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March 25, 2006

Clients, Litigation and Discovery Disputes.

Evan Schaeffer in his The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog has a wonderful post "Don't Put Discovery Disputes On A Back Burner". It's about my 3 favorite subjects: clients, litigation and discovery. Or, more precisely, about clients in discovery disputes. Even allegedly "good" federal court lawyers have hopelessly poor grasps of how the federal discovery rules really work (so they "guess" or follow local folkways) and, if they do understand them, including the tough deadlines the discovery rules often impose, they readily bend the rules and the timelines for the convenience and schedules of the lawyers in the case. Discovery is not about lawyers. The best reasons to push discovery disputes ahead are that most cases are won or lost on discovery, and that the discovery rules are mainly about clients getting closer to a solution of their dispute. Evan's post is about promptness, which helps clients. Bravo.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)

Nathan Burke: Thinking About Marketing Freshly PLUS Client Polling

Nathan Burke at LawFirmBlogging has a very fine "lawyer wake-up" post called "A New Way Of Thinking About Marketing". He succinctly offers us a new lens for a creative yet common sense "clean-slate" approach to marketing that ignores the status quo. As an example, Nathan gives an exercise in thinking about client interviews--which also contributes to the nearly institutional Hassett-Lamb-Kane-Golden-Collins-Hull discussion over the past months on the importance of client satisfaction interviews and methodologies to do them. In a larger sense, Nathan may be saying that we lawyers--risk-averse serial conformists who over-complicate things and "chew more than we bite off" (my characterizations)--should start thinking about client work simply, freshly and outside the way we've always done things.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2006

"Oh Rare Ben Johnson..."

Great post and heads up from Ed Poll at his LawBiz Blog about how things have changed in our business in the last 35 years through the eyes of an Atlanta attorney at one of Atlanta's leading firms (and one of my favorite BigLaw firms). From a Law.com piece on Ben Johnson, the Managing Partner of Alston & Bird.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

March 23, 2006

Round III of It's All Happening At the Zoo: Australian/New Zealand Blawgs?

Any good and active Australian or New Zealand blawgs out there? Australia is now a "player" and, hey, these folks like to trade, fight, talk and hold forth, too. For background, see this February post on the attempt to put together a list of good non-US blogs in English. So far we've done western European and China blogs. Bill Gratsch's well-known and much visited Blawg.org has collected quite a few blawgs for a number of foreign jurisdictions, including Australia--but I'd like to know what you and the Australian/NZ blawgers think. So pitch us. Courting Disaster, by a Melbourne lawyer now in Cambridge seems like a lively one. So does Australian Legal Eye, which also covers New Zealand and Asia Pacific markets. Any others?

J. Daniel Hull

Posted by JD Hull at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2006

The French Get Hissy About IP--Part 2

Here, from an AP news story. Ironically, the draft on-line copyright bill, which passed the French National Assembly but still needs to pass the French Senate, would force the sharing of proprietary anti-copying technologies of companies like Apple and Sony so that their rivals can compete, as well as punish music pirates. Increasingly, our clients focus on IP issues. This follows up our March 8 post.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:19 PM | Comments (0)

"Are You Tired of Working For the Man--Or the Woman?"

In either event, or if you're just burned out by meditating too much on the BTI Consulting Study, try something different by checking out Neil Senturia's inspirational, funny and useful-as-hell "I'm There For You Baby..." (subtitled An Entrepreneur's Guide to the Universe") and maybe it will shake something loose. We've posted about Neil's new site and "The Baby Blog" before.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)

March 20, 2006

Are There BTI Consulting-type Studies Out Measuring Whether Clients Are Happy/Unhappy with the Client Service Performance of their Outside CPA's, Stockbrokers, Management Consultants, Financial Planners, Marketing Gurus, Banks, Ad Agencies?

Long title but you get the idea. We live increasingly in a "service-based" global economy. Any studies or stats out there on how good or bad "client/customer service by services" is? The BTI Consulting Study concludes that GC's have been, on the whole, alarmingly unhappy (52% allegedly sacked primary outside counsel) with their law firms over the past few years. Query: Is there reliable non-anecdotal data documenting client feedback on "services by services" other than lawyers?

If despite all the "total quality" rubric over the past 20 years real client and customer service in America is generally a cynical joke--from restaurants, your auto repair shop and that perhaps well-meaning but hopelessly lame Verizon phone person to lawyers, stockbrokers and financial planners--what about other service providers generally? And "professional" service providers? What about their clients? Are they happy with their "primary provider" for accounting, advertising, management consulting, mortgage broking, banking, etc.? Does such data exist? One working theory is--in case you're interested--is that "service for services" is bad everywhere and all service providers are more at risk than they might have thought.

J. Daniel Hull

Posted by JD Hull at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

Oklahoma, You're OK Department: Blawg Review #49 Is Out.

Good mornin' pards. From his Oklahoma-based Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, Jim Calloway has authored Blawg Review this week and Blawg Review #49 is here. Jim's #49 is a comprehensive one--and covering some great blawgs/blogs which were new to me--by a man on the vanguard of legal weblogs since day one and who cares about the quality of the blawgosphere. Blawg Review itself is a useful digest service if you write and/or read blawgs but like me you struggle to keep up with new blogs and good posts. You can see the previous 48 reviews at Blawg Review.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)

Last Call: Asia Law Weblogs, Anyone?

Note the March 2 post here, which shows we still need more Asia law blogs (English versions) regardless of where they originate. So far we have only three--two China and one India--all linked to this blog if you scroll down to the right. We seek good active ones you recommend. Round I was western European blawgs and Round II Asia. Round III will be Australia.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

2 Must-Read Posts By Arnie Herz, Inspirer.

"Lawyering as Soulful Work" is a March 11 post by Wall Street lawyer and consultant Arnie Herz at Legal Sanity as well as part of a phrase I used in yesterday's lengthy post on client dissatisfaction and the BTI Study. And two days later Arnie posted "Law Firm Leadership Roundup". Arnie's notions of the joy of practicing law with everything good you've got inside you--and the right way for the right clients with the right team sharing common goals and values and even having fun--are always inspiring to read. And he describes and explains them as living, breathing ideas you can actually apply and use way better than anyone writing about lawyering and client service. He has no peers there. Importantly, Arnie's blog also regularly reaches for ideas about work and the workplace which come from non-lawyers. Professionals, and lawyers in particular, need fresh ideas to build healthy firms to serve the people who count: clients and customers.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:50 AM | Comments (0)