All Our Tips
Not Quite Finished
My carpenter partner likes to say, “A House is a work in progress”. I agree. Just because you have a yellow kitchen this year doesn’t mean that you can’t decide to paint it purple next year. Work In Progress, or WIP is frequently used in law firms to designate things that are not yet to the point where we ask a client to pay for them. Thinking about WIP and executing your work to the valued level when you are acting on client files is good business.
Beware of holding things as WIP for non-billable work. Items like checklists, documents you think will be a good precedent “someday”, and process or procedure notes are valuabe at the 80% complete stage and much better than using nothing.
We are so used to risk-proofing, error-proofing, and doing our best to be perfect on the client side of our work that we like to hold ourselves to that standard for everything. I am NOT advocating that you don’t do your best work. Today’s Tip is that you consider your research tools as perpetual work in progress and don’t let that stop you from using or sharing them.
Imagine if CanLII didn’t push decisions up to their site unless they checked for missing decisions. Seems silly right?
Hat tip to Jospeh Juran for adding the Pareto Principle to management lingo. Don’t wait.
Hootsuite Power User Tip: Create Templates for Regular Messages
Most of you will say that typing 140 characters isn’t a big deal. But typing the same thing over and over again can be taxing, even if it is only 140 characters. And why type things unnecessarily if you can avoid doing so?
Hootsuite has a really neat feature that lets you save templates of tweets that you can drop into the Compose Tweet window with just a few clicks. This is how it works.
Type the text you want make into a template in the Compose Tweet window. Look for the Save Message as Template button towards the bottom right of the Compose Tweet window – it is the little floppy disk icon to the left of the Send Now button. Click on it and the tweet you just typed will now be a template.
When you want to use a template tweet, click on the View Templates button – the small upside down triangle between the Save Message as Template and Send Now buttons. A list of your templates will appear and with a single click you instantly have a tweet in the Compose Message box.
The template feature is really helpful if you need to send the same tweet out multiple times or a series of similar tweets. If you have the Pro version of Hootsuite, you can share templates across teams which will help save time and make sure all your tweets stay on message.
Lawyers and Pricing – Part 4
♫ That’s why I fell for (the leader of the pack)…♫
Lyrics and Music by: George “Shadow” Morton, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, recorded by The Shangri-Las.
In the three prior posts on lawyers and pricing, we have looked at how price is only one part of the 7 components of the legal marketing mix. Part 2 discussed the product mix and how you can change your legal product mix to better meet the needs of your clients in a way that distinguishes your services from those of the competition. Part 3 examined how the people on your team can have a big impact on how your services are delivered. In fact, in Good to Great, Jim Collins said that the most important factor applied by the best companies is that they first of all “Got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus.” In this post we are exploring how promoting your business can be a distinguishing feature, setting your business up as being different from the competition…allowing you to price your services differently from the competition.
Think about all the different ways that your clients learn about your services. Certainly word-of-mouth is the gold standard of referral marketing, but not everyone who is a client in your firm came in the doors as a result of a personal referral. When it comes to marketing your practice, the one truth is that whatever works today will stop working at some time in the future for reasons that you might never know. Accordingly you need to change up your promotional or marketing activities and keep trying new things. Small changes can have big effects.
Social media is all the rage today and for good reason. Facebook has now reached 1.3 billion people – and that doesn’t include anyone in China! LinkedIn and Twitter are the other members of the “big three” social media networks. Have a look at your Facebook page, your LinkedIn profile and your use of Twitter. You can choose to not be on any of these (after all you can choose how to market your firm and your practice) and if these wouldn’t resonate for you or your clients ..fair ball. What is worse is being there but not having updated anything for some time. This indicates lack of commitment and follow-thru. Same goes for a blog – I personally find blogging to be one of the easiest and more effective way for a young lawyer to establish themselves and their expertise in the market, if done consistently and well. Combine a blog with your thoughtful use of twitter on developments in your legal area of choice and you can become known as an authority in short order. For a great overview of how Canadian lawyers are blogging see the Clawbies website – the Canadian Legal Blog awards. You can be as creative as your imagination will take you..provided you still stay within the marketing ethics of your jurisdiction.
If social networking is not for you, there are a host of more traditional marketing methods. In person presentations and webinars are one way to get known and demonstrate your knowledge of your area of practice. Financial institutions are always putting on presentations. If writing is your thing, then offer to do a regular column in a local or community newspaper (you can then reuse these articles in a blog or newsletter). You can clearly show your involvement and interest in local affairs, schools, sporting events, churches and other organizations and help them – thereby building your presence in the community.
Whatever you do, try to ensure that your marketing makes you stand out from the pack. After all that is its purpose – to show that you are different from the rest. You want your clients to have fallen for the leader of the pack.
David J. Bilinsky, Vancouver, BC.
Check Your Process
I just attended a lunch session with a Court of Appeal Justice on the topic of legal research. You might think, why would an experienced legal researcher and law librarian spend a lunch hour listening to a topic that she knows? I have two very good reasons, the basis of today’s tip, for attending presentations and seminars on areas within your realm of experience.
- When you hear from others that your own process is very similar to theirs, it validates your process. It also may question your assumptions about your process if someone else’s best method differs from your own. Questions are good – they make us think.
- There is always something to learn. Even if it is simply a different perspective on a tool or resource, every one of us carries a bias about resources – our favourites and our last choices – great legal researchers don’t let those biases lead to habits.
In the case of today’s event, it was inside my firm. As a law librarian, it is particularly important to attend sessions where the type of information being shared is training that your department ‘owns’. It also provided an opportunity for a follow-up note to attendees with links and pointers to our easiest location of sources that were mentioned. There is value in validation.
Dim Your Smartphone Screen for Longer Battery Life
All of us have experienced the frustration of a dying smartphone battery. While battery life has greatly improved over the years, a dead smartphone is something most of us see more often than we would like.
Of course, turning of Bluetooth and WiFi when you aren’t using them will help extend your battery life, but dimming the brightness of screen can really help too, especially if you have a smartphone with a larger screen. Big screens look great, but they are a huge drain on your phone’s battery. Dimming the screen, even just a bit, will help you extend your battery life.
Within your smartphones settings you will finds a control that will allow you to dim the brightness of your screen. The dimmest setting will be difficult to read in most circumstances, especially if you are outdoors or in a brightly lit setting, but you will find something toward the middle will greatly extend your battery life.
And look for an auto-brightness option, using it can help you get the proper screen brightness in various lighting situations.
Civility, Forgiveness and the Book of Life
The Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, is upon us. On behalf of all Slaw Tips writers, l’shana tova – have a good year – to those of our readers who are celebrating. A happy, healthy and prosperous 5775 to all.
Now, while I am by no means a pious person, I would like to reflect a bit on this important holiday’s lessons.
It is customary at this time of the Jewish calendar for each person to take stock of his or her actions, and to seek – and offer – forgiveness for the wrongs committed, intentionally or inadvertently, personally or professionally, in the year gone by.
This process, which culminates after ten days on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is among many things, an exercise in spiritual and moral cleansing, with the elimination of grudges and personal disputes a critical objective, as this commentary on a parable notes:
But my rabbi’s take was different. A misunderstanding had needlessly caused a terrible rift. “Never hold a grudge. By the time you’re ready to forgive, it may be too late.”
His message to us was clear: How can we expect God to forgive us when we refuse to forgive others?
(There have been serious technological advances in the art of seeking forgiveness, I should note. The “forgiveness request” of this millennium could arrive via email, text or even Facebook)
Now, the legal profession has no similar process whereby practitioners are mandated annually to reach out to our colleagues to seek and offer forgiveness for any offense or insult caused through our adversarial encounters in the year gone by.
Maybe that’s a shame. Given all the talk we hear about incivility, an annual, enforced timeout and “make-nice” intermission in the supposed “contact sport” of litigation might not be such a bad idea.
Aside from the few, truly bad apples among us (who simply can’t control themselves), I suspect that most instances of incivility between counsel arise from an unintended escalation of ill-will between practitioners who, in good faith, have simply been trying to do their jobs well under heated circumstances that unfortunately have caused interactions to get “personal.”
There is a way to break the cycle of acrimony, when it emerges.
Discuss it directly with your adversary. Be direct, take responsibility and confront the situation objectively with a view to diffusing the conflict:
“Obviously, we aren’t getting along here. The judges aren’t going to appreciate this and we certainly aren’t doing our clients any favours by bickering.
I’m sorry that I have offended you, and I am sure the feeling is mutual.
Can we work together to get this back on track?”
Which brings me to Today’s Tip:
Seek and offer forgiveness in our professional lives when our adversarial feathers are getting a bit ruffled.
Now there’s a concept. And there’s no time like the present.
In the Jewish tradition, the outcome pursued through this annual process of reflection, cleansing, atonement and forgiveness is inscription in the book of life, or good fortune and well-being in the year ahead.
I’m sure we’d all be happy to have a bit of that in our personal lives – and in our professional practices.
So a closing wish to you all: Gmar Chatimah Tova – May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for Good.
Happy 5775.
– Garry J. Wise, Toronto (@wiselaw on Twitter)
Happy National Punctuation Day
September 24 is National Punctuation Day in the U.S. Though this isn’t a statutory (or highly celebrated) holiday in Canada, the fact that there are people in the world who care about and critique punctuation delights me.
In all seriousness, punctuation is a problem in a searcher’s world. Time writer Katy Steinmetz shares some details about how punctuation is evolving and John Davis had some interesting things to say in a 2009 Slaw post. I also confess that I have this Apostrophes page on grammarbook.com as a favourite.
Today’s Tip: if your search term might be more relevant with punctuation, consider truncating your search with a word stemming character. And asterisk or an exclamation mark are commonly used for truncation.
One place I do not use a lot of punctuation is on Twitter. The short format requires abbreviation, incomplete sentence structure and creativity to share a whole idea in a puny text box. Check out tomorrow’s #CALLFuture Twitter chat starting at 1 PM Eastern. Perhaps there is a reason that law librarians didn’t hold this event on National Punctuation Day!
Handy Keyboard Shortcuts for Typing Superscript or Subscript in Windows
Occasionally you may find yourself wanting to type superscript (see the adjacent graphic) or subscript (102). You can do this through the Font dialog box, but there is a much faster way. 
For superscript, simply press Ctrl + Shift + + (press and hold Ctrl and Shift, then press +). For subscript, press CTRL + = (press and hold Ctrl, then press =). Pressing the respective shortcut again will get you back to normal text.
Lawyers and Pricing Part 3
♫ Well, rave on it’s a crazy feeling
And I know it’s got me reeling
I’m so glad that you’re revealing your love for me…♫
Lyrics and music by: Shaun Ryder, Paul Richard Davis, Mark Philip Day, Paul Anthony Ryder, Gary Kenneth Whelan, recorded by Buddy Holly.
In the prior two posts on lawyers and pricing, we have been discussing the issue that price is but one part of the 7 components of the legal marketing mix. Part 2 discussed the product mix and how you can change your legal product mix to better meet the needs of your clients in a way that distinguishes your services from those of the competition. In this post we are exploring how important the people who deliver your legal services are and how this can be a distinct competitive advantage.
All of us have experienced situations where your first contact with a business is with someone who just makes you feel like looking after you is the most important thing for them to do in their day. I had that experience today – I called a law firm and spoke to an assistant who, when I asked to speak to her principal, said in the most caring voice: “Well, he isn’t in his office right now but let me go out and round him up for you.” This was my very first contact with this firm and this wonderful lady didn’t know me from Adam. The way she made me feel was simply amazing. She made me feel valued and important. I recognized her exceptional people skills and thought about how she was a tremendous asset to the firm.
In Good to Great, Jim Collins said that the most important factor applied by the best companies is that they first of all “Got the right people on the bus, and the wrong people off the bus.” In other words, your ability to select, recruit, train and retain the best people with the skills and abilities to do the job right is more important than everything else put together.
The Spectacled Marketer says:
If a customer feels their expectations of your business are exceeded, then the chances of a referral are exponentially increased because their loyalty to your company is exponentially increased as well!
You need to strive for your clients to feel exceptionally satisfied so that they rave about your services. How do you exceed your client’s expectations? The first step is …hold on now…ask them! Yet lawyers and law firms *shudder* at the thought of asking clients three simple questions:
- What did they like about the firm’s services,
- What didn’t they like, and
- How could the firm firm do it better.
If you find out that there is someone on your bus that shouldn’t be there…you have a decision to make. If you find out that you have someone on your bus who is simply exceptional and is a tremendous asset to your firm, make sure you recognize and reward them accordingly!
In considering the marketing of your practice, consider how the people in your business can either make your clients rage on, feel indifferent, feel satisfied or preferably, rave on about your services. Your client service can be a strong distinguishing factor as compared to your competition. In terms of your marketing mix, strive for having very satisfied clients showing their “love by raving on about you!”
-David J. Bilinsky, Vancouver, BC.
Tell the Story in Pictures
After all these years of reading cases there are still times when I get to the end and think, “Who won?”. This is especially true when parties are numerous and placeholders are used rather than names in a judgment. A lengthy decision with references to plaintiff, defendant, appellant, respondent, and co-defendant rather than Smith or Jones can be difficult visualize in context. It is also confusing when mutiple points of law are under consideration parties have mixed success.
Today’s tip: chart the outcome of a decision so you have a visual reference.
Create a graph, chart or picture that shows which parties were successful on which points of law. I usually have parties across the top of a grid with issues down the left side. Within each point of law, I either use a checkmark to indicate success or I leave the box blank.
There are many ways to create a visual reference that is helpful in legal research analysis. Do you have a method to share? Comments are welcome!
