JD Supra & LinkedIN Change the Game
In a major blow to entrenched legal publishers Lexis Nexis and Thompson Reuters, in July LinkedIN chose to partner with JD Supra to supply content for Legal Updates. In one sense this partnership is like combining peanut butter and chocolate as Jayne Navarre describers, but in another sense it is kind of like Coca Cola deciding to partner with San Dimas High School over the National Football League. This was a great opportunity for the major legal publishers but they lost out to a small start-up named JDSupra that is far more agile.
Here is how legal updates work:
JDSupra collects written content from lawyers all over the world. They tag it, optimize it and display it on their website. Any corporate alert, amicus brief, white paper or blog post you create is given a second life through this site.
Here is why JDSupra’s marriage to LinkedIN is so crucial.
LinkedIN has more than 75 million members worldwide, including representatives of every Fortune 500 company. There are more than 1 million lawyers on LinkedIN alone. LinkedIN knows a LOT about their users. Where they work, what they do, what type of experience and education they have. Most importantly, they can make a very educated guess about the types of articles GC’s, HR representatives and C-suite individuals find appealing.
Enter Legal Updates
When a professional signs up for Legal Updates on LinkedIN (this is done by clicking the “MORE” tab at http://linkedIN.com ———> click “Applications” ————–> click “Legal Updates” then click “Add”) they are sent targeted content on a daily or weekly basis.
To give an example of how this works, when the GC of IBM signs up for Legal Updates he will receive directly into his email box relevant articles written by attorneys that are submitting through JD Supra. GC’s, HR representatives and C-suite executives will received targeted legal content based on not only their preferences but also based on the information they have reported about themselves in their LinkedIN profiles. This is a big deal, like I often repeat: it isn’t about who you know, it’s about what you have to say.
Executives no longer have to look for information- it will find them.
Why should Lexis Nexis and Thompson Reuters care? Because they are being beaten at their own game. For years Lexis Nexis has survived by collecting and organizing content that they didn’t have to create! User generated content has kept Lexis Nexis in business for a very long time, but now they are being upstaged by a start-up that has a better grasp on organizing and distributing content.
When I asked Adrian Lurssen, JD Supra’s VP, why LinkedIN chose JD Supra he replied that it came down to their ability to tag and optimize content in a way that was attractive to LinkedIN. They were speaking the same language. If Thompson West and Lexis Nexis want to keep their spots as the top dogs, they need to start learning the language to.
40 hour workweek is a non-starter
Every once in a while a blog post drops that stirs up the hornets nest. After more than 100 comments in a few days, the ABA Journal online article entitled, “Why Lawyers Should Work No More than 40 Hours a Week” has really stirred up some strong sentiment. The article laid out a simple premise in less than 300 words. The bottom line is this: studies have shown that workers (lawyers included) are most productive and creative when working within the 40 hour work week. After 40 hours, the quality of work declines.
Makes sense right? Your best work is when you are fresh, not when you are pounding Red Bull and trying to keep your eyes open, right? Do these findings really seem that controversial? They certainly strike a chord. I think partly because we are powerless to stop it. Here are 3 reasons the 80-hour workweek isn’t going anywhere.
1. Lawyers are rarely in control of their deadlines
The most busy lawyers knows what it’s like to have an all-consuming deal or court case to handle. When a large merger needs to be closed, there is no asking for an extra month so that extra staff can be hired and the 40-hour workweek can be strictly enforced. When an unmerciful judge lays down an impossible deadline, there is no complaining to a higher judge. There are times when lawyers need to get it done. These are the rules of the game- and the lawyers that are putting their clients first aren’t complaining about it.
2. Law firms can’t justify hiring more attorneys for smaller weekly increments
The law firms have no incentive to have their lawyers work smarter in 40-hour weekly increments. The billable model discourages it in fact. If two lawyers each work 40 hours per week then the firm has to pay for office space, health insurance, secretary and benefits for each of them. In addition, the cost of training a partner lever attorney are substantial. If they account for the turnover, it isn’t a simple matter of doubling the workforce and reducing the hours of each individual. The 40-hour workweek just isn’t very practical for firms.
All of this has to play into the calculations made by firms. Even taking into account the drop-off in productivity after 40 hours the law firms still come out ahead having fewer lawyers working longer hours.
3. Ambitious lawyers want to work the 80-hour workweeks.
I don’t think the discussion is properly framed as talking about greed alone, nor does it do it justice to speak of busy lawyers as “doing what they have to do.” It is really an issue of priorities. Lawyers have a choice, and many of them choose to be workaholics. I use the word “workaholics” not to be funny, but because I believe it to be a true addiction.
I grew up with a father that was (and still is) a workaholic. His always had different excuses for coming home late from the hospital, but when it came down to it- he loved what he did. He loved the 12-hour operations, loved taking care of his patients and didn’t mind sacrifice other parts of his life to be a great surgeon. It was his choice and many lawyers have made a similar choice.
Conclusion
There is something else buried deep inside the more-than 100 comments on this ABA Journal article, and that is a tinge of jealousy. Many lawyers are barely hanging on right now- working a few hours here and there just to hang on. Perhaps they wonder, how are other attorneys finding 80 hours of work per week, yet I can only find a couple dozen? Unfortunately the business world is unfair that way sometimes, the work can’t be fairly distributed across all licensed lawyers- that just isn’t how capitalism works.
Not all great lawyers want to give up their lives for the practice of law though. I have observed a trend among some law firms to allow attorneys to elect to take on a substantially lower billable hour requirement. It stretches out the partner track, but many attorneys are ok with that. Hopefully this trend at least catches on, because I don’t expect to start seeing a strictly enforced 40-hour workweek in biglaw firms anytime soon.
Adrian Dayton is a lawyer and author of the book Social Media for Lawyers: Twitter Edition. Click here to sign up for his FREE business development conference calls.
The Parable of the Blogger
The Parable of the Talents is a simple one. The Master who must go away for a while entrusts three servants with large amounts of money or “talents,” as they were called in oldentimes. They must take care of this money while he is gone. To one servant he gives 5 talents, to another he gives 2 talents and to the final servant he only gives 1 talent.
When he returns and asks for an accounting, the first two servants have put the money to work- doubling the talents. For this the Master rewards them handsomely. The third servant is so fearful of losing the talent that he buried it in a hole, and returns the talent to the Master. The Master is upset, “couldn’t you have at least put it in the bank, so that I could have drawn interest?” he asks. The third servant is called lazy- and forced to give the talent to the servants who had been more responsible.
This story came to mind after finishing a six month training program with a group of very bright attorneys. They learned blogging, social media strategy and how to turn contacts into clients through online technology. In discussions with the Director of Marketing I apologized that although half the lawyers had very positive results, the other half of the group didn’t really accomplish much of anything. His reply?
“That is the way of big law firms, the attorneys that really follow-through see results. You will never get all the attorneys to do the things that will really be successful for them.”
This made my wonder, what is it that holds so many people back from really jumping in to social media?
I think it comes down to one thing- FEAR. Blogs are not easy to get started, they are time consuming and they require patience. Even more than any of those things though, they require courage. They require you to put yourself out there. A new friend I made online recently started blogging about social media for lawyers. She works at a law firm, and wanted to share the things she was learning. Within a few hours she was attacked on Twitter for trying to be a social media guru or for having some ulterior motives. That is just the risk anybody runs that decides to blog. You are exposing yourself, taking a step into the darkness- the great unknown. And you have no idea what awaits you on the other side. I find the whole process quite exhilirating, but to others it can be quite paralyzing.
What if nobody likes what I have to say?
What if people disagree with me?
What if someone at my firm doesn’t like my opinion?
What if a client dislikes my blog post?
What if I commit and then later get too busy?
There are plenty of things to be afraid of, but if you focus on those things you will never make it out of your front door in the morning. You might as well bury your talent for the month and stay home sick.
I believe everyone has some pretty fantastic abilities, but so often we are afraid to really let them shine. We worry too much about what people will think or say about us. We all have something unique to give and the social media world is helping us to understand that more than ever. It isn’t about what you do for money, it is about what you give away. This takes courage because it is a real risk to give and have faith that it will come back to you.
If you can’t stand the risk, go ahead, bury your talents. Keep them hidden. Keep them safe. They aren’t growing, they aren’t building or helping others but at least nobody can take them from you. It is up to you, but in my mind hiding your talents from the world is the riskiest strategy of all.
The UPS Store misses the mark
It was finally my turn, and as I walked up to the counter to send my two packages another woman came in from behind me carrying a FedEX box. She obviously had no idea that she was not welcome there.
“Excuse me, do you accept FedEX packages?”
“No we don’t,” frowned the UPS Store worker. Disgusted that she even had to dignify that question with a response.
“Well, do you know where they accept FedEX packages around here?” The woman asked cautiously.
“No idea,” the UPS worker said cynically, as if it was a completely ridiculous question to ask.
I’m sorry, but the social media world has made me far more sensitive to this kind of poor customer service. What was this UPS worker thinking? Did she really need to act this way?
The customer had a problem to solve, but didn’t find any help at the UPS Store. Granted, the customer wasn’t trying to send a package through UPS, but clearly she doesn’t send packages often. It was also likely that she didn’t CHOOSE FedEX, it looked like a pre-paid package that was possibly sent to her.
The UPS Store could have won a new customer for life by:
-Helping this woman find a store close by
-Looking up a store for her in the phone book or on the computer
-Being civil
Was her question really that absurd? She walked into a “UPS Store” that used to be Mailbox Express in attempts to send out a FedEX package. How dare she, right?
Note to UPS Store employees: Put the customer first by learning where the nearest FedEX drop-off location is. It is probably a frequently asked question.
With the increased transparency of the internet, average customer service won’t cut it. Maybe nobody from UPS will ever read this blog post, but you can guarantee that me and the woman with the FedEX box will go elsewhere to handle shipping needs.
The Holy Grail of Blogging: Progress
“The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.” – Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus
The Harvard Business Review recently published a paper that challenges the way employers see motivation. They asked over 600 managers from dozens of companies to rank factors that have the biggest impact on employee motivation. Their choices were: recognition, incentives, interpersonal support, support for making progress and clear goals. 
“Recognition for good work” came out as a clear number 1. Unfortunately, the managers had it all wrong. In a separate, multi-year survey that tracked the employees thoughts and feelings (what a novel approach, eh?) it was determined that the one item Managers ranked dead last was the most important to workers- a sense of PROGRESS.
A close analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries, together with the writers’ daily ratings of their motivation and emotions, shows that making progress in one’s work—even incremental progress—is more frequently associated with positive emotions and high motivation than any other workday event.
Progress matters more than anything else to us. This desire to grow, expand and overcome challenges is insatiable- and the managers that recognize this will have a much better understanding of how to encourage and motivate workers. But what does this mean for individuals? How can individuals gain greater self-motivation by understanding this principle? The answer lies in what progress means to each one of us.
When I talk to busy attorneys about desires when it comes to blogging, they have very similar concerns:
-Will blogging help me bring in business?
-Can blogging help me gain recognition for my expertise?
-Can this get me on the “short list” of experts?
-Is anybody I want to do business with reading blogs or spending time on Twitter?
What they are really asking is, can blogging help me make progress? Can it help me make progress with my network, progress in my business development and progress in the way I am perceived within my firm? If professionals don’t believe that blogging and interaction through social networks will help them progress in some way, it won’t be worth it to them. Blogging requires too much time and energy.
Progress really means very different things to different people. The #1 reason law firm lawyers cite as the reason they want to bring in more business? They feel it will substantially improve the way they are perceived within their law firm. For solo attorneys and smaller practices, they often want to blog to bring in more business because progress means survival to them. These large or small firm attorneys believe that bringing in business will help them advance the rock in one way or another.
If blogging won’t advance the rock for you, is it still worth it? Most will say no, others enjoy the connections and camaraderie that comes with blogging. The sense of feeling connected to other lawyers that are going through the same things make it worth it. In my opinion, blogging is way too much work for it to serve as nothing more than a glorified water cooler.
What does progress mean to you? If you don’t have a clear idea, you may not have what it takes to wake up again tomorrow and resume pushing that rock up the hill.
-Hat tip to Charles Green for pointing out the HBR article to me.
