{"id":96,"date":"2020-05-05T05:17:25","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T09:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/?p=96"},"modified":"2020-05-05T05:17:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T09:17:25","slug":"lean-isnt-for-lockdown-its-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/2020\/05\/05\/lean-isnt-for-lockdown-its-for-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Lean Isn\u2019t For Lockdown, It\u2019s For Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remote working has put distance between lawyers and clients, but it has also reconnected them <\/strong><\/p>\n

By Alex Geisler<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

05.05.2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t have much time before the\u00a0Coronavirus\u00a0lockdown to\u00a0wonder\u00a0what it\u2019d be like. If we\u2019d had more time to think about it, maybe we\u2019d have been fearful. What would social distancing mean in a\u00a0work context? Businesses would have new and urgent problems, but how would stakeholders engage, collaborate and solve them? How would external lawyers support businesses with these new and urgent needs? Even if we could travel to clients\u2019 offices, there\u2019d be no-one there. Would lawyers become disconnected from businesses?<\/p>\n

This would be one way of looking at it. But a better way would have been to view it as an opportunity, and anyone who did so would\u2019ve been proved right. If the lockdown has\u00a0taught us\u00a0anything, it\u2019s that people will always adapt. As with anything in life, if you can’t change your situation, you have to adapt your personal response to it. In this case, the adaptation was a shift towards leaner working methods, and lawyers have played their part.<\/p>\n

For me, this confirms my long-standing belief that \u2018lean lawyers\u2019 exist everywhere. These are folks with lean instincts and matching work methods. I know a great number of\u00a0lean lawyers here at Duane Morris, and I see examples of lean practice in all corners of\u00a0business. Whether these\u00a0people call their methods \u2018lean\u2019 matters not. They might use words like client-oriented,\u00a0solution providers, effective,\u00a0efficient or even nimble. Or they might just call it knowing the\u00a0businesses they serve and giving good client service. Regardless, these are all synonyms for lean\u00a0practice.<\/p>\n

Then came the lockdown, and the community\u00a0of lean\u00a0practitioners grew significantly. This was commendable and inevitable.\u00a0Businesses have existential problems and need quick actionable advice. Suddenly, of necessity,\u00a0businesses and their lawyers have had to find leaner methods to deal with almost every daily task.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put this in a context. Suppose a routine project produces an unexpected hiccup. Pre-lockdown, this might have justified internal stakeholders and external advisers all jumping on planes, trains and automobiles, to have in- person meetings. As we discuss in Lean Adviser[1]<\/a>, these events can be well planned and executed, or they can be wildly inefficient and ineffective. Now suppose the same issue arises during lockdown. The solution won\u2019t be a road trip next week, it\u2019ll be a virtual meeting today. Special consideration will have to be given to meeting goals, sequencing and structure,\u00a0as well as to what materials to pre-circulate and how to capture output.\u00a0The lockdown lean effect isn\u2019t just the elimination of travelling time, now the participants have to think about\u00a0refining almost every task for remote working.<\/p>\n

Pre-lockdown, a multi-party, in-person meeting was an accepted norm. Participants had the luxury of creating beautifully crafted work product to present. They\u2019d throw a bunch of papers into document bags and onto laptops, and get on the road. The meeting would often be long, and attendees might grandstand, improvise,\u00a0or even fade. Often the participants would go their separate ways to reflect on the issues, and maybe send follow up reports. Decisions got deferred. In that setting, it\u2019d be a challenge just to track the issues, navigate the papers and access the key data. How many meetings have you seen come to a standstill when somebody says \u201cyou know what, why don’t we all go ahead and take a break, get some fresh coffee while Kevin looks in the document bags\u00a0or Sally makes some calls, to see if we have that report?<\/em>\u201d. \u00a0Sound familiar? Try doing this in a remote working setting and it starts to look very clunky.<\/p>\n

Virtual meetings are different, they\u2019re shorter but need more and different preparation. They demand good structure, key materials, clear agendas and well-defined goals. This extra time spent in preparation delivers shorter and more productive meetings. Attendees have a shared focus, key issues are isolated and decisions are taken. As with meetings, so with reports. More prep time, but a better product. Sure, it can be more difficult to produce a short report, but it works way better than the superficially impressive long form. Not only do people actually read it, but they alight on key points without having to find them buried in the text.<\/p>\n

In all these ways, the business of doing business has changed. New methods have been found, and\u00a0business people and lawyers have become leaner. This gravitation towards lean\u00a0practice isn\u2019t new, nor is it a temporary bout of modernity. For as long as I can remember, well before I called it \u2018Lean Law\u2019, I\u2019ve seen clients rewarding lean behaviours with repeat business. Then they began voicing it, and it only got louder. Now clients use RFPs to demand better methods from law firms.<\/p>\n

If finding new methods is the first step, then developing a lean mind-set is what follows. When this is over,\u00a0business people won\u2019t forget, or lose their appetite for remote working, crisp reporting or quick solutions. With one or two notable exceptions, almost every\u00a0business that survives\u00a0the pandemic will be significantly poorer, and looking for ever greater cost savings and efficiencies. This is a perfect storm for change and those\u00a0who gravitate towards lean lawyering\u00a0will find that their skills are in demand more than ever.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> A series hosted by Law.Com focusing on lean practice methods<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remote working has put distance between lawyers and clients, but it has also reconnected them By Alex Geisler 05.05.2020 We didn\u2019t have much time before the\u00a0Coronavirus\u00a0lockdown to\u00a0wonder\u00a0what it\u2019d be like. If we\u2019d had more time to think about it, maybe we\u2019d have been fearful. What would social distancing mean in a\u00a0work context? Businesses would have … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lean Isn\u2019t For Lockdown, It\u2019s For Life”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":348,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,6,53,78,50],"ppma_author":[145],"class_list":["post-96","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-alex-geisler","tag-coronavirus","tag-dmlondon","tag-lean-law","tag-lockdown"],"authors":[{"term_id":145,"user_id":348,"is_guest":0,"slug":"amgeisler","display_name":"Alexander M. Geisler","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/04\/geisleralex-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}