Around the Legal Industry: 4/15 – 4/19

2013 Survey: 71% of Pre-Law Students Report Being Motivated by Passion for the Profession; 5% by Salary Potential

In a recent online survey, KaplanTest Prep found that the drivers underlying student pursuit of law degrees include passion for the profession and intention to pursue nontraditional legal jobs.

“While we’d always counsel students to go to law school with the intent to practice law, society is filled with lawyers in all types of positions—politicians, lobbyists, authors, law enforcement officials, executives at professional sports leagues, and more—which shows that law degrees can be applied to a broad range of career options,” said Jeff Thomas, director of pre-law programs at Kaplan Test Prep.

Are Vertical and Horizontal “Silos” Harming the Culture of Your Firm?

Writing in the Legal Leaders Blog, global law firm consultant Sean Larkan observes how the isolation of certain groups and individuals can damage a firm’s productivity and culture.  Larkan describes two types of these “silos”:

Vertical Silos — are individuals or groups (Practice Groups, Industry Specializations, Office Locations, etc.) that tend to separate themselves, hoard information and communicate poorly with others outside of the group.

Horizontal Silos — are characterized by job title or seniority.  Equity Partners, for example, may be engaged in dysfunctional communications with Associate Lawyers — who, in turn, are withholding important information from Paralegals. (You get the point…)

How might silos be harming your organization? Unnecessarily rigid identities can reduce cooperation and promote inefficient services or unnecessary staff turnover.  If you think silos are preventing your organization from being all it can be, perhaps it’s time for a difficult — but important — conversation. 

Viewabill Service Allows Firms to Provide “Real-Time” Billing Reports to Clients

Corporate law firm clients are increasingly interested in transparency, accountability and value-for-money from their legal service providers.

Law firms, in turn, want to keep their clients happy — and to minimize unhappy “surprises” that come from unexpectedly high hours reports and bills. What, then, is to be done? Startup company “Viewabill” now offers a service that allows law firms to provide clients with transparent billing reports — in real time.

Viewabill Co-founder (and Harvard Law School Professor) Alan M. Dershowitz advises the firm on ethics affairs.  Dershowitz characterized Viewabill as “a win for the honest law firm.”