In 1996 I was asked to speak for the Great Lakes Organization of Bar Executives (GLOBE). The group was meeting in Park City and I was a convenient geek to present to them (living in Salt Lake at the time). I was tasked with talking about the future of legal technology and how it might impact the legal profession. This was a fun challenge and my presentation was titled, “Staying Relevant.”

The bottom line for that presentation, which I ended up giving again to numerous bar associations present at the meeting, was:

  1. Self-help is (and continues to be) a strong trend.
  2. Clients are able to find the legal information they need online (forms, checklists, even advice)
  3. Interactive systems will help clients build their own legal documents (document assembly)
  4. E-signatures and electronic documents will enable clients to directly file with government agencies (e.g. tax returns, corporate filings, court filings, etc.)
  5. If lawyers want to stay relevant, they will need to fit into this new approach, otherwise the river will flow around them.

Oh … and I added at the end of the program, “If all this technology and trends threaten to make lawyers irrelevant, what will that make a bar association?” Needless to say, I got their attention.

Fast forward to the present and these ideas are coming to roost. They may be best captured in Richard Susskind’s new book, The End of Lawyers?.

Mr. Susskind goes in to some detail about how these trends are playing out. Disruptive technologies, evolving dispute resolution paradigms, pressures on in-house lawyers and other factors are finally driving change in the profession. Even BigLaw is feeling the commoditization effect, driving business to smaller firms with lower price points. My recent posts on Alternative Billing are one example of how this is all playing out.

If you want a more direct view of Mr. Susskind’s prognostications, you should check out ABA TECHSHOW 2009 as he is the feature keynote. TECHSHOW has a lot of other benefits and value to offer beyond this great speaker and topic. I recommend you check out the program and consider a spring trip to Chicago to catch all the sessions and exhibits.

As to what the future holds, I agree with Mr. Susskind. Lawyers, if they chose to, can play an exciting and frankly more interesting role in this evolving market. It will require change, which is likely the biggest sticking point for the industry. In my 1996 presentation I referred to the problem as the “Paradigm of Precedence.” Lawyers drive the boat by watching the wake. Apparently we have reached that point in time where they better turn and look out over the bow.

Otherwise …

On Friday the 13th at at 23:31:30 GMT, Unix computers using ten-digit clocks displayed 1234567890.

Computer geeks around the world saluted that night. Twitterers tweeted the party rally: “1234567890”.

But apparently the party of geeks ushering in this new era must now turn their programming prowess into another type of number crunching: switching for 32-bit integer counting system to a 64-bit integer system.

Now I’m no programmer and I barely understand what I’m talking about, but the gist of it is that a number of our current programs used in air traffic control and the like are programmed using Unix timers that are based on 32-bit integer systems and, as a result, running on a limited clock.

The Unix clock counts up to only a finite number of seconds: 4,294,967,296, to be exact.

Taking into account “leap seconds”–yes, just like leap years–that’s about 136 years. So we are looking at the Unix clocks running out of time around the year 2038.

Remember the millenium bug (Y2K) everyone was panicked about when the clocks struck 2000? I had friends that had pulled out wallets full of cash and hid it behind paintings . . . (no, it wasn’t me, I swear. It was a friend!).

So now our dear programming friends are frantically–ok, maybe not so frantically–making the switch to 64-bit integers that can count up to 293 billion years into the future.

Bear in mind that these are all only displayed in binary codes so the non-programmers among us are for the most part completely unaware of this problem.

So for us commoners, we must proceed with caution and ask our IT staff the delicately framed question, “so, tell me, IT God, what integer system are our servers running on?”

(When approaching the inner sanctum of IT, it is always best to go bearing gifts. Cookies work for me.)

I swear, with all the economic doom and gloom going on, I’m just waiting for the Mayan calendar to run out. Maybe we just won’t have to deal with any of this anymore. **heavy sigh**

Last week, DLA Piper announced that they were laying off 80 attorneys and 100 staffers.  Over the past week, we’ve tracked DLA Piper to see which attorneys have been coming and going, and we’ve found some interesting trends that we thought we’d share with you.

All Bad News?  
Turns out that DLA Piper added 11 attorneys during the week.  The Singapore office brought on 6 new associates to bolster their Corporate group.  Five associates were hired in various European offices (Cologne-2 ; Oslo-1; Hamburg-1; Paris-1).  
Who Received Pink Slips?
According to the information we obtained, the layoffs were handed out to 66 associates and 5 Of Counsel.  Interestingly enough, the Of Counsel were equally distributed over 5 offices (Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego and Tampa.)
Amazingly, from what data we could pull, the 66 associates were equally split with 33 being male, and 33 being female.  The Of Counsel were 4 male, 1 female.
Associates Male 33
  Female 33
Of Counsel Male 4
  Female 1
Where Were the Layoffs?
There were 16 offices where attorneys received pink slips last week.  New York and Chicago took the brunt of the layoffs with 14 and 11 respectively.  
Atlanta 4
Baltimore 3
Boston 2
Chicago 11
Dallas 3
Los Angeles 6
New York 14
Northern Virginia 1
Philadelphia 3
Phoenix 2
Sacramento 1
San Diego 4
San Francisco 3
Silicon Valley 6
Tampa 3
Washington DC 5
 Total 71
Which Practice Groups Were Affected?
Transactional groups were hit the hardest by the layoffs.  All but 13 layoffs were in the transactional groups, with Corporate and Finance getting almost half of the total layoffs.  Litigation was not spared, losing 11, and IP lost 2.
Commercial Contracts 2
Corporate 26
Employment 1
Finance 9
Intellectual Property 2
Litigation 11
Real Estate 17
Regulatory & Government Affairs 1
Tax 2
Which Practice Groups in Which Office??
It seems that DLA Piper didn’t make wholesale cuts in specific practice groups within specific offices.  The most any specific group lost in any specific office was five.  The Silicon Valley office lost 5 within their Corporate group, and the New York office lost 5 within their Finance Group.  
Commercial Contracts Chicago 1
  Dallas 1
Corporate Atlanta 2
  Baltimore 1
  Boston 1
  Chicago 4
  Los Angeles 1
  New York 3
  Northern Virginia 1
  Phoenix 2
  Sacramento 1
  San Diego 1
  San Francisco 2
  Silicon Valley 5
  Tampa 1
  Washington DC 1
Employment Chicago 1
Finance Atlanta 1
  Chicago 1
  Los Angeles 2
  New York 5
Intellectual Property San Diego 2
Litigation Boston 1
  Dallas 1
  Los Angeles 1
  New York 2
  Philadelphia 3
  San Diego 1
  Silicon Valley 1
  Washington DC 1
Real Estate Atlanta 1
  Baltimore 1
  Chicago 4
  Dallas 1
  Los Angeles 2
  New York 4
  San Francisco 1
  Tampa 2
  Washington DC 1
Regulatory & Government Affairs Washington DC 1
Tax Baltimore 1
  Washington DC 1
What are the “Trends” Found in the DLA Piper Layoffs?
The trend of this specific round of layoffs was that the pink slips were handed out across a broad range of Practice Groups, Offices, and almost equally distributed among women and men.  From the data we could find, it also seemed that these were more senior level associates, with more than 3 or 4 years of experience.  
The moral of this story?  If you’re a mid to senior level associate in transactional practice groups, it may be time to start updating the resume.

Thursday February 12, 2009, a day that most of us in large law firms will remember for a long time.  Losing over 800 jobs in law firms in one day is a terrible, terrible thing, but we’ve all been hearing that some firms are doing “stealth” layoffs as well.  This really means that there are a lot more than 800 jobs lost.large law firm layoffs by looking at the firms’ rosters and trying to isolate when people come and 

We here at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog thought we’d start trying to see if we could find the trends ingo (or change titles.)  It’s a work in progress, but here’s a rather large sample of the movement in over 90 law firms just this week.  
There’s also some good news hidden in here (althought the big layoff announced yesterday are not all included in this list), and that is the fact that there is still hiring going on in firms (even for associates.)  
Take a look for yourself and let us know your opinion on all the comings and goings in big law this week:
[table]
Note:  Okay…. maybe the initial list was a little too long to digest.  So, I’ve trimmed it back a little to show some of the movement.  I’ll post more information next week detailing some of the findings that I’ve seen in the actual movement of attorneys in and out of large firms.  
If you must have a look at the entire list of this week’s moves, you can shoot me an email, or send me a tweet on Twitter.

I posed this question on Twitter but got no responses. I suppose that answers that.

But, I think I just got lost in the Twittersphere so I raise the question again.

Do “Real” Journalists Twitter?

You see, I have been having this long-standing debate (well, ok, a 4-month debate) with a former reporter who claims that no reporter worth his/her salt would deign to use Twitter as a story source and that there are no reporters at reputable papers using Twitter.

Hmm.

Well, if that were true, I wouldn’t be able to follow @jsnell, @pogue, @Tracyo42, @stephditta, @jenleereeves, @judywriter, @brianstelter and many, many more.

And then on Twellow, an app that works like a yellow pages for Twitter, there is a category devoted to reporters.

I guess for some, ignorance is bliss . . .

NOTE:  We welcome our first Guest Geek Blogger, Laura Walters.  Don’t let Laura’s well-written post fool you, she’s just as geeky as any of the 3 Geeks!  
I was rereading a favorite book recently that seemed even more appropriate given the recent economic news and general upheaval in many industries, Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved My Cheese? I was struck by the timeless message but also by the realization that the legal industry could use a refresher (or introduction) as we attempt to reconcile the dramatic rate and pace of change we are facing.

Knowing how the legal eagles love all things unique unto their worldview, I decided to outline the core messages of the original story as they relate to our current challenges in the hope that firms can apply the concepts more expediently. For those unfamiliar with WMMC? it is a simple parable about mice (Sniff and Scurry), little people (Hem and Haw), and a maze in which they all live containing much sought after Cheese (success/fulfillment/comfort/etc.) that mysteriously keeps moving about. For our purposes, you can imagine a two associates, two ostriches, and a court house (if that helps).

Let’s hit some highlights from the story and see how they apply to the law firm:

1. Cheese (Briefs) Happen – They Keep Moving the Cheese (or Washing Your Briefs)
Change is a given in any industry, but especially so for us legal folks. Recently large-scale change has been visited upon us in terms of our clients, the economy, and our internal organizations. Some firms seem surprised – they shouldn’t be. Even if you are blessed with a steady stream of work and a stable partnership structure, change still can (and will) make its way to your door. The current changes are affecting law firm personnel across the board – from the receptionist to the most tenured partner – reminding us that we are all in this one together.

2. Anticipate Change – Get Ready for the Cheese to Move (or Your Briefs to Get Washed)
Many law firms operate day-to-day on a fairly reactive basis. We say this is the nature of our service industry – we’re here for the clients and they drive what we do. Well…yes and no. The interesting thing about clients is that they expect their professional service providers to be proactive, not reactive – and assume that firms operate as such. A proactive approach to most anything – client service, firm strategy, changing market conditions – beats a reactive approach 99% of the time.

Being proactive in our business model and operations also allows for employees to feel more in control of their environment. No one enjoys being a firefighter all the time. When firms operate reactively, employees expect change to happen “to” them, instead of being the orchestrators of change solutions.

3. Monitor Change – Smell the Cheese (or your Briefs) Often So You’ll Know When It’s Getting Old (or Needs A Wash)
How to be more proactive? Glad you asked! Proactive strategies are the result of knowing your market, your clients, and your industries inside and out. Could the firms who have been serving the financial industry all this time really have been so blindsided by the current financial crisis? Probably not. Even the financial institutions themselves predicted the bubble would burst more than a year ago! But how many of law firms adjusted their internal organizations proactively to prepare for the recession? Firms need to be better educated about – and entrenched in – the industries and markets of their clients in order to provide top quality counsel and to run their own practices most efficiently.

Internally, firms need to be more vigilant as well. There are always ways to streamline, manage costs, operate more efficiently. Does your firm have a system in place to be proactive in finding those optimal solutions on an ongoing basis – or just when the monthly revenue and expense reports begin to look grim?

4. Adapt to Change Quickly – The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese (or Wash Stale Briefs) the Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese (or Fresh Briefs)
This is huge. Adapting to change is key to long-term success. Ostriches need not apply. As President Eisenhower used to say, “Plans are useless, but planning is everything.” Too often firms go through an elaborate and sometimes painstaking process of planning – strategic planning, practice group planning, individual attorney business plan planning, administrative planning. You’d think with all this planning going on the adaptability rate would be high. Wrong. I like to better refer to all this planning as “Admiring The Problem”. There are a lot of plans, but not a lot of action. The point of creating a plan, as Pres. Eisenhower points out, is to go through the creative process of situation identification and problem solving. In working with attorneys and practice groups though strategic planning I often tell them I care less about what the final plan actually says than about what you went through to get there.

Creative thinking, brainstorming, and new perspectives are underutilized in law firms. Being able to adapt quickly to change requires all of these. I’ve heard it called “swarmability” – the amount of time it takes you, your practice group, your organization to recognize change opportunities, mobilize yourself(ves) in response, and then act. Even administrative departments in firms get caught in this trap – often creating excellent strategies only to offer them up to the sacrificial altar of committee review and approval process.

*Bonus Points – Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to bigger changes later on.
Briefs getting tight? Elastic starting to give around the waistline? Remain alert to small shifts in industry trends, client projections versus results, competitor firm movements, internal shifts in morale or culture, etc. It’s tempting not to go looking for trouble when the sailing is smooth, but keying in to early warning signs makes adapting to change much easier.

5. Change – Move With the Cheese (or Wash Your Own Briefs!)
Herb Kelleher at Southwest Airlines had the greatest strategic plan ever devised for his organization – he called it “Doing Things”. This execution step is often where firms get bogged down, side-tracked, waylaid, or otherwise derailed. Attorneys are hardwired to get things right the first time, to have the correct answer, definitively, before proposing a solution. In legal matters this is important. In business development and change management, this is suicide. Adapting to a quickly changing marketplace means acting even more quickly. Being first is good (great), being second or third is okay too. Early adapters survive and often thrive – capitalizing on new opportunities.

First is an uncomfortable position for many firms when it comes to change. Precedent is more reliable, previous results can be evaluated and then benchmarked or tossed out. Unfortunately, the changing economy will reward those firsts (and seconds and thirds) far more readily than the wait-and-see firms.

*Bonus Points – Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese. Doing what we’ve always done and expecting results – different or otherwise – is treacherous in today’s marketplace. “Because we’ve always done it that way,” isn’t going to cut it anymore. Even what works can be reviewed, revisited, tightened up and tweaked. There’s always room for improvement. If you don’t think so, attend process improvement training (Lean Six Sigma for service providers is being offered now for law firm administrators) and see if there aren’t areas you discover can be adjusted.

6. Enjoy Change! – Savor the Adventure and Enjoy the Taste of New Cheese (or the Feeling of Fresh Briefs)
The freeing part of embracing the notion of “doing things” and perhaps even being “first” is that is can be great fun. Change always gives us the chance to stretch a bit – to step outside of the comfort zone and realize new potential for ourselves and our organizations. Law firms have enjoyed a fairly tried and true business model for many years, but this doesn’t make it the best or the only model.

The recent economic shift has forced many attorneys and clients to re-examine the nature of their working relationship. This can be a frightening prospect, although in many cases a more collaborative and interesting partnership has resulted. Since change is inevitable, doesn’t it benefit us to find a more positive way to face it? Try embracing change in your firm. Put a positive spin on change announcements – look for the silver lining and encourage your employees and colleagues to view change as a creative opportunity.

7. Be Ready to Change Quickly and Enjoy It Again – They Keep Moving the Cheese (and Washing Your Briefs)
As in most important aspects of life, practice makes perfect. Becoming successful at managing and capitalizing on change is difficult, but it becomes easier with practice. Even in times of stability and status quo, stretch a little. Be vigilant about getting yourself, and your firm, out of that comfort zone and test new ground. Sea change can come when you least expect it, so you don’t want to get out of practice. (Think this sounds difficult? Try taking a new alternate route home tonight. You never know when you just might need to know one or what you might discover along the way.)

*Bonus Points – Attorneys and firms don’t have to wait for change to arrive. When you get really good at practicing, try instigating change in your industry – find blue ocean versus red.

Laura Walters is the Director of Practice Group Management at Foster Pepper PLLC in Seattle, WA. Laura has spent more than 15 years specializing in change management, business development, and competitive intelligence for both law firms and corporations.

The media has been making the comment that Congresses working on the $800+ billion stimulus package is a lot like watching sausage being made.  That very thought came to me while I was looking at some of the big law firms’ websites over a period of time.

Anymore we tend to think that information that is presented on the lawfirm’s website has been pulled from many different places —  Human Resources; Marketing; Information Technology; Knowledge Management.  But, we also hope that there are certain things that make the information… shall I say, “stable” once it is online.  
You hope that computer databases and web page programming will number things in order, place things in alphabetical order, and/or put correct dates on the corresponding information.

Well, apparently, you’d be mistaken!
I continually come across lists of names, that for no apparent reason, are in correct alphabetical order one day, and out of order the next:
Or, titles of employees that are numbers, rather than the actual title:

Phone numbers that seemed to be garbled by some magical computer gremlin:
Names spelled incorrectly:
Big Named Attorneys’ names missing one day, and back the next:
You get to see when people prefer one name over another:
And, one of my favorites – a strange word like “bulldog” suddenly shows up on every page:
Of course, these types of errors aren’t limited to law firm websites, but since this is my industry, I gotta play to my strengths!  In a way it is kind of heartening to remember that there are actual people behind these websites, and that the computers are still the tools rather than the providers of information.  It also shows that glitches – like information displaying out of order – means we haven’t quite chased all of the ghosts from the machines yet.

I’m not so sure about this Kindle Kraze.

See, despite my long-held love affair with all things online, I just can’t bring myself to jump on the Kindle bandwagon.

Why? In short, I’m a bibliophile. I own well over 200 books; half of which are either first editions or signed–some, even both. I have read, I am certain, well over 1,000 books in my life time (I catalogued my massive reading list on Shelfari.com, a social networking site dedicated to readers that is now owned by Amazon).

Oh, I’m sure that the publishers and authors are lovin’ it–the Amazon business model requires every reader to buy his own book. No more sharing, giving or selling used books.

But, I wonder, what kind of cut the authors get from the publishers? I wonder how much money the publishing companies are saving from printing? I wonder how many print houses will close down, following the path of our newspapers?

At least the publishing houses are a few steps ahead of the newspapers: might save a few more jobs.

Toby, Greg and I were discussing Amazon’s business model at lunch the other–yes, we do actually meet in person–and wondered if Amazon would change its business model to allow for monthly subscriptions so you could rent a couple of books per month. Or maybe sell household accounts.

Personally, I won’t even consider buying a Kindle until they display in color, include easy e-mail access and phone capabilities and, essentially, replace my phone. If you knew me, you’d know I’m the same way about computers and TVs–I’m waiting for one machine.

Amazon will get there, I’m sure, within the next 5 years.

The upside? In five years, the value of my book collection will have doubled 🙂

I came across this PC World article highlighting Google’s Latitude. The title, “Spy on Your Workers,” caught my eye so I checked it out. It explores this new offering and some implications it may bring.

Since KM is about capturing knowledge and then making it easily accessible, Latitude falls squarely on the KM dime. It combines Web 2.0, with social networking with cell phone tracking. The result: you can see where your friends, family and co-workers are at a given time. It works for both cell phone locations as well as computer locations (based on where you connect).

As long as you trust Google not to become or enable Big Brother type uses, you may choose to see Latitude as a ‘little brother’ or maybe ‘social brother’ application.

Beyond a certain ‘cool’ factor to check out where your friends are at anytime, it has business KM applications for employers needing to track locations of employees. To its credit, Google in its normal fashion leaves control in the hands of the user. You can hide yourself and/or expose your location as you see fit.

As with a number of new technologies, I am mixed with a sense of ‘that’s cool’ and ‘this is freakin me out.’ My uber geek friend Lincoln has already sent me a Latitude invite. As an old friend of mine he already knows where numerous bodies are buried (and vice versa), so I accepted his invite to check this out. I’ll need to give this more thought, especially after playing with it a bit. I’ve already set it up on my laptop and will do so on my Blackberry to see how it works and feels.

KM implications? Numerous. Latitude adds a unique layer of knowledge that has a value-add potential we shouldn’t ignore. But still … it’s freakin me out.

When I worked in academia, we used to joke that universities were great places to work — except for all the students.  We loved the ability to work along side bright people, and contemplate new ways of addressing old ideas.  The same is true for Social Media.  It is a great resource to contemplate new ways of addressing old ideas —  now, if we could just ignore all the people out there.

There is an inherent problem with Social Media tools (in this post, I’ll limit my discussion to blogs and Twitter.)  It was apparently glossed over yesterday at Legal Tech, but was astutely picked up by Ohad Reshef after the presentation.  Very soon, spammers are going to make some of the best parts of social networking tools worthless.  
Currently, those of us that are pushing the benefits of Twitter, or the comment strings on blogging, are telling our colleagues that this is a wonderful resource where you can truly get a water cooler topic going on a global scale.  I can post this blog, and someone in Australia can comment almost immediately.  I can follow a discussion on Twitter by searching for a hash tag topic (such as #LTNY) that is being used.  It is truly a great process of sharing ideas and having that global conversation.  Unfortunately, it is also ripe for being crushed by the very openness that makes it so great.
Consider this –  If I were a spammer, or someone with malicious intent, I could practically disable a Twitter topic with very little effort.  For those of us that every used Yahoo or AOL chat rooms, you remember the chat bots that would inevitably come in and take over a room?  Well, unfortunately we face a similar fate with Twitter topics.  All it would take would be someone to start blasting hash tag comments on four or five automated Twitter accounts to make the effort of following the topic too difficult.  So far, we’ve lucked out that this hasn’t happened…  but it will.
As for blogs, we already see that one of the most popular legal blogs, Abovethelaw.com, has had to adjust its comment viewing policy due to the fact that the openness that allows everyone to comment, has become so inundated with trash and obscenities, that it makes it virtually worthless to monitor anymore.  And, the sad thing is that the readership of this blog is very bright, but apparently so caught up in the “game” of creating noise on the comments, that I seriously doubt that half of the commenters even read the story.  Even on this blog, we’ve had to remove comments because they are comment spam.
I’m dreading the day that we have to “monitor” or “hide” the comments because half of them are either spam or trash.  I’m dreading the day that I can no longer monitor Twitter comments because half the comments are spam.  In the meantime, I’m enjoying the social media honeymoon while it lasts!