The Agile Attorney Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Adding capacity to your law practice, whether through hiring new team members, outsourcing work, or using AI to help you with certain tasks does not always add up to overall workflow improvement. This can be really frustrating for law firm owners because you’ve spent time and money on these solutions, only for the work to continue getting stuck in workflow bottlenecks.

Melissa Shanahan and Ben Hudson join me today to discuss what changes when you shift your focus from resource efficiency to flow efficiency, and why sometimes the key to increasing capacity is actually doing less. Ben shares his insights on using data to inform hiring decisions, improving client perception, and defining productivity in a way that aligns with his goals, and we dive deep into the tools and strategies that make a difference.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/36

Catch me at the Clio Cloud Conference 2024, Tuesday, October 8th at 3pm (Discount code: ACTFAST): https://cliocloudconference.com/

Have you ever felt like certain tasks in your law practice are taking longer than they should? What if I told you that sometimes the key to efficiency is slowing down and working together? This is where a concept from the software development world called "paired programming" can help you create better outcomes in your legal practice.

Tune in this week to discover how to accelerate your law firm’s efficiency using the concept of paired programming. From co-working on complex briefs to training new team members, you’ll learn how working together in real-time can reduce miscommunication, accelerate feedback loops, and ultimately lead to a better work product for your clients.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/35

Start your Agile transformation today and check out free resources, including my Law Firm Policy Template, to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Why is the concept of "start with what you do now" crucial for creating meaningful and durable change in your law practice? This principle helps you understand your current processes and the people involved in them, recognizing why you are where you are, so you can make more informed decisions about how to move forward.

Tune in this week for a dive into a foundational aspect of the Kanban Method: Start with what you do now. I share tips for initiating sustainable change in your law practice, respecting the roles and titles of your current team, helping them embrace the changes you want to see in your firm, and allowing them to become a valuable part of the change process.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/26

Start your Agile transformation today and check out free resources, including my Law Firm Policy Template, to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Melissa Shanahan, founder of Velocity Work and host of The Law Firm Owner Podcast, teaches her clients a planning and accountability method she calls Monday Map/Friday Wrap. This method highlights some vital parts of the Agile practices of weekly planning and weekly review meetings.

Monday Map/Friday Wrap is about creating micro-feedback loops within the context of a larger strategic plan, which is the kind of thing I love, so tune in this week as Melissa and I unpack this methodology, and have an all-round entertaining discussion about strategic planning and its benefits in general for the leaders of legal teams.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/25

Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Visualizing your work on a Kanban Board can be a life-changing improvement to your and your team's overall productivity. But adopting the board as a tool and the Kanban method more broadly can be a little uncomfortable at first, especially when you see all of your to-dos laid out in one place. So, how do you stick with change, like using a Kanban Board, when change gets hard?

Your Kanban Board can be overwhelming to look at, especially if you're new to the concept, so tune in this week to discover how to stick with it and keep your work flowing, even if your workflow looks overcommitted right now and you want to give up on your Kanban Board altogether.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/24

Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

The lawyer shortage is a complex issue with multiple factors at play, but the impacts are becoming apparent everywhere, from the public defender crisis to the civil access to justice gap, to the fierce competition for hiring and retaining mid-career associates. But what are the roots of this lawyer shortage?

Tune in this week to discover what I believe are the roots of the lawyer shortage. I highlight the significant shifts we've seen in the legal services industry, analyze how increasingly complex federal laws and regulations have changed the landscape of legal demand, and I discuss what all of this means for the future of your legal firm and our whole industry.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/23

Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

I've spoken before about the importance of making policies explicit. But what does it mean to draft an effective policy in your law firm?

Tune in this week to discover what I believe are the elements that comprise a good policy, and learn how to get your team on board in implementing your policies. I share a template for writing effective policies in your law firm, give you examples of policies I use with my clients, and I even dive into the slightly meta idea of a policy for writing policies in a law practice.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/22

Grab my free Law Firm Policy Template & Policy Library and other resources mentioned in today's episode to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice here: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

One of the features of modern business is that there's tons of pressure to grow, scale, and do more with less. Lawyers and their teams aren't exempt from this expectation. It makes sense to leverage our resources and our impact. However, growth for the sake of growth isn't necessarily the healthiest approach for your business, or for the people in it.

Tune in this week to discover the critical importance of prioritizing sustainability before scalability in your law practice. I discuss why you can't scale your way out of a sustainability problem, and you'll learn how to identify the areas of your law practice that are currently unsustainable, so you can clear a pathway toward making scaling a real possibility.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/21

Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

In past episodes, I’ve talked in detail about individual practices and how the Kanban method has upleveled them, and today’s show provides living proof. That’s because I’m talking with two clients of mine, Jess Birkin and Megan Heitkamp, of the Birkin Law Office, about the start of their practice and how they’ve transformed their business with systematic improvements.

Together we’ll discuss how these concepts and frameworks are wholly trainable and teachable, allowing you to bring full teams on board and then streamline processes even more effectively (think automated lead nurturing campaigns). Even better, this episode can serve as a case study that these systemizations can improve your practice too.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/20

Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Have you ever put a ton of time and attention into a piece of legal work only to realize that it's not quite hitting the mark for your client? Or maybe you've delivered a technically flawless document, but your client’s just sort of “meh” about the whole thing, like they just don't seem to be satisfied?

Tune in this week to discover how the Fit for Purpose framework helps you deliver what your clients need, when they need it. You'll learn the three core components of evaluating whether your legal offerings are Fit for Purpose, how to come up with user models around common Fit-for-Purpose criteria, and how to design Fit for Purpose products and services that are 'just right' for your firm's context and resources.

For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/19

Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start