Law Q Newsletter (August 2009)

The summer is flying by! Though things tend to slow down in the heat of the season, it pays to keep your eye on the ball in this competitive market. In spite of, and often because of, the current economic environment, a number of our law firm clients are pushing forward in a cautious but optimistic fashion. This is a good sign for the Colorado legal market and, more importantly, the future of those law firm clients. They are taking the necessary pains now to maintain their current competitive edge and secure their long term growth and success.

This month's newsletter focuses on some courses of action your firm can take to, not only survive the current economic downturn, but emerge even stronger after the recovery. We have included three interesting articles that discuss the tactics your firm can employ to ensure it is moving upward and onward even as your competitors struggle to make ends meet.

As always, please check out our featured attorney and legal staff candidates in the upper left hand corner of this newsletter. The resumes of both our featured candidates and our other top candidates can also be viewed on the 'Recruiting' page of our website at www.lawqteam.com. Enjoy the rest of your summer and feel free to contact us with any of your recruiting or employment questions!
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Truly yours,

R. Christopher Newton
LAW Q, LLC

The Recession is On Its Way Out. Is Your Talent Going With It?

Careebuilder.com

Question: What are things we don't want to see or hear about anymore?

Answer: Jon and Kate, "exclusive" Today Show interviews with Jackson family members, skinny jeans, and the recession.

Thankfully, with both Susan Boyle and the U.S. economy showing signs of recovery, we might be able to knock one of these annoyances off the list soon. (Maybe even two...if Matt Lauer would ever read his e-mail...)

According to the latest report from New York-based Conference Board, U.S. economic activity was higher than expected last month, marking the third straight monthly increase for the Board's index of economic indicators. Americans can "expect a slow recovery this autumn" if these conditions continue, Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein told the AP.

By slow, of course, he means that while the economy is certainly stabilizing and may see slight growth in Q4, employers who have had to freeze or slow down their hiring over the past several months may not find themselves in a position to hire again or create new positions until 2010.
...Which is cool, because employers and hiring managers have plenty to keep them busy in the meantime. After all, even during a downturn, recruiters and hiring managers still need to think about recruiting and employment branding. Or, more specifically:

Focusing on strengthening your employment brand - The efforts organizations make now to build their brand and market themselves as employers of choice will determine their success for recruiting and retaining top talent later on. With fewer businesses recruiting, employers enjoy greater opportunity to increase their visibility with candidates, giving them a competitive edge when they need to quickly attract talent later on.

Focusing on strengthening your internal employment brand - With research showing that 54 percent of employed American plan to look for a new job once the economy rebounds, you want to make sure you do everything you can to make sure you're part of that other 46 percent, and hold on to the talent you have. Take a cue from the best companies to work for in America and work to build trust with your employees, who - let's be honest - are ultimately the reason your organization has weathered this recession.

Looking for opportunities to make your recruiting process more efficient - Now more than ever, the pressure is on for staffing and human resource professionals to create and maintain the most efficient recruiting strategy. You want to be sure you're putting your recruiting dollars to the most efficient use possible to acquire talent. This means not just looking at your own metrics, but comparing your recruiting process to that of your competitors (a task you can outsource) - which will help you identify which stage of your process you need to work on in order to increase your ROI.

Recruitment will play a major part in any organization's ability to keep up once the economy begins to recover and business picks up again. While the U.S. economy still has a long road ahead of it on the way to full recovery, it becomes more important that companies consider their long-term strategies for growth. Organizations will find themselves with the need to staff up quickly to meet increasing demands, and those who prepare now to recruit the best candidates in the industry will have the greatest competitive edge.

*reprinted with permission 2009

Billing Options Have Paid Off
Karen Sloan
The National Law Journal

When it comes to billing, Cleveland-based Tucker Ellis & West gives its clients options. Want to stick with the billable hour standby? No problem. Prefer an annual fixed fee or per-case, flat-fee arrangement? The firm has several choices in place. What about naming your price for the firm's legal services after the work has been done?

There haven't been too many takers for that option so far, but it's one of a number of alternative billing arrangements with which the law firm has experimented.

Approximately 40 percent of the firm's total revenue now comes from alternative fee arrangements, and clients increasingly want to move away from the billable hour, said partner Jeffrey A. Healy, in the firm's trial department.

It wasn't the recent economic meltdown and wave of newly cost-conscious clients that prompted Tucker Ellis & West to embrace billing alternatives, but the firm is benefiting now from its forethought.

The decision came in 2003 when the firm formed after the dissolution of Arter & Hadden. The defunct firm had expanded quickly during the 1990s but shrank to little more than half its peak size by 2003, and it struggled under the weight of its financial obligations. When Arter & Hadden closed shop, about 90 of its attorneys banded together to form Tucker Ellis & West with the idea that they would do things differently.

"We made an institutional decision to move toward alternative fee arrangements, which I think put us ahead of the curve," said managing partner Curtiss L. Isler.
They would also attempt to eliminate tensions over partner compensation by adopting a closed compensation system that relegates all salary decisions to a powerful managing partner and keeps confidential the amount each attorney makes.

It's nearly six years into the life of Tucker Ellis & West, and the fresh approach seems to be paying off. The firm has grown to 142 attorneys and has added offices in Denver and Columbus, Ohio, to its three original locations in Cleveland, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The firm is doing well financially, Isler said. Revenue has grown every year since the firm was founded, and 2009 is looking strong as well, he said. Revenue increased by more than 5 percent in 2008 from 2007.

Although Tucker Ellis & West has a corporate practice, the firm is best known for it trial work, which accounts for about 80 percent of its revenue. The firm represents pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and other medical-related clients in liability cases and also handles mass tort products liability cases, among other matters.

The law firm provides products liability defense for Otis Elevator Co. in Ohio and Southern California on a flat-fee arrangement, said Patrick Corcoran, associate counsel for the elevator maker. "They've been a leader for us in our move toward alternative fee arrangements. It allows us to know what our costs are going to be, within reason," Corcoran said. "It also makes them, hopefully, work a little more efficiently. They're not thinking, 'Let's just throw a bunch of bodies at them.' "

AmTrust Bank General Counsel Roy Lachman said that Tucker Ellis & West has been flexible and innovative in its dealings with his company. He said the firm has alternative fee arrangements on a number of matters. "They tend to think outside the box, and they're not afraid to try cases," he said.
It has been easier to move away from the billable hour model in part because Tucker Ellis & West attorneys aren't paid based on their billable hours, Healy said. Rather, all attorney compensation is determined by the managing partner, who sets salaries by looking at each attorney's financial performance, how well attorneys are meeting the expectations of the partnership and their community involvement, among other considerations.

Only the managing partner knows how much each attorney gets paid. A handful of firms, including Greenberg Traurig, have closed compensation models, but the practice is uncommon. "We have often talked about that process, and how it has changed the way we think about our job and our firm," Healy said. "It does away with a lot of the jealousies and the conflicts that pop up at a lot of firms. We look at accomplishments as the main factor in compensation."

Beyond the firm's willingness to accept alternative fee arrangements, both Corcoran and Lachman said they appreciate the attentiveness of Tucker Ellis & West attorneys. "Whenever we've brought up a problem with them, they've taken it right to management and addressed it. They're very responsive in that way," Corcoran said.
And Corcoran appreciates the periodic "quality control" phone calls he gets from the firm's managing partner -- something he says Otis' other law firms don't do.

*reprinted with permission 2009

Inside Tip: Promote from Within
Nettemps.com

In spite of an increase in layoffs, employers are struggling to find qualified applicants. When seeking a solution, consider heeding advice that works for many situations: Search within the organization. Promoting from within can shorten fill times, lengthen employee tenure, energize employees and reduce turnover.

Career development is a primary attractor for both job seekers and current employees. Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical firm with 30,000 employees worldwide, uses internal promotion and career movement to meet ongoing needs for quality employees and timely project completion as well as the organization's long-term needs to develop potentials for future leadership roles.

Using a career center for testing and determining aptitudes, Eli Lilly assigns employees based on two or three experiences in their original function or department, such as human resources, sales or accounting, and a rotation through other areas of the company, like legal, government affairs or purchasing.

"The company and individuals benefit," says Susan Burleigh, senior recruiting and staffing associate at Eli Lilly. "As a result, individuals with significant experience move into senior leadership positions. Line employees get a clear picture of the people side of the business, especially regarding policies and procedures and how to manage people, and staff employees gain appreciation for financial and line responsibilities."

"It is fun to do something totally different," she adds. "We have less burnout, lower turnover and better trained employees through our process of internal career movement and promotion."
Traditionally, only fast-trackers receive additional training and stretch assignments to ready them for in-house opportunities. To expand the internal talent pool, try this simple exercise and follow up as the results suggest.

Ask managers to list their direct reports and take 15 to 30 minutes to reflect on each one's strengths and weaknesses. They should list only skills that are lacking to the degree that this omission prevents the manager from suggesting the individual for a lateral or upward promotion. Human resources or the training staff should gather and analyze the results. They should then create a grid of the results, being sure to ask for clarification when combining what appear to be similar skills.
Some individuals will require function-specific skills enhancements. Chances are good, however, that four areas of need will emerge as existing throughout the organization: written and verbal communication, conflict resolution, team skills, and managing or influencing others. It would not be surprising to find that current managers also lack these four skills. An appropriate training program and plan can be implemented.

Smart employers don't settle when it comes to hiring. Many employers have learned that if they post internal job openings, they will spark the interest of internal candidates, who may be far more interested in certain highly technical, niche positions than external candidates. And internal candidates may be the best kind because of their knowledge of the organization's industry, market and culture. Augmenting an internal candidate's skill set may be easier and results in a shorter learning curve than bringing in an external candidate who doesn't know the organization's environment and client base.

*reprinted with permission 2009