In today’s episode, I’m speaking with South Carolina consumer rights attorney and co-author of The Lean Law Firm, Dave Maxfield. Dave joins me today to provide an interesting look into how lawyers can adopt techniques from the Lean methodology to empower and improve their law practices.Lean and Agile share essential DNA, including using Kanban to make work flow more smoothly, as well as limiting work in progress, and a formula for actually measuring the productivity of our law practices. This episode is packed with information and practical advice you can use to implement Dave’s insights in your law firm.Tune in this week to discover how to take lean production systems of ... (Keep reading)

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Ep #8: Building the Lean Law Firm with Dave Maxfield

When somebody hires a lawyer, what are they really looking for?They almost certainly have practical needs, but providing value to your client often requires more than just a practical, technical solution. One mainstay of being an Agile Attorney is ​a constant focus on delivering customer value. So how do you ​align your team, your practices, and your tools ​to create an environment that prioritizes client value in your firm? And how do you do it in a way that delivers value in every interaction, not just with your end product?Part of getting this right is really putting yourself in your client's shoes. From their perspective, ​navigating the legal system is ... (Keep reading)

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Ep #6: What Clients Really Want from Lawyers

Do you have numerous cases close to being completed but, because they are no longer urgent, they sit among the rest of your work and make you feel overwhelmed by all there is to do? Many firms overlook addressing this common issue as an opportunity to reduce the total amount of work in their system.I’ll provide insights on how to reduce the work in progress to also reduce the stress and anxiety that come with feeling overwhelmed by a heavy workload. I’ll discuss things that may be consuming a significant amount of capacity without directly contributing to productivity, and explain how reducing those things will help the higher-value work flow ... (Keep reading)

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Ep #5: Close the Closable: Finding Balance in Your Caseload

There is a wealth of tools out there designed to streamline your workflow, easy to pick up and capable of adapting in countless ways as you master them. A personal favorite of mine is the Kanban board. I've been championing it for years, often introducing it to folks for the first time. Today, Kanban boards have gained widespread popularity, with numerous software options available to create your own.In this week's episode, we're going back to Kanban basics, offering insights perfect for both newbies and seasoned users. I'll highlight two key types of Kanban boards that could revolutionize your law practice. Plus, I'll pass on some hands-on advice that I've shared ... (Keep reading)

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Ep #4: Kanban Board Essentials for Lawyers

​​I sat down with Chad Main of legal technology company Percipient for his Technically Legal Podcast. Chad was a great interviewer because he uses Agile practices in his own work, and he got me to break down some of the basics of Agile and Kanban for lawyers who may be new to the concepts. We give a high-level overview of Agile overall, and then dive into the core practices of the Kanban method, including:Making work visible with kanban boards; The value of a daily standup meeting (and other tools for effective team communication); The importance of WIP Limits (work in process limits); andWhy lawyers should ​invest more of their efforts on ... (Keep reading)

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Technically Legal Podcast: Using Agile to Streamline Legal Workflows

If you're feeling overwhelmed or overburdened in your law practice, it may be a sign that you're operating beyond your current capacity. Capacity is a multifaceted concept, encompassing time, energy, skill, knowledge, and more. This week, I focus on having an honest reckoning with capacity, focusing on the relationship between capacity, priority and overwhelm.Often, when discussing capacity, the emphasis is on expansion or addition. While this isn't inherently incorrect, it can be a challenging starting point. To effectively scale the capacity of your business or firm, it's crucial to first understand your existing capacity. In this episode, I provide tools to help you get back within a comfortable capacity and ... (Keep reading)

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Ep #2: The Honest Reckoning with Capacity

Do you ever feel discouraged or overwhelmed by the amount of unfinished work in your law practice? Are you ever juggling so many balls that you’re worried something is going to drop and you may not notice when it does? If so, you’re in the right place. The Agile Attorney podcast is being revived, and each week, I’ll be offering ideas, practices, and principles to help professionals like you infuse Agility into their legal practices.Over the past decade, I have helped lawyers and legal teams harness the tools of modern entrepreneurship to build practices that are profitable, scalable, and sustainable for themselves and their communities. It all starts with becoming ... (Keep reading)

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Ep #1: Four Agile Principles to Help Your Legal Practice

A couple of months ago I had a fanboy moment. Jonathan Stark is someone I’ve been listening to (and reading) for nearly a decade. He’s the prolific host of the Ditching Hourly and Business of Authority podcasts, author of the excellent book Hourly Billing is Nuts, and a proponent of sending daily emails to your list. (Those of you who have followed me for awhile know that I tried and failed at the daily email thing). In any event, Jonathan reached out to ME with an invitation to chat on his Ditching Hourly podcast, so of course I said yes. And it was not a bash session on the billable hour. Jonathan and I more or less agreed that there ... (Keep reading)

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Ditching Hourly Podcast

Ernie founded the 80/20 Principle podcast where he discusses law firm practice management and how to create better systems in law firms. I joined him to discuss the Kanban method for visualizing workflows, the concept of Kaizen for continuous incremental improvement, and practical strategies for optimizing law firm operations. In our discussion, we dissected the concept of bottlenecks in your workflow and demonstrated how fixing the worst offender can drastically improve your entire system. Delve into systems theory, feedback loops, and the Goldilocks zone, where information is just right. We also identified the three high-level systems of a law practice and reveal how improving just one of these systems can ... (Keep reading)

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The 80/20 Principle Podcast

One of my coaching clients, Ben Hudson, and I joined Melissa Shanahan on her Law Owners Podcast and had a great conversation.  Read what Melissa says about the episode here: Do you ever wonder what kind of impact having an expert by your side can have on your practice? What are the similarities between the processes Melissa teaches in Velocity Work and other experts in the field? Can you apply different approaches and see results in your firm? This week, you’re hearing Melissa’s conversation with Mastery Group member Ben Hudson of Hudson Law and John Grant of Agile Attorney Consulting who you recently heard on the podcast. Ben has worked with ... (Keep reading)

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Law Firm Owner Podcast: How to Address Your Firm’s Bottlenecks