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On a daily basis I look for inspiration for work, for the blog, for my personal life. However, it’s been hard to find “inspiration” when every article seems to be about law firm layoffs, job deferrals, or withdrawn job offers, with or without a golden parachute.

In the comments section of an article on Pillsbury’s recent $60,000 offer to incoming first-years to walk away I found this little “inspiring” nugget:

Yet more proof that the Class of ’09 is the Lost Generation.

Get ready, Class of ’09, more announcements like this to come. You may think you are just deferred, but you are really fired.

Ouch! Nothing inspiring there.

So, I was happy to have my perspective right-sided by a story Jeffrey Gitomer recounted in his blog today, Kids teach the value, purpose, and wisdom of WOW!

Last spring I was walking in a park. A short distance ahead of me was a mom and her three-year-old daughter. The little girl was holding on to a string that was attached to a helium balloon. All of a sudden, a sharp gust of wind took the balloon from the little girl. I braced myself for some screaming and crying.

But, no! As the little girl turned to watch her balloon go skyward, she gleefully shouted out, “Wow!”

I didn’t realize it at that moment, but that little girl taught me something.

Later that day, I received a phone call from a person with news of an unexpected problem. I felt like responding with “Oh no, what should we do?” But remembering that little girl, I found myself saying, “Wow, that’s interesting! How can I help you?”

WARNING: I’m about to go Pollyanna on you.

I do believe that we are all right where we’re supposed to be.
During the last recession, I was a young college grad on the way to law school. Long story short, everyone seemed to be flocking to law school that year. When I didn’t get into the school of my choice, I took it as a sign to do something different. Along my new path I picked up great experiences as a lobbyist for a non-profit, learned how to plan conferences and events, was trained on desktop publishing, and participated in some great sales training.

All of those skills, even without the law degree, provided me the foundation for my current career as a legal marketer, and probably a few other careers as well.

I know a lot of people are out there panicking, but maybe you should be looking at the different opportunities and paths that are now available to you.

The recession will end. The Dow will once again rise. And you will have a career. It might not be what you planned when you were in college, or law school, but you might just end up saying “Wow!”

I have been watching with great interest Brian Cuban’s lead to pressure Facebook to remove the Holocaust denial groups from the site. While I do not have a personal story to share about my relatives perishing in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau or any of the other camps, I have compassion for the 12 million people (yes, in addition to the 6 million Jews, 6 million Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and others were also exterminated).

You see, the last of my family (my infant grandfather) arrived in the United States in 1905. We got out of Dodge (or, in his case, Kiev, Ukraine) just in time. The legacy of the Holocaust and Pogroms, however, does linger within my family. For us, the Morses, Mosses and Eisners, it’s all about the silence.

My family has no family history before arriving at Ellis Island. Other than “Romania,” “Poland” and “Kiev,” I cannot tell you where my family is from, what their professions were, what their history entailed. I know nothing about the family that they left behind, or why the came to America in the first place. We Americanized in that first generation and never looked back.

Whatever happened in the “old country” was so horrible that my family rejected their culture, their religion, even our name is lost to history. My family embraced all things Americana to the point that my immigrant grandfather married a Mayflower descendant.

But I do remember quite vividly visiting Yad Vashem in 1974 when I was just nine. I can still recall the photographs documenting the horrors of the Nazi atrocities that a girl from the San Fernando Valley, CA could never imagine. I will never forget the crying survivors as we walked through the museum. The silence as people mourned. The trees that had been planted in memory of those who had perished. The photographs.

“Never Forget” is the mantra for those preserving the legacy of the Nazi atrocities.

As fewer and fewer survivors remain, standing up against the holocaust denial groups becomes more important.

For this Jewish girl, who has nothing to remember, never forgetting has its own special meaning.

If a little role-playing can spice up a marriage, can it do some good for a dying AmLaw 200 firm?

That’s the premise of a FutureFirm (pdf),

a game of strategy, skill, and endurance. The goal of the game is to craft a new law-firm business model that provides the best odds of your firm surviving and thriving 20 years into the future.

For those of us interested in Scenario Planning, this “game’s” real-world implications can lead to real solutions:

To add urgency to this climate, the weekend began with Anthony Kearns, the Australian lawyer, offering an amusing but sharply focused description of the American big firm landscape. Here’s what he sees:

1. The big firm bubble is about to burst. Choose your pin: angry clients; the exodus of talented people from the practice of law; the competition for associates that firms can’t afford; the increased competition for business between and among the firms.
2. The prevalence of bigger and stronger in-house departments.
3. The presence of three generations in the law firm workplace.
4. The global financial crisis, which has broken the old relationships.
5. The utter failure of firms to differentiate themselves to clients or recruits. (And, I might add, to themselves.)

The areas of convergence, while not shocking, confirm the areas of concern that I, along with many of my peers, have been discussing:

  1. Associates – from salaries, to training, to billable hour requirements and more
  2. Clients – from alternative fee arrangements, to client service and relationships, to loyalty
  3. Partners – from commitment to the firm, to partnership structures

And as there is no singular problem which will lead to the dissolution of a law firm, there can be no singular solution we can point to as a panacea or cure.

Mauer School of Law professor William Henderson will publish a complete and detailed report of the exercise, and I, for one, will be excited to read it.

(to fully enjoy the passage, click on the title and launch in your Facebook)

The Passover Seder, the oldest continuously observed religious ceremony in the world, tells the story of the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt. Jewish tradition says that people of each generation must imagine that they personally had departed from Egypt, and the sages say that each generation must tell the story in its own terms.

The sages probably did not intend this.

Moses is Departing Egypt: A Facebook Haggadah

Joseph is going to Egypt.

Joseph and Pharaoh are now friends.

Elijah is a bit tipsy, but off to a good start. 30,000 households down, and it’s only 6:30!

Pharaoh is sad to report that my father has entered immortality. I have taken his place in government and will do my best to honor his name.

Joseph Congratulations to you, my master.
Pharaoh Who are you, and why are you writing on my wall?
Joseph I meant no disrespect, my master.
Advisor He is an Israelite. There are many of them. I do not know whether they are with us or against us.
Pharaoh Let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they join with our enemies in time of war.

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah finally figured out why we’re supposed to tell the story of the exodus at night. It’s because it says “all the days of your life!”

Ben Zoma Huh?
Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah You see “Days of your life” means days only, but “ALL the days of your life” means nights, too.
Ben Zoma Oh, I always thought that referred to after the coming of the Messiah.
Pharaoh sent The Israelites Bread of Affliction.

The Israelites This stuff tastes awful.
The Israelites This year are we slaves, next year may we be free!

25 things you didn’t know about me by God
1. Guilty pleasure: Smiting people.
2. I had another universe once, it was so much better than this one. But I got really wasted one night and lost it in a game of craps. 🙁 I’m never doing that again.
3. In my old universe, the really cool one, the dominant species was a race of hyper-intelligent beetles. It was so cool. Unfortunately, when I lost that universe I also lost the beetles-as-master-race patent, so now I have to settle for primates.
4. I picked up this universe at a 50%-off sale. I thought I was getting a bargain. But as soon as I took it out of the box at home, I figured out why: space and time are both a bit bent in places, and most of the mass is missing. I wish I had saved the receipt.
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Pharaoh has taken the Which god are you? quiz. Pharaoh is Ra, the Sun god. Ra represents light, warmth and growth.

The Israelites has used Yes We Conserve to pledge to Seal and caulk air outlets.

The Israelites We might as well use extra straw to keep out the hot desert air.

Pharaoh has posted an Album: Construction of Pithom and Raamses.

The Israelites I’m the 432nd slave from the right!
Bernie Madoff The pyramid scheme is a good concept, but you need to think bigger.

Elijah is feeling very harried. 3 million houses left, and it’s already 7:30!

Hillel sent You sandwich.

Youngest son Why is this night different from all other nights?

Parent What do you mean?
Youngest son Well, there’s the drink-four-times thing, and the matzah thing, and the dip in salt-water thing. What’s up with that?

The Israelites has written a note on God’s Wall: We’re suffering! See See Wall to Wall

Rabbi Yehoshua Had a few too many at dinner and spent the whole night at Akiva’s arguing about the Exodus.

Rabbi Tarfon My head hurts.

God has written a note on The Israelites’ Wall: Yeah, I see. Listen, sit tight, and I’ll think of something. See See Wall to Wall

Moses has taken the Which god are you? quiz. Moses is Osiris, God of the Dead. Dressed in white flannel gown, Osiris ruled over the Egyptians and taught them farming.

God Note to self: This is getting really annoying. I have got to add a Commandment outlawing this stupid Which God Are You Quiz. I think I’ll word it broadly so that no one can possibly misunderstand my intentions, and I’ll put it right up front where they can’t possibly miss it.

God has written a note on Moses’ Wall: Moses, stop wasting time and do something about this whole slavery thing. See See Wall to Wall

Pharaoh has used Yes We Conserve to pledge to Use dryer less.

Pharaoh This is a no brainer, as I live in a desert. Also, dryers haven’t been invented yet.

Moses has written a note on God’s Wall: Er, me? See See Wall to Wall

God sent Moses burning bush.
God has written a note on Moses’ Wall: Yeah, you. See See Wall to Wall

Moses has written a note on Pharaoh’s Wall: Let my people go! See See Wall to Wall

Mark Zuckerberg You see? It’s all about the social graph. Israel talks to God talks to Moses talks to Pharaoh. There must be some way to make money off of this.

God Aren’t you the CEO of Facebook? Listen, the old version was so much better. Tell your engineers to bring it back.
Mark Zuckerberg Actually, I’d like to stick with the new one for now.
God I’m sick of seeing all these quizzes! I command you to bring back the old one!

Mark Zuckerberg is fleeing to Tarshish.

Pharaoh has written a note on Moses’ Wall: Up yours! See See Wall to Wall

Mark Zuckerberg and a whale are now friends.

Moses has used Yes We Conserve to pledge to Use trees to control sun and shade.

Moses Back in my day job as a shepherd (which I still hope to return to some day), a few strategically planted trees made all the difference in the world on a hot day.

Elijah is sloshed

God sent Pharaoh a plague: blood.

Advisor No big deal. Our magicians can do that, too.
Pharaoh OK. Whatever.

Pharaoh has written a note on God’s Wall: Nice try. I’m not impressed. The Israelites stay. See See Wall to Wall

God sent Pharaoh 9 more plagues.

Advisor Uh-oh. These are the fingers of God!
Pharaoh OK, I give. 10 plagues is enough.
Rabbi Jose The Galilean Which means that when God later smote them at the Red Sea with his hand, they got 50 plagues.
Rabbi Eliezer No, I think it means 200, since each plague was sent with fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble.
Rabbi Akiva Dude, you missed a comma. Fierceness was its own plague. So that’s five plagues per finger, or a total of 250 plagues.
Pharaoh Will you guys stop running up the score?! You already won! Just stop!

Pharaoh has written a note on The Israelites’ Wall: Get out of here! See See Wall to Wall

Moses has written a note on The Israelites’ Wall: Quickly, people! Just grab everything and go! See See Wall to Wall

The Israelites But what about the bread? We’re in the middle of this great recipe.
Moses Just grab what you can and go! Now!

The Israelites has posted an Album: Fleeing from the Egyptians.

Elijah 100 times as many houses to visit, and presents to lug around, too. How does Santa do it?

Santa Claus We young folks have all the energy! 🙂

Elijah has used Yes We Conserve to pledge to Power chariot by magic horses instead of internal combustion engine.

The Israelites has written a note on Moses’ Wall: Um, there’s a lot of water in front of us, and a bunch of angry Egyptians behind us. Any ideas? See See Wall to Wall

Moses has written a note on God’s Wall: Er, over to you. Any ideas? See See Wall to Wall

God has written a note on Moses’ Wall: Stretch out thy rod over the waters. See See Wall to Wall

Moses is crossing the Red Sea.

The Israelites has posted an Album: Fishes of the deep.

Pharaoh has written a note on The Israelites’ Wall: Now I’ve got you right where I want you!! See See Wall to Wall

Pharaoh is very wet

Elijah is just about ready to call it a night. This gets harder every year.

Pharaoh and Satan are now friends.

God has used Yes We Conserve to pledge to Run sun on nuclear fusion instead of natural gas.

God This way, I can save enough energy to prevent the Earth from.. oh wait, never mind.

God sent The Israelites a Torah.

God Just so you know, the one I wrote for the hyper-intelligent beetles was so much cooler. I miss them. Sigh.

Here endeth the Seder.

This year our ceremony still contains some time for reflection, and some ability to remain on the same topic for more than a minute or two. But next year, may our ceremony be faster, divided into bite-sized chunks, and with each utterance no more than 140 characters. And so we say together,

NEXT YEAR IN TWITTER

“No one seems to be worrying about the next generation of lawyers.” – Richard Susskind, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services.

I’m not writing about this topic because my daughter just happens to be a 1L at Seton Hall University Law School, although it does weigh on my mind. Surely you have noticed the overwhelming disproportion of associate and staff layoffs compared to partners. (BTW, we need to come up with a novel adjective, something other than black: Black was Thursday, Monday, and Tuesday in the stock market crash of 1929; and Black Friday connotes retail profits in the shopping day after Thanksgiving.)
At Adam Smith, Esq., Bruce MacEwen writes about the “The Great Deleveraging” of biglaw. He’s building a case for non-lawyer capitalizion and public ownership, and perhaps it is time for something along the lines of the Clementi Review in the U.S. In today’s blog, he develops an insightful take on leverage:

Why does leverage matter? For starters, as I noted in my 2005 column I quoted at the outset, leverage is your best friend in good times and your worst enemy in bad times. While we’ve heard the drumbeat of client complaints about paying for useless junior associates for years, this is suddenly the kind of environment where it will grow sharp teeth and bite hard. Either: (a) massive litigations will not be pursued because they’re too complicated, uncertain, protracted, and expensive; and/or (b) if they must be pursued, contract attorneys, staff attorneys, and outsourcers will provide the human throw-weight needed for massive document review; and/or (c) corporations will simply insist that document review be completed for flat fees of $X/unit [$1.00/page? $0.50/page?]. In any event, no one I talk to–absolutely no one–believes that the litigation “factory” model with one partner overseeing half a dozen or more associates who are billing ’til the cows come home will be a predominant source of revenue going forward.All well and good, but I think a more interesting calculation compares the ratio of non-equity partners to equity partners.


Now let’s consider the impact of non-equity partners. MacEwen asks, “First, why have no firms announced partner layoffs? Isn’t this the worst kind of cronyism, safeguarding one’s peers, taking it all out on the “little people,” and demonstrating lousy business judgment to boot, when the cost savings realized by offing (say) 10 associates could probably be realized by tossing a single partner overboard. ” What is the impact of non-equity partners on the firm? MacEwen says they are the most expensive form of leverage. But the consequences they have on the culture of the firm are most instructive as MacEwen calls it:

  • The culture shifts from “excellence or else” to “good enough.” I don’t think that “good enough” is sustainable in this environment.
  • In the palmy days of 2001–2007, having a flexibly extensible non-equity tier served as a crutch for firms that wanted to avoid making difficult decisions about people or having awkward conversations with them. I don’t think that those difficult decisions and awkward conversations can be postponed in this environment.
  • One of the reasons we’re seeing widespread associate layoffs–apart from the pure economic imperative to cut costs in order to match revenues to capacity–as to do with morale. It’s dreadful to morale to walk the halls seeing a bunch of your colleagues with too little to do, who are then guiltily sneaking out at 5:30. The non-equity tier, with nothing to aspire to and perhaps psychological speculation on my part, which I am shockingly unqualified to offer) feeling themselves ever so slightly “damaged goods” only exacerbate this. None of us, none of our firms, have room for morale-busting zombies in this environment.
  • The ranks of the non-equities grew not by design but by happenstance and, frankly, inattentiveness. While it may be true, as Oliver Wendell Holmes famously remarked, that “the life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience,” it’s time to apply some analytic logic, some serious and rigorous strategic evaluation, to the weed on steroids that has been the growth of the non-equity tier in too many firms over the past palmy period. And no, we cannot afford to do otherwise in this environment.

So there you have it – one of the best analyses of the future of the pyramid in the legal industry and a harbinger of things to come in Q2 as the recession continues. And now a word on the War for Talent: Fresh talent and innovation will still be necessary. As Susskind writes, “It is our children who will shape the profession, because they are tomorrow’s lawyers and clients….In the world of technology today and in law tomorrow, the child will be father of the man.”

If you saw an injustice in the world, would you stick up your hand and say something? Or stand by and watch it happen, again? The world is full of examples of individuals and governments standing by and saying nothing while atrocities rage. “Never again” is a slogan we all know from WWII. Yet, every day the world turns a blind eye, somewhere.

So, would you stand by and say nothing if you saw bad marketing or advertising by a colleague, a client, or (gasp) a competitor?

Whenever I have seen a bad advertising or marketing campaign I often wonder, “Who in the room thought this was a bad idea and said nothing?” “Who chose to not speak up in fear of what others would think of them?” THAT is the person I would want to fire.

One thing that I believe “differentiates” me from my competitors is that I am pretty darn average. I am born on the cusp of Baby Boomers & Generation X. I am that sweet spot for advertisers per my socio-economic background, education, age, marital status, consumer habits, etc.

So here’s my point: If I’m thinking it or seeing it, I wonder how many others are? And how many of them will actually speak up before it is too late?

I’ve told a partner that his edits reminded me of McDonald’s and “99 Billion Served.” I showed another partner that, on first glance, the font and design chosen by the client for their new bottled water looked like “phallic water.” Not the imagery they were going for.

And when a firm’s new logo was launched I heard my peers gossiping that it looked like a melting Big Stick Popsicle. Ironic thing is, when speaking to internal folks, I heard many of the same comments and more. However, I don’t think anyone stood up and made certain that their feedback was heard.

This morning I let a colleague know that his campaign, while cute, was striking me the wrong way. The imagery took me to the wrong place. It wasn’t how I, as the consumer, wanted to be thought of. What he does with that feedback is his own business.

I don’t know if anyone else will choose to speak up, but I value my relationships too much to allow bad marketing to happen to good people.

I was forwarded an article from Friday’s issue of The Recorder, “Building a Book.” I wanted to pick up the phone and shout out, “Hey, did you read that whole part about financial motivation?”

Associates are encouraged to wine and dine potential clients with the help of an unlimited expense account. And they’re given an incentive: 15 percent of any fees from work they bring in, according to [Stuart] Liner.

Articles like this keep me marveling about the several generations of attorneys bred to be motivated only by numbers, and why we, legal marketing and administrative professionals, continue to fight against this, only to be frustrated again and again.

Right now, I see attorneys primarily motivated by:

  • GPA
  • LSAT
  • Law school rankings
  • Class placement
  • Hours
  • Billed
  • Percentage realized
  • Dollars originated
  • PPEP
  • AmLaw 100 ranking

And the list goes on.

Larry Bodine recently wrote in an article posted to his website, Memo to Senior Partners: Motivating Younger Lawyers to Generate New Business:

You have to make law practice cool again.

While I agree with Larry that we need to bridge the gap between the generations in the workplace, I believe that the current law firm business model does not support it. The business model has yet to adapt to the concept of “work-life balance,” technology and outsourcing, let alone the work ethics, or lack there of, of Generations X, Y or the Millenniums and what motivates them.

How many firms out there support associates attending industry or trade conferences, or to take CLE courses which involve air travel and hotel? How many firms out there are handing out raises and bonuses to partners based on client feedback results? I know many firms offer marketing or business development hours, but how many require that they be used? How many firms actually allow associates to bring in new clients, and to receive origination credit, other than Liner? They might get a “finders fee,” but origination credit?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe most firms out there are only rewarding their attorneys based on a percentage, a dollar sign or a decimal point. Until the business of law changes, why do we continue to try and motivate attorneys in a fashion foreign to them?

We might not have the “power” in the law firm to evoke change, but we have the benefit of knowing the art of persuasion and we can certainly encourage, at the least: a better compensation system which encourages cross-selling; a reward system for marketing and business development activities; a client feedback program tied to attorney bonus; an associate development program, with supportive leadership; and a retention program for women and minority partners.

And while in a perfect firm attorneys will embrace business development, cross-selling, attorney development and retention all for the betterment of the firm, in reality they will remain motivated by a number.

Until then, I say complexo numerus! Embrace the numbers!

I read today that SF has lost its last hometown chairman to NYC:

Matthew Larrabee, chairman of Heller Ehrman, will move to the firm’s New York office this month, the Recorder reports. Larrabee told the publication the change is a strategic plus. “We’ve been focused on building out a truly national platform,” he said. “That means growth in New York and D.C. for us right now.”

Other than the food, shopping and theatre I am confused by the AmLaw 50 trend of disassociating with your home town roots for a NYC zip code or the new “National” title.

Humor me. I know that the firm location label was originally ascribed by American Lawyer via a headcount formula, but the trend itself has been embraced in recent years by the firms themselves.

I get the whole “NYC firms make more money” and “NYC is the center of finance,” but what does relocating the chair of the firm, or the main office, say to your home town, or, better yet, to your attorneys in the now demoted “home” office? It can’t all be client driven? If so, our firm should relocate to Hartford or Boston today.

Working next door to the original “LA Law” building, I have to wonder, where have all the LA law firms gone?

Latham describes itself as a “full-service international powerhouse;” Gibson Dunn references their “global reach.” I do give two thumbs up to O’Melveny for touting their LA history. As a 3rd generation Angeleno, I love the old photos. Too bad you have to dig deep to find the references (Go Dodgers!)

American Lawyer only identifies two of our hometown favorites as Los Angeles firms: Quinn Emmanuel and Sheppard Mullin. But, for how long?

Of the Top 50 AmLaw firms, the breakdown of firm location is:
National – 23
New York – 13
International – 3
Houston – 3
Boston – 2
Atlanta, LA, SF, Chicago, Milwaukee, Richmond – 1 each

So, come on, just between us: What does Wall Street have over Figueroa, Avenue of the Stars, Fremont or Market Streets?

Is this payback for the Dodgers and Giants? It’s been 50 years already.