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December 02, 2005
Do Blogs "Work"?--Redux
So maybe blogs do "work." Another post from The Practice helps answer my question.
Posted by JD Hull at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2005
Real Professionalism Focuses On Clients
Zeal. Our professional rules in America say we should have this when we advance matters on behalf of a client. What does zeal mean? Enthusiastic and diligent--yes. Aggressive--probably yes. Crazy--no. Perfect--usually not. Manipulative, underhanded--no, never. I have thought for a long time that--despite the good sense of discouraging "Rambo"-type tactics in litigation and deal-making--lawyer "clubbiness" can compromise clients. I cherish and often admire my lawyer friends. But even high-end potential clients I meet complain of being in effect "mere equipment in elaborate games played by lawyers." Want specifics on what I mean? A few months ago, I wrote Professionalism Revisted: What About The Client?, which appeared in a few publications. This is my favorite "What About Clients?" topic.
Real professionalism focuses on clients. It is a corollary of Rule Two: The Client is the Main Event in the November 28 post of this blawg.
Posted by JD Hull at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)
November 28, 2005
Rule Two: The Client Is The Main Event. "The Big Obvious."
Rule Two: The Client is the Main Event.
This one, I think, is more intuitive. Rule One--the November 19 post Represent Only Clients You Like--struck 3 people I received e-mails from as impractical if not counter-intuitive. That's okay, but for now let's keep that as Rule One. Rule Two, that the client is everything, and the main event, makes almost too much sense. We all know that clients pay our fees, give us interesting work, and that we have professional, financial and fiduciary duties to clients. We tell clients they are "everything" to us. But is it true? Is the notion that the client is the main deal chiefly something we eagerly tell our clients (and ourselves) while we pitch for work?
My sense is that lawyers, except on a strictly marketing and PR level, from time to time, and even with the best clients, forget that and won't create what quality improvement guru W. Edwards Deming years ago called a "constancy of purpose" about true service. So Rule Two becomes the obvious "yeah-of-course-our-firm-knows/does that!" rule that may get more lip service than actual delivery in all the details of our work for clients. My question for now is this: If client (or customer) "primacy" were really the organizing principle for everything we do, isn't that in our interest, too? Doesn't that mean that the work is better, law firm staff and attorneys are pulling in the same direction, morale is good, we spend less time and money on marketing, we keep good clients and we attract new ones?
And if we really get it, are really we doing it?
Posted by JD Hull at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)