TGIF

Still deciding about the office

Dug out from a huge pile of work

Spending the weekend cooking for my friends

Collaborative Lawyers

Today was groundbreaking - the first meeting of the Collaborative Law Section of the Montgomery County Bar Association.  Some old faces and friends were there, and a lot of new ones.  Again I was struck by the level of energy in a room of people who have dedicated themselves to collaborative practice.  Everyone is so excited about really helping clients help themselves.  If you're reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about, visit the website of International Academy of Collaborative Professionals.
What was truly fascinating about this meeting, and about collaborative meetings in general, is that people who embrace collaborative practice, integrate it into their entire beings.  In the normal practice of law,  lawyers really don't get to know each other.  Sure, we may chit chat to pass the time of day, but for the most part, we really don't actually know much about each other.   Some of us can have multiple cases against each other, and our relationships remain fairly superficial.  Not so with collaborative.  In order to practice collaboratively, the professionals involved have to trust each other, and I mean really trust each other.  The only way to do that is to get to know each other.  At the meeting tonight, there were lawyers from different parts of the county, different areas of practice, different size firms, and different types of practices, all talking and laughing together.  People who have done a lot of cases were giving hints to newly trained lawyers.  It gave me a warm feeling, especially when I looked over the room and realized all of the people there who were my good friends, became so through collaborative practice.
The added bonus of all of this is that most of us who practice collaboratively still have traditional law practices.  The connections we build as collaborators spills over into the traditional practice of law.  The result is that we treat our co-counsel as people we genuinely like, and it works to our clients' advantage.  We communicate better, as we are more apt to interpret what they say as non-adversarial, and care more about having ourselves understood, and about understanding what they're saying.  That makes it easier to reach a settlement because we learn both clients' needs and are committed to working together for a solution - even when the case isn't collaborative.  It's kind of like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football.  We trust that Lucy won't pull the football away, and in the collaborative world, she doesn't, so we can let go of that anxiety and just concentrate on kicking the football well.  Is that better for our clietnts?  Of course it is.

Stay at Home Vacation

I didn't go to Amelia Island.  I'm missing all of my friends in the ABA Family Law Section, but all of the upheaval about the office move made the trip impossible.  I'm sorry not to be there, but I decided to take advantage of the time I was planning on being gone to do some office maintenance work.  Today's task was working on my website (Check it out and let me know what you think, and what we can add or change).  We also worked on celebrating Chrystal's birthday (her 29th - ssh, don't tell!).

Negotiation

There's a reason for the saying that a person who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer.  Never has that been driven home to me so forcefully as now.  No, I'm not representing myself.  What I am doing is negotiating to purchase an office.  You would think that, as I negotiate for a living, this would be a piece of cake.  Except it's not.  It's excruciating.  When I negotiate for clients, I am in my element.  I understand tax consequences (not perfectly, but enough for a ball park, and enough to know I need to consult with a tax professional), equity, and weighing options.  I know what's worth a fight, and how to monetize a return on investing in going to trial versus settling.  I know the value of a house and how to measure it.  You would think it would be easy to determine the value of an office building, to know how to measure it and to know what is a fair price.  If I were negotiating for you, no problem.  Negotiating for me is completely different because it introduces the emotional element.  What if I pay too much?  What if I miss an issue?  What if this is the wrong decision?

The emotions completely change the decision making process.  They make it much harder to assess the options.  How do I deal with this anxiety?  Probably differently from the next guy, but when I feel anxious, information reduces my anxiety.  I ask the people who know the subject matter - in this case, my usual appraiser, my banker.  I ask my friends, especially the ones who have negotiated leases and purchased commercial real estate.  Everybody has given me a piece of information so that I can make my own decision.

 Isn't this what our clients do?  They reduce their anxiety in a variety of ways, and one of the usual ways is to talk about their issues and elicit help resolving them.  Why is it that when clients do this, we cringe?  Because my emotionality is related to simply the stress of making one finite decision.  Our clients are emotional 24/7.  Their lives are in turmoil and emotional stress is their constant companion.  So, although I am emotional about one issue, I am unemotional enough in general to be able to identify the source of my stress and what I need to do to resolve it.  Our clients are so stressed that not only are they unable to identify the source of their stress, they are incapable of pinpointing what they need to do to resolve it.  Because of that, they cannot distill useful information from the useless and the harmful.  If we help our clients reduce their stress level in general, and help them feel safe, then they are better to tell us what they need to help themselves and help us help them.  It's probably the most vital part of our job, because without it we can't know what is important to the client and how to help them meet their goals.  What calms and relaxes your clients?  Shouldn't you find out?

What Can We Learn From Southwest Airlines?

Plenty.  Personally, I love Southwest Airlines.  I know that, this week, that's probably an unpopular point of view.  Too bad.  Here's what I love about Southwest:
1.  The fare includes everything.  There are no hidden charges:  no charge for baggage, for choosing seats, for breathing.
2.  The employees are friendly and helpful.  They have fun at work, and in a way that includes the customers.
3.  The flights run on time.
4.  For all the grousing about boarding by pass number, the boarding runs smoothly.  It's actually fun to compare numbers with other passengers because you get to interact with others.
5.  Most of all, I love that Southwest thought about flying from the passenger's point of view.

All of the above place Southwest head and shoulders above the other airlines.  Unfortunately, Southwest was so busy putting its best face forward to the public that it forgot to take care of the back office.  Planes that hadn't been inspected or serviced for years; maintenance neglected.  We all know what happened - it was front and center in the news this week.  A plane literally burst at the seams.  In one fell swoop, all of the good things Southwest does are forgotten.  As a result, Southwest has flight delays and cancellations all over the place as the company scrambles to inspect and repair its planes.  Passengers are afraid reluctant to fly Southwest.  What would it have cost Southwest to keep up with the repairs and inspections?  Not much, certainly much less than the loss of reputation and business.  I hope it gets its act together, because I still love Southwest.  Fortunately, I have a long memory; most customers don't.

What can we as lawyers learn from Southwest?  A lot, as it turns out.  When was the last time most of us looked at our practices from the client's point of view?  From what I've seen, not recently.   If we did, we wouldn't nickel and dime our clients for postage, faxes and copies.  We would be more pleasant on the phone, and more sympathetic and empathetic of our clients' problems.  We would make sure we remembered their children's names and ages.We would under-promise and over-deliver.

We would also have balance in our practices by looking at our practices as business people.  We would make sure contact information for everyone is correct everywhere.  We would proofread documents carefully to make sure they had no obvious errors.  We would make sure our equipment is up to date and repaired.  We would make sure everything we did reflected the care we provide for our clients.  We would treat everyone, clients, judges, masters, lawyers, as we want to be treated.

Bottom line:  Having the public love what you stand for means nothing if you don't deliver what the public wants.  What does your public want?

TGIF

Do we buy an office building?

Uncle Sam wants us - to pay taxes

I thank heavens for my friends!

Erin Took a Break

and came back rejuvenated.  Sometimes, you don't realize how much you need to get away until you do.  Our Erin spent ten days on the beaches of Puerto Rico.  She came back slightly sunburned with a lovely glow, and with her thinking hat on.  She single-handedly figured out a solution to a vexing procedural problem, and then kept thinking of more solutions.  What a gal!  We're glad to have her back, and it doesn't hurt that she brought our four-legged mascot with her.