Here is a complete list of all the new reports published over the past 6 weeks:
Government Online: Improving Service and Engaging Communities
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=48F7D737-1917-4502-B57D-99FE9C9A0040
Information Risk Management
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=E34002C7-E03A-4A02-A4A9-2DB3D377F7B3
Law Firm Remuneration, Reward and Motivation 2nd Edition
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=46EEA138-31F3-49D1-B61D-4F09DB350574
Strategic Internal Communications Second Edition
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=CD9D7D07-4C9F-4A7E-AB09-F27B5C1D0962
Alternative Fee Arrangements
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=B4D2BA75-4C41-430A-B218-FC5BAF313AD5
Balanced Scorecards for the Public Sector
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=5463F878-C7B7-4BB1-ACB5-276AEAAA142D
Business Development for Lawyers
http://www.mpmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=6D0DD592-98F8-4E6F-BEB0-D107D7C82E04
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Alternative Fee Arrangements
Are your fee structures forcing your clients to seek better alternatives elsewhere?
Alternative fee arrangements have been a buzzword for some years now. But as momentum gathers and clients finally put their feet down about excessive billing through hourly rates you simply cannot risk being left behind whilst your competitors win over your clients with more personalised alternatives.
Managing Partner’s report on Alternative Fee Arrangements provides an in-depth look at alternative fee structures and how to make them work within your own firm by aligning culture, behaviour, cost and price.
Key points are illustrated throughout the report with clear examples and practical case studies from firms that are already successfully using alternative fee arrangements.
It reveals why law firms are seeking alternatives to the billable hour, what structures they are using and how to avoid the common pitfalls when implementing them within your own firm. Key topics covered include:
■The billable hour – where it came from, why it stuck and why the world is changing;
■The link between fee structures and the behaviours they encourage;
■The benefits of alternative fee arrangements for both clients and law firms;
■Alternative fee arrangements from the client point of view;
■An examination of alternative fee structures;
■The process of assigning a value to legal services;
■An introduction to value fees, how to sell them and make them work for you; and
■How to respond to FAQs from clients to ensure they understand value fees.
Alternative fee arrangements have been a buzzword for some years now. But as momentum gathers and clients finally put their feet down about excessive billing through hourly rates you simply cannot risk being left behind whilst your competitors win over your clients with more personalised alternatives.
Managing Partner’s report on Alternative Fee Arrangements provides an in-depth look at alternative fee structures and how to make them work within your own firm by aligning culture, behaviour, cost and price.
Key points are illustrated throughout the report with clear examples and practical case studies from firms that are already successfully using alternative fee arrangements.
It reveals why law firms are seeking alternatives to the billable hour, what structures they are using and how to avoid the common pitfalls when implementing them within your own firm. Key topics covered include:
■The billable hour – where it came from, why it stuck and why the world is changing;
■The link between fee structures and the behaviours they encourage;
■The benefits of alternative fee arrangements for both clients and law firms;
■Alternative fee arrangements from the client point of view;
■An examination of alternative fee structures;
■The process of assigning a value to legal services;
■An introduction to value fees, how to sell them and make them work for you; and
■How to respond to FAQs from clients to ensure they understand value fees.
The report features step-by-step guidance on the specific cultural and behavioural changes that need to be made to ensure success in your firm’s use of alternative fee arrangements.
It also discusses the prevalence of value fees in the legal market today and the impact they will have on your firm’s core business operations.
Ensure you are equipped to compete in a post-recession world, not simply on price but on the value you offer to your clients.
For more information on this report contact us on 309 495 2853
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Attracting, Retaining, and Advancing LGBT Lawyers
Attracting, Advancing, and Retaining LGBT Lawyers is now available in PDF format allowing for rapid distibution through your Firm.Through to 5pm April 28th you can order your copy and benefit from a $250 discount - making your copy just $195
To order your copy simply reply to this email quoting the code ME-PDF1
Below is a very brief overview of the report, and a full executive summary can be found here
A full executive summary, introduction and table of contents are available here:
http://www.womenlegalmagazine.com/Publication.asp?pubid=478847E7-AE85-4B38-8959-8F5BFAD7BD7C
Attracting, Advancing, and Retaining LGBT Lawyers is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to not only overcoming the challenges associated with the complex issues that lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender (“LGBT”) lawyers face in the modern legal profession, but also how these issues impact the Law firms that they work for.
Although LGBT individuals have made significant progress towards equality in many social arenas, many still face negative stereotypes, harassment, and bias in the workplace. With clients, law students, and lateral candidates increasingly focused on diversity, law firms must examine their workplace policies, procedures, and cultures to encourage and embrace diversity and ensure that all attorneys experience a respectful and collegial working environment.
Creating diverse workplaces makes good business sense, as many law firms have already discovered. Clients often expect their outside legal counsel to have inclusive workplace policies and diverse client service teams.
Authored by Lisa Linsky (McDermott Will & Emery) and Amy Beard (McDermott Will & Emery) the first part of this report provides a comprehensive overview exploring:
1. The challenges that LGBT attorneys face;
2. Initiatives that firms can use to recruit LGBT attorneys (and strategies attorneys and law students can use to seek out LGBT-friendly firms and programs);
3. The ways in which firms can make their workplaces more welcoming to LGBT attorneys.
The second part of this report comprises of case studies, insight, contributions and practical real world examples from firms and individuals who have achieved high levels of success and recognition including:
C. Elaine Arabatzis (Dickstein Shapiro LLP), Petra Braybrook (Simmons & Simmons), Denise Brogan-Kator (Rainbow Law Center PLLC), Andrew Dent (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP), James Holmes (Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold LLP), D’Arcy Kemnitz (National LGBT Bar Association), James Leipold (National Association for Law Placement), Gail H. Morse (Jenner & Block LLP), Laura Olch (Boston University School of Law), Todd Solomon (McDermott Will & Emery LLP), Gabe Verdugo (University of Washington School of Law), Dr. Jillian T. Weiss (Jillian T. Weiss & Associates), Daniel Winterfeldt (Simmons & Simmons), Jeffrey Wolf (Williams Kastner), and Ann Young (New York Law School), amongst others.
They expand on the topics covered in part one in more depth including:
- The challenges facing LGBT attorneys,
- The need for law firms to encourage diversity
- Methods by which law firms can become more diverse
- Creating cultures of inclusion to retain and attract top LGBT legal talent
- Retaining LGBT attorneys with pro bono and community service initiatives
- Mentoring LGBT attorneys to advance their careers and create firm leaders
- Implementing employee benefits policies to cover domestic partner and other same-sex partner benefits as recruitment and retention tools.
How to order:
==========
To order your copy for just $195 (normally $445) contact us before 5pm April 28th quoting the code ME-PDF1:
- phone - +1 309 495 2853;
- e-mail - melam@ark-group.com
Friday, April 2, 2010
Creating the Successful Law Firm Intranet
Creating a Successful Law Firm Intranet An essential guide to enabling you to create a successful intranet management team, design a successful project plan and successfully develop, launch and maintain your intranet into the future.
Through till 5pm April 8th you can order your copy for just $195 (excluding shipping)
To order your copy, simply email melam@ark-group.com quoting the code ME-LI2.
This report provides iis a step-by-step look at each vital phase of a successful intranet redesign project. It explains why user involvement is critical, how to engage users in an intranet project and what tasks users will perform throughout the life-cycle of the intranet project.
Creating a Successful Law Firm Intranet begins with guidance on how to build a compelling business case that will gain the support needed to help ensure the project is a success from the outset and how to identify the roles and responsibilities of your team.
A full executive summary, introduction and table of contents are available here
Overview:
Creating the Successful Law Firm Intranet begins by addressing and clearly defining:
- Where to begin: building the business case for an intranet
- Who to include: why governance is critical to a successful intranet
- How to do it: methodology to follow for a successful intranet project:
It covers the 5 key phases of an intranet redesign project including:
- Research,
- Design,
- Development,
- Rollout,
- Measurement and Maintenance
Each of these phases include processes, helpful hints and suggested tools that will enable a firm to successfully move to the next phase in the process. Expected deliverables and outcomes of the phase are explained and illustrated.
Creating the Successful Law Frim Intranet features numerous case studies from firms including Baker Donelson, Reed Smith, Torys, amongst others, that demonstrate the methodology and processes being used successfully or in some cases demonstrating how not using these methods can be disastrous.
Who should read this report:
This report is intended for use by intranet managers, librarians, chief knowledge officers, executive administrators, management committee members, chief information officers and anyone who is a champion, manager, creator, developer or user of a law firm’s intranet.
How to order:
To order your copy for just $195 (excluding shipping) contact us before 5pm April 8th quoting the code ME-LI2:
- phone - +1 309 495 2853;
- e-mail - melam@ark-group.com
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
The Value-Able Law Department: Securing Maximum Value from Internal and External Legal Resources
The Value-Able Law DepartmentExecutive Summary:
The current pressures on law departments. which are likely to intensify rather than abate, are such that the law departments must explore new avenues to maximize the value that their companies realize from their investment in legal services. The internal and external resources deployed on a company's behalf must all contribute as fully and as efficiently as possible to achieving the company's legal goals. Benchmarking against other law departments may no longer satisfy the expectations of corporate management, since many companies have driven continual improvement processes throughout the rest of their organizations. They're unlikely to accept anything less from their in-house lawyers.
Those pressures will, therefore, prompt forward-thinking law departments to re-examine their approaches to identifying and deploying the legal resources at their disposal. They likely will revisit periodically the "make-or-buy" equation. In the context of their companies' uses of outside legal expertise, rather than engage in the discussion of "do we retain the lawyer or do we retain the law firm," they should ask something akin to the following question: "which outside lawyer can best provide the specific type of legal expertise we need and how can we most effectively combine that lawyer's assistance with that of the other members of the legal team?"
The line between work done by internal talent and that completed by external talent may need to be redrawn for a variety of reasons. In some cases, perhaps more work should be completed by in-house attorneys and other personnel of the company. Other companies may need to assign more work to outside counsel in order to achieve the most efficiency. Some companies may find that they should pull more work in-house on some matters and more work should be handled by outside counsel as to other matters.
What talents should a law department have on its staff to meet the company's legal needs? How should it fill the slots so identified?
Correspondingly, what types and amounts of legal talent will it need among its external legal advisers? Where should they be located?
Once it determines what work should be completed in-house and which assignments are better left to outside counsel, how can a law department assure itself (and its corporate management) that the entire team of lawyers and other professionals (both inside and outside the company) will work together seamlessly so as to deliver the best legal work appropriate to meet the company's needs?
In addition to recalibrating the application of personnel and other resources internal and external, law departments should consider whether techniques that they might have failed to apply previously can assist them in delivering the "most bang for the buck" that their companies spend on their legal needs. Does "total quality management" offer some benefits that would be useful in that regard? Might some project management approaches provide insight into the most appropriate use of legal talents?
Ultimately, law departments will need to become more specific and granular in their selection of personnel and outside counsel. Rather than continue to the age-old debate of "choose the lawyer" versus "choose the law firm," law departments will need to assemble teams of individuals to represent their companies in specific matters (litigation or otherwise). While some law departments have formed teams by having several of their network law firms work together on one or more matters, in at least some situations in-house lawyers will need to dig into the firms and other organizations with which they're familiar to select individuals or groups to form ad hoc, cross-organizational teams. They may have to find on-demand or contract solutions to immediate talent voids when a longer term solution is not feasible or appropriate.
This book addresses the implications of such a more-granular approach to identifying and selecting the legal resources necessary to address a company's needs for legal service. How might that approach affect or change the nature of the relationship between in-house and outside counsel? What tools and techniques will law departments need to implement such an approach? Will they need to find new expertise or train the in-house lawyers on new approaches or techniques?
Table of Contents:
Part One: Identifying and deploying internal resources to maximum value and advantage
Chapter 1: Value - Some thoughts regarding a definition
- The in-house counsel perspective
- Factors affecting value
- A discussion of ‘quality’
Chapter 2: The measure of value
- Internal and external factors affecting value determination
- The balancing act of resources versus goals
Chapter 3: Planning to identify and apply the appropriate resources
- Contents of a strategic plan
- Strategic strengths and challenges
Chapter 4: Identifying the highest value of in-house counsel
- Benefits and value of in-house counsel
- Qualification and skills of in-house counsel
- Case study: A new in-house lawyer focuses on delivering value
Chapter 5: The role and importance of metrics
- Benchmarking
- Self-diagnosis
- Selecting measurements
- Case study: American Express
- Case study: Motorola
Chapter 6: The ‘make-or-buy’ dilemma
- Cost
- Necessity of admission to practice
- Type(s) of legal work that comprise most of the ongoing work for the company
- The degree to which the particular work is core to the business
- Volume of work and its variability
- Business plans and expectations
- Location work to the extent that work must be done in particular locations
- Centrality of issues to the company’s compliance posture
- Importance of consistency across matters
- Corporate culture/ethos
- Repetitiveness of issues or matters
- Frequency of the need for counseling
Chapter 7: Areas to consider for possible increased in-house role
- Creating a discovery centre within the law department to increase security of data
- Creating a discovery management unit to realize better results in addition to cost savings
- Utilizing on-demand personnel to reduce costs
Chapter 8: The knowledge management challenge
- Why does an organization need a knowledge management system?
- Compliance: A particularly difficult knowledge management challenge
- What value can a knowledge management system offer?
- Hurdles to an effective knowledge management system
- Overcoming the hurdles
- Conclusion
Chapter 9: Using technology to realize greater value
- Improved collaboration
- Case study: Creating a law department extranet to enhance collaboration with outside counsel
- Technology to enhance compliance
Chapter 10: Law department organization and structure
- Managing disputes and litigation
- Compliance
- Managing outside counsel
- Support of the board of directors and the corporate secretary function
- Contract management and administration
- Human resources and employment law
Chapter 11: Cost control – Some possible approaches
- Counsel-selection tools
- Counsel-management tools
- Information management
Part Two: Identifying and deploying external resources to maximum value and advantage
Chapter 12: The value of outside counsel
- Amount of resources
- Type of resource
- Location of resources
- Expertise
- Connections
Chapter 13: An overview of the identification and selection of outside counsel
- Methods of identifying candidate law firms
- A new, improved approach
- Ongoing evaluation
Chapter 14: Unbundling the outside legal service to realize increased value
- Legal research
- Document or data management
- Court reporting
- Temporary or on-demand personnel
- Case study: Unbundling
Chapter 15: The importance of consistent process
Chapter 16: Don’t select either the firm or the lawyer – Select ‘appropriate counsel’
- Case study: Team building
Chapter 17: Setting yourself up to succeed
- Project management
- Strategic partnering
- Business objectives for resolving litigation
- Communication
Chapter 18: Prepare to defend your selection
- Case study in the use of objective criteria
- Evaluation against stated expectations
- Case study: KONE, Inc.
Chapter 19: Managing outside legal resources to maximize their contribution to achieving business goals
- Selection of outside counsel
- The retention of counsel
- Day-to-day management of counsel
- The importance of communication
- Evaluation of firms
- Incorporating other providers in its legal service delivery
Chapter 20: Fees and value
- Corporate law department perspective
- Law firm perspective
- The contexts in which alternative fees should be discussed by clients and law firms
- Alternative fees – Different types
- Fixed fee
- Blended rates
- Retainer
- Value-based fee
- Case study: Engaging clients in a ‘value’ discussion about assignments to support alternative fees
- Percentage fee
- Contingent fee
- Task-based fee
- Hourly rate plus contingency
- Volume discount
- Incentives to expedite
- Task-based budgeting
- Graduated discount
- Convergence
- Obstacles to wider use of alternative fee arrangements
- Overcoming the hurdles
Chapter 21: Law firm structure and its impact on value
- Case study: A law firm structure that benefits clients by delivering more value
- Case study: Impediments to law firm being responsive to client’s needs regarding value
Chapter 22: Reporting by outside counsel
- Case study: Wal-Mart
Chapter 23: Tracking your success and reporting about it
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Transition and Succession Planning for Law Firms
Transition Planning for Law Firms
A comprehensive guide to securing core knowledge and expertise in the legal Profession
Managing Partner Magazine's new report Transition Planning for Law Firms is now available.
Through till March 24th you can order you copy with a $200 discount making it just $295 (excluding shipping). To order this report simply email melam@ark-group.com quoting the code BL-TP1 before March 24th.
The full overview, executive summary and table of contents are now available here
For more information on this report please contact us on 309 495 2853
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Value-Able Law Department: Executive Summary
The Value-Able Law Department - Executive Summary
By Steven A. Lauer ©2010
The current pressures on law departments. which are likely to intensify rather than abate, are such that the law departments must explore new avenues to maximize the value that their companies realize from their investment in legal services. The internal and external resources deployed on a company's behalf must all contribute as fully and as efficiently as possible to achieving the company's legal goals. Benchmarking against other law departments may no longer satisfy the expectations of corporate management, since many companies have driven continual improvement processes throughout the rest of their organizations. They're unlikely to accept anything less from their in-house lawyers.
Those pressures will, therefore, prompt forward-thinking law departments to re-examine their approaches to identifying and deploying the legal resources at their disposal. They likely will revisit periodically the "make-or-buy" equation. In the context of their companies' uses of outside legal expertise, rather than engage in the discussion of "do we retain the lawyer or do we retain the law firm," they should ask something akin to the following question: "which outside lawyer can best provide the specific type of legal expertise we need and how can we most effectively combine that lawyer's assistance with that of the other members of the legal team?"
The line between work done by internal talent and that completed by external talent may need to be redrawn for a variety of reasons. In some cases, perhaps more work should be completed by in-house attorneys and other personnel of the company. Other companies may need to assign more work to outside counsel in order to achieve the most efficiency. Some companies may find that they should pull more work in-house on some matters and more work should be handled by outside counsel as to other matters.
What talents should a law department have on its staff to meet the company's legal needs? How should it fill the slots so identified?
Correspondingly, what types and amounts of legal talent will it need among its external legal advisers? Where should they be located?
Once it determines what work should be completed in-house and which assignments are better left to outside counsel, how can a law department assure itself (and its corporate management) that the entire team of lawyers and other professionals (both inside and outside the company) will work together seamlessly so as to deliver the best legal work appropriate to meet the company's needs?
In addition to recalibrating the application of personnel and other resources internal and external, law departments should consider whether techniques that they might have failed to apply previously can assist them in delivering the "most bang for the buck" that their companies spend on their legal needs. Does "total quality management" offer some benefits that would be useful in that regard? Might some project management approaches provide insight into the most appropriate use of legal talents?
Ultimately, law departments will need to become more specific and granular in their selection of personnel and outside counsel. Rather than continue to the age-old debate of "choose the lawyer" versus "choose the law firm," law departments will need to assemble teams of individuals to represent their companies in specific matters (litigation or otherwise). While some law departments have formed teams by having several of their network law firms work together on one or more matters, in at least some situations in-house lawyers will need to dig into the firms and other organizations with which they're familiar to select individuals or groups to form ad hoc, cross-organizational teams. They may have to find on-demand or contract solutions to immediate talent voids when a longer term solution is not feasible or appropriate.
This book addresses the implications of such a more-granular approach to identifying and selecting the legal resources necessary to address a company's needs for legal service. How might that approach affect or change the nature of the relationship between in-house and outside counsel? What tools and techniques will law departments need to implement such an approach? Will they need to find new expertise or train the in-house lawyers on new approaches or techniques?
By Steven A. Lauer ©2010
The current pressures on law departments. which are likely to intensify rather than abate, are such that the law departments must explore new avenues to maximize the value that their companies realize from their investment in legal services. The internal and external resources deployed on a company's behalf must all contribute as fully and as efficiently as possible to achieving the company's legal goals. Benchmarking against other law departments may no longer satisfy the expectations of corporate management, since many companies have driven continual improvement processes throughout the rest of their organizations. They're unlikely to accept anything less from their in-house lawyers.
Those pressures will, therefore, prompt forward-thinking law departments to re-examine their approaches to identifying and deploying the legal resources at their disposal. They likely will revisit periodically the "make-or-buy" equation. In the context of their companies' uses of outside legal expertise, rather than engage in the discussion of "do we retain the lawyer or do we retain the law firm," they should ask something akin to the following question: "which outside lawyer can best provide the specific type of legal expertise we need and how can we most effectively combine that lawyer's assistance with that of the other members of the legal team?"
The line between work done by internal talent and that completed by external talent may need to be redrawn for a variety of reasons. In some cases, perhaps more work should be completed by in-house attorneys and other personnel of the company. Other companies may need to assign more work to outside counsel in order to achieve the most efficiency. Some companies may find that they should pull more work in-house on some matters and more work should be handled by outside counsel as to other matters.
What talents should a law department have on its staff to meet the company's legal needs? How should it fill the slots so identified?
Correspondingly, what types and amounts of legal talent will it need among its external legal advisers? Where should they be located?
Once it determines what work should be completed in-house and which assignments are better left to outside counsel, how can a law department assure itself (and its corporate management) that the entire team of lawyers and other professionals (both inside and outside the company) will work together seamlessly so as to deliver the best legal work appropriate to meet the company's needs?
In addition to recalibrating the application of personnel and other resources internal and external, law departments should consider whether techniques that they might have failed to apply previously can assist them in delivering the "most bang for the buck" that their companies spend on their legal needs. Does "total quality management" offer some benefits that would be useful in that regard? Might some project management approaches provide insight into the most appropriate use of legal talents?
Ultimately, law departments will need to become more specific and granular in their selection of personnel and outside counsel. Rather than continue to the age-old debate of "choose the lawyer" versus "choose the law firm," law departments will need to assemble teams of individuals to represent their companies in specific matters (litigation or otherwise). While some law departments have formed teams by having several of their network law firms work together on one or more matters, in at least some situations in-house lawyers will need to dig into the firms and other organizations with which they're familiar to select individuals or groups to form ad hoc, cross-organizational teams. They may have to find on-demand or contract solutions to immediate talent voids when a longer term solution is not feasible or appropriate.
This book addresses the implications of such a more-granular approach to identifying and selecting the legal resources necessary to address a company's needs for legal service. How might that approach affect or change the nature of the relationship between in-house and outside counsel? What tools and techniques will law departments need to implement such an approach? Will they need to find new expertise or train the in-house lawyers on new approaches or techniques?
For details on how to order your copy of this report contact us on 309 495 2853
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
