public libraries and ‘sneaking’ onto the computers and pretending to do research. Libraries were different about how they perceived Internet usage in the 90’s than they do now. Sara talked about her fear “If they caught you checking your email… there were these big signs that said ‘DO NOT CHECK YOUR EMAIL!'” Of course, that attitude has vanished today. “Now they’d be like, ‘Go ahead, check your email!'”

Tegan then says what a lot of people think today when she chimed immediately and said, “That’s what libraries are for.”

Now, this might make some librarians shudder, but most of the public librarians I know would simply accept this as a service they provide, and actually be embarrassed more from the fact that they once had such a rigid rule of making people afraid to use the library to check their email. Although Tegan and Sara have become successful enough to no longer need to sneak into libraries to check their emails or update their Facebook, Twitter or webpages, there is probably some upstart band out there right now that is walking into a public library somewhere in the hopes of checking email and letting their families know that they are still alive.

Have you ever worked for someone that thinks that the only way to make themselves look good is by tearing down the work of others? Compare that to the kind of boss that is surrounded by great people and the attitude is “I look good when my people do good things.” I have worked for both kinds of bosses, and I definitely prefer the latter style.

Although sometimes the “Us vs. Them” approach may get out of the gate a little faster than the “We” approach, over time that process tends to fall flat. Collaboration isn’t the easiest thing to do (especially if you have to work with other departments, offices, members, etc.) but, for long-term success, it is the best method.

So, the next time you want to point out how great you are by pointing out how bad “they” are, think of the two bosses above. The short-term good feeling you get from building ‘Us’ up by pointing out the flaws in others will come back to bite you when you need help from “them” later.

When Gerry Oginski wrote a post entitled “You’re Not a Law Firm; You’re a Marketing Firm That Happens to Sell Legal Services,” he hit a nerve with a number of people. Judging by the comments that were left on Oginski’s post, I’d say that you either believe that, or you think it is the dumbest statement ever made. We gave everyone a chance to chime in and say what they think the true nature of what a law firm does besides sell legal services.
Thanks to the responders this week (with Thanksgiving in the mix, we waited until Monday to post the answers… plus, I was on vacation and didn’t want to disturb the great time I was having in Colorado!)

This also brings the Elephant Post series to an end. With around 70 total posts, we’ve heard from a lot of you on many different issues. We may bring back the Elephant from time to time when we have an important question that we would like to ask and get many perspectives on. The best thing about the Elephant Posts hasn’t been the questions we’ve asked, but rather the answers we got back from all of you. Thanks for all of you that have shared your perspectives over the past 18 months.

UPS Attorney*
You’re Not A Law Firm; You’re A Counseling Operation That Sells Legal Services

Let me kick this off with an example of what UPS did when confronted with how to look at what they do in a different way, and as a result, make themselves better. If you have watched a UPS commercial in the past 5 or so years, you’ll notice that they call themselves a “Logistics” company rather than a delivery company. By focusing on the logistics of what it takes to move something from point A to point B in a way that enables companies to become “just in time” operations, then UPS becomes an integral part of that process.   Perhaps one of the things that a law firm could look at is its “Counseling” function and focus on remember that by being more pro-active in the upfront counseling clients on how to stay out of potential litigation traps, then we become a more valuable part of our client’s operations. Therefore, I think that we are not law firms, but rather we are “counselors” that sell legal services to those that we have established relationships with.
*I’m not really an attorney with UPS

Steven B. Levy
Author of Legal Project Management
You’re Not A Law Firm; You’re A Business Support Organization That Sells Legal Services

Clients by and large have business problems disguised as legal problems. They’re looking for ways to sell more of their products and improve their profit and revenue streams. How can you help? Talk to them in their language and see the problems through their eyes.

There were many eyebrows raised in 2008 when John Palfrey was appointed the new Vice Dean of Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School. Many questioned whether a man without a Library Degree (he does have a JD and a Masters in Philosophy) could run one of, if not the most, prestigious Law Libraries in the world. After a three and a half years stint in the job, Palfrey is now leaving HLS to go to become the Head of School at Andover in July of 2012. The question that this outsider would like to ask those that worked with Palfrey, and those that attended HLS during the Palfrey period is – Was this a success? Do you think the HLS Law Library actually benefited from putting someone that comes in from a non-traditional approach?

How well did the experiment of asking for all HLS law library staffs’ resignation so that they could be reassigned to fit the goals of not looking at the library’s mission as building the best collection of books in law, but rather as “How do we make information as useful as possible to our community now and over a long period of time?” What types of changes has HLS law library taken on that was an extension of this new mission statement?

I’ve argued in the past that having a non-librarian in charge of a law library is a unique way of running it, but not necessarily a bad thing (or for that matter, not necessarily a good thing, either.) From those of my fellow law librarians that know Palfrey (as I have only met him in passing) they have many good things to say about him. Many have also mentioned that it is good to shake up tradition from time to time in order to see if it really stands the test of time, or if it is simply an old way of thinking and whose time has passed.

HLS isn’t the only law library to be lead by someone without an advanced degree in librarianship, but it is the most well known. I think that there should be a serious look at how the Palfrey era compared to how other academic law libraries fared in the same period. Was there some strategic thinking that happened during this period that made HLS law library better? Should other academic law libraries copy this model? Could the idea of having someone from outside the profession be extended to other areas? If we could suspend the ABA and State Bar requirements, would it be better for the Law School President to be a non-lawyer – perhaps a former Senator/Governor/President/CEO? Someone with business or political experience could shake up the establishment and make it a better overall experience for its community? As someone in a law firm, could the same be said for us? How about a large law firm being run by someone that was a successful CEO or Financial Market Guru?

Obviously, I have more questions than answers here. I’m actually quite curious as to how those at HLS think this period of having someone of John Palfrey’s talent in charge of their prestigious law library went. Is is something that HLS will repeat? Or, was Palfrey kind of a one-off type of guy that was just the right person at the right time, and may not be repeatable?

I do wish John Palfrey the best of luck in his new job of handling all those High Schoolers!! As a parent of a Freshman, I just can’t imagine the stress of handling 1,100 gifted and talented students and the parents that pay up to $42K a year in tuition. It would be interesting to see if Palfrey’s first order when he arrives in July of 2012, is to ask for every Andover employee’s resignation in order to realign the goals of this very traditional institution to better serve the needs of its community? That would be interesting to follow.

I heard this fun news item, “Turkey,
Cranberries And Composers At The Table” on NPR this morning and thought I’d do it with a twist.

Which historical, legal celebrities would you want to invite to your Thanksgiving dinner? And to make it more fun, we will open it up to fictional figures, as well.

Here’s my short list:

  1. Atticus Finch – a southern gentlemen with the most reflective, eloquent style
  2. Horace Rumpole – a down-trodden British barrister with a wit as acerbic as the wine that he drank
  3. Abraham Lincoln – he’s my presidential crush
  4. Barbara Jordan – in the U.S. House of Representatives, she had the best voice!
How about you? Tell me who you’d like to share your turkey with and why.

Citi posted its Third Quarter Report recently, noting the growth in collections and the slowing of demand. Let’s tackle the headline issues first, then peel back deeper in to more interesting trends noted in the report.
Collections up with demand down means firms are emptying the money pipe faster, while less money is coming in to it. The likely outcome of these two trends is obvious: less money for firms in future quarters – which of course means less money to pay partners.
Deeper in the report we see some other trends to note.
#1 – “Rate increases held steady.” This means any rate increase firms made for 2011 are being paid by clients. Say what? This appears to run counter to all we hear about clients pushing back on law firms about their rates. It makes me wonder what else must be going on here.
#2 – “We continue to see firms controlling equity partner head count.” My 2 cents: expect to see even more of that. A consistent trend reported by many surveys is that firms are generally over-partnered. During the downturn associate head count was reduced, but not so much on the partner side. I have previously posted on the precarious role of the service partner. This trend may be the beginnings of reductions in service partner head count.
#2A – “The rising cost of leverage.” As a corollary to #2, when the associate head count drops, the cost of the remaining head count, on a per-head basis, logically goes up.
#3 – “The widening dispersion in the performance of firms is another key trend.” This trend may be the most important one. As too many firms chase the shrinking bet-the-farm tier of the market, this trend suggest we are now seeing big winners and big losers emerge. This trend could be the fore-telling the next, and larger wave of Howreys.
Law Firm Economics 101 tells us that a percentage drop in revenue equates to triple that amount in reduced profits. With law firm expenses going up (see #2A) and revenue dropping, the likelihood of significant drops in partner income become very real. One report on the “widening dispersion” had some firms at a 10% drop in revenue. Absent significant drops in expenses for such a firm, this will mean a 30% cut in partner pay. If the dispersion and rising cost of leverage trends hold, the New Year could bring some interesting activity.
The Citi article sums this possibility up well: “And if we’re right about the continued slowdown in the fourth quarter, it will mean a rocky start to 2012.”
My advice for lawyers going in to 2012 is to follow the advice of the classic roller coaster operators, “Hang on and keep your hands and arms inside the car at all times.”
Image [cc] University of Denver

We wrote last week about a suggestion made at the AALL Futures Summit on improving ways for newbies (and introverts) to better socialize while at conferences. Some thought that the current methods were adequate and that the introverts and new members should suck it up and adjust to the way we do it. Others thought that a change was in order and whether it was Speed Networking, or some type of small group social activity, the old way of networking through the reception environment just doesn’t cut it in this day and age. I do have to say that I’ve been known to open up the conversation with a variation of the Animal House line of “Hi, I’m Greg Lambert, House President, damn glad to meet you.” (see Anonymous below) However, not everyone is as cool at social gatherings as I am… that is cool, right?? So, we asked for your perspective and experience on how you overcome the obstacles of meeting new people at conferences. My favorite is probably the Karaoke Night social… but, not everyone has the ability to hit those Maria Carey high notes like I can, so there may be other suggestions below that work for you.

As we are winding down the Elephant Post Series, we are going to start looking back on some of our old posts (good and bad) and bringing back some of the issues we think were not answered fully, or that we’d like to just bring back because they were so good. However, next week’s question is based on a recent blog post that suggested that law firms aren’t primarily sellers of legal services, but rather they are marketing machines that just happen to sell legal services. We want to know if you think you could sell that idea (or insert your department in that statement) to the partnership at a law firm. Is it a brilliant idea, or one that sounds invented by a marketing team? We look forward to seeing what you have to say.

Thanks to everyone that contributed. I enjoyed reading them… I think you will too.

Vicki
Library Director

While I love my core group of peers, I try to identify people in the crowd from my less core group of peers (for lack of a better phrase).  They are usually talking with people that I don’t know yet so I just sort of walk over and say hi.  More often than not, a round of introductions usually takes place.  Another thing I do is seek out someone who isn’t talking with anyone.  I do this because I am long with experience and feel it is part of my mentoring duties and I love learning from our newly minted colleagues who have wonderful ideas.

Sarah Glassmeyer
Director of Content Development, CALI

Honestly, if I had my way, I would just hide in my hotel room the entire time at conferences and never talk to anyone ever, only emerging to attend programs.   BUT, if I *must* be social…  For me, I’ve found that Internet/Social media has made it a lot easier to get to know people before a conference.  Pre-gaming, if you will.  Even if it’s not someone I’ve interacted with, maybe I’m FB friends with them or see them on twitter or even see them post on law-lib and I have some idea of what they’re about and that makes it easier to talk to them.  And, conversely, my own strong web presence has made me familiar enough to some people that they just come up and start talking to me, which is sort of nice because I’m also pretty lazy and meeting new people does take some effort.   I’m pretty happy with my core-group of people, although everyone’s pretty busy and it’s hard to get to see each other.  However, despite my introversion, I’m always happy to meet new people.  Caucuses/SIS meetings have been the most effective way for me to find people that I share interests with.  It would never occur to me to start talking to someone sitting next to me in a program and I usually end up just staring at anyone who tries that tactic with me.   If you want to actively attract people, a few years ago Jason Eiseman and I made badge ribbons to hand out to people as an ice breaker, and that was surprisingly effective.  Although as the first year we did it they said “Cool Kids” and that was perhaps misinterpreted by some as being snobby.   So be careful you don’t have anything that makes you sound like a stuck-up jerk, because apparently some first impressions stick.

Anonymous
Librarian

If you are familiar with the movie “Animal House,” then you’ll understand my philosophy towards socializing at conferences.  I take the Eric “Otter” Stratton approach of, “Hi, Eric Stratton, Rush chairman, damn glad to meet you.”  Obviously is not what I say verbatim, rather it’s the channeling of that character that gives me the confidence to function in these social-professional situations.  I’m not like this in my “normal” non-conference life.  This practice has resulted in people I meet becoming friends and/or professional acquaintances.  What’s the point of going to a conference with so many colleagues, if you aren’t going to get to know any of them? (Toga! Toga! Toga!)

Ken Hirsh
Academic Law Library Director and Geek

Of course, to begin with I invite everyone to join me at Karaoke night during the AALL conference, one of several I regularly attend.  But beyond that, I am a firm believer in the lyrics of the traditional song, “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.”  I enjoy both hanging out with familiar friends and meeting new ones, especially younger members of our professions.  I find I always learn something useful from members of both groups, and it is a boost to self-esteem to have them listen intently to something I want to say.

Joyce Brafford
The New Person in my Department

The fist thing I do is figure out where the people I want to know will be (particular CLE, meeting, etc) then I find a reason why I need to be there, too. Once there, I try to find a person I know to make an introduction for me. From there, I start making introductions to people around us. I ask about background and professional interest. I then use that info when introducing others. I look like I am in the know, while expanding my network. Afterwords, I follow up on Twitter, LinkedIn, G+, or where ever they are located. If appropriate, I mention then in my social networking feed.

Toby Brown
AFA

I utilize a modified random sniper technique. Giving it this name makes it sound sophisticated. What it really means is I watch for interesting people at seminars and conferences . And once I find one, I make a point of connecting with them. I have good friends who use more of a shot-gun approach – talking with many people, building out a volume of relationships. Although this can be effective, I prefer getting to know people a bit better. Especially those that make me think.  It’s actually how I meet Geek #1. So it must work.

Next Elephant Post

You’re Not a Law Firm; You’re A _______ That Sells Legal Services. True or False?

When Gerry Oginski wrote a post entitled “You’re Not a Law Firm; You’re a Marketing Firm That Happens to Sell Legal Services,” he hit a nerve with a number of people. Now, you can go read that post (go ahead, we’ll wait for you to come back), but quite frankly, I’m sure that you’ve already decided that either this quote hits the nail on the head, or the hammer must have hit Oginski’s head right before he wrote it. So, let’s think about this for a minute and determine just how influential we think we are on the administrative side of the law firm. If we had to go tell the partners of our law firm, could you sell this idea that although we are a law firm that sells legal services, if we were just a bit better in _____ it would make us a better firm — sell it as in “if you were better with marketing/research/fee negotiation/IT/KM/etc…, you’d make more money at the end of the year.”

Let us know if the partnership actually thought of itself as a __________ that sells legal services, could that actually make for a better and more profitable firm? Let us know if you think that could be the case.

<p><p><p><p><p><p>Loading…</p></p></p></p></p></p>

When it comes to search techniques, you’ll never find a more anal group than librarians. So when search tools start mucking around with the search short-cuts, we tend to shake our heads and mumble something like “it worked just fine the way it was… why do you keep changing it??” In fact, there are many law librarians out there that still think that “Dot Commands” in Lexis is truly the only way to conduct legal research queries. Now it is Google that has changed one of the basic search commands that we’ve used for years and replaced it with what amounts to a two-step process to replace a single one.

A couple of weeks ago, Google removed the “+” search command that allowed you to search for a specific spelling of a word or words (without Google correcting your spelling or stemming the word.) According to Google’s research, two-thirds of the commands that used the “+” designator were using it incorrectly, so they replaced the “+” with the either using a double-quote or by clicking on the new advance tool called “Verbatim.” (I’m actually thinking that someone in Google’s marketing department mentioned that they needed to get rid of the “+” command because someone might confuse it with their social media site name of “Google+”… but that’s probably just me being paranoid.)

I’m not one who argues against change, in fact I usually am one of the first to embrace these new features, but I have to say that I’m a little disappointed that Google dropped the one-step “+” command and replaced it with a two-step “double-quote” command (you have to close that quote!) and the three-step “Verbatim” resource (you have to run the search, then click “Show Search Tools” on the left-hand side of the results, and then click on “Verbatim” to get the results.)

Rest in peace my old friend “+” and long live “double-quote” and Verbatim… at least until some future round of enhancements comes along and finds that two-thirds of people are not using you correctly and finds a four-step process to make it easier.

LinkedIn has announced the release of its CardMunch iPhone app.

While it is once step closer to implementing my LinkedIn  idea, it still has some snags.

This is what it does:

  1. You take a photo of your buddy’s business card.
  2. The business card image is then emailed and crowdsourced by their around-the-world staff. 
  3. Then the app create a profile in CardMunch with a link to person’s LinkedIn profile. 
So, effectively, you have one more database to mind until that new business contact agrees to be added to your LinkedIn contact list.
Right now I am trying to get my Christmas list ready. I am working in my Gmail, LinkedIn, Twitter and Outlook to compile all my folks. Then I still have to research my peeps to get accurate physical mailing addresses.
As a side note: why doesn’t everyone put their business address, email address and/or phone numbers into their profile?

How do you expect me to send you my hand-made, especially customized Christmas card and brag sheet?? Seriously, I like you; I want to send you Christmas cards; that’s why you are my LinkedIn connection!

I’ts enough to turn me into Ms. Scrooge.
“Come and listen to a story
’bout a man named Jed…”

When you graduate from a high school that only had 49 Seniors, it is very unlikely that anyone will have forgotten about you. I had the pleasure of attending my 25th High School Reunion this weekend with a number of my fellow graduates. The Biggersville High School Class of ’86 (just between major urban centers of Corinth and Rienzi, Mississippi) met up for some dinner, drinks, fireworks, socializing… and I even got out there with a fellow classmate and former band member and played a duet of Banjo and Ukulele (go ahead… queue up the dueling banjos scene from Deliverance… or you can actually see Marlon playing banjo while driving to work.) Of course, the first question out of everyone’s mouth was “So, what do you do now?” I quickly realized that saying “I’m a law librarian at a law firm” only caused additional questions to follow to explain what the heck that was. Eventually I just said I worked at a large law firm and let it go at that.

My former High School mates aren’t the first to give me a quizzical look when I tell them what I do. Actually, my parents still struggle to tell their friends and the customers of the little convenience store they ran, exactly what it is their boy is doing way out in Houston, Texas. My wife loves to tell the following story that she determined would have made it so much easier for my parents to explain to people what it is that I do:

When I moved from Oklahoma to Houston in 2002, I received a call from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas seeing if I would be interested in interviewing for a position in their Real Estate Acquisitions department. When I got off the phone after explaining that I had already taken a job in Houston and was in the process of moving down there as we spoke, my wife looked at me and said – “Wow, that’s too bad you didn’t land that job. It would have made it easy when someone asked your Mom and Dad what it is you do… they could have just answered proudly by saying ‘Oh, he works at Wal-Mart.'”

So, here’s to 25 Years… Being a Law Librarian… And, for still making it hard for my folks to tell people exactly what it is I do.