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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 that today’s law firms have lost that has helped create 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. |
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