Best Practice Tips

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. Our firm has recently gone through a series of partner defections - we were a 40 attorney firm - now we are 10. In our last partnership meeting we had some discussions about the possibility of dissolving the firm. If this comes to pass - do you have any tips or suggestions regarding winding down the firm?

A. Winding down a firm is like starting a firm but in reverse, harder, and has more steps. Sort of like building a house and then later tearing it down. You will have to deal with:

1. Clients (notification, termination of representation, and disposition of case files)
2. Retired partners
3. Current partners
4. Employees (associates and staff) - job placement, severance, etc.

Unlike other businesses - the major asset of a law firm are its clients, employees, and partners - many of which may have already defected or walked out the door. You may be left with only the liabilities.

One of your priorities will be to decide who will manage the winddown and who will manage internal and external communications. Then you will need to develop a project management plan and dissolution/winddown plan/checklist. Major priorities will include:

1. Bank Loans
2. Building Lease
3. Retainer Obligations to Clients
4. Equipment Leases
5. Retirement and Other Payouts to Former Partners

Firm should consider if it will retain a caretaker or trustee to manage the winddown.

You should make sure that you review the ethical requirements with your state bar association concerning:

"If you’re a solo or small firm practitioner, chances are you do a fair amount of your own document production," Trent L. Bush writes in the latest ISBA Standing Committee on Legal Technology newsletter. "Even if you never touch a keyboard, someone on your staff spends a fair amount of his or her time generating those documents."

So shouldn't you be looking for ways to automate the process of document creation? Especially documents you draft again and again? "The traditional approach for handling these documents has been to save them somewhere on the computer system and customize them for each particular client, either by cutting and pasting, searching and replacing text, saving over forms, or some combination thereof," Bush writes. "While this is certainly a much better approach than busting out the old typewriter, it still has its problems."

That's where document assembly software comes in. It's much more powerful than garden variety search and replace and holds the promise of greater productivity and higher profits. But it comes at a cost and with a learning curve, and there are several options to choose from. Read Trent's article and learn the basics.

Asked and Answered

By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Q. Our firm has 24 attorneys. We are managed by a management team consisting of a managing partner (25% of his time), a full-time office administrator, controller, and marketing director. I am currently serving as the managing partner. Recently we have been having conflict between various members of the management team. Our team meetings are stressful and I fear that our effectiveness is being compromised. Do you have any suggestions?

A. I suggest you start by identifying some of the causes. Poor communications are often the root cause of such problems. Interview each of your team members individually and probe. What do they think? Is communications a problem? Are roles, duties, and responsibilities clarified? Lack of clarity in these areas can lead to turf wars. You may want to design a team charter as well as job descriptions for each employee and clarify roles, duties, and responsibilities for each team member. Conduct short weekly team meetings to enhance communications. Use agendas. Take minutes of the meetings. Advise each team member of your expectations including all members working together as team members. Let them know that working together as a team is a performance factor that will be considered in performance evaluations and reviews. Conduct periodic performance reviews. Counsel and take action against problem team members.

Take stock of your performance as well. Are you micro managing the team or second guessing team members? Have you honed your leadership skills? If not - work on your management and leadership skills as well and consider coaching and leadership training if necessary.

Foreclosure mediation helps homeowners find relief – or at least closure – in an often forbidding legal process. It also relieves pressure on an overwhelmed court system. But programs vary from county to county. Find out what’s underway in the June Illinois Bar Journal.