The Future of the Legal Profession
  • Home
  • Manifesto
  • Blawg
  • My Books
  • Book Synopsis
  • Sample chapter
  • Value Pricing
  • Store & Links
  • FAQ's
  • Loan Application Form
  • Blog

All I hear is "Impossible!"

20/5/2010

3 Comments

 
Picture
There's a well-known tale in Greek mythology called Pandora's Box. Pandora opened her legendary box ( actually a jar) and let out all evils on the world except for Hope - which the Greeks considered to be as dangerous (if not more) than all the world's other evils.

Soon they discovered that without hope to compensate for their other troubles, humanity was filled with despair. So (as the tale goes) Pandora let out Hope as well.

In the myth, Hope was more potent than any of the other major evils.


Today, we don't consider Hope to be evil. It's what gets many of us through our worst days. What with lingering unemployment, repossessions, dwindling savings and businesses folding - any of these could make a person lose hope.

Fortunately, Pandora recognised the relevance of hope  as an ingredient that is essential to our very existence.

In the current business climate, hope is what keeps us from giving up. I'm an optimist. And while hope and optimism are not exactly the same, they are inherently linked. ( as an aside my family motto is "Dum Spiro Spero" - While I breathe I hope)

For example, I am confident that the economy will eventually improve, and I am also confident that we can all learn lasting lessons from the events that led to these business challenges. But I can't just wait and hope. I have to help things happen.

In doing so, I've put forward some suggestions to partners in a variety of law firms about the direction that I think the law firm of the future should go in.

None of these are new and unique and certainly not all my own ideas. I've suggested doing away with the LLP format, offering fixed price fees, more and better web based services, better customer service, improved phone-answering techniques, offering guarantees, firing bad customers, more virtualised working from home and offering staff shares in the business. 

To address the issue of access to law I've even proposed a social charter based on the German Medical profession where lawyers are required to do a certain amount of pro-bono hours per year; and yet the one word that I keep hearing is "impossible" or "..that won't happen…".  Not, "good idea" or "maybe we could make that work"…but mostly just the one word "impossible".


There is a great  inspirational book called Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do, which says:

"Understand the power of this word: impossible. When uttered aloud, this word is devastating in its effect. Thinking stops. Progress is halted. Doors slam shut. Research comes to a screeching halt. Further experimentation is torpedoed. Projects are abandoned. Dreams are discarded. The brightest and the best of creative brain cells turn off. In this defensive manoeuvre, the brain shelters itself against the painful sting of insulting disappointments, brutal rejections, and dashed hopes.

"But let someone utter the magic words, it's possible. Buried dreams are resurrected. Sparks of fresh enthusiasm flicker. Tabled motions are brought back to the floor. Dusty files are reopened. Lights go on again in the darkened laboratories. Telephones start ringing. Typewriters make clattering music. Budgets are revised and adopted. 'Help wanted' signs are hung out. Factories are retooled and reopened. New products appear. New markets open. The recession has ended. A great new era of adventure, experimentation, expansion and prosperity is born."

This advice, written more than 25 years ago, is just as pertinent today. In fact, when you consider the advances of the past quarter of a century, look at how the face of business has utterly changed:
Did anyone have a website in 1985? What was your mobile phone number? Were you video-conferencing with your other office with the touch of a button?

Some lawyers in 2010 are still reluctant to use e-mail, but that one innovation has completely changed the way we conduct daily business.


Never mind the legal world, what will the next 25 years hold for all of us in business?

I suspect that coming generations will use their technologies in ways we are just beginning to imagine are possible. I'm absolutely certain that future products and services will be developed that will make life easier, safer and better and like email, the internet or mobile phones, we won't know how we lived without them.

But in the legal world today we have these technologies .

I just hope that enough of us have the brainpower and the willpower to implement them; then we can even make the impossible possible.





 
3 Comments
Byron
23/5/2010 06:51:09 pm

G'day Ray,

I am a 30 year veteran of our Legal Aid system here in Tasmania and approaching some form of retirement and have been spending some time thinking about the future of welfare law in Australia - or trying to. I have read Suskind's book and trawled about the web in the USA and elsewhere looking for ideas and help without much success. I stumbled upon you today. I wonder if you could reply with an email address so that I can be a bit more expansive with you and make a request of you please?

Reply
Chrissie Lightfoot link
7/6/2010 10:46:19 am

Hi Raymond

Great posts - both of them i.e. 'why are we in buisness?' and 'impossible'.

There's a lot of food for thought amongst this little lot that you've shared. Thank you for making me think, feel and do.

I love your positivity! And admire your drive to question the status quo in a bid to proffer continuous improvement by inspiring the reader to be pro-active ... and not just to think, but to feel and do too. Wonderful!

I enjoyed the following comments in particular:

* 'So we need innovation in the legal business to progress and improve standards of living for everyone' - thinking
* 'a great inspirational book called Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do' - feeling
* 'But I can't just wait and hope. I have to help things happen' - doing

Like yourself, these things actually resonate with me, particularly as the focus ought to be on the client / customer / consumer in our effort to 'make a difference' (which can be a rather personal as well as firm wide mantra).

In support of your plight and refreshing ideas feel free to take a peek inside eBook The Naked Lawyer as I reckon we're on the same page and beating the same drum: http://bit.ly/byUcuH.

Thanks again Raymond

Chrissie Lightfoot - The Entrepreneur Lawyer

Reply
Zoe link
29/1/2021 07:19:02 am

Great posst thankyou

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    After many years paying lawyers,I became one in 2005 Just in time for the largest upheaval in the law since records began. Brilliant. Exiting times ahead.

    Disclaimer.  The thoughts, ideas and comments on this Blawg ("Blawg - a legal Blog) are my own and not to be confused (unless otherwise stated) with anyone else and certainly not of anyone in the Firm where I used to work and they are not the views of the firm where I used to work.

    Tweets by @ray_mclennan

    Archives

    April 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    April 2018
    September 2017
    November 2016
    September 2015
    January 2015
    May 2014
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    December 2008

    Categories

    All
    10 Rules That Govern Groups
    10 Things That Don\'t Matter
    10 Things That Matter
    3 Choices
    Abs
    Accounts
    Advertising
    Appreciation
    Apps
    Bentley Cars
    Budget
    Cards For All
    Change
    Change Hints
    Charities
    Clay Shirky
    Close Vote
    Coaching
    Competition
    Confirmation Bias
    Conformity
    Creative Destruction
    Customer Service
    Deloitte
    Depression
    Disruptive Technologies
    Droids
    Earning Capacity Of Lawyers
    Economics
    Elephant
    Entrepreneurs
    Facebook
    Fee Income
    Fees
    Frogs
    Fti
    Gene Poool
    George Marshall
    Getting It
    Glasgow Bar Association
    Govan Law Centre
    Government Initiatives
    Group Psychology
    Iphone App
    It Based Law
    John
    KPI\'s
    Laptop Lawyer
    Law As A Commodity
    Law Firm Broker
    Law Firm Start Up
    Law Society
    Leadership
    Legal Docs
    Legal Education
    Legal Firms\' Accounts 2009
    Legal Services Bill
    Legal Websites
    Marketing
    Mdp
    Measurement
    Mental Health
    Mergers
    Minimum Wage
    Modernise Or Die
    More Sales
    Musings
    New Technology
    Office Politics
    Online Docs
    Overcharging
    Partnerships
    Pep
    Perceived Indifference
    Pkf
    Pro Bono Work
    Pro-Bono Work
    Pwc
    Royal Faculty Of Procurators
    Rss Feed
    Sales
    Self Esteem
    Self-esteem
    Self Improvement
    Seo Strategies
    Seth Godin
    Socialism
    Social Media
    Solutions
    Substance Abuse
    Tax
    Tesco Law
    The Firm
    Trainees
    Tribes
    Trust
    Turnaround Time
    Twitter
    Two Killers
    Value Pricing
    Values
    Verasage
    Verasage Institute
    Websites
    Who Gets It?
    You Tube

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    RSS Feed

    Buy1GIVE1 - Transaction Based Giving