As you can tell from my last post, I’m a big fan of visual thinking and visual management tools. I personally use the Lean Canvas and the Business Model Canvas for both myself and my clients, but I’ve often thought that the idea of a canvas would work well in other areas of legal practice as well. A while back I spent some time with Jim Levy, a professional mediator in Seattle, and out of our conversation came the idea spark for a tool that I’m calling the Dispute Resolution Canvas. Since that spark, I’ve prototyped it with several others folks, both attorneys and non-attorneys, for testing and tweaking. Specifically, ... (Keep reading)
The Agile Attorney Blog
A lean or similarly called agile law practice is one that prioritizes the delivery of a valuable project or service early and often. In order to do this, a law practice must create a system that improves time efficiency by removing excess waste. When a lawyer applies these lean processes to his or her workflow, they create services for which the client is happy to pay. But what does it mean to “remove excess waste”? In this episode of New Solo, Adriana Linares interviews me about what it means to have a lean practice, how businesses have soared ahead of law firms in this way, and things every lawyer can do to ... (Keep reading)
I just left the Washington State Bar’s “Future of the Practice” meeting and there was some great discussion about ways to increase access to legal services. If you aren’t familiar with some of the steps that the Washington bar is taking, including their creation of the Limited License Legal Technicians (LLLT) role, they (we—I’m a WA bar member!) are on the cusp of some solidly innovative work to evolve the practice of law. One of the things that came up repeatedly in the meeting was the notion that most lawyers simply don’t have business models that can profitably support clients at the lower end of the resources spectrum. That simultaneously ... (Keep reading)
If you’ve been following this site, you know that I’ve already blogged Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 from my forthcoming book, Kanban for Lawyers. The next chapter (below) is more of an interlude, but it hits on an important point. Too many lawyers (and people in general) look at technology as some sort of magic wand that will fix all ills. Sure there is some intuitive and transformative technology out there. But even with the best tech tools, most technologists will admit that the real improvements come from the process changes that the technology inspires. And if the technology isn’t one of those truly magical things like the iPhone or ... (Keep reading)
A few weeks ago I woke up on a Saturday to a small explosion on my Twitter feed (when you write on an arcane topic like legal operations, small explosions seem significant). Turns out Joshua Lenon from Clio was presenting at the LegalLean conference in Toronto, where he was liberally and admittedly teaching from this very blog*. His presentation is great, and you can watch it below. #LegalLean at MaRS: Joshua Lenon – Unlocking Value in the Traditional Legal Industry from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo. Stealing back from Joshua, I really like one of the things he talks about at the end pertaining to legal process/project management and I ... (Keep reading)
Are you unconsciously cheating yourself and your clients by multitasking? Many people assume that multitasking creates efficiency, but as Oregon Law School professor Elizabeth Ruiz Frost writes in the February/March edition of the Oregon State Bar Bulletin, this logic is deeply flawed. Prof. Frost outlines the growing body of research showing how multitasking, far from improving our ability to get things done, actually hurts both the efficiency and quality of the work being performed. Not only that, it often has a harmful effect on seemingly unrelated tasks. ... (Keep reading)
If you haven’t already, you should probably go check out my last post, which is essentially Chapter 1 of my in-progress book Kanban For Lawyers. As I write this, I’m currently wrapping up the 8th chapter and I plan to publish it to the LeanPub version of the book next week. Right now you can buy the book on LeanPub for as little as a dollar, and if you do so you’ll be entitled to ... (Keep reading)
Recently the ABA’s Law Practice Today Magazine published my article The Dawn of the Agile Attorney. In it, I profile several lawyers, some practicing attorneys and others who have gone on to legal tech careers, who have adopted Agile methods in their work and lives. Reception to the article has been great, and several people have asked me for resources on learning more about Agile. One the one hand, there’s no shortage of information online about Agile and its subsets like Scrum, Kanban, and Lean Startup. On the other, much of the available info is specific to the needs of software teams and developers. I’m working on a backlog of ... (Keep reading)
Wow, blogaversary is a terrible word, but a good time for reflection nonetheless. I started the Legal Value Theory blog a year ago as a place to capture my thoughts around the nature of legal value and occasionally express my frustrations around the perceived lack of value in our industry. At the time I had a dual role working for a mid-sized consulting firm, spending most of my time as a business consultant on client projects but also acting as in-house counsel for the firm. Wearing two hats gave me an interesting perspective on the nature of legal work and operations. ... (Keep reading)
The other day I responded to a question on /r/lawfirm (for the uninitiated, that’s a Reddit group) and it was pretty well received, so I thought I’d clean it up a little and post it here. Before I do, I should point out that the ideas I present are from the Lean Startup philosophy. The term “Lean Startup” is taken from Eric Ries’s book of the same name, and it has become something of a bible in the world of technology entrepreneurs. So much so that it would be difficult for tech startups to attract investment if they were not following Lean Startup principles. ... (Keep reading)
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