Bringing a mere checklist to a matter team is like bringing a water gun to a house fire. The whole house is on fire: you need the right tools. That would be a fire hose and certified firefighters. Checklists are an important...more
Most of us can appreciate the spirit of generosity that this season ushers in. That’s because many cultures, religions, and, well, just plain people love how good it feels to be generous with others....more
We can probably all agree on one thing and it’s probably not legal project management. There’s nothing better than a hot dog at the baseball game, Group 1 carcinogen that it may be. Maybe we can also agree that it’s a...more
Lots of people think that if you can just tap into the magical fountain of motivation – either for themselves or their employees – life would be a lot simpler. That may be true, but perhaps we give motivation a little too...more
Here’s an idea for LPM leadership. We’ll welcome spring with the ending of our three-part series on charisma. Again, we recommend viewing the Simon Sinek video that forms the basis for this series. It’s both entertaining and...more
What’s the big deal about charisma? It’s simple. Many charismatic leaders can mobilize their followers and inspire them to create a stronger, more profitable alliance. But that’s not true of every person with charisma. There...more
Charisma, like extroversion, may be highly overrated. You don’t need to be charismatic to inspire people, at least according to leadership consultant Simon Sinek, one of my favorite authors and speakers....more
There are all kinds of reasons to have a visceral “oh hell no” reaction to a production about Barbie, the least of which is the inane movie trailer featuring Margot Robbie in Pantone 219C and some of the 50 other shades of...more
You have an LPM initiative to launch. What’s churning in those lawyerly heads? You’re not the boss of me. Dr. Larry Richard, founder of LawyerBrain and leading expert on the psychology of lawyer behavior, has told us for many...more
Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama are pretty obvious examples. Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk? Not so much. But they all share a much-aligned and frequently misunderstood personality trait. If you guessed that they...more
As any Manhattanite will tell you, it doesn’t take long to walk 10 short north-south blocks. It’s less than half a mile. But when you’re under 770,000 tons of hard rock, it’s a very long distance. That was the scene in...more
In the first full pandemic year, law firm pricing outpaced inflation. It seemed that law firms couldn’t lose. It’s a new day, though, and 2023 will prove challenging for many. We reviewed the BigHand Report covering 2022 and...more
Do you remember the tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes? Turns out the emperor thought he was wearing a beautiful new robe, but he was actually naked. Believe it or not, this story has relevance to today’s law firms....more
You’ve probably heard of Brené Brown. She has an intriguing combination of books and Ted Talks on leadership, vulnerability, and a host of other things. She’s also a sober alcoholic, an ex-Catholic, and, according to her...more
Gotta love Simon Sinek. We do. Not only because he’s a great storyteller, but also because of the relevance of his stories to LPM. In both part 1 and part 2 of the series, we talked about Sinek’s take on the golden circle, a...more
In part 1 of our series, we talked about the significance of why for any high-performing law firm. Success is not about how phenomenal your lawyers are and the impressive list of clients. Rather, it’s about delivering value....more
There are many great business books written every year. But one of the best books of all time that has particular relevance right now is over a decade old. That’s ancient by today’s standard, but Simon Sinek’s “Start with...more
Law firms that figure out how to successfully execute Legal Project Management follow a familiar pattern. It’s similar to the way we build good habits in our lives: we rinse and repeat. The behaviors you repeat tend to become...more
When it comes to forming new habits, everyone wants instantaneous results. But habit formation is not a matter of simple execution. According to James Clear’s bestseller, Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good...more
In Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, the author, James Clear discussed the four stages of habit formation. They include noticing, wanting, doing, and liking. In Part II of this...more
Legal project management is all about improving your outcomes. Many firms have an enviable client roster, a strong track record, and deep practice expertise. But competition today is not so much about a stellar reputation and...more
New year, new habits. You may have already abandoned your resolution to work out regularly, make healthier food choices, be a more empathic listener, whatever. But James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way...more
No matter who you get to do legal project management (LPM) in your firm, one fact remains: you are working with lawyers. There’s really no need to trot out the herding cats metaphor here. You already understand what you’re up...more
There are many tools and templates in traditional project management to help companies plan, scope, budget, and report work with great precision. Businesses swear by it. So, when you apply these tools to LPM, you get magic,...more
In the words of the late, great baseball Yankees Hall of Famer, Yogi Berra, “It’s like deja vu all over again.” That’s how it seems at times with legal project management (LPM). I’ve been writing about LPM and legal process...more