Practice News

Illinois State Bar Association President Mark D. Hassakis and Chicago Bar Association President Terri L. Mascherin have co-authored a letter urging U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk and two other members of the Illinois delegation to support keeping funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) at level funding for the 2011 fiscal year. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $70 million cut in LSC funding on Feb. 19. An earlier vote to cut all LSC funding failed. Click here to read the letter.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am a partner in an 8 attorney firm in the Chicago suburbs. Our firm has started having discussions about what we need to be doing differently. This is huge for us - one meeting a year is our typical meeting frequency and then only to discuss how we are going to cut the pie. How have other firms done during the recession? What are you seeing? A. In general small firms in the Midwest have fared pretty well during the recession. Last year some firms had the best year ever while others experienced flat or 10% revenue declines. Small firms that had the biggest problems were those that had issues before the recession or were in problem practice areas. Big law firms have had to face unique challenges. Small firms that have weathered the storm and fared the best were those that:

• Were focused
• Had a sense of where they were and where they were heading
• Had a vision and a strategy
• Had business and financial plans
• Had goals and measured attainment
• Fostered accountability from self and others
• Were proactive
• Worked the books and managed the RULES (Rate, Utilization, Leverage, Expense Control, Collection Speed)

I believe that law firms that fail to focus their practices, set goals, measure accomplishments, and foster accountability will fall short and not meet their financial objectives.

The Illinois Supreme Court announced today that the Fourth Judicial Circuit judges voted to select Jeffrey M. “Marc” Kelly as an associate judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit. Mr. Kelly received his undergraduate degree in 1996 from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and his Juris Doctor in 2000 from John Marshall Law School in Chicago. Mr. Kelly is currently affiliated with Burnside, Johnston, Sheafor & Kelly, PC in Vandalia, Illinois.

Asked and Answered By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am a partner with an 8 attorney firm in central Illinois. Last week I attended the Illinois State Bar Association web-cast that you and others presented on Building and Managing the Virtual Law Firm. I thought the program was excellent. I do have a couple of questions.

1. I can see how such an approach might make sense for a solo - but why would a 8 attorney firm with a brick and mortar office that has been in practice for 20 years consider such a delivery model?
2. How would we go about it?

A. If your firm has a sufficient volume of work, does not have a need or desire to capture more commodity type legal work that it is either not doing at all now or is losing to lower priced competitors (law firms or content providers), or does not have a need or desire to extend its reach geographically a virtual delivery model make not make sense. However, if your strategic (business plan) requires you to extend your geographic reach or be competitive in a commodity practice area supplementing your brick and mortar practice with a virtual delivery model might warrant consideration. Also consider that the younger generation that is growing up using the internet to shop, bank, and pay taxes may appreciate and or expect such an option. As we mentioned during the session certain practice areas are more appropriate than others. I have some firms your size that are supplementing their brick and mortar practices with online delivery models just to service one practice area that they could not effectively deliver in the traditional manner.