Part 1 - Tools for Streamlining and Automating Your Law Practice
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Take stock of your law practice. Where should you be devoting your time? What common tasks drag you down? And most importantly, what can you do to make your law practice more efficient and profitable? Greg will teach you how can understand the systems that run your law firm, and help you identify the issues holding you back.
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Part 1 - Tools for Streamlining and Automating Your Law Practice
- 1. Tools for streamlining and automating your law practice March 14, 2017 • Seattle, WA Solo & Small Practice Section Annual CLE Greg McLawsen Managing Attorney
- 4. Greg McLawsen Managing Attorney Sound Immigration Twitter: @mclawsen greg@soundimmigration.com www.soundimmigration.com
- 5. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m www.soundimmigration.com/events page 5
- 6. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Outline Against efficiency Focusing on the goal 01 The lawyer as builder A different framework 02 Känbän Visualize your work-in-production 03 Online kanban tools Start experimenting 04 page 6
- 9. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m What is the goal? Attorney See my client achieve her goal and be fairly paid for my work Client Close the deal on my property page 9
- 10. The lawyer as builder. We manufacture legal products, and that’s a good thing.
- 11. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m The lawyer as builder Historically we have been artisans page 11
- 12. We are also builders shipping legal products.
- 13. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m The lawyer as builder Once upon a farm page 13
- 14. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m The lawyer as builder #NotAJoke page 14
- 15. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m The lawyer as builder page 15 Packing station Love note station Handcuff station
- 16. The Bottleneck • Card station is the bottleneck • Bottleneck = system constraint
- 17. How do we improve? • Subordinate to the constraint • Elevate the constraint
- 18. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m The lawyer as builder page 18 Associate Paralegal Partner
- 20. Känbän The free technology you never knew your firm needed
- 21. Kanban Känbän (看板): lit. “signboard.” A way to visualize work in progress.
- 22. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 22 How to kanban
- 23. What’s on your plate? What isn’t? To do Doing Waiting Done Client 1 Client 6 Client 8 Client 15 Client 2 Client 7 Client 9 Client 16 Client 3 Client 10 Client 4 Client 11 Client 5 Client 12 Client 13 Client 14
- 24. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 24 Waiting on client Waiting on 3rd party To do Doing Done Client 8 Client 20 Client 1 Client 6 Client 15 Client 9 Client 21 Client 2 Client 7 Client 16 Client 10 Client 3 Client 11 Client 4 Client 12 Client 5 Client 13 Client 14 Our first learning experience.
- 25. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 25 Prospects Waiting on client Waiting on 3rd party Doing Delegated to LPO Filed Holding pattern Done Our current Kanban columns at Sound Immigration
- 26. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 26 Intake Client questionnaire Paralegal draft Senior attorney review Sample Estate Planning Kanban
- 27. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 27 Sample Property Purchase/Sale Kanban Client questionnaire Paralegal draft Senior attorney review Property inspection Appraisal Waiting on other party
- 28. Litigation is tricky 1. What’s the next action? 2. Where is the case in its lifecycle? To do Doing Waiting Done Client 1 Client 6 Client 8 Client 15 Client 2 Client 7 Client 9 Client 16 Client 3 Client 10 Client 4 Client 11 Client 5 Client 12 Client 13 Client 14 Investigatio n Discovery Motion Practice Trial prep Client 1 Client 6 Client 8 Client 15 Client 2 Client 7 Client 9 Client 16 Client 3 Client 10 Client 4 Client 11 Client 5 Client 12 Client 13 Client 14 1 2
- 29. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 29 One litigation solution: add a dimension Investigation Discovery Motion Practice Trial prep Partner Associate Paralegal Waiting on client Waiting on opposing party Waiting on third party Waiting on court Opposition has provided discovery, now ball moves to partner to set motion practice strategy Where’s the next action? Where is the case in its lifecycle?
- 30. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Känbän page 30 Not “just” for case work
- 33. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 33 Trello
- 34. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 34 Trim, intuitive interface
- 35. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 35 Checklist Comments/ case notes
- 36. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 36 LeanKit
- 37. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 37 Favorite feature: board within board
- 38. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 38
- 39. w w w . s o u n d i m m i g r a t i o n . c o m Online kanban tools page 39 LPM build around kanban
- 40. w w w . s o u n d i m i g r a t i o n . c o m Agile Attorney Slack Group agileattorney.com/join-the-agile- attorneys-slack-group/ Materials from this talk www.soundimmigration.c om/SSP2017 The Goal Eliyahu Goldratt (Painful but helpful read) Resources John Grant agileattorney.com / @JEGrant3 (Mr. Agile Law) Lawyerist podcast John Grant, again http://bit.ly/1NCXd7d The Lean Startup Eric Ries Business as experiment page 40
- 41. Thank you! Greg McLawsen Managing Attorney Sound Immigration Twitter: @mclawsen 253-203-3170 greg@soundimmigration.com www.soundimmigration.com
Editor's Notes
- How are you doing? How’s the practice going? Later today some one is going to ask you at lunch. Maybe they already did. And what’s the one acceptable answer in the legal community? Busy. Because busy means successful, right? Great lawyers are the ones with more work than they can possibly handle. If I hit 3:00 in the afternoon, and don’t feel the crushing weight of 100 undone tasks, that probably means I’m a bit of a loser. Right? No. That’s absolute bullshit. Doing excellent work and accomplishing important things has nothing to do with feeling busy. In fact it’s the opposite. We’re going to talk about one method of bringing clarity to your work.
- Being un-busy is very important to me. I travel abroad 2-3 months every year, mostly in Asia. Last Saturday I got back from here – the Hymalian kingdom of Bhutan – where I happily ran the worst marathon time of my life. To earn that sort of freedom, it’s absolutely critical to have a crystal clear picture of what we’ll be calling “Work in progress.”
- Both client and attorney want to see case successfully closed out. Karol needs paper to print contract but it’s inefficient to drive to store, will wait until paralegal is available next week. End of month, can’t get paid rest of fee because case isn’t closed. Doesn’t matter if paper will be efficiently obtained sometime; that paper became blocking problem that means Karol gets $0 for this case this month.
- Historically we’ve viewed ourselves as artisans. We offer a highly customized, client-tailored service – like a bespoke suit from a tailor. There’s tremendous craft to our profession, and what I’m talking about today has nothing to do with detracting from that view of lawyers. But I want to offer a different and additional framework for viewing how we deliver value to our clients. Photo Credit: worradmu – freedigitalphotos.com
- That framework is the paradigm of manufacturing. Or more broadly, it’s the framework of building things. Today we’re going to try looking at what we do as building a product for our clients. We’re going to think about our law firms as manufacturing plants that build legal products. Or – if you prefer – we’ll view our work the way software developers think about completing projects. It turns out that the project management systems used all throughout the tech industry – that we can apply to law – grew out of car manufacturing. <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-1456598p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Irina Borsuchenko</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Shutterstock.com</a>
- We start our journey far from the assembly room floor in rural Vermont. That’s where my sister, Kay, works on an organic vegetable farm. They grow cabbages that sell for $20 in New York (no kidding). But in the winter things are slow, so Kay moonlights at various odd jobs. Last year she worked in a manufacturing plant building these: Image credit: Supertrooper @ freedigitalphotos.com
- The 50 Shades of Grey tedddy bear. Better yet, when you order one, you can get a customized love note to accompany. Kay’s job was to hand write these customized notes to be packed with the Teddy.
- Big Boss comes to visit Image credit: Business People @ freedigitalphotos.com
- Big Boss comes to visit Image credit: Business People @ freedigitalphotos.com
- Big Boss comes to visit Image credit: Business People @ freedigitalphotos.com
- Big Boss comes to visit Image credit: Business People @ freedigitalphotos.com
- In transactional work tracking “what next” and “who is responsible for the next action item” are the same questions. In litigation, not so. Within a particular stage of the case life-cycle, the ball may pass to associate, paralegal, attorney, opposing party, judge, etc.
- Far more feature-rich, also more confusing
- Far more feature-rich, also more confusing