Excel Tips For Lawyers & How (Not) To Take A Holiday: Citi Execs Undeterred By Brexit Referendum Despite Market Volatility

Perhaps we should all take a page from Citigroup’s top tier’s Top Gear playbook and relax over those Brexit fears.

Last week, several senior executives specializing in foreign exchange trading at Citigroup’s London office opted out of billable hours and opted into a Ferrari funfest. According to the Financial Times, five of the bank’s top financiers took a “Ferrari safari” around France rather than help prepare for an event that could potentially pound down the country’s currency.

Lower ranks were forced to work long hours on prep for the June 23 referendum—a decision that will determine whether or not the UK exits the European Union—and described the bank directors’ ill-timed holiday as “insulting”.

Now, however, we’re forced to ask, were these caravan critiques made in vain?

Global equities rallied and the pound strengthened today, the most since 2008, with news hinting that the UK has no intention of leaving the EU after all. Instead, the S&P 500 Index shot up, the most in a month, and the Stoxx Europe 600 Index had its largest gain since August as a poll showed Britons favored remaining in the EU.

As star Citi executives sipped on champagne, the Sterling jumped 2 percent, Spanish bonds rocketed, and credit risk fell the most since March, reports Bloomberg. So, don’t vilify those VIPs just yet for rallying, the market seems to be doing much of the same.

If you’re not ready to hop into your Ferrari just yet, try taking another page from this Sterling story. You can bet that the rank-and-file members of Citigroup were making good use of Excel spreadsheets in their GB pound preparation.

Excel is not a tool exclusive to finance executives, law firm managers can make use of it, too. Excel provides many functions that lawyers can use to achieve productivity gains and perfect time-saving techniques that increase overall profitability.

Organizing timesheets in Excel can help trend your most significant cases over time. A legal administrator can organize attorney time by case matter, month, billable hours, or the billing attorney to discover which cases are the most active and which may need more attention, which attorney billed the most this month and which the least.

The best part of using Excel to short cut your expense cutting is that this complex calculator comes free with MS Office.

Your first tip? Press Ctrl + Shift + L too apply filters to your data. Filters create an easy-to-use drop down menu that automatically categories fields in your row or column.

For other tips and tricks, take The Center For Competitive Management’s audio course, “How to Use Excel for Law Firm Billing,” on Thursday, June 23, 2016 at 2:00 PM To 3:15 PM Eastern. Other Excel audio courses can be found here and here.

The same day you learn how to balance your budget, you can see exactly how much of your investments remain after the UK referendum is sure to rock financial markets.

-WB

How Lawyers Can Use Excel: The PowerPivot Add-On & More!

Excel is a tool for Wall Street, right?

Wrong.

Excel is a multi-dimensional tool that is useful in a variety of industries, from accounting to finance to law. Yes, that’s right, there are a plethora of reasons lawyers should use Excel in their practice.

Below are a few suggestions of everyday legal activity that could be made easier and accomplished more efficiently with Excel.

Case Analysis

One of the more important tools in Excel is the PivotTable. Now, there’s a brand new feature—the PowerPivot—that brings PivotTables to a whole new level. First, let’s discuss the features of the regular PivotTable.

PivotTables help organize and analyze data. For example, let’s say you want to organize hot docs by key words in discovery. Or maybe you want to identify key concepts or key witnesses and sort them by priority or some other measure. Perhaps you have a long chain of correspondence for the case and you want to code it by sender, receiver, message subject, etc. PivotTables allow you to take each of these categories and sum, filter, or count their contents. You can take any complex dataset and reorganize it with your own ddesignated columns or rows.

How does this compare to PowerPivot? PowerPivot adds the following capabilities (read more at the Journal of Accountancy here):

• Multiple data sources (pull data from two or more sources into a single report)
• Many types of sources (pull data from just about anywhere into a PivotTable)
• Sets (advanced filtering)
• Large data sources (analyze data that exceeds Excel’s row limit)
• Expressions (advanced functions and time intelligence)

Basically PowerPivot is the new and vastly improved PivotTable. The extra filtering capabilities are exceptionally useful.

Does all this information sound like a foreign language? Take The Center For Competitive Management’s webinar, “Using PowerPivot to Pump-Up the Power of Microsoft Excel,” on Wednesday, March 30, 2016 from 2:00 PM to 3:15 PM Eastern time. 

Case Status Updates

Law firms circulate internally, and to the client, a case status update.

Excel makes this easy by providing a manipulatable database sorted or filtered by client name, county, type of case, date filed, place filed, date settled, opposing attorney, case settlement amount, and attorney fees to date.

At the end of the year, the compilation of all case status spreadsheets will give managing partners the perfect overview of upcoming casework and trials, in addition to closed and settled matters (not to mention, incoming income!).

Casework assignments 

In a similar vein, Excel can expedite the process of assigning cases to attorneys. Excel can be used as a method to effectively organize case assignments and avoid duplication of work effort.

That way, when a senior attorney wants to know who is creating the timeline (in Excel, of course) for his case matter, the information, including the name of the assigned associate and the status of his or her work, is quickly and clearly accessible.

 

Timelines 

For internal reference and trial presentations, timelines are an essential weapon in a litigants quiver. Lawyers involved in complex litigation must have a clear understanding of the chronology of the case.

However, these timelines are also vital to a firm when the case goes to trial—jury members must understand case chronology, as well.

This means a timeline must be both functional and visually stimulating. Enter, Excel.

Excel has the ability to sort timelines by event and date in a meaningful and demonstrative way. Microsoft in Education even provides a tutorial to explain exactly how to achieve this in its article, “Create A Timeline In Microsoft Excel.”

Timesheets

Today, an increasing number of lawyers are using Mac computers and Apple software at the office. Just read the titles of new legal blogs on the web, including Mac Lawyer, Law Office Software For The Macintosh, and Criminal Defense With An Apple.

Even those lawyers, however, are keen on Microsoft products. Take, for example, Esquire Mac’s discussion of billable hour software versus Excel:

“Over the years, I’ve developed a fairly simple but flexible spreadsheet for tracking my billable time. For our firm, this represents the ideal solution at present. I have taken a liking to a few different Mac billing apps out there (like Billings, Involer, Invoice, GrandTotal, and iRatchet) but each of them falls short in one way or another for our purposes.”

No need to purchase expensive billing software when Microsoft Office is already uploaded to your office computers.

In addition, though some firms may have staff or consultants dedicated to case management analysis, for smaller firms, organizing timesheets in Excel can help trend your most significant cases over time.

For example, a legal administrator can organize attorney time by case matter, month, billable hours, or the billing attorney to discover which cases are the most active and which may need more attention, which attorney billed the most this month and which the least.

Access to this type of information will make a firm more attentive to any clients who might be falling through the cracks, and also increase its overall profitability, after it knows where to devote more billable hours.

In the end, Excel has applications in many industries. If Excel is not frequently used in law, it’s because lawyers tend to fear it.

But, help forums and tutorials for Excel are copious online. These days, attorneys have no valid claims to MS-Office ignorance.

So, start small and get familiar with Excel’s massive potential for your firm. After all, the best part about Excel is that you already own it.

-WB

Eliminate Outdated Legal Technology–As Easy As The ABCs

Technology is not only a pragmatic requirement of the practice of law; it is now an ethical one, too.

If your IT Department isn’t already the most integral and important part of your firm, it’s likely you’re already falling behind. Furthermore, if you use any of the following items on a day-to-day basis, your operations are as outdated, as well.

Eliminate some of these machines (and office mores) to get back on track.

“A” for Associates.

Associates are on the decline, and law firm employees on the rise.

Associate compensation models are changing as the legal marketplace becomes overpopulated with a generation of lawyers with very different workplace attitudes and expectations.

Firms are recognizing the growing obsolescence of the traditional lockstep model and are taking steps to rework it or replace it. Firms now have an opportunity to be much more creative in how their attorneys are paid and to use compensation as a way to drive long-term value. To create long-term value and retain good attorneys, a firm first needs to design a strong, coherent, and attractive strategy.

Rather than firing secretaries or de-equitizing partners, Greenberg Traurig law firm has created a new strategy for hiring associates in the form of a “residency program.” Firm managers view this program as a way to attract talented associates without having to endure the costly and risky hiring process. Also, it allows junior lawyers to sign on who may not have made the cut in the first place, reports Law21.

In addition, junior lawyers work case matters without billing their work at the high rates clients have come to expect. Sitting on conference calls and gaining on-the-job training, these “resident” attorneys gain the job experience needed to succeed in the future and sustain life in an over-saturated market today.

Greenberg is simultaneously creating a new non-shareholder-track position called the practice group attorney, similar to the positions at law firms Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton; and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The age of the Associate is over.

“B” for Binders

Why are you till making copies, printing out transcripts, and creating binders? Sure, every once in awhile, there’s a need for a hard-copy backup binder. But, it’s time to go digital.

Papers can be scanned, digitally stored, text-recognized, and then made searchable to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of your law firm.

Binders are out, and electronic case material software—MyCase, Amicus Attorney, AdvantageLaw, LegalFiles, and OneNote—is in.

“C” for Conference calls

How many people really benefit from conference calls? Already, it’s impossible for more than one person to speak, and—often—people accidentally speak over one another.

Is a conference call more efficient than a memo? Do five people really need to bill the client for the same call?

Conference calls can easily be replaced with a quick person-to-person conversation, memorandums circulated over email, lists distributing work product, or—for the advanced law firm—discussions over a wiki (Learn how to create one here).

Ditch the conference call and develop your social capital at in-person conferences instead.

“D” for Dictaphones

Della may have used a Dictaphone for Perry Mason, but outside the world of black and white television is the real world of iPhones and Macbooks.

Your smartphone, tablet, and computer is capable of recording and even transcribing audio. So why are you still using cassette tape recorders? The Dictaphone should die in a fiery death, the app Dragon Dictation, however, is worth its weight in Silicon.

“E” for E-mail

Experts agree, e-mail is outdated. A meeting-less morning, a conference-call free afternoon, or e-mail-less day goes a long way in productivity for the firm and project deliverables for your clients.

Reading and answering e-mail takes up approximately 28 percent of the average workweek for employees, reports a 2012 study by McKinsey & Company. Communicating and collaborating internally takes up 14 percent of the workweek, and searching and gathering information just 19 percent.

Have you ever e-mailed a colleague who shares a wall with you? If so, it’s time to reconsider your e-mail etiquette and e-mail frequency.

Electronic communication certainly has its advantages. But, its overuse has made e-mail under-perform in comparison to old-fashioned office visits.

“F” for Faxes

Ok, keep your fax machine. But only if it’s paid for or used as a paperweight, museum item, or reminder to what legal assistants had to go through to file motions in the past. Otherwise, stick to e-filings or eFaxing.

You know what’s not outdated? MS Office. Take one of The Center For Competitive Management (C4CM)’s audio conferences on technology integration for law firms:

“Excel Dashboards: Tips, Tricks & Techniques to Communicate & Summarize Complex Excel Data,” Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Do you know how to create beautiful graphs that really convey the message of where the company is and where it needs to go? This webinar will show you how to create useful Dashboards that turn business data into actionable information.

Excel Dashboards are a powerful tool to communicate and summarize complex Excel data. They are designed to draw your audience’s attention so the most important information jumps right out at them and they don’t have to scan the entire page for hours just to get a simple answer.

“PowerPoint 2010: Top 10 Steps to Creating & Delivering Killer Presentations,” Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Are you looking for the quickest and most effective ways to create PowerPoint presentations that attract visual interest and communicate your important business information?

Creating professional, unique PowerPoint presentations is much easier than you think. In fact, in just 90 minutes, you will learn how to create beautifully-designed, visually appealing PowerPoint presentations in just 10 simple steps.

During this interactive webinar, you will learn how to take advantage of the many under-utilized formatting options in PowerPoint 2010 to create and customize visually stunning and effective presentations.

And many, many more!

-WB

Throw-back Thursday: Sumerian Syria & Serious Uses For Excel (For Lawyers)

How about another throw-back Thursday history lesson (and then some law). It’s about Syria—but long before the country was known for ISIS, it was valued for ideas.

Today, two days after news came out that ISIS had burned a captive Jordanian pilot to death, the small Middle Eastern nation hit back big. Jordanian fighter jets flew over the home of the slain 27-year-old pilot, Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh, in the village of Ay in Karak governorate after participating in air strikes over ISIS’ de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria.

Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told CNNThursday that Jordan’s response to the killing “will be strong and will be decisive.”

“We will not let this crime of killing our pilots with the horrific way it was done pass without punishment,” al-Momani said to CNN. “These people will be punished.”

As of today, the government certainly lived up to that promise.

If we go back in time, however, we can look to a small city—Mari—located on the border of Iraq and Syria, not far from Jordan, where civilizations used to come together, rather than clash.

Mari (modern-day Tell Hariri, Syria) was an ancient Semitic city located on the Euphrates river western bank. Thousands of years ago it flourished as a trade center and hegemonic state from 2900 BC until 1759 BC. The city was built expressly for the purpose of trade, based on its relative position in the middle of the Euphrates trade routes—a position that made it an intermediary between Sumer in the south and the Levant in the west.

Sumer is a civilization that existed slightly before that of Ancient Egypt and located in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). By the late fourth millennium B.C., Sumer (or Ki-en-gir, ‘Land of the Sumerian tongue’) was divided into approximately a dozen city-states which were independent of one another and which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders, according to historians (read more about Sumer here).

Far before Iraq was coveted for its oil, it was celebrated for its inventions. There are at least four different translations (although they sometimes conflict) on the names of Sumerian rulers and their illustrious lengths of rule. It’s on one such document that an early Sumerian invention is described: the wheel, dating to circa 3500 BC.

You could perhaps claim that Iraq was forever—since as far as Sumer—destined to be a place highly influential in the creation of the car.

Besides the wheel, however, law firm professionals—people, in general—should be thankful for Sumer’s many crucial contributions to modern technology and language. For example, the civilization reminds us even today why there is no point, thousands of years later, in reinventing the wheel (although many people throughout history have tried).

Now, going back to the practice of law, think about how many new computer programs, tablet and mobile apps that organize case matter material, new-fangled software to organize all the details of your case.

Do we need it all?

When it comes to timesheets, timelines, case status updates, “to do” lists, and other casework assignments, Microsoft Excel has become a tried and true tool for lawyers and law firm managers.

And, its many features are available on the iPad, a favorite among attorneys.

Recently, when Microsoft Excel rolled out a bunch of new features for Excel for iPad, we were paying attention. This is a run-down of Excel for iPad’s new design additions (thanks to AccountingWeb):

• Pivot table functionality. In the first incarnation, pivot tables were literally trapped under glass, meaning you could only scroll the data around on the screen. Now, although the workbook must already contain a pivot table before opening it using the app, you have the capability to expand, collapse, filter, and even refresh pivot tables, as shown in Figure 1.The caveat on refreshing is that the source data must be within the same workbook as the pivot table.
• Email documents as PDF. Previously, Excel spreadsheets could only be emailed in their native format, but you can now email spreadsheets in PDF form. Figure 2 walks you through the steps.External keyboard support. Using an external keyboard allows you to use the same navigation and data entry techniques that you do in the desktop-based versions of Excel..
• Flick to select. You’ll quickly wish for this innovative feature in the desktop versions of Excel. Flick a cell’s selection handle in any direction to automatically select all data in that row or column for a contiguous area of the spreadsheet. It’s a huge advance in using Excel on a touch-enabled device.
• Third-party fonts. You can now access third-party fonts installed on your iPad in the Excel app.
• Picture tools. Excel for iPad now supports in-app picture editing so your firm can, for example, update its very attractive blog site.

Not yet convinced of Excel’s application to your law practice? Here‘s a detailed account of how lawyers can use Excel.

Lawyers can use Excel to track (1) timesheets; (2) timelines; (3) case status updates; (4) casework assignments; and (5) financial reporting. These uses, and more, can be easily configured to sync with e-mail in Outlook and all your mobile devices (like the iPad, see above). More than that, Excel is a tried-and-true program that has been used for centuries decades throughout history to save time and money.

Instead of the ghastly air strikes, remember the history of Syria for Sumer. And, don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to (also, don’t add unnecessary conflict in your professional life over it, either).

Learn more about how your law firm can use Excel with The Center For Competitive Management (C4CM)’s guides and webinars:

• Excel Pivot Tables: Shortcuts, Tricks, and Time-Saving Tips to Crunch Data More Efficiently
• Excel Does That? Shortcuts, Tips, and Time-Saving Tricks
• Excel for Financial Reporting: Shortcuts, Tricks, and Time-Saving Tips
• Mastering Excel’s Secret Super Tool: ‘What If’ Data Analysis (2007/2010)
• Mastering Excel as a Database (2007/2010)

-WB

Throw-back Thursday To 3500 B.C.: What Your Law Firm Should Know About The Wheel & MS Excel

How about a throw-back Thursday history lesson (and then some law). It’s about Iraq—but way before the country was valued for oil, it was valued for ideas.

Sumer is a civilization that existed slightly before that of Ancient Egypt and located in southern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). By the late fourth millennium B.C., Sumer (or Ki-en-gir, ‘Land of the Sumerian tongue’) was divided into approximately a dozen city-states which were independent of one another and which used local canals and boundary stones to mark their borders, according to historians (read more about Sumer here).

There are at least four different translations (although they sometimes conflict) on the names of Sumerian rulers and their illustrious lengths of rule. It’s on one such document that an early Sumerian invention is described: the wheel, dating to circa 3500 BC.

You could perhaps claim that Iraq was forever—since as far as Sumer—destined to be a place highly influential in the creation of the car.

Besides the wheel, however, law firm professionals—people, in general—should be thankful for Sumer’s many crucial contributions to modern technology and language. For example, the civilization reminds us even today why there is no point, thousands of years later, in reinventing the wheel (although many people throughout history have tried).

Going back to the practice of law, think about how many new computer programs, tablet and mobile apps that organize case matter material, new-fangled software to organize all the details of your case.

Do we need it all?

When it comes to timesheets, timelines, case status updates, “to do” lists, and other casework assignments, Microsoft Excel has become a tried and true tool for lawyers and law firm managers.

And, its many features are available on the iPad, a favorite among attorneys.

So, last month, when Microsoft Excel rolled out a bunch of new features for Excel for iPad, you should have been paying attention. But, just in case you weren’t, here’s a run-down of Excel for iPad’s new design additions (thanks to AccountingWeb):

Pivot table functionality. In the first incarnation, pivot tables were literally trapped under glass, meaning you could only scroll the data around on the screen. Now, although the workbook must already contain a pivot table before opening it using the app, you have the capability to expand, collapse, filter, and even refresh pivot tables, as shown in Figure 1.The caveat on refreshing is that the source data must be within the same workbook as the pivot table.

Email documents as PDF. Previously, Excel spreadsheets could only be emailed in their native format, but you can now email spreadsheets in PDF form. Figure 2 walks you through the steps.External keyboard support. Using an external keyboard allows you to use the same navigation and data entry techniques that you do in the desktop-based versions of Excel..

Flick to select. You’ll quickly wish for this innovative feature in the desktop versions of Excel. Flick a cell’s selection handle in any direction to automatically select all data in that row or column for a contiguous area of the spreadsheet. It’s a huge advance in using Excel on a touch-enabled device.

Third-party fonts. You can now access third-party fonts installed on your iPad in the Excel app.

Picture tools. Excel for iPad now supports in-app picture editing.

Not yet convinced of Excel’s application to your law practice? Here‘s a detailed account of how lawyers can use Excel.

Not only that, attend The Center for Competitive Management’s audio course on “Excel Charts and Graphs Made Easy” on Friday, October 17, 2014, from 2pm to 3:30pm EST.

Remember the history of Sumer and Iraq and don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to (and don’t add unnecessary conflict in your professional life over it, either).

-WB

What Is Project Management & Should Your Firm Care?

Three men, a project manager, an engineer, and a lawyer, traveled to the Grand Cayman Islands to conduct business there.

Although the Grand Cayman Islands are known for their bustling financial industry, they are—of course—also hub of tourism. So, the three men walk along the nearest beach until one of them stumbles upon a lamp buried in the sand. He rubs it and a genie appears. The genie says “Normally I would grant you 3 wishes, but since there are 3 of you, I will grant each of you one wish.”

The software engineer went first. “I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas, with no money worries.” The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas.

The accountant went next. “I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the islands around St. John, with no money worries.” The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to St. John.

Last, but not least, it was the project manager’s turn. “And what would your wish be?” asked the genie.

“I want them both back after lunch,” replied the project manager. [1]

Now, you may have already heard this joke. Surprisingly, it makes fun of somebody other than the lawyer.

Project management, in general, is not typically associated with legal work. In fact, most lawyers would have a hard time defining the term. Is it case management? Is it human resources?

The Project Management Institute defines a project as “the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals—and thus, better compete in their markets.”

Reading between the lines, project management adds value to a firm. Law firms are no exception.

“Until very recently, lawyers that did recognise the term have considered the concept of project management beneath them. After all, lawyers were artisans not merchants or manufacturers. Each matter was unique and required the utmost flexibility. But the topic has been getting growing attention, especially from clients who have seen internally how important project management can be to efficient operation. Many outside lawyers are, as a result, starting to realize the ‘artisan’ argument does not hold water. Much of what lawyers do is a commoditised process. Even within highly customised bet-the-company cases, there are elements of commodity work and the process is similar from one case to the next, even if the facts are not,” explains Patrick J. Lamb, author of Alternative Fee Arrangements: Value Fees and the Changing Legal Market. [2]

These days, during a recession, it’s even more important to streamline operations and ensure each department adds value. Thus, law firms can no longer ignore project management. It is necessary for firms to succeed.

So, how do you apply project management to case matters within law firms?

According to Jim Hassett, author of The Legal Project Management Quick Reference Guide, there are 8 project management tasks for law firms [3]:

1. Set objectives and define scope
2. Identify and schedule activities
3. Assign tasks and manage the team
4. Plan and manage the budget
5. Assess risks to the budget and schedule
6. Manage quality
7. Manage client communications and expectations
8. Negotiate changes of scope

On the other hand, project management is only as good as its tools. Assigning tasks, planning the budget, and assessing risks require data collection and analysis. For law firms, there’s no better tool than Excel.

Excel can be used as a method to effectively organize case assignments and avoid duplication of work effort. For example, when a senior attorney wants to know who is creating the timeline (in Excel, of course) for his case matter, the information, including the name of the assigned associate and the status of his or her work, is quickly and clearly accessible.

Excel is also a financial tool that can conduct risk assessments and managing accounting books. Luckily, Excel comes free on most computers, and there exist a myriad of help tutorials to get you started. In fact, here are all the MS Office tips and tricks that every lawyer should know.

At the same time, there is a plethora of legal software available to firms with programs customized to your needs. Have your IT Department education you on your options.

Finally, the question remains, if project management is necessary, who then is best at becoming project managers?

For starters, all senior partners should feel comfortable with the tools used to manage projects. There are a lot of time constraitns on the “boss”, but ensuring he efficiency, productivity, and profitability of every firm activity is of primary importance.

Next, consider using your legal librarians as project managers. There’s nobody better suited for a job surrounding organization than a person intimately familiar with the Dewey Decimal system.

Finally, make sure all employees take project management seriously. Whether you increase the managing responsibilities of current managing partners or hire a separate project manager, your law firm should place project managers in a position of authority and respect.

Achieve your wish of “no money worries.” Implement strict project management practices today.

-WB

Need help? Follow C4CM’s guide, Effective Time Management: Take Control, Tackle Work Flow Chaos and Overcome Productivity Challenges.

References:

1. The Joke Index
2. Jim Hassett, The Legal Project Management Quick Reference Guide: Tools and Templates to Increase Efficiency,  2d ed (Boston, MA: LegalBizDev, 2011), 3.
3. Patrick J. Lamb, Alternative Fee Arrangements: Value Fees and the Changing Legal Market (London, UK: Ark Group, 2010), 52.

What Is Project Management & Should Your Firm Care?

Three men, a project manager, an engineer, and a lawyer, traveled to the Grand Cayman Islands to conduct business there.

 Although the Grand Cayman Islands are known for their bustling financial industry, they are—of course—also hub of tourism. So, the three men walk along the nearest beach until one of them stumbles upon a lamp buried in the sand. He rubs it and a genie appears. The genie says “Normally I would grant you 3 wishes, but since there are 3 of you, I will grant each of you one wish.”

The software engineer went first. “I would like to spend the rest of my life living in a huge house in St. Thomas, with no money worries.” The genie granted him his wish and sent him on off to St. Thomas.

The accountant went next. “I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the islands around St. John, with no money worries.” The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to St. John.

Last, but not least, it was the project manager’s turn. “And what would your wish be?” asked the genie.

“I want them both back after lunch,” replied the project manager. [1]

Now, you may have already heard this joke. Surprisingly, it makes fun of somebody other than the lawyer.

Project management, in general, is not typically associated with legal work. In fact, most lawyers would have a hard time defining the term. Is it case management? Is it human resources?

The Project Management Institute defines a project as “the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals—and thus, better compete in their markets.”

Reading between the lines, project management adds value to a firm. Law firms are no exception.

“Until very recently, lawyers that did recognise the term have considered the concept of project management beneath them. After all, lawyers were artisans not merchants or manufacturers. Each matter was unique and required the utmost flexibility. But the topic has been getting growing attention, especially from clients who have seen internally how important project management can be to efficient operation. Many outside lawyers are, as a result, starting to realize the ‘artisan’ argument does not hold water. Much of what lawyers do is a commoditised process. Even within highly customised bet-the-company cases, there are elements of commodity work and the process is similar from one case to the next, even if the facts are not,” explains Patrick J. Lamb, author of Alternative Fee Arrangements: Value Fees and the Changing Legal Market. [2]

These days, during a recession, it’s even more important to streamline operations and ensure each department adds value. Thus, law firms can no longer ignore project management. It is necessary for firms to succeed.

So, how do you apply project management to case matters within law firms?

According to Jim Hassett, author of The Legal Project Management Quick Reference Guide, there are 8 project management tasks for law firms [3]:

1. Set objectives and define scope
2. Identify and schedule activities
3. Assign tasks and manage the team
4. Plan and manage the budget
5. Assess risks to the budget and schedule
6. Manage quality
7. Manage client communications and expectations
8. Negotiate changes of scope

On the other hand, project management is only as good as its tools. Assigning tasks, planning the budget, and assessing risks require data collection and analysis. For law firms, there’s no better tool than Excel.

Excel can be used as a method to effectively organize case assignments and avoid duplication of work effort. For example, when a senior attorney wants to know who is creating the timeline (in Excel, of course) for his case matter, the information, including the name of the assigned associate and the status of his or her work, is quickly and clearly accessible.

Excel is also a financial tool that can conduct risk assessments and managing accounting books. Luckily, Excel comes free on most computers, and there exist a myriad of help tutorials to get you started. In fact, here are all the MS Office tips and tricks that every lawyer should know.

At the same time, there is a plethora of legal software available to firms with programs customized to your needs. Have your IT Department education you on your options.

Finally, the question remains, if project management is necessary, who then is best at becoming project managers?

For starters, all senior partners should feel comfortable with the tools used to manage projects. There are a lot of time constraitns on the “boss”, but ensuring he efficiency, productivity, and profitability of every firm activity is of primary importance.

Next, consider using your legal librarians as project managers. There’s nobody better suited for a job surrounding organization than a person intimately familiar with the Dewey Decimal system.

Finally, make sure all employees take project management seriously. Whether you increase the managing responsibilities of current managing partners or hire a separate project manager, your law firm should place project managers in a position of authority and respect.

Achieve your wish of “no money worries.” Implement strict project management practices today.

-WB

Need help? Follow C4CM’s guide, Effective Time Management: Take Control, Tackle Work Flow Chaos and Overcome Productivity Challenges.

References:

1. The Joke Index
2. Jim Hassett, The Legal Project Management Quick Reference Guide: Tools and Templates to Increase Efficiency,  2d ed (Boston, MA: LegalBizDev, 2011), 3.
3. Patrick J. Lamb, Alternative Fee Arrangements: Value Fees and the Changing Legal Market (London, UK: Ark Group, 2010), 52.

Microsoft Office (Even Excel!) Tips & Tricks That Every Lawyer Should Know

When you type, “are lawyers scared of technology?” in a Google search, you get a surprisingly large number of results.

The first result is a website devoted to paralegals working for attorneys who suffer from Technophobia. What’s the first sign of technophobia, you ask? Slow to adopt the hardware—laptops, iPads, or smartphones, for example.

If you don’t own any of these gadgets, you may suffer from technophobia (and, shame on you!).

But, never fear. There are a few treatments, such as focusing on the positive, educating yourself, and seeking a support group. At first glance, these suggestions seem farcical. But they create, in fact, the perfect vaccination.

First, stay positive. Attitudes are contagious.

Law firm professionals at every level should lead by example. Each time a law firm partner disparages technology or refuses to make even the smallest edits on PPT (unless it’s a billable-hour issue), it’s a symptom of technophobia. And people aim to emulate their superiors.

So, even if you don’t understand it, don’t put it down. There’s no doubt about it—the future of every industry is in technology. Law is no exception.

Second, educate yourself. Take a class or read up online. In the least, be familiar with terminology.

Did somebody in the office mention a “pivot table”? Look it up. In Excel, a pivot table helps summarize, analyze, and present data.

“In plain English, it means, you can take the sales data with columns like salesman, region and product-wise revenues and use pivot tables to quickly find out how products are performing in each region,” explains Purna “Chandoo” Duggirala in his online tutorial.

For corporate litigants, pivot tables can be quite useful. So, next time your financial consultants are explaining their data methods, you may not understand how to duplicate it, but you can at least define it.

See? That wasn’t so scary…

Third, seek a support group. There may not be a Technophobe Anonymous meeting in your area, but your firm can certainly create one. Law firm managers should provide year-round training for legal technology. Make attendance to at least one mandatory to encourage participation (and boost curiosity).

Employees in your IT department are familiar with the idiosyncrasies of your firm’s technology. And, a technology seminar increases the awareness by employees of software and tools available to them. Finally, a technology class at your law firm provides an efficient one-stop shop for all the questions employees were either afraid to ask, or who asked in 100 separate “help!” emails to their colleagues.

To get you started, check out the following must-follow features for lawyers in Microsoft Office. 

1. Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT)

A bit better corporation has everything you need to know about PPT. Check out the following suggestions, particularly useful for law firm professionals, like trial lawyers:

Save Your Fonts with Your Presentation

If you’re preparing a presentation that you plan to distribute to others, be sure that you check this option by clicking on the Tools button in the File/Save As dialog box.  This will work for most TrueType fonts on the Windows platform.

Displaying Keyboard Shortcuts in Tool Tips

If you’d like to see the available keyboard shortcuts for menus, commands, and toolbar buttons, go to Tools/Customize, click on the Options tab, and click on “show shortcut keys in screen tips.”

Making Auto-Fit Text Stop Auto-Fitting

Turn this feature off by going to Tools/Options, click on the Edit tab, and uncheck “autofit text to text placeholder”, click OK.

Getting Rid of Tri-Pane View

Unfortunately there is no way to permanently avoid this improvement, but you can quickly get rid of it by holding down the CTRL key when you click on the Slide View button.

Using Ctrl-Drag to Copy

You can quickly make a copy of any object by holding down the CTRL key while you drag on the object.  You will then “drag off” a new copy.

Making Slides Print Correctly

PowerPoint has certain defaults to determine how it prints each object on the page.  You can see over-ride these defaults. Go to View/Black and White; this will show you a gray-scale preview of how your slide will print.  To change the print settings for any given object, right-click on it, then click “Black and White”, and then choose the appropriate print option for that object.  Master objects can be selected by going to the Master page View.

Preview Slide Show Effects

While editing a presentation, hold down the CTRL key while clicking the slide show view button; this will open a tiny preview window showing that slide in slide show mode

For many more tips, visit PowerPoint Tips & Tricks.

2. Microsoft Excel

Use the following short-cut keys after reading exactly how lawyers use Excel for timelines, timesheets, and casework, here.

KEY

DESCRIPTION

CTRL+(

Unhides any hidden rows within the selection.

CTRL+)

Unhides any hidden columns within the selection.

CTRL+&

Applies the outline border to the selected cells.

CTRL+_

Removes the outline border from the selected cells.

CTRL+~

Applies the General number format.

CTRL+$

Applies the Currency format with two decimal places (negative numbers in parentheses).

CTRL+%

Applies the Percentage format with no decimal places.

CTRL+^

Applies the Exponential number format with two decimal places.

CTRL+#

Applies the Date format with the day, month, and year.

CTRL+@

Applies the Time format with the hour and minute, and AM or PM.

CTRL+!

Applies the Number format with two decimal places, thousands separator, and minus sign (-) for negative values.

CTRL+-

Displays the Delete dialog box to delete the selected cells.

CTRL+*

Selects the current region around the active cell (the data area enclosed by blank rows and blank columns).

In a PivotTable, it selects the entire PivotTable report.

CTRL+:

Enters the current time.

CTRL+;

Enters the current date.

CTRL+`

Alternates between displaying cell values and displaying formulas in the worksheet.

CTRL+’

Copies a formula from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the Formula Bar.

CTRL+”

Copies the value from the cell above the active cell into the cell or the Formula Bar.

CTRL++

Displays the Insert dialog box to insert blank cells.

CTRL+1

Displays the Format Cells dialog box. 

3. Microsoft Word

Ribbons. Have multiple documents open at once? Want to save them all? Save time by making this a ribbon.  The Save All and Close All commands are not part of the default Ribbon, but they’re easy to create. you can easily add them to your Ribbon.

Go to File –> Options –>Customize Ribbon. Select Commands Not in the Ribbon under Choose commands from column. Presto! Add it to your Quick Access toolbar and never worry about accidentally closing unsaved documents.

Oops. Did you accidentally close unsaved documents?

Recover unsaved documents with File –> Info –> Manage Versions. Then, click on the little dropdown and select Recover Unsaved Documents.

Lawyerword. This ad-on software steamlines MS Word for lawyers. LawyerWord software includes specific time-saving features, such as: firm templates, firm style sets, advanced document clean-up features, batch printing, layout tools, field tools, legal numbering tools, simplified markup tools.

Microsoft OneNote. MS OneNote is not, technically, MS Word. But, it may surprise lawyers to know that the MS OneNote program offers law firm professionals powerful ways to divvy up information and rapidly locate documents, photographs, and other electronic files.

“My opposing counsel kept looking at me with obvious envy as I made my argument to the judge why certain key evidence should be excluded from the trial we were involved in. I could tell from the look on the attorney’s face that he was puzzled how I could refer to portions of the record, prior witness testimony, exhibits, case law, and a brief that I had previously submitted, all without a single piece of paper in front of me,” reports one trial lawyer to Microsoft.

“The only thing I used was my laptop and a mouse. He sat at a table with loose papers piled haphazardly, manila folders strewn about, and a Bankers Box on the floor, stuffed to overflowing.”

Throw out clutter along with your technophobia.

As a law firm professional, you need to crunch loads of data in a short amount of time. You may already know a great deal about MS Word and PPT. Excel, however, reamains the most misunderstood and under-utilized arrow in a lawyer’s quiver.

So, educate yourself about Excel in C4CM’s 90-minute interactive webinar, Excel for Financial Reporting: Shortcuts, Tricks, and Time-Saving Tips.

By the end, you will be able to:

1. Construct an integrated financial model – from scratch!
2. Utilize new techniques that help you build spreadsheets effectively
3. Use the What-If data analysis tool, and
4. Applying tips that minimize errors, save time, and store information.

There will always be Google search inputs like the question, “are lawyers scared of technology?” But, hopefully, your firm won’t reach top of the list of results.

-WB

For Higher Growth & Revenue— Don’t Hire New Employees, Get To Know The Ones You Have

Year-end growth results for the legal industry are the best Wells Fargo has reported since 2008, according to Jeff Grossman, head of the bank’s legal specialty group, reported by Thomson Reuters.

The bank confidentially surveyed 100 law firms, which reported a five-percent increase in gross revenue in 2012. In addition, net income rose by six percent. For managers, the good news continues as profits per partner rose five percent, reports Thomson Reuters.

What changed in our downturn economy? Policy.

“Grossman cited the fiscal cliff negotiations between the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress over automatic tax hikes scheduled for Jan. 1, as one possible driver of the revenue growth,” says Thomson Reuters.

In late 2012 and early 2013, some law firm said their mergers and acquisition, tax and trust and estates practices received extra work in the fourth quarter as their clients prepared for tax hikes, according to the Wells Fargo report.

Nevertheless, don’t stop penny-pinching quite yet

“Top law firms are getting what little premium business there is,” Grossman said to Thomason Reuters in an email.

Luckily, with a new year comes new ideas for revenue generating. The following tools will help your firm keep up the good growth, without growing in numbers.

Don’t hire new associates when you can just make better use of the ones already hired. Here’s how.

Firm Competency Database

If you were a baseball coach, you would be sure of the home-run and strike-out averages of a player before putting him up to bat.

Likewise, as a law firm manager, you should be aware of the capabilities and experience—both pre-hire and post-hire—of all your employees. This is not just a list of cases won or lost, however.

When hired, associates bring in a certain set of skills. But, once working, these same employees develop new ones. CVs may be updated, but current employers are often left in the dark.

Develop a sophisticated model for tracking employee competencies. For example, include number of years experience both at the firm and outside, create a rating system for computer skills (and provide a standardized test for it, if necessary), and record area-specific knowledge, from patents to accounting to foreign languages (and if they worked on cases requiring these skills).

Most importantly, keep this list standardized, up to date, and eyes-only. There’s no need to circulate this database outside managing powers-that-be. Nevertheless, when assigning projects or cases, you’ll have a better idea of who among you is best suited for the job.

A competency database will increase your efficieny in assigning cases and the productivity of those assigned to them.

You were already wondering how lawyers use Excel. Consider this your first chance to try out new technology. You’re at bat!

Career Leadership Opportunities

You don’t need to hire another administrator to balance the budget, write internal policies, or manage social media for your law firm. Why? It’s likely your firm already has these competencies, but just doesn’t know it yet.

Chris Smith, partner and co-founder at the management consulting firm ARRYVE, helped develop career leadership opportunities or CLOs at his company. He explains in the Harvard Business Review Blog that CLOs are mini-projects given to employees.

The projects address a specific need of the business while allowing employees to develop new skills and competencies.

“Similar to 3M’s or Google’s innovation time, CLOs give employees a way to try out their ideas in a less risky environment—but in the context of the company’s needs, as well. Some of our marketing-oriented consultants, for instance, jumped at the chance to develop our firm’s social media strategy,” explains Smith.

“This helped them build new skills, reduced the cost we incurred on outside agencies, and created a great case study for the strategy work we sell as a service.”

Lawyers have diverse backgrounds—whether it be in technology or accounting—so it’s natural that a firm would exploit these talents. In turn, it provides a little variety what can be a monotonous workday for lawyers and fodder for annual bonuses at the firm.

Furthermore, lawyers can seize this chance to build their arsenal of competencies. For example, a senior associate can learn the ins and outs of social media by taking charge of a CLO project aimed to increase a firm’s online presence.

CLOs don’t have to be assigned. In fact, they will be more effective if the projects are voluntary. So, create a list of your various firm needs: Twitter account, website content editing, social media policy, short-term strategic plan, year-end budget goals, fantasy football organizer, pro-bono work, etc.

Create a “catchy” pitch for the task, and watch employees sign up!

With the right incentives, every associate can exploit his or her creativity and satisfy his or her secret entrepreneurship ambitions. Associates are waiting for an opportunity to impress their superiors, break up a stagnant workday, and increase their chances for promotion by being a team-player. Put me in coach!

Public Awareness Committee

If you don’t already have an in-house public relations representative, consider creating a “public awareness committee” at your firm. This group should be responsible for proofreading press-releases, organizing benefits, and generally ensuring a positive image on the world-wide-web.

In this economy, it’s never enough to trust word-of-mouth referrals or equity partners to bring in new clients. Even the legendary Babe Ruth needed a publicist.

Proactive firms are also aware of their public image. Do you know yours?

-WB

How To Concentrate In The Cold & Other Practical Tips

Fridays are always rough. With floods in NYC and along the eastern coastline, snow in the Midwest, and general cold sweeping the country, it’s hard enough to get to work, let alone finish it.

But, with a few clear and concise daily goals, you can create a productive and welcoming start to what’s likely to be a slightly dreary weekend.

1. Concentrate despite the cold

Although the autumn weather is finally be turning, your office heat may still be turned off.

If you find yourself losing concentration in a cold office, try using the countdown method. Look at the clock and plan to work ten more minutes, read ten more pages, or write ten more lines of a brief. Then, reward your effort with a warm cup of tea or coffee.

Whether it’s due to temperature issues or end-of-the-workweek procrastination, don’t lose your focus. Counting down a few more minutes will help you finish that less stretch of work before heading home. Or, finishing that last memo before going to lunch.

You’ll be surprised at what you can achieve in just a few more minutes. More often than not, having a distinct, short-term deadline to complete a task will bring back your fat-waning concentration.

2. Do the most important task first

At the end of the week, it’s easy to waste your day working on little projects—filing papers or filling out timesheets, for example.

But, this usually leads to an unrelaxing weekend worrying about the more important case-related matters you left behind. And, it can also lead to a weekend spent at the office.

So, today, find your most important task at hand. Complete this item first.

If you funnel your concentration and effort into one, single work item, you’ll be more satisfied with your progress, and you’ll have set a more manageable goal for a Friday afternoon.

3. Ignore your email

Fridays are a great day for people to pass off work, delegate, or finally respond to e-mails from earlier in the week.

And, e-mail is the quickest way to lose your work momentum.

So, maintain your concentration by ignoring new, incoming e-mails—at least for awhile.

Create a schedule for checking them (say, every hour). This will also give you an occasional, much-needed break from completing your more important projects.

4. Don’t forget your to-do list

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, your concentration starts to decline. There feels like just too much to do in so little time.

Creating a to-do list is one of those basic, old, but still valuable tasks for any professional. Create a to-do list for the day and for the week. If you can, assign dates to each task (you can modify them later).

Creating a to-do list will get you in the habit of writing things down.

After every phone call, e-mail, or in-person conversation, write down the project being discussed, along with the related-tasks.

This is one of the many reasons why Excel was created.

At the end of the day, you’ll be grateful for the visual representation of all your work—especially once you see that none is urgent and your weekend about to begin.

-WB