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Message from the Chair

Bonnie Patrick*

Hope all of you had a pleasant and prosperous summer. Your Executive is very excited to be back at "work" on Section activities, and we are all hopeful that you will find our endeavors this year worthwhile.

I commend to your attention all the articles included in this e-newsletter. We are sure that there is some tidbit of advice that each of you can take away from each article. If you have any suggestions/criticisms/comments with respect to the content of this newsletter or for future publications, please contact any one of the Executive and advise. We are a small Executive and look forward to advice from anyone. We would especially like to hear from you if you think we are doing a good job, but would be willing to read anything that comes our way. I guess we would just like to know that our e-newsletter is being "noticed".

For those of you interested in Continuing Legal Education and having an interest in Family Law, I refer you to this Section’s CLE program, "Everything that is New (and Old), Dangerous and Different in Family Law" which was conducted at the OBA offices on 20 Toronto Street, Toronto on September 20, 2004. The OBA now has the capability of getting this material into your office without your attendance at the event. There is an archived webcast as well as a CD of the day's program available. All papers are available in either environment. Three members of this Executive presented at this event: Dawn Melville, Dan Pinnington and Joe McCallum. We tried to ensure that the content is worthwhile and timely, and we heard "good things" from those persons who managed to attend the program in person. Besides, you will get a $50.00 credit towards your 2006 LawPro payment if you participate in this course.

For those of you who are "joiners" there is plenty of room on our Executive. Contact any one of the current Executive for information. We meet by teleconference, so your location does not matter.

Finally, for those of you who are "writers", send us an article and we will try to get it published for you.

All the best.

* Bonnie Patrick, Chair, Sole, Small Firm and General Practice Section.

Speaking Notes of Irwin Cotler, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada

On June 17, 2004, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, The Right Honourable Mr. Irwin Cotler addressed the Ontario Bar Association. We are grateful for his permission to reproduce his speaking notes from what was an informative and professionally affirming speech.

I am delighted to be here today to participate in the common cause, which brings us together... The agenda for justice... Of the struggle against injustice - against hate, against mass atrocity, against impunity - as part of the larger struggle for human rights and human dignity...; and of this struggle for human rights and human dignity as being - in the most profound existential sense of the word - the struggle for ourselves; because in what we say - or more importantly in what we do - we make a statement about ourselves as a people - we make a statement about ourselves as people.

Immediately after being sworn in, I had my first media scrum. I shared with them my life’s credo - that which I learned from my father - my first law teacher - and from all those whose beneficiary I am - and which remains my credo now as Justice Minister: that I will be guided by one overarching principle - the pursuit of justice - and within that the promotion and protection of equality - of equality not just as a section in the Charter but as an organizing principle for the construction of a Just society - and the promotion and protection of human dignity as the core of a society that is both just and humane.

Shortly afterwards, I went about the country visiting with counterpart Attorneys-General, law schools, the Bar, regional offices of the Department of Justice, and Justice stakeholders in an outreach effort - dialogue - to seek their counsel as to what the justice agenda should be.

In the course of these discussions - particularly with the younger people - I began to appreciate one of my father’s teachings as a child - that the pursuit of justice requires having a sense of injustice - that you have to feel the injustice in order to advance the cause of justice.

This teaching found expression in my first encounter with Inuit law students from Nunavut, the first ever Aboriginal Law School (recant exchange with Aboriginal students).

Accordingly, what I would like to do now, however briefly, is share with you several priorities on the Justice agenda, anchored as they are in a sense also of the injustices of our day.

1. The Relationship Between Security and Rights - Between Counterterrorism & Human Rights

The underlying principle here is that there is no contradiction in the protection of security and the protection of human rights. That counterterrorism itself is anchored in a twofold human rights perspective: First, that transnational terrorism - the slaughter of the innocents - constitutes an assault on the security of a democracy and the most fundamental rights of its inhabitants - the right to life, liberty and security of the person. Accordingly, counterterrorism is the promotion and protection of the security of a democracy and fundamental human rights in the face of this injustice - the protection, indeed, of human security in the most profound sense.

At the same time, and this is the second and related human rights perspective imbedded in the relationship between counterterrorism and human rights, is that the enforcement and application of counterterrorism law and policy must always comport with the rule of law, that minorities must never be singled out for differential and discriminatory treatment - that torture must always and everywhere be prohibited - that counterterrorism must not undermine the very human security we seek to promote and protect by that counterterrorism.

2. Protection of the Most Vulnerable Amongst Us

The test of a just society, a society organized around the principles of equality and human dignity is how it treats the most vulnerable of its members - children, women, the elderly, the sick, refugees, minorities. Each and all of these must be part of the justice agenda. For what we must aspire to is a society in which no one is left behind, in which equality is not only an ideal but a constitutional noun, in which we extend a hand to those less advantaged than we, in which we build bridges rather than erect walls in our multicultural mosaic.

Indeed, one of the most profound human rights lessons I was taught came from my daughter -now 24 - who, when she was 15 years of age, challenged me with this profound statement:

“Daddy, if you want to know what the real test of human rights is all about, always ask yourself at any time, in any situation, in any part of the world - is what is happening good for children, is it good for children, Daddy. That’s what justice is all about.” And so, for me, children’s rights -the protection of the best interests of the child, the protection of children from all forms of exploitation, neglect and abuse must be a priority on our agenda.

Women’s rights: The credo that has governed me here is that women’s rights are human rights, and human rights mean nothing if they do not include the rights of women. This is not a matter of rhetoric but must be a priority on our agenda as a matter of principle and policy. For, as UNICEF put it, “discrimination against women is an injustice greater than South Africa’s Apartheid; or in the words of Charlotte Bunch, a leader in the international women’s movement put it: “significant numbers of the world’s population are routinely subject to torture, starvation, terrorism, humiliation, mutilation and even murder simply because they are female.”

That is why I have made the struggle for women’s rights a priority on our agenda. And one of the first initiatives we took was to combat trafficking in women - the new global slavery trade -the fastest growing criminal industry, and which victimizes close to 1 million persons a year who are subjected to the very brutalities that Charlotte Bunch described. And so, we initiated a policy intended - both domestically and internationally - to prevent trafficking, to protect the victims of trafficking and to prosecute the perpetrators - what I would call the three Ps. And I am delighted to be able to announce today that the US State Department Annual Global Report on Trafficking in Persons which had relegated Canada to a two-tier status in the struggle against this international crime - not an enviable characterization - has now reinstated us as a tier one country at the forefront of the struggle against trafficking.

3. Combatting Hate Towards a Justice Action Plan Against Hate Crimes

As we meet, Statistics Canada has just reported of the growing incidence of hate crimes in Canada for 2001 and 2002, and while the data is not yet in 2004 had already witnessed what I would call a growing, if not unprecedented incidence and intensity of hate crimes - which reached its initial zenith in the week-end of March 2004 here in Toronto where synagogues and schools were vandalized, cemeteries were desecrated, persons and property were attacked - all of which prompted a question put to me in the House of Commons by the then Member of Parliament for Thornhill, the Honourable Elinor Caplan which went as follows: “what is the government going to do - what is the Minister of Justice going to do - to combat this outbreak of hate crimes?”

My answer in the House of Commons was as follows these racist hate crimes where anti-Semitism has once again reared its ugly head constitute an assault on the inherent dignity of the human person, an assault on the equal dignity of all persons, an assault on the right of minorities to protection against group vilification, an assault on our own multicultural democracy. Therefore this government and I am sure all members of this House join me in unequivocally condemning these acts of racist hate. We say to all Canadians, we say to all minorities, we will not be silent. We will act through an action plan against racism, anti-Semitism ...“

I did not know at the time that we were to witness, among others, two particularly virulent hate crimes. The firebombing of a Jewish day school in Montreal - which I had attended as a youngster - and the torching of a Mosque in Pickering, Ontario.

And so, shortly thereafter I visited with representatives of 5 faith groups and particularly Jews and Muslims amongst them - in an area in Thornhill where a Mosque and a synagogue are adjacent to one another and where they share a common driveway. And I spoke then of the need for a common front against hate, for the mobilization of a constituency of conscience, of a solidarity with the victim where Jews speak up when Muslims are attacked and Muslims speak up when Jews are attacked and both in concert with others speak up when any of our vulnerable minorities is targeted by the perpetrators of hate - and which led to the development of a ten point justice action plan against hate as follows:

i) Unequivocal condemnation by the political leadership for we have learned of the dangers of silence the consequences of indifference as Elie Wiesel put it “indifference in the face of evil always means coming down on the side of the victimizer, never on the side of the victim.”

ii) Mobilization of a constituency of conscience - of a civil society common front against racism and hate.

iii) Recognition of the substantial harm caused by hate crimes to the members of the target group.

iv) Development and application of a comprehensive legal regime to combat hate involving a panoply of remedies.

v) The constitutionalization of minority rights and anti-discrimination initiatives.

vi) Multiculturalism as a constitutional norm.

vii) Dedicated investigative hate crime units at all levels of the law enforcement system.

viii) The internationalization of the struggle against hate - particularly the combatting of hate on the Internet.

One of the enduring lessons of the Nazi genocide - and of the genocides in the Balkans and in Rwanda - is that the genocides were made possible not only because of the machinery of death and the technology of terror - but because of a state-sanctioned culture of hate because of the teaching of contempt and the demonizing of the other.

As the Supreme Court of Canada put it, in upholding the constitutionality of anti-hate legislation in Canada: the Holocaust did not being in the gas chambers. It began with words. These, as the Court put it, are the chilling facts of history. These, as the Court put it, are the catastrophic effects of racism.

And so, what is needed now, and Canada can play a leading role in this internationally is a culture of respect in place of a culture of contempt. A culture of human rights in place of a culture of hate.

ix) A four-pronged education and awareness initiative against hate involving

• Holocaust education
• Anti-racist education
• Human Rights Education
• Multicultural Education

x) Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue

4. Protecting Against Mass Atrocity

It is as trite as it is profound that the best protection against mass atrocity is the prevention of the killing fields to begin with. Yet as the Carnegie Commission case studies of 9 war affected countries demonstrated, eight times more money is being spent in post-conflict reconstruction as in the prevention of conflict to begin with. Some of the lessons that I have learned from a study of these killing fields - and which can inform a justice agenda - include:

i) the importance of democracy - and while democracy may not be a guarantee to prevent atrocity, it is a pre-condition for it. Simply put, democracies do not make war against each other or against their own citizens. Accordingly, the promotion of democracy in transitional or failed states - with due regard for the religious and cultural particularities involved - is the best guarantee for the promotion and protection of peace, security and human rights

ii) the importance of building national justice systems organized around rights protecting instruments and institutions including, Charters of Rights; protection of the rights of minorities; importance of free press; an independent judiciary; establishment of human rights commissions; and protection of human rights monitors - all as constituent features of a culture of prevention against mass atrocity - and where Canada has made a significant contribution and can have an even more enhanced role.

5. The Responsibility to Protect

If the prevention of mass atrocity is unavailing, then the duty may arise for the international community to intervene; as Kofi Anan has put it, “no legal principle - not even sovereignty - can prevail over crimes against humanity.” Accordingly, Canada took the lead in the establishment of the International Commission on State Sovereignty and Humanitarian Intervention, whose organizing theme was that of the responsibility to protect - and which prescribed principles to authorize humanitarian intervention so as to avert a humanitarian catastrophe - who, under what circumstances, pursuant to what criteria is authorized to intervene?

I mentioned this today because the world community - not unlike the countdown to genocide in Rwanda - is once again failing the people of Darfur, Sudan - where we are all witness to both a humanitarian catastrophe and mass atrocity - where we must sound the alarm before it is too late and where the responsibility to intervene and protect is as urgent as it is compelling. Simply put, we are looking at the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the next few months alone.

6. The Struggle Against Impunity

If the 20th Century was the age of atrocity, it was also the age of impunity as few of the perpetrators were brought to justice.

However it took the globalized horror of the killing fields of the 90’s, the horror of Bosnia, the agony of Rwanda, the brutalized women and children of Sierra Leone and Sudan to give the idea of an International Criminal Court the moral compellability and sense of urgency that it warranted, so that the establishment of this Court is a most important development in international criminal law since Nuremberg. It is a wake up call and a warning to tyrants everywhere. There will be no safe havens, no base or sanctuary for the enemies of humankind.

It is now incumbent upon Canada which enacted our own War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act in implementation the ICC Treaty to make the bringing of war criminals to justice both domestically and internationally the linchpin of building an international criminal justice system in the 21st Century.

7. Aboriginal Justice

The discourse of Aboriginal peoples is anchored as I mentioned earlier in a deep sense of pain. A sense of pervasive and historic injustice. Accordingly, I would like to identify some of the initiatives of an Aboriginal Justice agenda:

i) Addressing the over representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system as both victims and accused through processes of diversion, sentencing circles, restorative justice and the like

ii) Increasing Aboriginal participation in the mainstream justice system so that Aboriginal people can find their traditions and approaches reflected and represented in the mainstream justice system as well as ensuring an increased Aboriginal visage in the judiciary, the legal profession, native court workers, prosecutors and police.

iii) Improving access to justice for Aboriginal peoples including providing legal aid services at earlier stages of the criminal justice process and particularly for first time Aboriginal offenders; delivering legal services in a culturally sensitive manner and providing transportation to court for Aboriginals living in rural or remote areas.

iv) Resolving the painful issue of residential school abuse through ADR, compensation, negotiation, and healing and reconciliation processes.

v) Recognition of the fiduciary relationship between the Crown and Aboriginal peoples including the duty to consult in matters affecting Aboriginals.

vi) Recognition of the Metis as an Aboriginal people with collective Aboriginal rights arising from the Powley case.

vii) Appreciation of the significant contingent liability arising out of high impact litigation with Aboriginal people where potential financial and fiscal impacts are only one aspect of the risks faced by the government. Alternatives to litigation need to be explored involving an approach of cooperation rather than confrontation and negotiation rather than litigation.

8. The Justice Agenda for Democratic Reform

Ironically enough, before the sponsorship dossier, the government had developed a comprehensive agenda for democratic reform to address the growing malaise and cynicism about our system of government including the declining role of parliamentarians, ethics in government, public transparency, accountability of public servants and the growing role of the courts in a constitutional democracy. The justice agenda now includes a series of initiatives for democratic renewal through a series of reforms that seek to complement the government initiatives - some of which, ironically, developed as a result of the sponsorship dossier. These reforms include:

• enhanced roles for parliamentarians;
• reforming the Access to Information Act;
• anti-corruption measures;
• democratic outreach;
• reform of the appointment process to the Supreme Court of Canada;
• establishment of an Ethics Commissioner;
• Code of conduct for crown corporations.

Seven Ways Law Firms Lose Money

Dustin Cole*

My purpose today is to give you some different ways to look at your firm – ways that can not only save you some very significant dollars, but if you take them seriously, can help you make your firm even better at taking care of clients and delivering superb legal services.

Some of what I’m going to address shows up clearly on the profit & loss report:

• Attorneys with mediocre or poor revenues
• Too-high overhead
• Too much staff overtime
• Too-high write-offs and write-downs
• Poor profitability for some departments

And some are harder to track. Things like

• High associate turnover
• High staff turnover
• High stress and frustration levels
• Attorneys working too hard for the hours they bill

I’ve worked “in the trenches” with firms and attorneys across the country for more than fifteen years. And no, I’m not an attorney – thank heaven. If I were, I would probably see things from the same perspective as you do. And we’d both be scratching our heads.

But I spent twenty years in the world of business before I began to work with the legal profession in 1986. So, even though I’ve come to intimately understand and appreciate the special concerns and considerations of attorneys, I always look at a practice and a firm with the eye of a businessman. How can we deliver better services more efficiently and more profitably? How do we move it from a place where people work hard to a business that works well for people – both the people in the business and the clients it serves.

So let me start with the underlying premise of what I will discuss today.

You have worked hard to build a sophisticated, state-of-the-art, world-class firm. You’re proud of it – and rightly so. But at the heart of your firm and virtually every other firm I’ve worked with is the legacy of another time, another era, when law was an art, and not a science, and society was vastly different than today.

I call it the GUILD era, when every attorney had their own unique and secret ways of delivering the law to the people.

And it is that legacy that is costing you money today. Because in my experience, when you dig deeply enough into any firm, you’ll find the tracks of a big group of sole practitioners working independently under the same roof. And this is the root of most of what I’m going to lay in front of you today.

“Hey, not in my firm,” some of you might say. And I say “yes, in your firm too.” And others of you are already saying “yeah, he’s right.”

Let me make this as personal as possible. Think back to that first day in law school – you and your new classmates were all assembled in that big lecture hall, and someone said to you “when you leave here, you will think differently. You will no longer think like an ordinary person. You will think like a lawyer.”

The few, the proud, the brave. The elite. Morally superior. Looked up to. Loved and appreciated. And all you need to do to be successful is BE A GOOD LAWYER.

What they didn’t teach you – in fact, what they didn’t even HINT that you would need to know – is how to run the business that has to surround the practice. And they surely didn’t teach you how to market your services. In fact, they led you to believe that not only wouldn’t you have to, but that it was somehow unseemly. Beneath you.

I call this the GUILD mentality. They taught you to be a good CRAFTSMAN.

Each of you has developed a highly successful practice. Certainly it was founded on excellence in legal skills. But along the way to today, you had to develop other skills – in management, planning, marketing, in finances. You had to round out your education and learn to run a successful business.

Now here’s the sad part. All those other skills you needed – you had to MAKE UP FOR YOURSELF. No one taught you. You just had to figure them out by trial and error.

Where would you be today if you had been afforded practical and in-depth training in all that? I assert that most of you would have been wealthy and retired – or “of counsel” and playing with interesting cases – by now.

In the world of business, each of you are self-made men and women. Congratulations. But the cruel fact is, that’s not the most effective – or profitable – way to run your business. The title of this program is “Seven Ways Law Firms Lose Money.” But it could just as easily be “17 Ways” or “27 Ways.” Each of these, however, has an underlying commonality: they are the result of missing skills – in people management, in business management, in business development. All of them stem from the blind spot created for you in law school.

And fortunately, every one of this is correctable with the application of key skills, the development of effective systems, and the institution of businesslike operations.

Here, then, are some of the seven, or 17, or 27 ways law firms lose money.

1. Lack of an objective, standardized new client evaluation process

Every firm is aware that “D” clients are money-losers. However, few are fully aware that the cost of such clients goes far beyond the uncollected billings. These costs include:

• An “avoidance” tendency by the attorney in dealing with unpleasant or non-paying clients, which can lead directly to missed deadlines, client frustration, errors, malpractice claims and grievances
• Disproportionate time demands by the “D” client, most of which becomes either unbillable or unpaid
• Long hours, nights & weekends working on other matters because of the disproportionate time demands of the “D” clients
• Displacement of marketing and management by uncollectible work
• Potential for neglect of “A” and “B” clients
• Stress, frustration & overwhelm leading to errors
• Stressed & lost staff from dealing with too many unpleasant clients and an overworked attorney
• High potential for both grievances and malpractice claims

However, good attorneys still knowingly take bad clients for a variety of reasons that should be addressed by firms. These reasons include:

• Billable hour pressure
• Poor marketing skills – practicing “door” law
• Reluctance to offend referral sources
• Inability to turn down referrals from partners

Few attorneys have any system to help them objectively rate potential clients. Without an objective structure for the initial interview, they are likely to make decisions on “gut” reactions. As a result, they make take unsuitable clients because they become intrigued with the matter itself, personally like the client, or recognize a matter in which they have expertise. As a result, attorneys often realize they have taken a “D” client only belatedly, and once they develop receivables become reluctant to withdraw, hoping for payment and building up even more receivables.

To minimize the potential for attorneys to take unsuitable clients, each department and/or practice area should develop a “client screening checklist” to be used in every prospective client interview. This checklist consists of a series of questions devised by the team to help determine whether the potential client has any warning flags that point to a potential “D” relationship.

Such a checklist will assure that the attorney asks all relevant “flag” questions, obtains all important information, and therefore has an objective evaluation on which to make a decision.

Additionally, firms should require that, for all new matters above a certain estimated total fee, for instance, above $10,000, both the checklist and file be reviewed by a new client panel or a second attorney prior to acceptance.

2. Holding on to “C” Clients

Often, a large proportion of an attorney’s billings will be for “C” level clients, those who pay reduced rates, pay slowly, and are generally less desirable clients.

Firms understandably view these clients as “bread and butter” clients who pay substantial overall revenues to the firm. However, such clients significantly reduce firm profitability, and firms should implement two strategies to deal with them.

Just as with “D” clients, there are hidden costs and dangers for a firm with too high a proportion of “C” clients. These include:

• Loss of additional billable hours that the client, by agreement, does not pay for, such as supervisory time
• Overwork and frustration, leading to a “good enough” attitude, and increased risk of errors and malpractice claims
• Operating on less than adequate support resources, due to the minimal profitability of the client or the department
• The firm becomes a bank, continually loaning the client substantial funds (receivables) on a short-term basis

A stable of “C” clients is also often a “safe haven” for underachieving attorneys, or those who have inadequate client development skills. “Look! I’m busy!” keeps them safely out of play, and the more the firm shrinks support resources, the more the attorney can complain of being overloaded.

“C” clients can also create either complacency or resignation in the attorney. Either they accept “good enough” or they become resigned and accepting that “this is as good as I can do.” And the terrible result of that can be either sloppy work and malpractice claims, or an attorney who “dies in place” and never grows their skills or their revenues. In either case, it produces frustrated attorneys who hate their work.

First, each attorney with “C” level clients should institute a focused marketing program to gain new clients at higher rates, with a long-term intention of moving away from the lower-rate work. The primary obstacle to this is usually lack of marketing skills. To increase profitability, firms must invest in focused training programs (vs. one-shot informational seminars, books, tapes, etc.) to provide missing skills.

Second, wherever possible, firms should institute across-the board modest rate hikes and/or re-negotiate agreements to:

• Increase attorney billing rates
• Get agreement for greater use of (and billings by) paralegals and legal secretaries, with supervisory hours permitted for the attorney

3. Systems vs. Customs

One of the places where the “independent attorney” mentality is most evident is in the mechanics of how work gets accomplished. Most offices tend to run on “customs,” which means that attorneys operate as if every matter is unique, and “build” each matter from scratch. Procedures are accomplished by those who have appropriate skills; expertise is personal to each, and is not readily transferable. In short, everyone “knows what to do.”

The cost of “customs” can be high:

• There is no objective system to maintain quality. Quality depends entirely on individuals, and there are few safeguards to catch errors.
• When one of the team leaves, the firm loses important knowledge that must be replaced. Chaos usually results.
• New team members have a long learning curve and diminished productivity because they must develop the needed expertise from experience and training.
• While new team members are learning and less productive, there is greater workload and stress for others, which translates to greater likelihood of client frustration and errors leading to malpractice claims.

The bottom line for “customs” is that, in a large firm, there are literally hundreds of individual ways of accomplishing work, each varying in some ways from others. As a result, associates or staff working for more than one attorney must accomplish tasks in different ways for each, and the ability of “floaters” or temporary staff to adequately support attorneys is greatly diminished. Once again, this increases the chance of errors, missed deadlines, and frustrated clients.

In an office run by systems, it is recognized that every process has common elements, and that every procedure, or one similar to it, has been done before. Therefore, those processes and procedures are documented, flow-charted and checklisted so that they can be accomplished again consistently and efficiently. Proven templates and boilerplate language is catalogued and used.

Systems create higher profitability, quality and efficiency because:

• Team members are able to work to established and documented procedures and checklists to consistently produce high-quality work
• Work can be delegated and supervised more easily using written procedures and checklists
• Because there is available documentation and written checklists, less interaction between team members is needed to accomplish tasks
• Work is completed more quickly and accurately, with less time needed for review and editing
• Quality control is accomplished quickly and accurately using the checklists developed for each procedure
• Project follow-up and adherence to deadlines and schedules is facilitated
• When a team member is lost, the externalized knowledge brings new team members on line faster and easier

Customs limit an attorney’s ability to expand his or her practice, and set the stage for errors and client frustration. Systems allow the attorney to expand while maintaining quality, consistency and control of all work.
To increase efficiency and profitability, firms must work to standardize and systemize each department, and begin training teams in using them effectively.

4. Lack of Control Over Time

One of the single most costly gaps in attorney expertise is the ability to control how their time is utilized. In a typical day, most attorneys experience literally hundreds of interruptions in the form of phone calls, e-mails, staff questions, walk-in clients and prospects, and drop-ins by other attorneys and staff. In fact, most attorneys believe that this is normal. However, the cost of such lack of time control is high:

• At least 10-15% of billable work is unrecorded because of a subsequent interruption
• Tasks must be addressed dozens of times rather than two or three, making their accomplishment much slower and less efficient
• Inability to focus on tasks for extended periods reduces focus and therefore quality
• Delegation of work becomes less efficient because work is delegated in haste, and teams come to rely on constant interaction rather than adequate initial delegation
• Attorneys and staff work longer hours than necessary to accomplish work
• The attorney experiences a sense of “out of control” and high stress
• Tasks, issues, return calls and other matters “fall through the cracks” resulting in client frustration, errors and potential malpractice claims
• Strategy and thoughtful consideration of matters fall victim to haste and lack of time

Attorneys must realize that time is their most valuable asset, and take pro-active control of it. Proper and efficient use of time begins with creating a structure for how time is to be used. This means designating times on their daily weekly calendar for:

• Team meetings
• Strategy and planning
• Client meetings
• Returning phone calls
• Legal production work
• Marketing

This is a dramatic shift in thinking for most attorneys, and requires considerable re-structuring of the attorney’s work environment. However, its benefits are dramatic, and include:

• Increased team efficiency
• Recapture of billable hours normally lost in the attorney’s previously fragmented day
• Reduced stress levels and work hours without decrease of billable hours
• Greater client satisfaction due to predictability of when the attorney or a team member will return their call, and support by an entire team rather than only the attorney
• Greater focus on production, and therefore greater quality and reduced errors
• Long-term reduction of the “crisis” atmosphere and a more planned and procedural approach to work, resulting in less errors
• Reduced staff stress and turnover
• Increased marketing efforts and consistency
• Increased revenues
• Increased practice satisfaction

5. Inadequate and antiquated mentoring systems

While most firms point to extensive education, training and mentoring programs for new attorneys, most firms have done little beyond add some frosting around a core concept which is no longer adequate for the times.

For instance, in the majority of firms, the Mentor and the Supervisor are the same person. To be effective, the Mentor should NOT be the Mentee’s work supervisor, but an advisor and counselor. The Associate’s Supervisor should be the primary teacher and trainer. If Supervisor and Mentor are combined, a frustrated mentee often cannot or will not criticize his or her supervisor to his or her Mentor. They are effectively discouraged from asking for a new Mentor, discussing personal concerns, or requesting special help.

For the Associate, this lack of role separation can create a high level of frustration, dissatisfaction, and often a lessened ability to do quality work. For the firm the result can be high Associate turnover and high Associate development costs, partner stress, and in extreme situations, lost clients, grievances and errors that lead to malpractice suits.

Additionally, not all attorneys should be Mentors. Many lawyers have good skills to teach, but are unwilling to take sufficient time to do so. Others who truly want to mentor may not have good legal skills to share, good mentoring ability, or an effective personality type.

To be effective, firms must design a Mentoring SYSTEM that includes:

• An objective Mentor selection and qualification system based on:
  • Personality profile
  • Practice quality
    • Legal skills
    • Management skills
    • Revenues
    • Practice systems & procedures
  • Mentoring training & skills
  • Attitude
  • Time availability
• A Mentor Roles, Responsibilities and Requirements handbook
• Attorney compensation for Mentoring
• A Mentor training program
• A Mentor reporting, monitoring, supervision and quality control system
• A (safe) Mentee feedback and evaluation system
• A Mentor resource person or committee for Mentor support

Another inadequacy of most systems is that associates cease to have Mentors after two or three years, when they are deemed “trained.” This often leaves them without ongoing, long-term guidance or support.

Without strong, continuing mentoring, good associates often get off track, or do not build allegiance to the firm and end up leaving, taking the firm’s prodigious investment with them, and often leaving other matters in disarray. This creates a significant risk of error, client dissatisfaction, and malpractice claims.

Inadequate mentoring can result in:

• Potentially valuable associates being lost from the firm
• Associates and partners being trained and operating with inconsistent, inadequate or even erroneous information
• Attorneys operating their practices in radically different manners
• High firm cost for associate turnover
• No real ability to quality control work due to dozens or hundreds of different operating styles and procedures
• Higher malpractice risk

A second and often more expensive gap in firm Mentoring is that those who produce the highest revenues for the firm often have even less STRUCTURED support than Associates, resulting in major financial and legal risks for the firm.

Lack of structured support can mean missed revenue opportunities from partners who may not be at risk, but who have lagging or minimally adequate revenues.

Another type of unsupported attorney is the high revenue producer. Most of these client development experts could be producing dramatically more, but they are already working at the top of their current practice management skill set.

Therefore, firms must establish outside support, training and skill development resources that are available to partners on a confidential basis, to help them retain their most valuable assets, reduce risk of malpractice, and dramatically expand revenues.

6. Insufficient leverage

A disturbing and financially limiting trend in law firms over the past few years has been limiting the amount of staff support available to attorneys, ostensibly for the purpose of reducing overhead. The result has been the reverse: limiting the revenues of a high percentage of attorneys and therefore firms.

The primary reason firms have moved in this direction is not the inefficiency of staff, but the lack of attorney training in using staff effectively. This trend has been more the result of firm failure to impart new management skills and innovate client management techniques than from any inherent weakness in the concept of staff support.

A key component of this problem is that firms have traditionally viewed staff as “overhead.” When viewed as potential profit centers, the equation rapidly shifts. For instance, a skilled paralegal should be able to bill three to four times their direct costs, producing a profit for the firm. Further, when work is effectively delegated to associates and paralegals, it reduces client costs. At the same time, since the attorney is a lower percentage of the client’s total bill, the attorney can increase his or her rates. The result is a team, all producing profit for the firm, and an attorney who is now freed up to work with a larger group of clients at a higher rate.

To be maximally efficient and profitable, attorneys must have an efficient team to support their work. They must be able to delegate down any work that does not require their expertise to the lowest level where it can be accomplished competently. The attorney can then concentrate on their highest-leveraged activities: client relations, case strategy and planning, team supervision and most importantly, marketing.

Inadequate leverage has several negative effects:

• It significantly reduces an attorney’s ability to increase their revenues because he or she must work extra hours doing associate-level, paralegal-level, or even secretary-level work
• Work suited to a secretary or paralegal make take longer when done by the attorney
• Work that is not attorney-level is being inappropriately billed at attorney rates
• There is too often only one set of eyes doing and reviewing work, increasing the likelihood of errors

The result of increased leverage is:

• Greater ability for the attorney to market and expand their practice
• A stronger team producing client work more efficiently, accurately and quickly
• Increased client communication and client satisfaction from working with a larger team
• Increased revenues at several levels, generated from a larger client base
• Decreased risk of grievances, errors and malpractice claims

7. Inadequate initial client education

In most cases, initial client education consists of a few minutes of casual conversation and the mailing of a retainer agreement with a note to “read and sign.” Such a procedure literally sets a client up for frustration and dissatisfaction. “A” clients become “D” clients over expectations that don’t match the lawyer’s performance, and too many potentially positive client relationships end up in attorney firings or even grievances and malpractice claims.

The reason is that many clients have had little or no previous experience in working with a lawyer, and have only the expectations generated by television or their friends. Others have had negative experiences. Add to this the fact that every attorney-client relationship begins with the client in some degree of fear or concern, and every mismatched expectation is a reason for the client to increase their level of fear, and decrease their level of trust in the attorney.

At the beginning of the relationship, there is seldom any attempt by the attorney to educate the client how the relationship will work, and to set clear expectations on both sides.

The way that can best be accomplished is through a planned and careful initial client education process. This is where the attorney “sets the stage” for the relationship, and therefore sets the client’s understanding and expectations concerning how the relationship will work. It is also where the attorney builds a foundation for an “A” level relationship.

The Client Education process should accomplish the following:

• Introduce the team and the team concept
• Set clear, conservative expectations
• Define the client’s role in the case
• Clarify specifically how the relationship will work:
  • How calls will be handled
    • When the attorney normally returns calls
    • Standard for returning calls
• Lieutenant’s role
• Normal client meeting times
• An explanation of how the case/process will go, with flow charts, diagrams, timelines, etc.
• Determine what communication method is preferred – letter, e-mail, phone, etc.
• Review of the retainer agreement
• Financial specifics
  • Billing rates of various team members
  • How hours are billed for various types of work (meetings, phone calls, court appearances, e-mails, etc.)
  • What other items are billed, and how
  • When billings are sent
  • When payment is expected, when it is late
  • What happens if payment is not received

All materials are physically reviewed and discussed with the client to facilitate client understanding and retention, then placed in a folder for the client to take home.

The client education process not only creates clarity for the client, it also creates a new level of accountability on both sides. The client now knows the details of how the attorney will operate and how they are expected to respond, and if the client gets off track, they can be gently reminded of the discussion and pointed to the materials provided.

Conversely, the attorney has now set standards for their own operation and performance, and the client can hold the attorney accountable for those standards as well.

Just as with delegation, the time spent setting the client’s expectations and getting on “common ground” with the client will save endless hours of explanation from you, major stress on the part of the client, and quite possibly will avoid a client fiasco.

Making the Transformation

How does an attorney, department or firm begin to address this list of inter-related and complex issues and start moving toward higher profit and greater satisfaction? One step at a time. The most effective first step is to address basic productivity, time management and delegation skills. (issues 3 and 4). Focusing here first creates time savings and increased billable hours.

A focus on the attorney’s busy week to make it better organized, more efficient and less stressful will produce a quantum leap in productivity, client service, and operational excellence.

However, attorneys left to their own devices will seldom implement more than a few of the pieces. The firm aiming for consistently higher productivity within a short period of time should seek the services of an experienced coach who can devise a results-oriented training program.

Once new levels of productivity are established, a high percentage of attorneys who are experiencing the benefits of new ways of operating their practices are now “on the bandwagon” for the next steps in the process. Firms can then move forward to address other issues.

* Dustin Cole is President of Attorneys Master Class, a company which helps firms maximize revenues by enhancing attorney practice management and marketing skills. For more information go to www.attorneysmasterclass.com or contact Cole at (407) 830-9810 or via e-mail at dustin@attorneysmasterclass.com.

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2

Stephen Bird*

This article appeared in The Lawyer's PC newsletter, which is published in the United States by Thomson-West (http://www.thomson-west.com).

Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) in late August 2004. An earlier newspaper headline said: "Microsoft Readies Biggest Upgrade to Windows to Boost Security" while Woody's Windows Watch noted: "Installing SP2 is almost guaranteed to break some of your existing applications, or at least make them behave strangely." "Despite the difficulties, upgrading to SP2 is a must." "The question isn't if to switch to SP2 but when." So what is all the fuss about?

Microsoft says security exploits are increasing and are becoming more sophisticated, while the time to develop such exploits is decreasing. Apparently, there is no simple solution to remedy the current situation.

Why are security breaches a big deal? Well, it seems fairly obvious that security breaches can lead to loss of revenue, damage to reputation, lost/compromised data, interruption of business and damage to customer confidence. As part of the solution, Microsoft tells us SP2 has been designed to provide "active protection" through network safeguards, safer e-mail and instant messaging, safer Web browsing and system-level protection.

Safer Browsing & Communication

Internet Explorer now will include a Pop-up Blocker (See "Popups for Lunch?" The Lawyer's PC, August 1, 2004) to help users reduce unwanted ads and content, a "download monitor" to warn and block (on command) potentially harmful downloads, an Information Bar to show what is happening while browsing so potential security issues can be dealt with, and an Add-on Manager for applications such as the free SlimBrowser shell (www.flashpeak.com) I find so useful.

An Outlook Express privacy update helps reduce unwanted e-mail by limiting the chance an e-mail address can be validated by potential spammers. Finally, the Attachment Manager monitors and disables potentially unsafe attachments, which may be viruses that could infect Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and Windows Messenger.

Powerful Security Tools

The Windows Security Center will let users view and manage security status while the Windows Firewall (once called the Internet Connection Firewall), which is turned on by default, will help protect users from viruses, worms and other Internet security threats.* The Firewall reportedly has been designed to coexist with Internet applications and a home network; it remains to be seen whether it will replace third-party firewalls. (*See "Windows Utilities," The Lawyer's PC, December 1, 2003, for a discussion of firewalls found in third-party utilities from Symantec (www.symantec.com), iolo technologies (www.iolo.com), and V Communications (www.v-com.com).

The Firewall start-up and shut-down support extends protection from the moment the PC is turned on to when it's turned off, although this will be of most interest to users with a permanent connection to the Internet. The Automatic Updates feature has been improved to help users automatically stay current with the latest updates for WinXP, since the situation is often made worse because users have not applied fixes for newly discovered problems/exploits. Given the nature of my SOHO set-up, I am particularly pleased that Microsoft has included new technology to help dial-up customers like me download updates more efficiently.

Improved Experiences

WinXP SP2 reportedly simplifies the process of discovering and connecting to wireless networks. Users now can connect to Bluetooth-enabled hardware devices such as keyboards, cell phones and PDAs. Windows Media Player 9 Series has been designed to make it easier to enjoy music, video and broadband content with enhanced security; and a DirectX update helps users enjoy advanced graphics and gaming.

If you are curious about the fixes included in Service Pack 2, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 811113 (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811113). It refers to literally hundreds of other articles that describe problems users may have encountered. Most of us never will have experienced many (or any) of these problems, especially if we periodically have used Windows Update to keep critical issues under control.

Final Thoughts

Some of my favorite computer commentators, such as Fred Langa and Brian Livingston, have been writing about WinXP SP2 through its various Release Candidate (also known as "beta") incarnations. Overall, the impression has been positive, although there are some surprises. This impression has been echoed by comments in the Windows mailing list. (See, for example, articles found at www.informationweek.com (search on SP2) and postings at http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/win-home.html.)

However, having said that, there is good advice to be found in these words from Woody*: “The prudent course is to wait a few weeks after the final public release of SP2. . . . Give other software makers a chance to update their products to full SP2 compatibility and install those updates before you install SP2.” (*July 2, 2004, Vol. 7, No. 9. This newsletter is now part of Windows Secrets Newsletter which can be found at http://WindowsSecrets.com)

It should go without saying that you have a backup of all data!

As with Microsoft Office 2003 SP1 (see The Lawyer’s PC, September 1, 2004, Page 8), the price (free) is right, especially via an Internet connection/download. If you want WinXP SP2 on CD, then a free copy can be ordered from the Microsoft Web site as SP2 is released. Although the upgrade may be inevitable, I’d suggest users “make haste slowly” given the significant changes found in SP2.

* Stephen Bird is a Contributing Editor of The Lawyer's PC and a lawyer with the Lanark, Leeds & Grenville Legal Clinic in Perth and Brockville. He can be reached by email via StephenBird@lawyer.com. 

Retirement as a New Career/Life Development Stage: A Renewal Process

Stephen P. Gallagher*

Instead of viewing retirement as an end-point in itself, we need to begin thinking of retirement as a series of developmental steps taken by individuals on an ongoing basis. Retirement today needs to be seen as more a journey than a destination. In order to more effectively participate in this journey, retirees need to learn new skills and competencies well before they begin their retirement experience.

Over the past thirteen years, I worked as a Practice Management Advisor for the New York State Bar Association, and during that period of time, I had the pleasure of working with hundreds of senior attorneys in developing Exit or Retirement Plans for themselves and for other key partners and shareholders. Today's more highly educated, more accomplished, and more affluent pre-retirees are simply looking to find more personal PURPOSE in their lives than they ever had before. They want something new, something different, perhaps something novel, and certainly something interesting at deep personal levels.

The traditional meaning of retirement is a single event – “withdrawal” from the workforce into leisure, relaxation, a slide into the end of life. Webster’s Dictionary defines retirement as “removal or withdrawal from an office or active service; to seek privacy or seclusion.” The word retire comes from the French word retirer meaning “to withdraw,” the same root “martyr” comes from. The dictionary often has trouble keeping up with society’s changing definitions of nomenclature, but also perhaps, not only should retirement be redefined, but also indeed the whole notion of age needs to be reviewed.

The Question of Age and Phased Retirement

Research from Retirementoptions.com, a training organization devoted to pre-retirement planning, indicates that a new career developmental stage is emerging, which they call the "Renewal stage." The Renewal stage starts about the mid 50s and lasts well into the 70s.The Renewal stage can be a time of great personal growth and development, or it can degenerate into just the opposite. The transition we call retirement is actually the beginning of a new career/life stage called RENEWAL. The key to success in this Renewal Stage is how well a person prepares for it. Today, I can only hope to convince readers that, at some point in your career, you will need to take active steps towards developing your own Exit or Retirement Plan.

The Renewal Stage is a time when individuals begin taking a much more personal approach to living. They are more free to ask themselves what they want, free for the most part from former family obligations, free from the press of having to climb the ladder of success. The Renewal stage is a time when even "hard-chargers" re-evaluate how they live their lives.They don't have to prove to anyone what they're made of.Now they only have to answer to their own needs, their own impulses, their own calling, and their own passion.That's really what renewal is all about ... pursuing your passion, your dream, your own goal - not someone else's.

Congress has repealed the Social Security “earnings test” for people 65 or older, yet at the same time, government data shows that the percentage of people over 65 who are in the workforce has been rising since the mid 1990s, after decades of decline. In 2001, it was 12.8 percent, higher than anytime since 1979. The mandatory retirement age has all but been eliminated, but many partnership agreements in force today, include clauses that require senior partners to begin a retirement process once they reach a certain age. In most cases, compensation is adjusted downward proportionately.

In 2001, the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), a consortium that focused on identifying business best practices and innovative methods of transferring those methods, explored links between succession management and company leadership development process. The study pointed out that if economic growth continues at a modest 2 percent for the next decade and a half, this would result in the need for a third more senior leaders than there are today. Yet the supply of the age cohort that has traditionally entrance into the executive rankings (35 to 44 year olds) is actually declining in the US and will have dropped by 15 percent between 2000 and 2015 because of the differences in the size of the Baby Boom generation and the much smaller Generation X. So, law firm strategists have to wonder where this talent pool of endless reserves will be found.

Today's retirees generally aren't looking to fade away. They want to find fulfilling activities, they want enriching endeavors. Certainly they want to leisure... at times, and they naturally want to have fun.But, contrary to the popular media view of retirement, the most important thing persons anticipating retirement are looking for is their own fulfillment... their own sense of purpose and meaning.

Studies show that the majority of retirees work for pleasure, mental stimulation, and personal fulfillment. In the Cornell Retirement and Well-Being Study, 44 percent of retirees say they work for pay at some point after their careers. The most popular reason for returning to work (89 percent) was to keep active, not financial need. Innovative law firms are beginning to look towards their senior partners to see how they might be able to help the firm solve one of the greatest leadership challenges the firm will be facing in the years ahead. Ensuring an adequate supply of qualified leaders will separate successful firms from the others.

Age does not miraculously give anyone the requisite tools, competencies, knowledge, and attitudinal shifts to ensure that retirement will proceed smoothly. The average retirement age has declined from around sixty-five, some fifteen years ago, to around fifty-eight today. At the same time, people are living longer. Males today can expect to live an average of 72-½ years, while females will live almost five years beyond that. Eighty percent of baby boomers say they want to work in retirement, and three million of these baby boomers are expected to live to be 100.

Today, there are 40 million people 65 and over (14 percent of the population); in 2030 there will be a whopping 70 million people (20 percent of the population) in this age bracket. People over the age of 85 are the fastest growing age group. Could it be that the same senior partners that many firms are now looking to sunset may become the untapped resources firms will need to lead the talent pool of the future?

The Law Firms Role in Retirement Planning

Dr.Phyllis Moan, Director of the Cornell Employment and Family Career Institute at Cornell University, who has studied couple’s retirement traditions says, “We plan our careers, but we don’t plan our retirement.” Once you leave full-time law practice, you may need time and possibly support as you move away from the external, material, achievement definition of self, toward the more personal, intimate and, for many, the spiritual definition of self. The journey from full-time work to full-time retirement in its traditional sense may take years to accomplish.

If retirement is seen as a new journey, a path full of challenges and opportunities that individuals may begin in their mid-fifties, increasingly, law firms will need to get involved in directly helping senior partners as they work through this planning process. With the proper planning, retirement should hold up as a new prospect of growth for you, your loved ones, and your law firm.

For years, David H. Maister, widely considered one of the world's leading authorities on the management of professional service firms, has been promoting skilled managers and team leaders whose job it is to manage the team and coach the individual players. In David H. Maister ‘s book Practice What You Preach, he shows (statistically) that success in professional business actually returns greater profits to the firms that provide coaching to individuals than firms that provide no coaching or mentoring.

The phenomenon sometimes called phased retirement is becoming increasingly more common among all many white-collar professionals. Increasingly, professional service firms are turning to retirement coaches or mentors to help senior partners set retirement goals and exit strategies. As a rule, Retirement Plans include both long-term goals (e.g., to continue working three-days a week for two more years) and the more immediate performance goals that move lawyers toward those long-term goals (e.g., to transition ten of my clients to younger partners in the next thirty-days).

An ever-increasing number of professional coaches are being brought in to work with sole practitioners and senior partners in firms of all sizes. Research shows that individuals who are able to set goals for themselves that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-limited (SMART) are much more successful in achieving what they wished to accomplish. When the goals are for the individual’s own benefit, motivation increases and success of the relationship is assured.

Persons approaching their first retirement transition need exactly the same process of self-analysis and sound consultation that they would receive from a competent career consultant if they were going through a job change.Time to work on such a plan is very hard to do with other responsibilities in a busy law practice. As job changers need to generate their career options in a clear and understandable way, so too, pre-retirees need the same "options generation" process but with slightly different content, slightly different goals, and an entirely different purpose. That's exactly what persons approaching retirement at any age need ... they need OPTIONS.

Throughout the country, coaching has achieved wide spread recognition as being of value, relevance and importance in business, and we are now beginning to see increasing numbers of independent coaches working in the legal marketplace. Innovative law firms are now beginning to offer senior partners assistance in finalizing retirement plans through the use of outside coaches, who have specialized in retirement planning.

The coaching engagement is generally provided through a series of confidential telephone consultations made over a period of three to six-months. Individual attorneys can invest in retirement coaching on their own; however, there are a number of benefits law firm can get from extending coaching as a pre-retirement benefit. The number one benefit to law firms is from helping the senior people who built the firm determine how they might want to continue to be involved with the firm in the future.

* Stephen P. Gallagher, president of Leadershipcoach.us, an executive coaching firm that works with attorneys, practice group leaders, and “high potential” individuals to develop exit strategies and Retirement Plans. Gallagher also works with management teams to help firms adapt to change, build a sustainable, more profitable law practice, that will support individuals in working less hours and thus achieving balance in your professional and personal life.

Reference:

Johnson, Richard P. Creating a Successful Retirement: Finding Peace and Purpose (Liguori, MO: Liguori Publication, 1999).

Leider, Richard J. The Power of Purpose: Creating Meaning in Your Life and Work (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishing, Inc., 1997).

Sedlar, Jeri and Rick Miner Don’t Retire, REWIRE: 5 Steps to Fulfilling Work That Fuels Your Passion, Suits Your Personality, Or Fills Your Pocket (Indiana: Alpha Books, 2003), p. xiii

Effective Yellow Pages Advertisements: It's Not Just Size and Colour That Matter

Dan Pinnington*

Chances are you already have an advertisement in one or more yellow pages directories, and you probably think you have a good ad. However, odds are your ad can be significantly improved. As you will see from this article, creating a great yellow pages ad is not as simple and straightforward as you probably first assumed. Size and colour are only two of many issues to consider when creating a good ad that will bring in new clients.

Gaining a better understanding of how and why your yellow page ad is working (or not working) is essential in two ways. Firstly, it can help you get more clients from an improved ad, and secondly, at a higher level, it can help improve all your marketing efforts as you must go through essentially the same process to create the marketing content and messaging for any other medium.

When people read magazines and newspapers, or watch television and listen to radio, they focus on content other than the advertising. In many cases, they simply tolerate the advertising. Not so in the yellow pages advertising. When people come to the yellow pages they are focusing on advertising content, and they are contemplating or have already decided to make a purchase. They are now looking for direction on where to go to make that purchase. Yellow pages ads must be constructed specifically for the yellow pages or they won’t work. Ads that don’t work will fail to attract calls from potential clients.

Most law firms do not put appropriate time and attention into creating their yellow pages ads. With their eye on costs, many firms spend most of their time debating about the relative size of the ad and whether or not to include various coloured elements. To create an ad that works, that is one that will cause people to call you or your firm, you need to spend more time understanding how best to construct your ad. To do this, you have to work to gain a better understanding of:

• who your potential customers are;
• who your competitors are;
• which content works most powerfully;
• how to speak effectively to your audience;
• how you can prevail by marketing over, under, and around your competitors; and
• how to transform readers into callers.

At its simplest, you are trying to get people to call you by offering them exactly what they are looking for. Keep in mind that you go through similar steps to create just about every marketing message.

In the Effective Yellow Pages Advertising for Attorneys, A Complete Guide to Creating Winning Ads title should link to: http://www.abanet.org/abastore/index.cfm?section=Main&fm=Product.AddToCart&pid=5110478, published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section, Kerry Randall lists six key elements for creating high-performance ads. They are:

1. Strong headlines that command attention and engage readers.
2. A laser sharp focus; a willingness to ignore most readers.
3. Arresting, eye-captivating illustrations or photographs.
4. Clearly identifiable differences (from competitive advertisers).
5. Relevant copy (text) that covers less than 50 percent of the ad space.
6. Professional looking, clutter-free layouts.

Go get a copy of your current ad right now and review it to see how many of these six key elements it has.

The right ad helps to grab and engage potential clients. You want to make sure the ad is focused at delivering a message to a core group of the best potential clients. Don't create an ad that is bland and general so it can appeal to the broadest range of possible clients. The vast majority of firms do the later. Remember, for long-term practice development, you want to focus on bringing in the best potential clients, not any and all clients, including marginal ones.

Arresting, eye-captivating illustrations or photographs also help to get the reader’s attention, and can help distinguish you from other ads on the same or nearby pages. By creating an ad with clearly identifiable differences you can make yourself stand out from other competitive advertisers. In any given area of law most ads have the same look and feel. To stand out, you must do something different. For simplicity and better presentation it is critical that your ad include relevant copy or text that covers less than 50 percent of the ad space. It is also important that your ad be professional looking and clutter-free. This is often difficult to do as yellow pages sales people make money by encouraging people to include more words, colour and graphics in their ads.

As you are now hopefully starting to appreciate, creating a great yellow pages ad is not simple and straightforward. Colour and size alone don't matter. There are numerous other things to consider. To improve your current ad, review the Randall book. "Randall book" should link to the same link above. It is an excellent workbook that reviews in detail all the things you need to consider to create a yellow pages advertisement that will translate into more telephone calls. To better appreciate the various issues you need to consider look at the following list of selected chapters from this book:

• Rule #1: Give Your Potential Customers What They Want (Chpt. 5)
• Rule #2: To Be Noticed, Stand Apart (Chpt. 6)
• Your Foundation to Profitability: Research (Chpt. 8)
• Focusing on Your Customer (Chpt. 10)
• Creating the Market Leader—You (Chpt. 11)
• Words Count! Edit. Edit. Edit. (Chpt. 12)
• Call Me! Building Your Power Headline (Chpt. 13)
• Create the Best Ad in the Directory: Selecting a Top-Notch Design Team (Chpt. 14)
• Leading the Eye: Getting Readers to Call You (Chpt. 16)
• Using the Yellow Pages’ Most Powerful Tool: Emotions (Chpt. 18)
• Why Your Ad Should Talk to Women (or Men) (Chpt. 19)
• Choosing Your Reputation: Creating a Memorable Slogan (Chpt. 20)
• How About Fax Numbers, Zip Codes, E-mail Addresses, and Web Sites? (Chpt. 21)
• Good Ads, Bad Ads: Eight Examples (Chpt. 23)
• What About the "Other" Telephone Books? Core Directories, Overlays,
• Community Directories, and Specialty Books (Chpt. 25)
• What About In-Column Ads and Guides? (Chpt. 27)
• The Miracle in the White Pages (Chpt. 28)
• Where Is Value? Color, or Size and Position? (Chpt. 29)
• When Not to Advertise in the Yellow Pages (Chpt. 30)

Undoubtedly, this book will pay for itself within a few days of your new and improved yellow pages advertisement hitting the streets. It will pay extra dividends as working through and creating a better yellow pages ad will also help you gain a deeper and broader understanding of all your marketing practices, and to build a better master marketing plan.

* Dan Pinnington, LawPRO, (416) 598-5800, dan.pinnington@lawpro.ca.