My father was expert at things mechanical. He could build a road, fix a car, maintain a house, and do them all well. He had a reputation in his field for high quality work, because he had high standards and a great work ethic. He would never dream of cutting corners or performing a second rate job. And if he encountered unexpected difficulties in a project, he would keep at it until it was done right, no matter how long it took.
My father owned his own business. He was paid not by the hour, but by the job. He paid his employees by the hour, and the more time he and his workers put into a project, the less he made. Within the constraints of the deadlines for delivering a finished product, he always, always, made sure that enough time was put into a project to do the job right.
Clients of large law firms expect and deserve the same attention to quality that drove people like my father. A lawyer delivers quality when the lawyer returns a client's phone calls and emails promptly, listens to and tries to address the client's concerns and achieve the client's objectives, takes care in thinking through and understanding the legal, business and sometimes personal issues pertinent to the matter at hand, develops effective and often creative ways to solve a client's problems, ensures that all lawyers and staff working on a matter perform at a high level, and does all of this within the constraints of the time table and budgetary concerns imposed by the client or by the exigencies of the case.
The best lawyers understand and are motivated by this attention to quality. Many lawyers, however, are not. As with any other business where large sums of money are at stake, lawyers often are tempted to compromise quality for profit. Some lawyers care more about their current year billings and collections than they do about building a reputation for excellence and cost-effective delivery of legal services. Some are more interested in self-promotion than in advancing their clients' goals. And some lawyers simply lack whatever internal fire it is that drives the best to push themselves and their colleagues to the highest levels.
In a good economy, it is easy for lawyers to become complacent, though complacency is never acceptable. In a bad economy, complacency is folly. Every lawyer who wants to succeed in this profession should resolve not so much to bill a lot of hours for the sake of the law firm's short term profitability, but to demand of themselves and of those who work for them the excellence that achieves results and builds long term relationships and reputations.
My father owned his own business. He was paid not by the hour, but by the job. He paid his employees by the hour, and the more time he and his workers put into a project, the less he made. Within the constraints of the deadlines for delivering a finished product, he always, always, made sure that enough time was put into a project to do the job right.
Clients of large law firms expect and deserve the same attention to quality that drove people like my father. A lawyer delivers quality when the lawyer returns a client's phone calls and emails promptly, listens to and tries to address the client's concerns and achieve the client's objectives, takes care in thinking through and understanding the legal, business and sometimes personal issues pertinent to the matter at hand, develops effective and often creative ways to solve a client's problems, ensures that all lawyers and staff working on a matter perform at a high level, and does all of this within the constraints of the time table and budgetary concerns imposed by the client or by the exigencies of the case.
The best lawyers understand and are motivated by this attention to quality. Many lawyers, however, are not. As with any other business where large sums of money are at stake, lawyers often are tempted to compromise quality for profit. Some lawyers care more about their current year billings and collections than they do about building a reputation for excellence and cost-effective delivery of legal services. Some are more interested in self-promotion than in advancing their clients' goals. And some lawyers simply lack whatever internal fire it is that drives the best to push themselves and their colleagues to the highest levels.
In a good economy, it is easy for lawyers to become complacent, though complacency is never acceptable. In a bad economy, complacency is folly. Every lawyer who wants to succeed in this profession should resolve not so much to bill a lot of hours for the sake of the law firm's short term profitability, but to demand of themselves and of those who work for them the excellence that achieves results and builds long term relationships and reputations.
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