THE BRIEFS
WANTED: Old Fashioned LAW FIRM
VOL. 40 NO. 8

By Frank L. Pohl

I was a partner in a law firm for twelve years. When I began to look for an alternative to that position, I pulled out Martindale-Hubbell and thumbed through the Central Florida law firms looking for the type of firm that I wanted. it didn't exist. So I started my own firm. Now I have been interviewing for additional lawyers and have been comforted to find that I was not alone in seeking out a certain "old fashioned" atmosphere in a radically changing legal industry. Most of the attorneys that I have talked to are not as concerned with the salaries that will be paid to them, but are more concerned with the intangibles of the practice and a return to an old-fashioned value of trust. Trust between lawyer and client and trust between management and lawyer.

Attorneys, of course, mirror their society. Attorneys are tired of bottom line motivation just as the rest of our society is sickened by the hardships and injustice of corporate downsizing and rampant executive compensation. The attorneys I have talked to want a few simple things. They want a decent place to work with people they like and they want to feel as if they are creating or are involved in something greater than themselves. They do not want to be viewed as automatons punching time clocks to produce profits for the firm. They want decisions effecting their future to be made by people who know them and who they see on a daily basis, not by a faceless, nameless committee often in another city and perhaps even another state.

What is it that today's law firms have lost that has created lawyer dissatisfaction? Lawyers in many firms have lost the intimacy of client contact; the involvement in client's affairs; the opportunity to earn the trust of clients. These attributes all take time to nurture. Time, of course, often means billable hours.

Our firm has tried to gain efficiency on the production side in order to allow more time available on the client side. We have tried to have our lawyers benefit from efficient technology, lower overhead, their individual years of legal expertise, and adequate staffing. Of course our firm needs billable hours or the firm won't prosper. What we need even more, however, is our clients' trust and that trust takes time to develop. Our firm has invested its attorneys with autonomy to devote that time to garner that trust. Individual autonomy and flexibility are crucial to permitting the lawyer to devote the time necessary to create trust with a client. Corporate America uses the buzz word "empowerment". The lawyers in our firm feel empowered to make the decisions and the judgment calls on the day-to-day basis that are necessary to treat the client and the client's matter as effectively as possible. It isn't enough to allow the lawyer to make independent decisions regarding his or her brief or research or hearing. They need to be able to autonomously determine if additional time is necessary to attain the proper "bedside manner".

Law firms talk about management. It's usually an "us" vs. "them" concept. Management implies manipulation or use; this is wrong. At our firm we believe we are not managing employees or managing lawyers. What we do is facilitate the delivery of a quality product to our clients We are a team devoted to serving the desires and interests of the client. We are a team devoted to gaining our clients' trust and earning the privilege of having them return to us for other of their legal matters.

A balanced lifestyle enables us to achieve that goal. Our firm does not want our lawyers working every weekend or late every night of the year. A balanced lifestyle will make a better person and a better person will be a better lawyer. Clients know that, clients respond to interesting, motivated and creative individuals. As we approach the millennium, more and more of us are realizing that it isn't how much money we make but how we lead our lives that is important. In the 1990's and beyond it makes good business sense to be "old fashioned".

Frank L. Pohl is a partner in the Winter Park Law Firm of POHL & SHORT, P.A.