CLE Leadership & Management
Ideas, Resources, and Techniques for
CLE Professionals
A periodic e-newsletter
By Chuck Bingaman - chuck@chuckbingaman.com
#23 August 2005
Leadership  At the recent ACLEA Annual Meeting,
legal futurist Charlie Robinson quoted Tom Peters in saying that in ten years
50% of all American white collar jobs will have been outsourced to India,
China or elsewhere. And Peters said that FIVE years ago! As Robinson says
on his website, www.charlierobinsonfuturist.com, “most attorneys would
like to believe there’s an attorney exception for such change, but
that belief is simply not accurate.” I don’t know whether Peters
and Robinson are correct or talking through their hats. I DO know that Indian
law firms are actively seeking legal research outsourcing from American firms
now and that MUCH more legal work, especially routine, “commodity” work,
will be moving offshore in the next few years. The economics are mandating
it. Even if Peters and Robinson are only HALF right, it could have devastating
impacts on the profession and on CLE. What Robinson did NOT say or even suggest
is what we might DO about this trend. Maybe that’s something all CLE
leaders should be considering. P.S. I doubt that there is a ‘CLE administrator
exception’ either. Should we ignore this possible disappearance,
or transplantation, of our markets? Should we offer courses on how to outsource
legal research and other legal work? Should we be doing business planning
scenarios where half of our lawyers are no longer there? Should we be seeking
CLE markets abroad where American, Australian or New Zealand legal the work
is being outsourced to? Most American lawyers will likely ignore this trend
because it hasn’t happened before. But their clients’ actions
will be guided by market trends, financial attractions and new offerings
to solve their problems and fill their legal needs. They have little loyalty
to the present way of delivering legal services that they already see as
overpriced and of uncertain value. And all of us are, even now, getting accustomed
to having some of our service needs being filled from India, the Philippines,
and elsewhere.
Management
To
successfully manage a CLE enterprise—or any other—the #1 trait
we need to cultivate is attentiveness. The habit of seeing what’s happening
in every corner of our environment, our markets, our organizations, our customers’ and
potential customers’ lives, and our employees’ experiences with
us. It’s so easy to let our attentiveness go on auto-pilot, to slide
into thinking we know what’s going on, to assume that yesterday’s
understanding is still accurate today. That’s why it is SO important
for us to listen to customers, non-customers, commentators, and employees.
And to connect the dots of observations, "ahas", complaints, tech
developments, and the latest “big things” in other fields. That’s
why it can be valuable to move your office from time to time within your building
or department, to attend courses as a registrant, etc. Nationally prominent
legal management consultant Bobbie McMorrow of McMorrowSavarese
in Santa Ynez, California suggests on her website that “effective management
requires a willingness to engage in constant transformation”. Sounds
like a theme for a strategic planning program to me! Incidentally, I’m
planning a two-day conference with Bobbie in November on “Hiring Law
Firm Laterals”,
and she’s a dynamo! Check her web site at www.mcmorrowsavarese.com. As I’ve
suggested here before, every CLE marketing campaign needs a PR component: carefully
placed
information in news media. Now I would add to that getting as many mentions
as possible in relevant blogs or blawgs. More lawyers are reading them, they
may reach lawyers who do not read direct mail, and they may reach those who
are not on your mailing lists. Business
2.0’s “Marketing
Focus” newsletter reported August 12 that, according to Jupiter Research,
there is a HUGE increase in spending for online advertising because it is working
now like never before. This includes “paid search”, display ads,
classified ads, and rich media. “Paid search”, in which advertisers
pay search engine companies such as Google and Yahoo to match keywords with
certain websites, is the rising star of online ad usage. On-line advertising
may be worth testing for CLE products and services.
Resources Blawgs,
blawgs, blawgs! Geez! Reading blogs could easily become a full-time
occupation! So much informative, cleverly written stuff out there!
But we really should make at least some attempt to review the highlights
now and then. Some places you might like to visit are…www.lawbizblog.com,
written by Ed Poll, for a valuable take on the business of law and
for his list of other blogs that you may find useful and www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com,
written by Mark Beese of Denver, the marketing fellow for national
law firm Holland & Knight. Also
see www.jimcalloway.typepad.com by Jim Calloway of the Oklahoma Bar
staff and www.davidmaister.com for great materials on organizing
law practice. And you’ll probably enjoy www.infamyorpraise.blogspot.com.
And if THAT doesn’t effectively soak up ALL of your free time,
I’ve found Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly
Everything (Broadway Books, 2003) a really good read!
I welcome your feedback! Please
keep in touch! CCB
Following 20
years as Executive Director of a major American CLE organization, Chuck
now consults
and teaches on strategic planning, marketing, blogging and management challenges
with CLE and other legal organizations, law firms, law schools and others.
He also offers economical in-house training through conference call courses
for CLE and bar association staffs. He welcomes your inquiries on projects
designed to enhance your organization’s effectiveness. You can contact
him at chuck@chuckbingaman.com, at 1-603-756-9268, or at P.O. Box 390, Walpole,
NH, USA 03068-0390. Past issues of this newsletter are archived at www.chuckbingaman.com.
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