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Volume 3, No. 1 - September/Septembre 2005
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Greetings from the ChairBonnie Patrick* Welcome back. Hope all of you had a fun and prosperous summer. You will note that there have been some changes on the Executive since our last newsletter. Some persons have “traded” positions and we have managed to “recruit” new members. We always need more Executive members, to assist us in providing a broad perspective on the issues that exist for those of us who consider ourselves “sole, small firm, general practice lawyers”. If you are interested in assisting us, please advise me (goulinpa@wincom.net) and I will most certainly provide you with the answers to any questions you might have about being an Executive member of this Section. For those who would like to help, but to a lesser degree, you can send us articles for our newsletters...either your own or those of others which you feel would be of interest to the Section and we will most certainly review them for publication. I am extremely pleased to announce that the OBA Sole, Small Firm and General Practice Section List Serve will be launched in the next few days. This list serve will give you the ability to interact with other Section members by simultaneously sending a single e-mail message to all of them. List serves, sometimes called e-mail lists, are really nothing more than a group of people with the same e-mail address. In effect, they allow a large group conversation via e-mail. In the next few days we will be sending out an e-mail that has instructions on how you "subscribe” to this list. This member benefit is not automatic for all members – you must subscribe to participate on the list. People join a list serve to interact with other people who are interested in the same topic – in this case – information and issues that would interest sole, small firm and general practice lawyers in Ontario. This will include a wide variety of topics, case law updates, referrals, practice management questions and dozens of other topics of interest. In the next few days all Section members will receive an e-mail inviting them to join the list serve. If you want to participate, please follow the instructions. If you don’t want to participate just ignore the message – you can always join later. I encourage you to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to network with like-minded fellow Ontario sole, small firm and general practitioners. For those of you involved in the practice of family and/or criminal law, I refer you to the OBA website and in particular to the dinner program we were involved with, conducted in April along with the Criminal Justice and Family Law Sections, concerning matters where the Children’s Aid Society are involved in a proceeding. I had the privilege of chairing this program, and although I must admit I practice in neither of these areas, I found the discussion lively and interesting. For those of you who do practice in these fields, I would suggest you review the CD which was produced for the program which, in addition to discussion by persons involved in the proceedings (criminal lawyer, family lawyer, crown counsel, CAS lawyer), also contains documents which I assure you are jam-packed with useful information (http://www.oba.org/En/gen/sep05/publications.aspx). The Task Force Report concerning sole practitioners and small firm lawyers produced by the Law Society is now available on the Law Society webpage (http://www.lsuc.on.ca/news/a/hottopics/sole-practitioner-and-small-firm-task-force/). I encourage all of you to read this document carefully, if you have not done so already, as it impacts directly on you and your practice. The Ontario Bar Association is providing input to the Law Society with respect to the findings contained within this document. If any of you have comments, criticisms and/or suggestions relating to the Task Force Report, I encourage you to send them to me (goulinpa@wincom.net) as soon as possible or directly to the Law Society of Upper Canada. At the very least, please read the Report to educate yourselves about how the Law Society suggests they “help” us. This Section is again planning on participating at the Annual Institute (January 23, 2006) by providing a breakfast presentation. We will be providing you with precedents and documentation you may find useful if and when you are in the position of arguing for costs when the “other side” is a government agency (such as the Family Responsibility Office), a charity (such as the Children’s Aid Society) or the Crown itself. Information with respect to the Institute will be arriving in your In-Box as well as by snail mail. Hope to see you there. Even if you think you will never need the information provided that morning, drop by and join us for a coffee and a muffin. Finally, there are interesting articles in this newsletter and I encourage you to give them a look. Any editorial comment is most welcome. * Bonnie Patrick, Goulin & Patrick, (519) 258-8073, goulinpa@wincom.net. OBA Launches Sole, Small Firm List ServeBonnie Patrick* I am extremely pleased to announce that the OBA Sole, Small Firm and General Practice Section List Serve will be launched in the next few days. This list serve will give you the ability to interact with other Section members by simultaneously sending a single e-mail message to all of them. List serves, sometimes called e-mail lists, are really nothing more than a group of people with the same e-mail address. In effect, they allow a large group conversation via e-mail. In the next few days we will be sending out an e-mail that has instructions on how you "subscribe” to this list. This member benefit is not automatic for all members – you must subscribe to participate on the list. People join a list serve to interact with other people who are interested in the same topic – in this case – information and issues that would interest sole, small firm and general practice lawyers in Ontario. This will include a wide variety of topics, case law updates, referrals, practice management questions and dozens of other topics of interest. In the next few days all Section members will receive an e-mail inviting them to join the list serve. If you want to participate, please follow the instructions. If you don’t want to participate just ignore the message – you can always join later. I encourage you to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to network with like-minded fellow Ontario sole, small firm and general practitioners. * Bonnie Patrick, Goulin & Patrick, (519) 258-8073, goulinpa@wincom.net. WorkaholismJohn Starzynski* The law is a profession with a culture of hard work with long hours, demanding clients, loads of files, due diligence, trial preparation, and more importantly, unrealistic demands lawyers put on themselves. Some lawyers revel in the hours they log in by bragging, as if it were a badge of honour, about the late nights and the volume of output. Others bemoan the sheer quantity of work that must be done to practice competently but complain without a plan on how to manage their time better. Some believe either directly or by presumption that there are high billing targets and time that must be put in. Whatever the attitude or approach, make no mistake that the law requires time dedication. At what point do hard work and extended hours become unhealthy? In substance addictions, that point is fairly clear. Persons can use, abuse and then become dependent on alcohol or other drugs in a growing succession of tolerance and volume of usage. Dependence becomes a serious and life-altering problem when most things in a person’s life are negatively affected – family, work, friendships, physical and emotional health, finances, etc. A substance is easy to identify and there are 12-step support groups to assist in abstinence and daily recovery. However, a process or behavioral, addiction such as workaholism is harder to identify and treat. (Other process addictions include internet addiction, gambling addiction and sex addiction). Work is a vital part of our daily activity so that we do not seek 12-step recovery groups to abstain from work. Somehow, we are expected to know innately how much is enough. After all, we have all heard that hard work never killed anyone, haven’t we? So how much work is too much or is there never too much? How do we know when we have a problem with work boundaries and dependence? Interestingly, the same negative effects for substance dependence affect a workaholic’s family, friendships and physical and emotional health and finances as well. Dr. Barbara Killinger gives some help in her book Workaholics, The Respectable Addicts, 1991, Key Porter Books, Toronto, Ontario. She starts her book with the following quiz to identify attitudes and behaviours that indicate a problem with workaholism. The Workaholic Quiz 1. Is your work very important to you? The more “Yes” answers to these questions can help you identify thinking or behaviors that indicate that you should get help. Consider these other observations that Dr. Killinger makes:
Are any of the things above resonating with you? Do you feel that you have a healthy balance of physical care, emotional connectivity to others and a spiritual sense of who you are and how you fit into the big picture? Or, do you feel that your life is out of control and you just don’t know why? Or you just don’t know or are not sure? Or do you just not care? Working on achieving balance for workaholism or other process addiction means working on beliefs and behaviors. Dr Killinger gives us guidelines for Mr. or Ms. Real to work on to achieve balance. As opposed to the above-noted workaholic indicators found in the quiz, try to be:
If you feel that you need some further guidance, try this approach to work and life balance:
Practically, there are small and simple things that can be done to get some semblance of balance back:
As with other things in our lives, work obsession can get out of control. Putting it into perspective along with everything else is not easy to do but it can be done. Talking to someone else who is living a life of balance helps. Call your provincial or state lawyer assistance program to talk to another lawyer who understands. * John Starzynski is the Volunteer Executive Director of the Ontario Bar
Assistance Program which assists lawyers, judges and law students with issues of
stress, burnout, addictions and mental wellness challenges. John can be reached
at 1-877-584-6227. Do I Think and Act Like a Lawyer or a Normal Person? Can they be One and the Same?*Thinking and Acting Like a Lawyer When we go to law school as highly-intelligent human beings, we are turned out as lawyers. The professional training changes us into skilled legal analysts and practitioners. We learn ways of thinking and acting unique to the profession. There are some personality traits that help in this formation and performance. These factors can also be contributors to the stress we feel personally and professionally. See if you recognize yourself and your behaviours.
Thinking and Acting Like a Normal Person The personality and behavioural characteristics set out above may have helped to get us to the role of lawyer that we enjoy today. It may seem like they are depicted as totally negative traits, but knowing how to temper the extremes will lead to less stress and more balance in our lives personally and professionally. Here is the ying to the yang.
What Does It All Mean? There are always two sides to an issue - on the one hand; on the other. As lawyers, we do this analysis every day in situations that cross our desks and in our personal lives. For every trait listed above that helped make you a lawyer, they are good things. Without that perfectionism, control and conscientiousness, you would not have been successful. However, too much of those attributes can turn them into liabilities. Balance is the key to being healthy and happy. It is possible to be a lawyer and a “normal person” with awareness, self love and boundaries. Ask someone you trust to help you with your personal inventory and journey. If you want to talk to a peer support lawyer to have a friendly, understanding ear, please call the Ontario Bar Assistance Program (OBAP). OBAP provides assistance to lawyers, judges and law students who are dealing with issues of stress, burnout, addictions and mental wellness challenges. To contact the Program, Manager, Leota Embleton, please call 1-877-576-6227. To contact the Volunteer Executive Director, please call John Starzynski at 1-877-584-6227. Or visit the website at www.obap.ca. Thanks to Dr. Mamta Gautam, President of the Ontario Psychiatric Association, for her inspiration for this article. * Copyright © 1991, reprinted 2004 by John Starzynski. Reprinted with permission of Key Porter Books. Google - Do You Feel Lucky?Charles Bennett* By now, Google has no doubt become a part of your everyday life. What started out, as an innovative simple to use search engine has become the search engine of the Internet searching over 8 billion pages with each query. I intend to expose the true power of Google to you in this article. By learning a few search techniques, you can narrow and hone your searches and increase the likelihood of finding what you want more quickly. Basic Searching You have probably used Google before so I will not spend a lot of time on the basics. Go to www.google.ca and enter a word or phrase representing what you want to find.
Figure 1 - Google Home Page If you think that Google will find the site for you immediately (such as a common site like the Royal Bank’s on line banking service) click the I’m Feeling Lucky button, otherwise click the Google Search button to obtain a list of possible links. You can restrict searches to Canadian sources by clicking pages from Canada above. That’s all there is to it! If French is your preferred language, you can also search in French by selecting the Français link below the search box. All searches are conducted in French and the screens appear in French. Google offers over 30 different languages; click Language Tools for more information. Who is Looking at You? Suppose you wanted to find out which web pages have links to your firm’s Web pages? You can use the link: modifier to conduct a search for linked pages to a given site. For example, enter the search term: link:www.appletonlaw.com and press Google Search to obtain a list of all of the web pages that link to www.appletonlaw.com. Note! Make sure there are no spaces between link: and the domain name when performing the search. An Instant on Line Dictionary If you need the definition of a word, use the define: modifier. As with all modifiers, spaces should not be used after the colon. You can list one or more words with spaces between them. For example, enter the search term: define:malware and press Google Search to obtain a definition of the word malware. Multiple definitions will be presented and links to the source for each definition will be available for you to explore. Honing in on a Given Site If you are doing research on a specific Web site and you
want to use the power of Google to search it, you can use the
site: modifier to restrict Google’s search to a specific site.
The general format is <search term> For example, to search for articles related to Rogers Communications on the SEDAR site enter: Rogers Communications site:www.sedar.com as the search term. Google will show only hits from the SEDAR site. Lost Your Calculator? Google can also perform simple and complex calculations for you. Table 1 below, shows a partial list of operators that can be used between numbers. Operators are processed in the correct order and you can use brackets () to specify a specific order, if desired. In general, an equal sign should suffix your query to tell Google that you want to perform a calculation. If the calculation would result in a non real number, Google will simply perform a search as if the expression was a text phrase. For example, entering a search term of: 12/0= will result in Google searching for the text “12/0” since division by zero is not allowed.
Table 1 - Google Mathematical Operators Google can also convert between units. For example, between Fahrenheit and Celsius or between Miles and Kilometers to name but two. Below are some examples of terms that can be entered. Experiment with your own as Google is quite comprehensive. 12 miles in km 25 degrees c in f 30 feet in inches 5 fathoms in feet 20.25 kg in lb Waiting for a FedEx Package from the U.S.? You can locate the tracking information on a package by entering the term fedex followed by the tracking number. For example: fedex 125478956325 (note, use your own number as this one will not work!) Search for Patents! To search for a US patent, enter the term patent followed by the patent number. For example: patent 4837613 Search for File Types You can have Google search for a specific file type using the search term of your choice. For example, if you were looking for a shareholder’s agreement you could specify that all agreements must be Microsoft Word files by indicating a file type of DOC. For example: shareholders agreement filetype:doc or a lawyer looking to find a PowerPoint presentation on the global copper mining industry to help prepare for a beauty contest might enter: global copper mining industry filetype:ppt Google Images If you are in the Marketing area within your firm, you may want to use the Images search within Google to locate images that may help stimulate your creative juices when composing a PowerPoint or ad. Images is the second tab near the top of the Google home page. Enter your search term to be presented with images representative of that term. This is an excellent way to get corporate logos at a higher resolution than typically available on web sites. Google News News is in the middle of the tabs near the top of the Google home page as shown in Figure 1. When selected, the Google search will focus in on publicly available information concerning a given topic. For example, if you would like to find out what the trends are with Toronto Law Firms, simply enter: Toronto law firms into the search box located on the News page. Google will return a list of results that include everything from a trend towards relocating offices due to the upcoming termination of leases through to Borden Ladner’s recent introduction of Internet hotspots for clients within their offices. All articles are appropriately sourced in each reference. Google News Alerts Many lawyers would like to monitor what is happening with their clients on an ongoing basis. What new stories are their clients involved in? What information has leaked to the press? Google’s New Alerts allow free and direct news feeds to be sent to a target email address on a daily basis or as the stories happen. Point your browser to: http://www.google.com/newsalerts to participate in this new feature, which is still in the test phase. Enter the search term (ex. Toronto law firms), the frequency of notification and your email address and you will begin receiving news stories as soon as you confirm your request through an automated email message sent to your account by Google. The service is free and up to 50 alerts may be set up per email account. Two other search modifiers are worth mentioning: intitle: and allintitle:. As another example if you specifically want to look for news for a specific client, a better search term might be: intitle:Rogers Communications which says to Google, find all news articles with Rogers in the title of the article and Communications anywhere in the document. To ensure that both words are included in the title of an article for the search term enter: allintitle:Rogers Communications Google Catalog Searching Google is experimenting with providing search facilities for many of the mail order catalogs in the U.S. You can perform a search on those catalogs by going to the site: Type in an item that you would like to find, for example: digital signature and press Google Search. Google will present a list of catalogs, by date showing the facing pages with the terms you entered highlighted followed by an expanded graphic showing your search term’s relative placement within the page! You have to try this to see the results – you will be amazed at the potential this feature has. Conclusion Google is a very powerful search engine that keeps on getting better. From relative obscurity just 5 years ago, it has grown, mostly through word of mouth, into arguably one of the best search engines on the Internet. Enjoy searching with your new found capabilities! * Charles Bennett, MBA, is the President of Triella, a technology consulting company specializing in providing technology audits, planning advice, project management and other CIO related services to small and medium sized firms. He can be reached at cbennett@triella.com or (416) 269-4368. For additional articles, go to www.triella.com. © 2005, by Triella. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Business Strategy is Not FuzzyRichard G. Stock* This article was previously published in Lexpert, September 2004. The leadership of many Canadian law firms does not spend enough time developing, communicating and implementing business strategy. Even less time is spent assessing how business initiatives fit the firm’s priorities and then adjusting the business strategy. One wonders about the reasons for this. It comes as no surprise to find most partners think that it is someone else’s job - usually an Executive or Special Committee or a Managing Partner - to decide what strategy is and what the firm should do about it. Partners would rather do almost anything else than strategic planning. Often planning is triggered by events in the market or in the firm - anything from the loss of a few important clients or partners, poor profitability, mergers of other local firms, and the aging of the partnership. Smaller firms will hold a retreat, present background papers or readings and engage a facilitator. But scepticism reigns among the captive participants, primarily over the prospect that anything important will ever change. It is amazing to see how little information the firm brings to for consideration about:
Firms of all sizes must shift their focus from strategic planning as a process that consumes vast amounts of time and some money to creating a business strategy focused on results and effectiveness. Last year, I heard David Maister say that two law firms in the same market would likely study the same data and trends and then reach very similar conclusions about what their strategies should be. What would set one aside from the other is the ability to develop and execute an actionable plan. Every law firm must make a minimum number of basic choices. The stakes are high. The answers to the following questions should be good for 5 years.
Because of a well-entrenched culture of individuality, autonomy and self-sufficiency, a great many smaller and medium-sized law firms have little appetite to develop and debate the questions and then make the choices suggested by opportunities and resources. Even when some do choose, they still fail. They fail to implement because they do not have a strategy (and culture) of execution. The focus is on process rather than results. Failure to produce results has little short-term impact on a firm or on key individuals charged with business strategy. Getting Results
Much can be done to improve the odds of getting results
Business strategy is not fuzzy if it is any good. It asks all the right questions, gets the partners to choose and to act on the choices. It does all this in an environment that favors teams, accountability, and results rather than process in an overwhelming orientation to key clients. * Richard G. Stock, M.A., FCIS, C.Adm., CMC is a partner with Catalyst
Consulting. The firm has been designated the Preferred Supplier for Legal
Services Consulting by both the CBA and the Canadian Corporate Counsel
Association. Richard can be contacted at (416) 367-4447 or through the
website at http://www.catalystlegal.com.
What Makes a Law Firm Fire on All CylindersJohn Fraser* This article was previously published in Lexpert, November 2004. No doubt every reader has found herself or himself in the middle of a particularly frantic period in the office, with big files coming and going, everybody working at their limit. How often do we stop to think about what makes the office or practice click, what makes it hum, and what actually feels good? I’ve experienced that hectic environment many times during my 20 years of leading professionals and several years of consulting to them. And I’ve asked myself the question, what is the magic bullet? Year-end is always a good time to consider whether the firm is following the right recipe to make a real difference for clients, which is of course what it is all about. A sense of team is absolutely essential - mutual respect, appreciation, the ability to play on each other’s strengths and to minimize weaknesses, and even affection for each other at times. We know of one firm that values sheer horsepower and “niceness” above all other things. In fact, for nice people, they are quite ruthless about preserving these values. But the importance of being more than just a collection of individuals cannot be stressed enough. Without it there is no basis to build a sustainable firm. Leadership is also key – one or more individuals who have the utmost respect of their partners and the ability to effectively guide the firm toward making choices about what is important to the practice, what sets it apart from the competition, what makes it unique. Good leaders will recognize that it is all about the clients – their business, their requirements and how to get the firm or teams within the firm working together to provide quality service and innovative offerings. Growing the business today requires a proactive approach. Leadership will drive the planning stage - to guide everyone toward analyzing opportunities, deciding on targets and determining the means and resources required to meet those targets. Good leaders will ensure that measurable objectives are developed, and that responsibility for their achievement is assigned to specific individuals. Leadership must also drive execution, i.e. getting things done. And nothing speaks louder than by leading by example – for instance a managing partner who takes the time to meet one on one with the firm’s top 25 clients to get their feedback and identify opportunities. It is important to reflect on the need to make changes to the business model. The traditional law firm model and reality – fees by the hour, rates based on seniority, work coming to partners and not always being sufficiently delegated - come up short, when balanced against the desire we see in our law department work for innovation, reduced or stabilized costs and a deeper value proposition. There is appetite for success fees, premiums, blended rates, rates reflecting the complexity of the work and not the individual lawyers, fixed fees, and multi-year agreements. A senior partner in a Bay Street firm commented recently these sorts of arrangements force the firm to re-think how it does business to remain profitable. Working smarter and better is the answer. Another key ingredient is a strategy to mentor and develop new talent. It is a given that the future of the firm depends on the steady recruitment of associates and the progression of the stars to partner level and leadership positions in the office. And the reality is that the next generation of lawyers doesn’t necessarily want to work at the same intensity as the current partners and that family pressures speak louder than they used to. The challenge is to get the fundamentals of talent management right. Lastly, there must be rewards for doing more than billing time. The firm’s compensation system must reward the right behaviours as well as the right performance. Performance is measured not only in individual terms but also as it relates to team and the strategic goals of the firm. The principal focus is on making the economic pie as big as possible. And the economic heavyweights in the office have to buy into and lead the process. In conclusion, what it takes to fire on all cylinders is a team culture, effective leadership, and a defined strategy for servicing clients, growing the business and managing talent – topped off with a compensation system that rewards non-billable contributions. Like with any recipe, leaving out an ingredient can skew the results. Start your engines! * John Fraser, BCA, MBA, is a partner with Catalyst Consulting. The firm has been designated the Preferred Supplier for Legal Services Consulting by both the CBA and the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association. John can be contacted at (416) 367-4447 or through the website at http://www.catalystlegal.com. PublicationsPublications:
Multimedia Products:
Section Executive 2005-2006Chair: Bonnie G. Patrick Vice-Chair: Joseph Charles McCallum Secretary (Sections): Dawn M. Melville Newsletter Editor: Daniel Edward Pinnington Member-At-Large: Lloyd Mordecai Hoffer Member-At-Large: Daniel J. Murphy, Q.C. Member-At-Large: Sharon L. Murphy Staff Liaison: Peter Guennel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
