As my mind wandered to my long todo list, I started losing patience and getting annoyed with the caller and the person who had made the introduction. I decided to cut the conversation short by thanking the caller and extending an invitation to a fundraiser I was hosting to support relief efforts in Haiti. 

Suddenly, everything changed. 

The caller, Jefferson Crowther, responded to the invitation by telling me about his life commitment to The Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, which he formed in memory of his son, who was his “closest friend in the world.”  For the next 30 minutes, I listened with rapt attention as Jefferson shared the story of Welles’ extraordinary heroism on September 11, 2001.  

A 24-year-old equity trader, Welles was working at the World Trade Center as the horrific events of the day started to unfold. Instead of fleeing the building, he spent the last hour of his life saving others. As chronicled in the New York Times, his courageous acts were characteristic of a man dedicated to being the best person he could be and helping others do the same. 

I’m sharing this with you for two reasons.

First, it’s just one more reminder of the importance of truly getting to know people. Because of my own busy-ness and impatience (among other not-so-good qualities), I had quickly sized up Jefferson as someone who was irrelevant to me and my work in the law. Of course, he proved to be an immense inspiration. But, beyond that, he helped me reconnect with myself as a human being and a lawyer who wants to serve people in meaningful ways. 

Second, I’m sharing this because the Red Bandanna Skate, an annual hockey fundraiser held in Welles’ memory, is coming up on March 20, 2010. It runs from 5-7 pm at Sport-O-Rama Ice Rinks in Monsey, NY. Proceeds from this event go to wonderful causes. Your contributions will mean a lot to Jefferson and the many people who will benefit from your generosity.

On only 48 hours notice, over 200 people attended the event last night and raised more than $3,500 for relief work being done through the nonprofit Esperanza International Foundation. NBC News correspondent Jenna Wolfe spoke poignantly about her experiences covering the disaster. She left us with a deep impression that the images we see every day can’t possibly capture the real human toll and devastation in Haiti.

The evening’s tremendous success is a tribute to the generosity of many. It also evidences the importance and power of building and nurturing a vibrant business network. My brother has always been a skilled networker. But, much more than that, he’s always channeled this talent to benefit and uplift others.

If you’re interested, you can learn more about Esperanza’s Haitian disaster relief initiatives here and can make an online donation here.

In light of the recent tragedy in Haiti, Legal Sanity^® is joining IF Management (a NYC media management company owned by my brother Steve Herz) to co-host a fundraiser tomorrow, Thursday, January 21st, to help support the victims of the earthquake.

The cocktail evening will take place from 6 pm - 9 pm at the World Bar located at 845 United Nations Plaza (Between 47th Street and 48th Street) New York, NY 10017.

Guests will be invited to make a $10 donation at the door, and encouraged to continue to make donations throughout the night. 10% of all drink proceeds from the evening will be gifted to the Haiti relief effort.

If Management clients involved with the event include Jenna Wolfe, national correspondent for NBCs Today and weekend Sunday Co-Anchor, Midwin Charles with Tru TV and Dr. Jeff Gardere, television psychologist, all of whom were personally connected to Haiti and will be present to show their support.

All are welcome to come and support so please feel to forward the invitation along to family, friends and colleagues.

We hope to see you all this Thursday. Your contributions will be greatly appreciated!!

Arnie Herz

These weren’t fill-in-the-blank recitations. They were insightful and moving reflections. With their teacher’s guidance, the kids had taken the time to see and chronicle the world through their classmates’ eyes. This, of course, left nary a dry eye among us parents.

In my last post, I suggested that lawyers can benefit from seeing matters through our clients’ eyes. This requires us to set our own preconceptions aside. As John Baldoni notes in his recent post at (the just-revamped) Harvard Business Review, it also requires us to keep our egos in check.

Adding to the conversation, Seth Godin comments that gaining and keeping this other-focus can be tough when we’re so used to trying to get people to see things our way. (Lawyers are, after all, in the persuasion business.)

But, it can be done.

Pamela Slim offers us some pointers in a recent post on creating a client-centered, natural business model. Like Kathie Conway of Brains on Fire, you might also find that sharing personal stories is a direct route to learning about the people we work with and want to work with.

On the flip side, some suggest that you can’t really know others if you don’t have a strong sense of who you are. Those in need of some guided self-reflection can start with Seth Godin’s engaging 8 questions and a why.

My longtime client, artist Pamela Lawton, recently showed her abstract paintings of New York City's modern architecture at an exhibit called Liquid City. Describing her work, Pamela says: "It's almost an 'intervention,' that's sort of an art term that people use to talk about taking something ordinary and conventional and altering it in some way. By noticing something obscure and distant and beautiful, I think it gives a different dimension to the neighborhood."

Taking something ordinary and conventional and altering it in some way.

These words really strike a chord with me since I’m always considering how lawyers can add a different dimension to the profession’s ordinary and conventional mode of client service. I’ve posted before that this kind of intervention requires us to see things through our clients' eyes and get to the heart of what they want and need from us and the law.

But, like other kinds of real-world interventions, this isn’t a simple or an easy proposition. Most lawyers and law firms are set in outmoded ways. Blogger Jim Hassett – who regularly posts on the topic of alternative fees - frames the problem out nicely in a series of posts on the profession’s addiction to the billable hour. At his blog, Patrick Lamb adds some insight in posts on firms raising their rates and being blind to fundamental market shifts.

For lawyers willing and able to shift perspectives, there’s a lot of inspiration out there. I first learned about William Kamkwamba, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, from a moving segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Blogger Carolyn Elefant picks up the story to encourage lawyers who are “put out by the economy” or otherwise “feeling trapped in the [ ] lawyering grind.”

Seth Godin provides some more fuel for our client service intervention in his recent post on Boundary Makers. Finally, we can tap into the possibility of taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary by viewing this Fast Company slideshow on innovation in materials.

As I’ve written here before, as lawyers, we’re in the business of human relations. To do our job well, we have to connect with the people behind the legal matters we take on and provide meaningful solutions to their problems.

Connecting with clients in this way is not an opt-in exercise in cutting-edge legal service delivery. It’s what our savvy community of consumers expects and demands. As blogger Patrick Lamb recently posted, when these expectations and demands go unmet – when there’s a breakdown in human relations - the fallout can be pretty significant. The lines of communication are wide open thanks to Social Media channels and it doesn’t take much to spread the word.

President Obama experienced this fallout in the wake of the recent shooting at Fort Hood. He’s been roundly criticized for his insensitivity-in-action on the day of the tragedy and lack of compassion and emotion while addressing mourners at the memorial service. Online columnist Nick Morgan frames the issue beautifully in a Harvard Business post titled Why Obama Needed to Speak From the Heart.

Like the rest of us, President Obama needs to be more conscious of the vital importance of relating to the people he serves on an authentic, emotional level. This is human relations 101; a course of action – or, really, a way of being - that’s no longer optional in politics or in business.

• A Ms. JD post on extending legal education
• Recent coverage of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s new ACC Value Index (allowing/encouraging its members to "share ratings of law firms based on client satisfaction")
• Dispute resolution expert Diane Levin’s compelling look at self-awareness.

As I’ve been exploring here for a while, the recession-driven shake-up - along with other changes in the legal profession and larger cultural shifts - have created an unprecedented opportunity for us to remake our legal services. The first step in this redesign process is to set our foundation. This is a composite of our own interests, skills and strengths and the interests, needs and concerns of the people we want to help.

Establishing this base involves a good amount of self-study. Beyond spending time in self-reflection, we can gather input from trusted colleagues and friends. We can also tap the wisdom of experts and influencers outside the legal profession (here a list to source courtesy of Inc.). For example, Seth Godin offers these insightful posts:

• Everyone is clueless
• Help your customers avoid taking responsibility
• The why imperative

We can also gain some perspective from this Fast Company article on redesigning the worst NFL helmet graphics and this NYT piece on reinventing America's cities.

evangelizing legal service delivery 

client experience management 

legal service delivery: what controls the client experience 

are you remarkable?

client centered care 

(re)designing legal service delivery around the client experience (introducing my legal sanity mentor series

why it’s a great time to be a village lawyer 

I based these posts on insights gained from business and marketing experts outside the legal profession. But, client-centricity isn’t unknown in the law. To the contrary, our profession is firmly rooted in this kind of intimate, human-to-human service. Arguably, like the mom and pop shops on main street, it was a norm until larger market forces emerged in the form of BigLaw and the billable hour.

Given our rich history, I prefer to look at client-centricity as a lost art that’s poised for rediscovery now that the legal profession is shifting under the weight (or, jolt) of the economic downturn. As we reclaim this part of our past – and adapt it to a new generation of clients – we can take some tips from articles on creating client-centric services, including a recent one from Business Week on The Art of the Soft Sell.

The article discusses the customer-centric, or consultative, sales process that’s based on “showing how your product or service can help solve a customer's problem.” One of the quoted experts is my friend and colleague Adrian Miller, founder of Adrian Miller Sales Training. According to Adrian, "Consultative salespeople are problem solvers and conceptual thinkers and tend to look at the big picture."

If you want to learn more about offering client-centric legal services as an adept problem solver, stay tuned for my interview with Adrian Miller in the next installment of the legal sanity mentor

I found some good guidance and inspiration on this front in a remarkablogger post titled Why You Are Not A Service Provider. In it, blogger Michael Martine notes that consumers of services “suffer from pain, but it’s more of a situational, logistical, or anxiety-based kind of pain. Our clients don’t necessarily want services. [ ] They want their problem to go away—preferably with as little involvement as possible on their part.” He goes on to suggest that we, and our businesses, will fare much better if we think of ourselves as “problems solvers” rather than “service providers.”

Martine adds some meat to this anti-commodity bone in a related post on How to Be a Godsend. He suggests that answering this “one simple question” can make our practices thrive: What is the painful and protracted problem you solve? When you solve this kind of problem (or, these kinds of problems) for your clients, you’re a godsend in their eyes.

For some additional insight into ways to avoid the commodity label, you can read Anthony Tjan’s recent Harvard Business post on the way small companies succeed by infusing their customer service with common sense and empathy.

If you’re in the NYC on November 5, 2009, you can gain practical tips on being the problem solver your clients need by participating in the New York City Bar’s Sixth Annual Law Practice Management Symposium. This year’s event offers a range of workshops on Jumping In and Staying Afloat in Your Solo or Small Firm Practice. I’ll be speaking as part of a plenary session on Cultivating Work-Life Synergy.

This isn’t a wholly client-led phenomenon. It’s been fueled by the advent of online job boards and tournaments as well as a proliferation of designers who are quick to lower their rates in order to book the job.

Of course, this flip isn’t unique to the design world. As I’ve posted here before, a lot of people believe that lawyers are unremarkable and interchangeable. According to a Chicago Lawyer article on law as a commodity, there may be something to this since technology has taken the craft and nuance out of many tasks lawyers routinely undertake.

Some lawyers might not mind being considered commodities. Certainly, you can try to build and sustain a business on a platform of out-pricing the competition. But, my guess is that many more of us bristle at the commodity label. We want to be valued for more than just a competitive rate. We want to be recognized for the high quality of the services we provide our clients. So, what do we do to get the valuing and recognition we want and deserve?

One way is to get a better fix on what the people we help really want from us. Yes, they need fairly priced services. But, according to a range of experts, they’re also looking for service providers who share their interests, needs and concerns – who are part of their tribe. Putting his spin on the issue, marketing expert John Jantsch encourages us to pierce the commodity veil by giving clients what they’re hungry for: Community, experience, information and transformation.

I’ve always been a proponent of the idea that it’s really hard for unhappy lawyers to provide great client service. To put it another way: The lawyer experience and client experience are two sides of the same coin. You can get a good sense of what I’m driving at by sampling some of my archived posts on the subject:

lawyer experience management 

creating a firm culture that enhances the lawyer experience 

lawyers as user-innovators

can law firms change to meet user demand?

With the recession-fueled law firm shake-ups, the lawyer experience has become a front burner issue for many displaced practitioners as they contemplate their next professional steps.

Kathleen Brady is an expert in career planning for lawyers. I first met Kathy when I was a student and she was Assistant Dean of Career Services at Fordham University School of Law. I asked her to dialogue with me about her work with lawyers going through career transition.

AH You must be busy.

KB Yes, I’m incredibility busy doing outplacement work for law firms.

AH Is it frustrating? How do you deal with fact that there are more lawyers than jobs?

KB We’re not head hunters, so our success isn’t measured by the number of jobs we help people get. Rather, we help lawyers move through the transition process.

AH I like that, helping people through a process. What emotions do you come across?

KB Emotions across the board – from truly relieved because they hated what they were doing to shocked, devastated and appalled because they did everything they were supposed to do and still find themselves out of work.

AH How do you help people deal with the emotions?

KB It’s really important to let them feel what they’re feeling and work through that. If they don’t, the emotions come out at the worst times, like, during job interviews.

AH What does it mean to let them feel what they’re feeling?

KB  It means encouraging them to express their feelings – to vent, cry, etc. We let them know it's OK to be emotional. But, the key is to not let them get stuck in their emotions. To prevent this immobility, we help people focus on effective steps they can take to move forward in their career. That said, when people present additional issues – such as depression, eating disorders or substance abuse - it’s important to recognize the limitations of your counseling abilities. A few psych courses in college or grad school doesn’t qualify me, or most other career counselors, to address those issues. You have to know enough to know when you need to make a referral.

AH  What’s the biggest challenge to getting lawyers-in-transition to experience and embrace this forward momentum?

KB The biggest challenge is convincing them that the job loss, especially a layoff, isn’t personal. It’s challenging because there’s nothing more personal than losing your job. This is where support groups and other resources (bar associations, alumni groups and virtual communities) are vital. Being able to see the common ground, how the recession is hitting everyone, makes it less of a personal slight.

AH Is there a silver lining here when it comes to the lawyer experience?

KB Yes there’s a huge one; particularly for new lawyers. Before the most recent recession, many lawyers moved into their careers without thinking about long-term goals. After a few years, they’d look up and realize they were miserable. Then, they would go through a process of figuring out what they wanted from their career. This process of taking a hard look at your career is happening en masse now and it’s a good thing. Lawyers have a chance to be more deliberate in how they shape their career in the law or on a more non-traditional path.

AH Is there one skill that’s vital to successfully navigating this path to a positive lawyer experience?

KB I’d say networking and business relationship skills are vital. For example, many lawyers spend all their time searching for a job on the internet. They send out 500 resumes to little or no avail. The best way to find a job is to use all your resources. If you see something online, find someone you know at the firm and get your resume to them. If you don’t know anyone there, use your network to make a connection. Connecting with people can be hard work, but it’s a great skill to hone because it’s the same skill set that helps you build relationships for business development and career advancement.

AH Any final words of advice?

KB Young lawyers need to reset their expectations. Some still are convinced that they need to work at the biggest and most prestigious firms. But, they really need to consider where they can acquire the skills they need to get where they want to be in the long term  They need to seriously consider: “Does this job take me closer to my dreams or take me away from them?”

Thank you, Kathleen, for helping us better understand how we can optimize the lawyer experience, even in these difficult times.

When people engage lawyers – especially in contentious matters - they often arrive at our door feeling unsafe and insecure. As much as they want our legal advice and guidance, they’re also expecting that we’ll help them gain/regain a sense of safety and security. The problem is that many lawyers are unaware of their clients’ emotional needs. As a result, clients quickly frustrate and the attorney-client relationship becomes stressful and unproductive all around.

One good solution stems from knowing what it means to be a village lawyer. Put a bit differently, lawyers benefit from understanding what millions of people, including my daughter, so positively respond to about the villages in their lives. With that knowledge and understanding, we can focus on figuring out how to recreate that village sensibility for our clients’ (and our own) benefit. 

Addressing this topic, one of my favorite bloggers, Sonia Simone, writes that it’s a great time to start and nurture a village business.

While village businesses aren’t bound by brick and mortar or geographical limits, they are “personal, intimate, and human-scaled” and “serve a relatively small number of people.” Even if you’re a lawyer in a large firm, you can still be a village lawyer because you’re likely dealing with a small number of clients. As village lawyers, we share a common bond with our clients because we understand and relate to their common needs, interests and concerns.

When it comes to client service, Simone notes the importance of giving people “a place to get together. To know you better, and know one another better.” We can accomplish this virtually or face-to-face.

If you’re excited by the prospect of creating an online community for your villagers, you’ll find some thought-provoking considerations in this Social media Strategy Checklist by ClickZ’s Sean Carton. Chris Brogan enhances the dialogue by detailing 5 Things Small Business Owners Should Do Today Online.

During my recent vacation, I had the chance to go through the virtual folder where I store ideas for blog posts. Here’s a sampling that resonated for me as I prepared to return home and re-engage my solo law practice. I hope it gives you a bit of fuel for the seasonal transition. As always, if you have any other ideas or stories to share, please send them along.

At Harvard Business, Peter Bregman tells us how we can benefit professionally by ignoring our gut and pausing before reacting. If you’re in the throes of a career change (or just fantasizing about a new day job) you can add a soundtrack to your endeavors courtesy of Steven DeMaio’s wonderful Quitter’s Playlist.

With a compelling visual aid, Spike at Brains on Fire reminds us that, more often than not, it’s the little things that make companies (and the people behind them) remarkable.

Over at AmEx’s Open Forum, Chris Brogan offers some great pointers for improving our email communications while Matthew E. May gives us some insight into honing our observation skills.

Those of you who find business inspiration in great design will enjoy this Fast Company selection of Tasty Design Treats for the Fall. And, if you happen to have lost touch with your inner child this Summer, Jenny Williams will help you reacquaint in the cool Fall air via her Wired article on 30 Classic Games for Simple Outdoor Play.

With the economy remaining tight and consumers becoming even more discerning, maybe the time has come to reconsider this hardline stance. Or, maybe it’s time to rephrase the question to make it a bit more palatable.

How about: What are your clients buying?

According to marketing expert John Jantsch; no matter what’s in the sales hopper (greeting cards, HVAC supplies or legal services), “at the end of the day, [people] buy some variation of the same five things.” They buy products and solutions that:

• Make them more money
• Save them more time
• Allow them to avoid the frustration of doing stuff they don’t like
• Help them save or not lose money today and in future
• Help them feel better about themselves

Jantsch goes on to note that we can focus our energy on just one of these selling points or “come up with ways to mix and match” them. Of course, no matter how we decide to go, we need to have a solid sense of who our clients are and the problems they have that we can and want to help them solve with our legal services.

If you need some insight into the psyche of today’s consumers (a/k/a our clients), this article on recession-proof products offers some good food for thought (think chocolate and alcohol).

Having drawn from his observations a bunch of times, I was delighted to have the chance to talk to Spike about his work and how it relates to the law. We opened the conversation by recognizing that we’re kindred spirits of sorts in that lawyers belong to the #1 most mistrusted profession while advertisers rank at #2.

AH: What’s the essence of your work at Brains on Fire?

SJ: We specialize in creating word of mouth movements by helping organizations roll up their sleeves and forge deep connections with their customers and employees.

AH: Can this work for modern-day law firms?

SJ: Well, I’ll use our company as an example of why it can. Marketing firms, even niche ones, are commodities. For each one, there are thousands of others doing the same thing. At Brains on Fire, we differentiate ourselves by trying really hard to make sure people know who we are and what we stand for. We got rid of time sheets, which are standard in our industry. This was huge. We try to embrace our kindred spirits by offering resources to a range of people - even those who won’t end up working with us; even our competitors. Differentiation happens when people come to you because you’re the thought leader who has new ideas and is trying new things.

AH: I can see this approach working for a smaller law firm. But, I wonder if it can work for bigger firms.

SJ: It can. Big companies like Microsoft are doing it. We call it opening the kimono. They’ve given hundreds, if not thousands, of their employees the freedom to blog on company time. In this way, they’re connecting with customers, each other and others in very authentic and meaningful ways. They’re letting people see Microsoft for the bumps and bruises it has, as well as the stuff it does really well. Southwest Airlines has a similarly open company culture. It starts on the inside, with this willingness to give individual employees their voice.

AH: This kind of transparency, this willingness to expose bumps, bruises and missteps, doesn’t seem to exist right now in the legal profession. Firms are very guarded and, at best, give their lawyers limited freedom to blog on the firm’s time.

SJ: This is huge. Companies are made up of people and people are fallible. When you go around saying “our company never messes up,” people see right through that and they can’t wait for you to mess up because then they can call you on it. So, if you say, “look, we don’t do this well, but the only way we can get better is with your help,” this is a refreshing entry into a conversation that goes on with or without you.

AH: I love that “we need your help.” It’s a wonderful way for law firms to engage their clients and employees. These are people who want to step up and be valuable and important.

SJ: Yes, and this plays into the point that there’s a need inside people to be part of something that’s bigger than they are. The firms who figure this out win. You’re no longer a law firm made up of lawyers, you’re a law firm made up of people. And people connect with people.

AH: Yes, that’s right. When you connect with other human beings in meaningful ways, you’re no longer a commodity. You’re a service provider in the true sense.

This was a very inspiring dialogue and I thank Spike for offering his insights on how law firms can engage clients and employees to ignite a movement.

You’ve been laid off.

You just graduated law school and can’t find a job.

You’re an associate in a firm where morale is at rock bottom and you never see daylight.

Finances, family obligations, pride and other real and imagined forces compel you to take some sort of action.

So, you weigh your options: You can network (on social sites and old school). You can identify and build your personal brand. You can go solo and start your own practice. Or, harnessing you interests, passions, concerns and lawyer skills, you can lead a tribe and create a movement.

According to thinkers/experts like Seth Godin and Spike Jones, most of us – yes, including most of us lawyers - yearn to connect around common interests, goals and passions. People sharing this kind of common bond form a single, but scattered, tribe. Tribes are everywhere.

And, today, leadership is about recognizing a tribe (either because you’re in it or committed to its goals) and helping its members satisfy their desperation to connect. You don’t have to reach out to thousands of people at once. You just need to make the initial connection to a small group (Godin calls them the True Believers) and the next group will follow, and so on, bit by bit, until you have a genuine movement.

So …

If you’re a lawyer who’s navigated the difficult road to adopting a child overseas and are passionate about helping others involved in that journey, there’s a tribe for you to lead in your personal and professional capacities.

If you’re a cycling enthusiast who’s seen one too many preventable accidents that caused major injuries, there’s a tribe for you to organize and lead by engaging your legal skill set and other talents.

If you’re a lawyer who loves animals and believe that they deserve to be treated humanely in life and after, you have a tribe that’s waiting for your leadership and the positive change that can come from it.

Whether you lead your tribe as a solo practitioner, a partner in a boutique firm or a biglaw associate, the opportunity is there to challenge the status quo, build a culture and forge a career path that’s rewarding on many levels.

If you want to learn more about tribal leadership and igniting a movement, you can watch Seth Godin’s TED conference talk and read his interview with Brian Clark of Copyblogger.

Later this month, I’ll post on the dialogue I recently had with Spike Jones as part of my Legal Sanity Mentor series on redesigning legal services around the client experience. In the interim, you can read the ChangeThis Manifesto his company, Brains on Fire, just published on Igniting Word of Mouth Movements and this follow-up post.

The legal profession has yet to produce the law firm equivalent of Zappos; Southwest Airlines (note: grab a tissue for this one); or Whole Foods. Nor are is there a legal service consumer equivalent of the devoted Fiskateer.

One silver lining in the current economic slump is that some firms are waking up to the need for client service innovation.

They’ll find some solid guidance in a recent study on great retail shopping experiences (pdf) [hat tip Knowledge@Wharton] and Peter Merholz’s recent post describing How Nintendo Delights Its Customers.

Additional insight comes by way of an article on Embracing Your Inner Customer (aptly highlighting Google’s compelling customer service mantra, “Don’t Be Evil”). One of my favorite bloggers, Duct tape Marketing’s John Jantsch, takes it from a different vantage point by asking: What’s Your Signature response to Problems?

Lawyers and law firms might be tempted to shrug off these examples of service innovation as irrelevant to the business and practice of law. But, that's just the easy out. If an airline, shoe retailer and supermarket can offer services that turn customers into raving fans, why can't a law firm?

Through the wonders of six-degrees-of-separation (many thanks to Debbie Huttner and Michael Huttner), I connected with Jason and had a lively discussion on the topic of re-designing legal services around the client experience.

AH: How many lawyers have you worked with over the years?

JM: 2,000-3,000.

AH: What percentage of these lawyers were excellent?

JM: 5%

AH: What makes a lawyer that pretty rare kind of advisor that inspires client evangelism – someone who provides such meaningful service that clients voluntarily shout his or her praises?

JM: I think it’s a combination of factors:

1.   Team Feeling/Proactive Representation: You want to get the sense that your lawyer is part of your team and interested in your business. You want them to be there for you and thinking about you/your business when you need them to, and also thinking about you/your business even when you don’t need them for a particular matter. This sounds obvious but it rarely happens.

2.   Consistency: This means not swapping out people. For example, in the initial meeting, you meet with certain lawyers, you build rapport and a connection with them and then you end up with different lawyers working on your deal. 

3.   Creativity: If you can think creatively and strategically on how to manage the legal issue in an efficient and effective way, you will get into the Lawyer Rock Star Hall of Fame.

 AH: That gives us a good sense of the lawyer’s side of the coin. Are clients at all responsible for creating their own positive experiences with legal service consumption/delivery?

 JM: The irony is that people who hire lawyers have no idea if the lawyer is any good. I give entrepreneurs 5-6 questions to ask potential lawyers when interviewing them. But the truth is that any lawyer can get past those questions. The best is to ask present or former clients of that lawyer/law firm and to ask other lawyers who have worked with the lawyer on opposite sides of a deal or dispute. Lots of lawyers can get a great reference, show up and woo you in a board meeting but then they don’t really know how to get the work done. They don’t do quality work.

So, yes, I think the client has some responsibility for ensuring their own positive service delivery experience. I riff on this in my Lawyer Bill of Rights. If a client doesn’t follow it, the client has no right to complain.

Thanks, Jason, for lending your insights into client experience design and helping us build legal sanity.

He makes a great point. As lawyers, on the professional front alone, we consume huge helpings of bad news every day – from mainstream media coverage of the economic downturn to niche stories on the sorry state of the legal profession and the latest tallies on law firm firings and closures. It can be a real challenge to not get weighed down and stressed out on this steady diet of negativity.

So, I was very heartened to read a great Harvard Business post in which leadership consultant John Baldoni compels us to Find Ways to Make Good News. Baldoni opens by crediting CNN for its coverage of the life and death of Stephen Tyrone Johns, a Holocaust Museum security guard who was shot and killed in the line of duty by a white supremacist. He then asserts that business leaders owe themselves and their “people” a “break from the relentless progress of bad news.” To help them along, Baldoni suggests that they find and share one piece of good news every day. Or, taking it a step further, they can make some good news via their own positive actions.

You’ll find some complementary tips and tools in this New York Times story on Dealing with Recession-Related Stress. If you’re in the Washington, DC Metro Area on June 24-26, my friend and colleague Charlie Badenhop is leading a stress management workshop for coaches, consultants, leaders and other professionals. You can learn more about it here.

Lawyers aren’t known for being a creative lot. This is evidenced by the enduring nature of the billable hour over alternative fee structures, among other business practices. Some will undoubtedly say: “You can’t change our stripes. Creativity is best left to other professions.” But, I think this is a copout. There’s a wealth of creativity to be tapped in our ranks if we can just find the right inspiration and outlets.

On the inspiration side, you can take a look at a great series of Fast Company posts on the business of creativity, including one featuring the 10 Most Creative People in Sports and one on the Top 10 Most Creative People in Health Care. Imagine what a post on the Top 10 Most Creative People in the Law would include.

On the outlet side, maybe it’s about taking baby steps to tapping and expressing our creativity. Marketing is one area that’s creativity-friendly. Lawyers are already venturing into this creative realm via LinkedIn; Twitter and Facebook.

For more on the marketing front, there’s a great new book from legal marketing expert Paula Black titled: The Little Black Book: A Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Marketing Habit in 21 Days. If you purchase the book in the next 48 hours, you’ll also receive The Smart Lawyer’s Toolkit, a compilation of advice from more than 30 sought-after experts in the legal arena (including yours truly). My advice comes by way of an interview I did with Gerry Riskin, author of The Successful Lawyer, about the challenges facing attorneys in today's economy. You can learn more about Paula’s book and complementary toolkit here.