It's Your Business

As we emerge from the depths of isolation and quarantine, it is perhaps appropriate to reflect upon both the rewards and the disappointments inherent in patiently waiting. The disappointments are easily listed and often become the focus. Who among us is not worried about reduced suit counts, inefficiencies of remote work, lost productivity, limited marketing opportunities, or even (and I mean this sincerely) what to do when the options on Netflix are depleted?

And, yet, there have been some positive moments in all of this. In particular, I credit the lockdown for helping us to better understand the challenges that we and coworkers face in meeting work and family demands.  The lockdown forced us to focus on technology and security.  It helped us to appreciate much of what we took for granted in the “before times.”

And the pandemic raised the profile of managers and management. Where the LPM Committee had previously been populated by “bean counters” and “techies,” there was a new and sudden interest in management innovation. Let’s train younger lawyers to understand the business of law! Let’s do it via video conferencing so that the investment in training is reduced! Let’s share our experiences with and insights about PPP bureaucracy. Honestly, it was through contacts on the DRI LPM Committee that I was finally able to find masks and disinfectant to purchase for the return to the office.

The longest wait for LPM, of course, was for the Managing Partners and Firm Leaders Conference. What was planned for September of 2020 only grew in substantive content and talented speakers, finally presented live and in-person at Chicago’s Gwen Hotel on August 26–27, 2021! Spring boarding from the success of our virtual “Future Leaders Bootcamp,” the managing partner program offered current and soon-to-be firm leaders’ insights into training rain makers, tackling unconscious bias, maximizing data-driven decision making, talking about the “hard things,” and managing in the post-COVID world. The program was innovative, demonstrative, and interactive. This “good thing” was worth the wait.

We have learned much about ourselves and each other during this long waiting period, and we have emerged as a strong team. Many, many thanks to committee members who have given of their time and energy to continue with the important work of LPM. A special thanks, of course, to Mario Delano, now chair of LPM. His hard work made my two years as chair fun and fulfilling. I’m looking forward to future LPM projects with him and with all of you.

Marta-Ann Schnabel is the managing director of O’Bryon & Schnabel, and a past president of both the New Orleans Bar Association and the Louisiana State Bar Association. She has been recognized by Super Lawyers as one of Louisiana’s Top 25 Women Litigators. In over 30 years of practice, she has primarily represented clients in matters involving business and commercial litigation, construction disputes, insurance coverage issues, casualty defense, premises liability defense, and professional malpractice defense. Marta is the immediate past chair of the DRI Law Practice Management Committee.

With the warm reception I received, I was encouraged to start writing articles for DRI’s various publications and sharing with LPM the articles I was writing elsewhere. Based on the feedback I received, I jumped into helping plan the 2019 Managing Partners and Law Firm Leaders Conference, even though I had never attended one and with a large dose of imposter syndrome. I didn’t contribute all that much to the planning and organizing of the event, but I was in the room where it was happening—and if you’re a fan of Hamilton, you’ll know that being in the room where it happens is sometimes the most important bit.

What happened next is the most important part. In September 2019, I attended the Managing Partners and Law Firm Leaders conference in Denver. And I say this next part without hyperbole—it transformed my understanding of how to make myself more profitable.

I had always one to keep up with my billable hours strictly on a daily basis. To that point, I had used the same spreadsheet for seven years to track my time entries. This allowed me to keep up with where I was paced for achieving my goals billable goals my firm had for me and that I had for myself. But what I wasn’t tracking was the value of my time.

In one of the sessions at the 2019 conference, the speakers presented on key performance metrics. I had a light-bulb moment sitting right there looking out the window at the eastern edge of the Rockies as a thunderstorm broke over the mountains and poured itself onto the prairie. Keeping up with my time entries wasn’t enough. What was important wasn’t the number of hours I was billing, but the value of those hours. The value was the metric that mattered most.

I had to figure out a way to determine the value of each hour. Since I work for so many clients, each of whom has a different rate, the solution wasn’t as simple as multiplying the number of hours billed in a day by X and determining their value. I had to keep up with the value of each billable entry. Fortunately, I already had a spreadsheet, so I just created a column for the rates and a column with a simple formula to tell me how much each entry was worth. That way I add it up at the end of the day and know how much money I’d earned each day. I’ve been using this method for two years now, and as a result, having a running understanding of how I’m progressing toward my profitability goals.

Similarly, the 2021 Managing Partners and Law Firm Leaders conference brought with it transformative understandings about the effects of implicit bias and common mistakes with client pitches, among other insightful topics. By being there, I and the other attendees gave ourselves an opportunity to learn from a diverse group of presenters who brought with them the knowledge and accumulated wisdom to provide those light-bulb moments. And since I want to continue to be in the room where that happens, you can be sure that I’m already planning to be our next Managing Partners and Law Firm Leaders Conference as well.

Jeremy W. Richter is a shareholder with Webster Henry in Birmingham, Alabama. His civil defense practice focuses on general business liability, transportation litigation, and insurance coverage issues. Jeremy is the author of Building a Better Law Practice, Stop Putting Out Fires, and Level Up Your Law Practice. He also writes at jeremywrichter.com and hosts the podcast, Lawyerpreneur.

Ah, yes: stress reduction. Stop worrying about the continuing existential challenge of COVID, filing deadlines, uneven trial dockets, reduced cash flow, fewer file openings, COVID safety precautions for the workplace, the alleged affront to individual right that masking represents, client emergencies, arrogant associates, overly indulged partners, tech glitches, underperforming staff.

Just rest. Don’t stress.

Over the past year and a half-plus, the boundaries between personal and professional have blurred. Working in sweatpants became acceptable, as did assisting with homework during Zoom discussions of trial strategy. The workday was never ending, but the accomplishments were few. Fear permeated nearly every experience: Might I catch a deadly disease while walking the dog or buying groceries or answering the call docket? Every accomplishment was an exceptional effort of will. And yet, each day was a mirror image of the other, with no change or improvement on the horizon.

But rest. Don’t stress.

Life during the pandemic became a constellation of crises. Hold your breath. Wear your mask. Sanitize your hands. Wash down counters, doorknobs, copy machines, computer keyboards, filing cabinets. At the same time, we worried about whether our business would survive. Every ambulance siren led to the question of whether a friend or loved one was the passenger. We wondered whether we were working hard enough under the circumstances. We considered layoffs. We watched civil rights protests while feeling ineffectual. We “locked down” as the death toll mounted.

But rest. Don’t stress.

Every now and then the world we have come to know, to accept, to take for granted, experiences a jarring upheaval. The time of COVID will likely be remembered as one such event. Remarkably, however, we adapt. We engage and address the changes. We emerge stronger and wiser.

The office manager at my law firm has stopped smoking, changed her diet, and now goes to the gym daily. She has emerged from her personal crisis stronger and wiser. Most importantly, she gets more rest and has figured out that stressing about circumstances outside of her control is as ineffective as it is harmful.

Avoid the heart attack and take the lesson. Rest. Don’t stress.

Marta-Ann Schnabel is the managing director of O’Bryon & Schnabel, and a past president of both the New Orleans Bar Association and the Louisiana State Bar Association. She has been recognized by Super Lawyers as one of Louisiana’s Top 25 Women Litigators. In over 30 years of practice, she has primarily represented clients in matters involving business and commercial litigation, construction disputes, insurance coverage issues, casualty defense, premises liability defense, and professional malpractice defense. Marta is the immediate past chair of the DRI Law Practice Management Committee.