Are You Prepared for Sudden Death?

A neighbor and friend—who was also a lawyer—died abruptly this week in a car accident/heart attack scenario.  His sudden passing is a cogent reminder that firms simply have to keep a well-updated master calendar and also have a disaster preparedness plan in place. If one of the lawyers in your firm were to die without notice, would you know what appearances she was supposed to make this afternoon? Does someone in your firm have her up-to-the-minute schedule? If a health crisis were to happen in your own law firm office, would you know whom to alert within your firm and who to call on behalf of the lawyer, such as a spouse or close friend or family member? Would you know what to do?  If your firm does have a disaster preparedness plan, do you know where it is? Do you know who is supposed to implement it?

Just wondering.

When I said I was a doctor, I meant juris doctor

No business is immune from the occasional bad actor. What businesses, including law firms, should be better at is protecting themselves and their clients from evildoing from within. We should never have to read stories like this: “Lawyer suspended for two years for pretending to be a doctor.” Really? Were her credentials reviewed annually? Ever? Did the firm have any sort of anonymous reporting mechanism so that human resources staff could investigate tips or even mere suspicions? A firm should also have a response plan in place or be able to develop one very, very quickly should internal mismanagement become public knowledge. How were clients notified of the problem? How were court officials notified?  What protective mechanisms are in place now? How can any of us be certain this will never happen again?

Law Office Management Pinnacle: Nonlawyer CEO!

I am hoping that Pepper Hamilton’s decision to hire a nonlawyer CEO (details are here: Legal Intelligencer) is the start of a trend.

Just as I get annoyed with the “everyone’s a writer” mantra exhibited by freelance wannabes, the “any lawyer can run a business” refrain is even more irksome—and dangerous.  It’s heartening that at least one law firm recognizes that nonlegal expertise is valuable.

What I Just Learned from Super Bowl Lawyers

I was just killing time when I read the AmLawDaily piece, Super Bowl Special: A Look at the Legal Fees Racked Up by NFL Players Ahead of the Lockout. My light reading about lawyers and football quickly became a teachable moment, though. What I saw after scrolling through the list of legal fees that law firms earned from the players’ union was this: a mention that the law firms at which the union’s relatively new executive director had worked seemed to be picking up more football-related business. So there it was: something to walk away with thanks to a quick “rah-rah the Super Bowl is this weekend and let’s peg a piece to it” writeup in AmLawDaily­—a reminder never to burn bridges. Just because people have left one’s current workplace isn’t a reason to let them drop out of your world. Good relationships forged years earlier may well bring lucrative gains in the future. Or they’ll just help you lead a more fulfilling life. Either way, there's a good lesson here. So create and maintain an alumni database—even if it is just done on an individual basis if a law firm can’t bring itself to put together a firmwide one. Then use it. Stay in touch. Maybe even take a former colleague to a football game. Now, go Giants!