Facilitating a group discussion can be rewarding for an organization, yet fraught with peril. The ideas and opinions fostered by discussion can increase the effectiveness of an organization but they can also create divisions, invite excessive complaining, and exacerbate rivalries. Group meetings, however, are a critical instrument for sharing knowledge. Capturing team mindshare can help you capture ideas from a [...]

I have been on Google+ for a while now. That doesn’t mean I am an expert, how could anyone be? But it does mean I can offer a few pointers for how to manage it. One thing I am not going to suggest is adding plug-ins to various browsers. While these can make Google+ easier to use and can resolve [...]

Fred Wilson – one of technology’s most prominent venture capitalists – posted a challenge to startup lawyers on his popular “AVC” blog after paying $17,000 in legal fees

Today, a good lawyer practicing alone or with a handful of colleagues can accomplish far more than that same lawyer or team could’ve several years ago. Technology can democratize virtually anything, and the practice of law isn’t exempt.

When I first started my career, I was a young business lawyer at a great firm in WNY.  I had just graduated from school, and was fortunate enough to have received an offer from the Firm where I worked as a summer associate. (Sadly, I’m told that the clerk-to-associate path is no longer the fairly clear route that it once [...]

Readers of Legal Productivity know we’ve been hard at work on an online continuing legal education platform which we’re calling RocketCLE. It’s an extension of our educational and content philosophy embodied by this blog, our webinar series, and our Legal Productivity e-book. Today, RocketCLE is formally launched to the rest of the world (see our press release for more information). [...]

First of all, business lawyers rock.  They’re among the sharpest thinking professionals in business, routinely pulling together complex deal structures, making sense out of rules and regulations, and giving great general business advice to clients. (Disclosure: Yes I’m biased, I started my career as a business lawyer.) Since leaving law for the tech world I’ve been on the client side, [...]

For the past two years I’ve opined on what’s coming down the pike for the future of web-based legal software applications.  Feel free to check my accuracy for 2009 and 2010. All I know is, if you can’t sense the excitement and momentum of cloud technologies for the legal vertical, you might possibly be asleep. Perhaps I’m hyperaware.   But [...]

When you have a live, breathing, belching machine of a law firm, it’s tough to step back and take a look and come up with suggested adjustments to your operations, much less execute on your observations.

We’re happy so see others raising awareness about some of the truly great operatinal techniques Agile brings to the table. Readers of this blog know of our enthusiasm for The Daily Standup and Retrospective meetings, both of which we discuss in our free e-book Legal Productivity and originate in Agile.