TechnoLawyer: BiglawWorld

Originally published on August 23, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Two major stories rocked the large firm lateral market in July — O'Melveny & Myers, and layoffs related to rainmaker departures. It's always interesting to see how the mainstream media explains our world to the outside world. Peter Lattman wrote in the New York Times' Deal Book about the increasing activity and high stakes involved, placing a spotlight on the machinations behind Irving Picard's almost-move from Baker Hostetler.

O'Melveny & Myers: Bump in the Road or Road to Ruin?

Above the Law put it simply enough, "What's Going on at O'Melveny & Myers?" At the beginning of June, the firm had lost at least 22 partners, and then a handful more in July. Not surprisingly, these departures were attributed to a host of innocuous factors — high-profile jobs at clients, which could lead to future work; government service, which would promote the firm's brand; or a polished spin on sour grapes — that the departures were not undesirable thanks to a bad fit or low productivity.

However, observers felt something nefarious was afoot. When Bradley Butwin was appointed chair to succeed A.B. Culvahouse, AmLaw Daily reported that the firm's revenues had dropped last year, although profits per partner were up — due in no small part to reductions in the equity ranks.

There was also speculation of a rift between, depending on whom you asked, the firm's litigation and transactional departments or the legacy OMM partners (mostly litigation) and the lawyers acquired from the O'Sullivan Graev & Karabell merger (mostly corporate) a decade ago. Butwin's appointment should alleviate both of these fears. He's a litigator from OGK.

The real question is whether OMM's departures (around 60 over the past two years, according to one Above the Law commenter) represent the first sign of a troubled firm — another Howrey.

We're not convinced. These shifts seem more in line with Cadwalader in 2009 and White & Case in 2010, both of which suffered massive defections, some more intentional than others.

In 2009, Cadwalader's year got off to a horrible start. Profits per partner fell, the firm basically kicked off the layoff trend, and lots of notable partners left, including Bruce Zirinsky and John Bae for Greenberg Traurig, and John Busillo and Alan Lawrence for Arnold & Porter. But within a year, the ship had been righted and the money train was back on track.

Last year, Latham & Watkins raided White & Case for more than a dozen partners, and many more than that left over the year. Latham was specifically targeting the firm's #2 client, Saudi Aramco, but White & Case has held on after promoting a number of associates, flying in partners from other offices, and slowly rebuilding its ranks.

Similarly, keep an eye on where the Apollo work ends up. Seven of the OMM partners who serviced that huge client decamped to Paul Weiss with two others landing at Weil Gotshal.

Unlike Howrey, where it was clear early on that partners were jumping off a sinking ship (even though the firm, in an utterly classless move, tried to claim many had been pushed overboard), we would bet that OMM is just experiencing a bump in the road. The firm is much bigger and more diversified, geographically and by practice area. We don't anticipate adding it to the Dead Pool anytime soon.

Layoffs and Laterals

Layoffs and laterals sometimes go hand-in-hand — yet another underreported source of layoffs.

When partners leave, they may take a few key associates with them, but certainly not all. Those left behind find themselves in a difficult position, depending on how much work they did for the folks who left, or how niche their practice area was and whether it is something their firms will continue to support.

For example, Hunton & Williams laid off three lawyers and six staffers in London as a direct result of losing corporate partner Paul Tetlow to K&L Gates and energy partners Matthew Williams and John Deacon to Hogan Lovells.

Rara Aves: Cravath's Laterals, and Skadden's Ex-Retiree

They say three's a trend, so what else can we say but that there is a trend of lateral hiring at Cravath? The firm went 62 years without a lateral, but then brought in tax lawyer Andrew Needham from Willkie in 2005, and Richard Levin from Skadden in 2007 to start a bankruptcy practice. We liken these two Cravath laterals to the Yangtze River Dolphin — a species on the verge of extinction but at least with the possibility of reproducing in the future, unlike poor Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises.

Now there's a third Cravath lateral hire, with Christine Varney joining from the Department of Justice. She previously worked at Hogan & Hartson before she joined the DOJ, and was one of the people we thought was notably absent from the National Law Journal's list of the decade's most-influential antitrust lawyers. We suspect she'll make it the next time around.

Less rare, Skadden lured Sheli Rosenberg out of retirement. This was an interesting play for client development, diversity (age and gender), and mentoring.

Conclusion

As Lattman pointed out in Deal Book, lateral activity is on the rise, and the stakes are growing astronomical with $5 million+ signing bonuses becoming increasingly common. Stay ahead of the information curve with the Law Shucks Lateral Tracker.

Written by Law Shucks, which curates and analyzes data on large law firm lateral hiring.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on September 6, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

I recently received an assignment from BigLaw editor Neil Squillante: "The recent volatility of the stock market may prove a harbinger of another recession. In fact, some pundits think a recession has already begun. How will large law firms handle a double dip?"

Have large law firms learned from Great Bloodletting of 2009-2010? Are they better equipped to handle another downturn? Or will they again resort to the scorched-earth layoff strategy that resulted in 10,000 or so top-of-class law school graduates becoming a lost generation?

Well, who better to pose these questions to than Bruce MacEwen, a master of law firm economics and the erudite thinker behind Adam Smith, Esq. and JDMatch? Like a Federal Reserve chairman, MacEwen takes a measured view of the situation.

We Do Not Control Our Destiny

"The kind of volatility we're seeing in the stock market is, I believe, perfectly rational" (he says professorially), given that "we're being buffeted by good news and bad news of great magnitude on what seems like an accelerating time-frame." That said, he adds, "I would not take whatever the stock market does any given week or any given month as meaning it has any unusual forecasting prowess. There doesn't seem to be a solid trend established and until that comes I think it's predicting nothing but uncertainty, which we're acutely aware of already."

As to whether disaster lurks around the bend, MacEwen delivers an informed maybe. "Six months ago I would have said a double-dip recession was extremely unlikely," he notes. "Now I think it's a 50/50 bet." Why? Well, among other things, lots of Americans are still underwater on their home mortgages, and unemployment is not only historically high, but appears poised to remain that way. We face perhaps a decade of 'supra-normal' unemployment," MacEwen says. "Many lost jobs are simply not ever going to come back."

What does this mean for law firms? According to MacEwen, "the most important thing to remember about our industry is that we do not control our destiny." Thus, "when consumers stop buying and businesses stop investing in growth and hiring, our clients are hurt," both by the decline in top-line revenues, and the simple reality of decreased workloads, which result in a decreased demand for legal services. And, of course, that also means that, if they go into a second recession, "we will inevitably go with them."

What About Large Firms Jobs?

Even if growth declines, we probably won't see "stealth layoffs," or the kind of bloodletting we saw a few years ago, right? Wrong according to MacEwen.

If a second recession comes our way, MacEwen believes, more layoffs are bound to follow. "Large firms are certainly better equipped to weather a recession now than in 2007," he opines, "but they have also learned the virtue of quickly paring capacity to match demand, and that's a lesson no one has forgotten." The pressure to maintain profits per partner is on, he points out, and law firms will do what they must to keep numbers up.

But doesn't that mean law firms are leaner, meaner, and better at staffing nowadays?

"Firms are as lean as I've ever seen them," MacEwen says. "Partly this was because the recession forced them to address deadwood which they had the luxury of letting accumulate in richer times. They won't be that undisciplined again, I predict." In addition, he notes, firms are configuring themselves to be more responsive to economic flux by exploring "all kinds of different career models" — beyond just outsourcing and the use of temporary attorneys.

MacEwen lists non-partner track associates, flex-time, and "onshoring" (the use of lawyers in inexpensive cities like Dayton, Fargo, and Wheeling) as staffing alternatives that many previously bloated firms now use to stay lean and nimble.

At the end of the day, however, MacEwen reminds us of the bleak truth. "Nothing will prevent layoffs on whatever scale it takes to get capacity in line with demand," he says. "We have lost our virginity on that score."

A Postscript Arrives at the Same Conclusion by Another Means

Apparently, my questions touched a nerve in MacEwen. After my interview and upon further reflection, he published an article — A Double Dip Recession? — in which he changed his analysis though not his conclusion. MacEwen now believes that although the last recession officially ended according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, other metrics suggest we're still in a recession. Thus, a double dip recession won't have any impact among large firms. In other words, welcome to the new normal — don't expect large firms to allow capacity to exceed demand even if that means layoffs, stealth or otherwise.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 16, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

I'll be honest. I greeted the fanfare of Google+ (pronounced Google Plus) — yet another Google social network — with a healthy dose of skepticism. Remember Google Buzz? What about Google Wave? Both had big coming out parties and neither lasted past beta. And let's not forget Dodgeball, which Google bought and then killed. But hey, Orkut is big in Brazil.

So what about Google+? Does it have what it takes to find a place among the big three — Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter? Or will Google again drop the social ball, especially now that it needs to manage 19,000 new employees courtesy of its Motorola acquisition?

What Google+ Has Going for It

Google+ had an outstanding launch, growing in just two months to more than 25 million members despite being available only by invitation. By comparison, at the beginning of 2009 Twitter had an estimated five million members after almost three years of operation, while Facebook had around 40 million members after six years. Google+'s rapid growth increases its chances of success.

While Google+ has a number of interesting features, the most intuitive and useful is Circles. Think "circle of friends" in which you have a circle of work buddies, a circle of friends from law school, a circle of people that you haven't seen since grade school but who always want to comment on your posts, etc.

Currently, I think of the big three as three circles — Facebook is very personal, Twitter is for content sharing with professionals, and Linkedin is for all my serious business contacts.

Google+ Circles makes a compelling argument: "You can have all three here in one service, and keep them separate."

What Google+ Has Going Against It

Let's face it — Google+ is late to the party. Although the tech community may be fast to move from Geocities to Friendster to MySpace to Facebook to Friendfeed, we really don't know if the average joe — prospective clients of yours in particular — will switch to a new social network.

Take my father for example. He is 63 years old and logs into Facebook every evening. Sort of. He logs into my Mom's account because he doesn't really like the idea of belonging to a social network. Google+ is going to have a difficult time assimilating many of the older generation that came kicking and screaming to Facebook. Have you ever tried to help convince an elderly person it's time to move into an assisted living center? It's near impossible. Facebook is just as "sticky" for most people as an elderly person's home.

My Recommendation for Midsize and Large Law Firms

Join Google+ and learn how to use it (let me know if you need an invite). Remember the contrarian rule of marketing? Go where your competitors aren't. If you practice intellectual property or environmental law, or work with technology companies (especially startups), your prospective clients are already hanging out on Google+, but not many lawyers have taken the time to do the same. When legal questions and issues arise, you will be well suited to demonstrate your expertise and build some new relationships.

Written by Adrian Dayton of Marketing Strategy and the Law.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on July 26, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

For most, June in the large law firm world means the arrival and settling in of summer associates. But for partners, it is often the culmination of a quarter taken exploring opportunities and finalizing plans to move on. Client work tends to slow down slightly, partnership distribution checks have cleared, business plans for the year are finalized (and ready to be slapped into a headhunter's marketing package), so thoughts turn to moving on. Let's see who couldn't resist the spring wanderlust.

Staying in the Family

In our view, some of the most interesting moves are those within the large firm ambit. Two of June's finest intra-moves were Michael Fitzgerald bringing about a dozen corporate and securities lawyers from Milbank to Dewey & LeBoeuf, immediately providing the firm with the Latin America presence it has lacked. Dewey is about twice as big as Milbank, but Milbank had comparable profit-per-partner and probably a broader international footprint, albeit without the depth.

Of course, these moves don't always come down to money. Personal relationships are, in part, responsible for Fitzgerald's move to Dewey. The firm's former chairman, 92-year-old Leonard Joseph, is his father-in-law. Also, Fitzgerald's son, Reid, spent three years as a college intern at Dewey, and will attend Columbia Law School in the fall.

At the end of June in a trend that continued in July, O'Melveny lost three regulatory partners in DC to Allen & Overy, which was quite a surprise because Magic Circle firms have never been known for strong DC presences. The halls of power in our nation's capitol have traditionally been trod only by the whitest of shoes, so the addition of Charles Borden, Chris Salter, and Barbara Stettner shows some groundbreaking expansion.

Feeding Frenzy

When the large firm belly can't get fed by its own denizens, it goes searching farther afield for choice fare. Boutiques are plum targets these days for two types of acquirors — large firms looking to snag talent on the cheap or to shore up an underserved market (geographic location or a practice area), and small- to mid-sized firms trying to find safety in numbers.

Cozen O'Connor gutted IP litigation boutique Cohen Pontani Lieberman & Pavane, taking 19 of the NY firm's 27 lawyers. Five former Cohen Pontani lawyers came aboard as partners: Thomas Langer, Lance Lieberman, Martin Pavane, Thomas Pontani, and Edward Weisz. No word on what happened to the eight men out, although the firm was expected to dissolve, and its Web site now redirects to Cozen O'Connor.

Saul Ewing is also in "go big or go home" mode. It acquired five partners and one associate from Boston's Dionne & Gass. Dana Lanzillo, Don Lussier, Sally Michael, Richard Gass and Joanne Robbins joined as partners. Even for a boutique, that seems unbelievably highly leveraged, so we'll keep an eye out for word of associates not included in the deal. The fate of those left behind is another trend that we'll hit next month for its tragic repercussions.

Greener Pastures

For some, a large firm is no longer the right fit. The classic move out is the Jump In(House). At partner levels it's either a top legal job or out of law entirely to the coveted investment-banking world, as Cleary's former managing partner, Mark Walker did last month, when he joined Lazard in Paris.

The newest trend shows that lawyers may not be as risk-averse as believed. Weil Gotshal IP studs Matthew Powers (despite some recent rough patches) and Steven Cherensky have decided to blaze their own path, leaving the security of the GM Building (yes, we know they didn't sit in NYC) for their own startup practice, Tensegrity Law Group. They'll focus on contingent-fee plaintiff work, although at some point they may go fully over to the dark side, a la John Desmarais, the former Kirkland & Ellis partner who last year founded his very own patent troll by buying a bloc of patents and selling covenants not to sue.

The Revolving Door of Government Work

Another macro trend to keep an eye on this quadrennium is the inflow/outflow of our brothers and sisters in public service. We're about a year out from another election cycle, so quite a few people will be leaving who don't plan to stick around for the next term. Six lawyers left government in June for partnerships at major firms, but we expect that number, and their profiles, to rise in coming months. And, of course, there are some earlybirds. Kathryn Ruemmler will join the administration from Latham & Watkins to serve as White House Counsel.

Another large firm alum who could have a significant impact on that election cycle is Anthony Herman, the Covington partner who was recently named GC of the Federal Election Commission.

Conclusion

As alluded to above, July has some alarming trends, which I'll report on soon here in BigLaw.

Written by Law Shucks, which curates and analyzes data on large law firm lateral hiring.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on November 23, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

No doubt you've read in BigLaw about all the midsize and large firms equipping their lawyers with iPads — or at least supporting iPads purchased by their lawyers. For example, the BigLaw Pick of the Week earlier this month, Damon Morey Makes iPads Standard Equipment.

Many methods exist for integrating iPads and other mobile devices into your legal environment. For example:

• Should you license, build, and configure mobility servers or gateways (e.g., WorkSite Mobility Server)?

• Should you encourage the installation of numerous purpose-built apps on your mobile devices directly (e.g., LexisNexis' Courtlink, WestLawNext, Linsay Associates' IPLaw)?

• Should you create a VPN connection to encrypt connections from your devices to your LAN?

• Should you implement an expensive and involved enterprise security solution (e.g., MobileIron)?

• Should you require that the IT Department authenticate/approve each device manually before it can be used to connect to your network?

• Should you require that all documents be synced when the device is on your LAN, or even when it is physically plugged into your computers, all of which must then run iTunes?

• Do you need access to applications other than document management, or web-based reference/resource apps? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to access all of your firm's various applications — from Elite to Concordance and everything in between?

Here's One Solution That Works Well

These questions can all seem daunting. There are no wrong answers or approaches necessarily. But some approaches and solutions are easier to implement than others, and some approaches are more or less secure.

Many firms want to use the iPad for a terminal services solution (e.g., Citrix or Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services) as a way to meet this challenge with a degree of simplicity. But what about security? If an employee loses his device, is there a window of opportunity in which a compromised device could be used to breach your network?

At Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, my team and I have developed an easy-to-implement solution that is secure, and provides full access to your application environment for your iPad users. Here's what your firm will need:

1. A Windows 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Server. Or a server farm if your environment could benefit from the load balancing/failover features of two or more application servers working in concert — and who couldn't really?

2. A Windows 2008 R2 Server configured as a Remote Desktop Services Gateway Server.

3. A two-factor authentication product that uses employee cell phones as physical tokens. Two options — PhoneFactor or SecurEnvoy.

4. An RDP client that supports Secure Gateways. Some possibilities include iTap RDP App for the iPad or Xtralogic Remote Desktop Client for Android, both with the Secure Gateway option, purchased from the App Store or Android Market respectively.

Security First: The Advantages of Two-Factor Authentication

So what is two-factor authentication? Two-factor authentication is based upon what you have (a digital certificate, a mobile phone, or land-line phone) and what you know (a valid login for your firm's network, and a valid password for the same). Two-factor authentication has been in use for many years (perhaps most readily recognizable in the form of an RSA SecurID token key fob), and is superior to other forms of security because it requires that you have both.

For example, if someone were to learn your password they would still be unable to connect to your firm's network without your mobile phone or a valid firm-issued digital certificate. And conversely, it is not enough simply to have the "key" (the digital certificate or cell phone) — one must also have a valid login and password pair to gain access to the network.

Using an employee's mobile phone as a physical token is an elegant way to achieve two-factor authentication. Employees will always have it with them. And use of their mobile phone to effect this authentication is as easy as (1) entering your user name and password (what you know) at the RDS Gateway, (2) answering your phone (what you have) when the service calls you to confirm the login, and (3) pressing "#" to complete the authentication process. For convenience, firm-owned laptops can be equipped with digital certificates (again, what you have) that permit access without requiring a call-back.

Install and configure the RDP client on your mobile devices
The key here is the Secure Gateway support, which permits you to specify both an externally accessible gateway (via IP or DNS), and an internal hostname for pass-through to your RDS Server or Server Farm itself once the two-factor authentication has been achieved.

This solution will work not only with iPads, but also on any Android OS tablet (Samsung Galaxy, Motorola Xoom, etc.) — so long as you purchase an RDP client app for the device that supports Secure Gateways (Xtralogic, iTap).

For that matter, any non-Windows-based remote computer (Unix, Linux, Mac) can connect using this infrastructure as well — again, so long as an RDP client that supports Secure Gateways is available (and they are).

And of course you need not worry about an RDP application when your employees use Windows PCs. With employee mobile phones serving as the "what you have" component of a two-factor authentication solution, employees can securely use any Windows computer (e.g., a kiosk computer at a conference) to remotely access your network.

Conclusion

If your firm has struggled with architecting a solution that provides the level of access to firm applications you would like to support, I think you can recognize the simplicity, security, and power of the solution provided above.

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on July 19, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Many large firms use System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (SCCM), often in concert with Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), to push software updates and patches out to their server and desktop computing environment. Many even use it to deploy new operating systems.

While SCCM, if properly configured with all the appropriate levers pulled and buttons pushed, is a powerful tool for managing and manipulating the desktop and server environment, it falls short as a proactive monitoring tool of these same environments.

Enter System Center Operations Manager (SCOM).

How Does SCOM Work?

Once the server, service accounts, and database are configured (much like SCCM), SCOM has a Discovery wizard that can use the Active Directory or IP address subnets/ranges to identify new "target" computers or devices. Devices and appliances are a bit different (see below), but for computers running a Windows OS, the SCOM server can then push out the SCOM agent to these discovered computers automatically.

And then the magic happens. Once the agent is installed, it begins to monitor a myriad of data points accessible on its host — from event logs, to application states, to CPU, memory, and disk usage. And really, that is just the beginning of what SCOM can monitor and report back to you.

Microsoft's Management Packs: From Basic to Best Practice

If the SCOM agent is up and running on a given target computer, and it is able to call home, then a basic heartbeat is established. But if the target computer is a Microsoft Windows-based computer, and the appropriate "Management Pack" (downloadable for free from Microsoft) is installed on the SCOM server, then the alerts can report a whole lot more than just an up or down OS state.

The Windows 7 client agent, for example, monitors everything from boot performance to memory exhaustion analysis to shell performance to hardware and software component failures.

On the server side, when using the SQL Management Pack for example, the monitor will not only tell you that a backup failed, or let you know about a long-running SQL Agent job, but it will also let you know if your databases aren't configured according to Microsoft's Best Practices (e.g., "The auto close flag for database Northwind is not set according to best practice.")

The Exchange Management pack reports delays in SMTP queuing, log file growth, mailbox availability, etc. You get the picture.

What About Non-Microsoft Servers, Appliances, and Network Devices?

If your non-Microsoft servers, appliances, and network devices can be configured with Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), you can create your own device Management packs (if you are familiar with the data being served up by a given device), or download or purchase the non-Microsoft Management Packs pre-configured to give you access to all of the minutiae detail that the SNMP agent on a given device provides.

As with Microsoft SCOM agents, SNMP-managed devices operate via a software agent installed on each device, the sole purpose of which is to report on device-specific health data. And if it's a name-brand, enterprise class product (e.g., Cisco routers, EMC SANs), you can be sure that every major manufacturer provides SNMP ready to go on all of their shipped products.

When freebie Management Packs are not available (e.g., VMWare), you can buy them from companies that know how to "speak" your server/appliance/device's SNMP language. Some examples:

Veeam Software's nworks Management Pack for VMware

Jalasoft's Smart Management Pack for VMware VirtualCenter

Bridge Ways' System Center Ops Manager

Or you can browse for your product in the SCOM Management Pack Marketplace.

Conclusion

Whether you work for a massive, multi-site international law firm, or a midsize law firm with one, two, or three locations, SCOM is an invaluable tool for staying on top of the health of your firm's computing environment. With SCOM, you can manage your environment as proactively as possible. Don't wait for your users to tell you that you have a problem. Get SCOM up and running and you'll know before they do!

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on October 11, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Does your email archiving solution leave you wanting more? Tired of dealing with an Outlook plug-in that doesn't play nice? With archived email and attachments that are sometimes available and sometimes not (usually when you need them the most … like in a client meeting)? With the need to perform two separate searches, often via two different interfaces, to search your "live" email and your archived email?

On the administrative side, are you tired of backing up two separate environments, administering your email archive through a separate admin console, possibly one without the most intuitive knobs, dials and levers for making it behave and perform?

Have you considered eliminating your third party archiving solution altogether, and implementing Exchange 2010's native Personal Archive?

The thought may seem daunting when you let yourself dwell on all of the problems you encountered implementing your third-party archiving solution in the first place, and when you extrapolate the problems you likely will have moving your messages to Exchange 2010's native archive. But there are a number of very sound reasons, from compliance, to recovered software licensing fees, to improved administrator and user experience, that merit serious consideration.

What Is Personal Archive and Why Should You Care?

Personal Archive is a new product name from Microsoft that is entirely unrelated to PST files. In fact, Exchange 2010 has tools for importing any old PST files you might have lying around. Also, Exchange 2010 Archiving requires an Exchange Enterprise Server License and Enterprise CALs sufficient for all user mailboxes using the technology.

Microsoft espouses the ability of native archiving to achieve compliance through the following means: "preservation, discovery, control, protection, reporting, and availability."

At first blush, it appears as though Exchange 2010's toolbox of features could go a fair way toward achieving compliance if used properly in the context of a business compliance policy and practice that is at least moderately disciplined. And yes — Microsoft is careful not to make too grandiose a set of claims about Exchange's native compliance-supporting features being a silver bullet/complete solution for all your compliance needs. But really, there's a lot here.

Some highlights of features that support compliance (and which provide general utility):

• Multi-Mailbox Search Support: Configurable through the use of roles to be a process which can be managed outside of IT.

• Support for Litigation/Legal Hold: Once applied, all items which are deleted are searchable/recoverable for the duration of the hold.

• Content Retention: The ability to specify retentions periods and rules for both production and archival message data which can be different or the same across both environments.

• Dynamic Email Signature Blocks: Often required for compliance (e.g., "this is not tax advice" and other such disclaimers) using data (including logos) stored in the Active Directory.

• Protection/Message Encryption: Transport Layer Security (TLS), Opportunistic TLS, integrated content filtering, SSL, and more.

• Auditing: Permits determination of whether users have access to and when they accessed certain email folders and messages. It can also report on any multi-mailbox searches that have been performed, etc.

• Built-in High Availability (HA): Functions provide for the reliability that many compliance standards require, saving your firm from the potential for costly fines and a loss of reputation in the event that critical discovery data is not recoverable.

User Benefits

And the top three user benefits are:

1. No Outlook plug-ins to crash.

2. All email messages (live or archived) are searchable via a single interface using Outlook or webmail.

3. Along with Exchange 2010's increase in the number of messages permissible in the critical Exchange folders (Inbox, Sent Items, Deleted Items), native archiving also eliminates the need for users manually to prune and file their aging messages. The personal archive automatically creates duplicate copies of a given user's mail folder structure within the archive, and moves older messages to the corresponding archive folder (moving anything older than two years to the archive by default, but configurable based upon your firm's business rules).

Administrator Benefits

And the top five administrator benefits are:

1. Simplification of email backups and improved tools for managing retention policies.

2. Simplification of email administration through consolidation of all email and archived email under a single, unified architecture.

3. Improved access to critical administrative functions related to ongoing maintenance, operations, and archiving via webmail.

4. The provision of a native, high availability solution that performs continuous replication of mailbox data ("live" and archival) from a production mail server environment to a backup mail server environment and that simplifies and automates failover of mail services and/or data on the fly.

5. The ability to store production mailbox data on high performance data storage devices (e.g., SANs with SSDs), and either or both backup HA and/or Personal Archive data on cheaper/lower performance disk — without losing any of the seamlessness of the HA solution or of the Personal Archive being always available alongside your live message store.

Well, Should You?

Yes. Exchange 2010's native archiving solution is ready to replace your third party email archiving solution. But is your firm willing — and prepared — to do what it takes to wrestle that costly and complicated monkey from its back?

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 9, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

If you were one of the brave few law firms to make the transition to Office 2007 at some point in the last four years, you'll find that the move to Office 2010 is an easy one. In fact, your users will probably welcome the return of the File Menu, and the many small improvements to the Ribbon — especially its customizability. Let's face it — the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is nice, but it's just not the same as the visually-accessible Ribbon.

But if your law firm still uses Office 2003 or an earlier version still, you'll need to take the training aspect of the new Office suite very seriously. Is it harder to use? Worse or scarier than previous versions in some way? Well, no. Office 2010 offers a much better interface. And once you acclimate, you'll never want to go back.

But if you don't manage user expectations, your rollout may not go smoothly to say the least. You could have a full-scale staff revolt on your hands and many long nights in the office.

So how can you increase the odds of a successful upgrade? Follow the three steps discussed in this issue of BigLaw, and you'll come out on the other side of the rollout feeling better than you can ever remember after such an intimidating change management challenge.

Step 1: Promote the Benefits Early

Six months before the rollout starts …

Market the rollout. Provide an early warning. Give everyone time to adjust to the idea, and to accept that it's coming. No pre-learning at the early stages (and let's be honest: you won't be organized enough yet at this point to provide it anyway). Just some marketing and some positive bullets to put a good spin on the upgrade from the get-go: "faster", "more efficient," "greater compatibility with clients," etc.

Step 2: Pre-Learning

Start the pre-learning process about 30 to 60 days before users receive their upgraded systems.

Buy professional materials. Don't try to pull it together yourself. Could you? Even if you have sufficient bench depth at your firm to create the media, collateral, manuals and reference guides, why bother when you can buy products like Traveling Coaches' Office 2010 Rollout Kit at a very reasonable price (based upon the number of employees at your firm)?

Traveling Coaches' Rollout Kit includes the following materials:

• Detailed learning plans for staff, attorneys, paralegals.

• Videos that announce the coming of Office 2010 (essentially commercials).

• An interactive flash application that reveals the top productivity gains in Office 2010.

• Pre-learning lessons (for your intranet). Short and on-point interactive "how tos."

• Training materials (sample documents, training guides, quick reference cards, etc.).

• Floor support aids.

You can also supplement these materials as you see fit with some of the free content that Microsoft provides to help you with the transition. For example:

• Interactive "Then and Now" Guides. (I used to insert a footer in Excel 2003 by going to View/Header/Footer. Where is that now?)

• The "Menu to Ribbon" reference guides.

• Office Migration Guides

The key takeaway here is that you didn't spend any time preparing and assembling these materials. Someone else did it for you. And whether you elect to engage outside trainers or use internal trainers, these materials are still hugely helpful to wrapping your brain around what is involved in the effort, how to structure it, and exactly how to execute on the training aspects of the rollout.

Step 3: Training

Start the actual training itself as close to the time of your users receiving their upgraded systems as possible. Ideally, arrange the training to occur while their system is being upgraded/swapped out.

A lot goes into determining exactly how much training you need for Office 2010. Are you also upgrading any non-Microsoft products at the time? How many "power users" do you have? What third-party applications do you use and how do they integrate with Office 2010? Etc.

If you needed a wild but sophisticated guess as to how much training each user will require for Office 2010, I would suggest that you plan on about three hours of training per user for a basic level of introductory training when coming from an Office suite of 2003 or earlier (or from alternative suites such as WordPerfect).

If you've purchased the Rollout Kit mentioned above, by the way, the included learning plans contain a minute-by-minute breakdown of the training topics broken down in a very granular manner. If you're going to train this material with in-house staff, Traveling Coaches ensures that you can customize its training guide to coincide with the topic selections your firm identifies in the learning plan(s). For large firms with permanent staff dedicated to systems training, the Rollout Kit is really all you'll need to feel confident about the challenge in front of you. And more important perhaps than even your team's confidence, the included materials will make a lasting impression on your user base.

Conclusion

Why build it yourself when somebody has already done the heavy lifting? There are many freely or cheaply available resources out there that can help you achieve success with your Office 2010 rollout. And not only will they save your technology team from excess sweat and tears, but many of these resources are top notch, and will ensure that your Office 2010 rollout is a smashing success.

Written by Matthew Berg, Director of IT at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks, P.C..

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on July 12, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

The excitement over social media has grown to a fever pitch. LinkedIn recently became a public company, and has absolutely exploded with over 100 million members. Facebook has become ubiquitous as this infographic by Business Insider demonstrates, and will likely become a public company next year.

But when Apple announced which platform it had chosen to integrate into its iOS 5 mobile operating system it bypaseed both Facebook and LinkedIn, going instead with Twitter. So what is it about Twitter? Why would a service that losers use to narrate their mundane lives be deemed so important that the world's most valuable company would permit it to reside at the heart of its crown jewel? Let's take a closer look.

Twitter Is Public

Have you ever attended a cocktail party and noticed that you picked the wrong group with whom to chat? You look over your shoulder and see another group laughing and having much more fun. What would it be like if you could run a simple search to find out who was talking about something interesting, and then join that conversation? That's one of the primary benefits of Twitter — anybody can listen in on conversations of interest. You're not trapped by your "friends."

But aren't most tweets boring, self-centered and mundane? Many of them are, but so are most of the conversations at cocktail parties, the difference being that on Twitter you have more choices. It isn't like Facebook where you have to be friends or pseudo-friends to have a conversation. It isn't like LinkedIn where you need to provide details on past work relationships before you can eavesdrop. Twitter is public, meaning anybody can listen in on any conversation. Better yet, developers can build applications on top of Twitter to better organize that information for law firms and other constituencies.

It's kind of ironic that Apple, which has a closed and formal process for creating iPhone apps and having them approved, has embraced Twitter, which has a decidedly different philosophy. Twitter's openess provides incentive for serendipity and entrepreneurship as it invites people to play with its data. It worked out for the developers of TweetDeck, which created a better way of organizing the Twitter stream. As a result, this gang of 14 employees just sold its business to Twitter for $40 million dollars. Twitter and its community of users are better off because of this openness.

Twitter Is About Sharing Content

Why does all this openness matter to lawyers? There are two ways to add value and gain credibility online. The first is to find and share valuable content. I call these people "collectors." Anybody can be a collector. The second group are those who actually create valuable content in form of articles, podcasts, white papers, videos, etc. The vast majority of social media users are incapable of creating truly helpful content. Lawyers on the other hand have the unique ability to communicate. Thus, Twitter is of great benefit to lawyers willing to create content and let everyone know it exists.

You could argue that Twitter isn't a social network at all. The majority of the tweets shared are links to content on other Web sites. The lame or boring information gets ignored while the truly exceptional information gets passed on — retweeted. Twitter is an information exchange. Those who understand it take information and put it in front of thought leaders and influencers who can further amplify it in ways you can't imagine. Your information!

Can't you just share information by email? Yes but there's less chance of it "going viral" unless you're a bona-fide email publisher like TechnoLawyer. With Twitter, there are no degrees of separation so your information can be passed directly to individuals you may have never met. If your content is very good, Twitter can become a powerful ally in getting your message out.

Why does sharing matter? Many law firms have this part all wrong. They think of sharing on Twitter as a way for them to publish. Just another way to talk about themselves. That's just one facet. The true value of Twitter lies in its ability to help lawyers research and find great information that they can either share via email with their high value contacts or write about on their blog or Web site. Sharing means you can find information online quickly, and then use it to demonstrate your expertise.

Twitter's Learning Curve Requires Commitment

After reading this issue of BigLaw, you may think — "Time to jump on Twitter!" A word of warning. Twitter is not easy to learn. It's easy to sign up. It's easy to send a single tweet, but it is not easy to get going beyond that. As a result, Twitter suffers from a phenomenon in which people join Twitter, send their first tweet, sign off, and never try it again. To get over this hump you need to spend time every day for a couple of weeks to get the hang of it. It is a powerful tool, it's worth spending a few hours to get there.

The marriage between Apple (with about 200 million iOS devices sold) and Twitter (with about 20 million active accounts) makes sense for both sides, but more importantly it assures the longevity of Twitter. If you were waiting for the smoke to clear to decide whether or not Twitter was worth figuring out, the time has come. Get over your issues with tweets, retweets, tweet-ups, and all the other silly words associated with Twitter and give it a chance. Apple has spoken.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 30, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Have you ever noticed how much large firm junior associates complain? Well, if you're smart, the answer is "no" because you've already learned to tune that noise out. If you stop and listen though, you might realize that the low rumbling you hear all day isn't actually your HVAC, but an ungrateful recent law grad whining about his terrible life.

Sure, some legitimate complaints exist like in any job. You have to spend your life in a temperature controlled Class A high-rise, and suffer daily under the crippling moral obligations that come with earning multiples of the average household income.

These problems aside, your young lawyers don't know how good they've got it. Below you'll find just a few of the many reasons they should express more gratitude. I encourage you to circulate this issue of BigLaw throughout your firm — especially to said junior associates.

Dude, You Have a Secretary!

The President of the United States has a total of fourteen secretaries, from Hillary Clinton in the State Department to Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security. If you're at a typical large firm, you're probably sharing your secretary with two or three other associates, and one partner. By secretary ratio, the President, the most powerful man in the world, is only 56 times greater than you. By the same metric, you are infinitely greater than anyone without a secretary who has to lick their own envelopes.

That is a lot of greatness to have bestowed on you at the start of your career, so learn to appreciate it. And, unlike the President who has to cover for his secretaries when re-election time rolls around, with just a little bit of greenback grease, your secretary will cover for you. Think Timothy Geithner will spin a yarn for the press corps when Obama takes the morning off to play golf? Not a chance.

Freebies > Cost of Living

Sure, if you're in large firm that means you're also in a big city with some big city rent to pay. You'll also probably have to spend a few of your first paychecks expanding your professional attire.

But you can easily offset these expenses with the lower cost of living that accompanies your lifestyle. No need to shell out $3 or more every morning for coffee or $10 on lunch when you can get free or highly subsidized coffee and food from your cafeteria. Dinner is of course free and delivered as long as you work late. And don't forget about all those free office supplies. You need never step foot in Staples again. Binders, pens, stickies, you name it!

With your late nights and uncertain weekend hours, you're not going to spend a whole lot of money on entertainment and leisure. Those $12 movie tickets can really add up, and a single cancelled vacation can net you four-digit savings (assuming you make refundable plans).

Finally, you can kiss goodbye that money drain called dating. Guys, no more accidentally buying dinner, dessert, and a bottle of wine for someone who has no intention of ever seeing you again. Gals, no need to waste money getting your hair and nails done more than twice a year.

Court Appearances Are Overrated

Here's what great about court appearances as a junior associate — you don't have any. You're not even saddled with the awkwardness of turning them down. Partners will demonstrate their good manners by not even asking you to go.

Your friends may think it's strange that you're a litigator who last saw the inside of a court room during your swearing in ceremony. Don't bother trying to explain why you have it so good. Just smile. After all, did you spend three years and a hundred thousand dollars of tuition on trial advocacy classes? Of course not! You studied case law, the intellectual heavy lifting of legal thought, the meat and potatoes of practice.

Court is a hassle. It's nerve-wracking. You have to leave the office to get there, and you have to wear a suit. A whole entire suit — tie, jacket, everything. You also have to deal with cranky judges and meet opposing counsel face to face. And that's just motion practice. Don't even get me started on the horrors of trials and voir dire.

Staying at the office from 10 am to 10 pm every day is paradise by comparison. Besides, no one ever got held in contempt while in the office library (though shoddy document review can get your firm sanctioned and you fired so take note).

Hanging With Buffet

Above prestige, engaging work, and the daily satisfaction of working elbow-to-elbow with the brightest minds in one of the brightest industries, a large firm job first and foremost means big money.

Some detractors will point to how much of your salary goes to service your student loan debt, but you'll pay it off after 15 or so years — sooner if you live at home or with a roommate in a neighborhood just starting the process of gentrification (look for a neighborhood suffering more from burglary than from violent crime).

Others will note that your salary isn't really that large thanks to federal, state, and in some cases local progressive income taxes. Pay them no mind. They're just jealous. After all, you're on equal footing with Warren Buffet (according to Warren Buffet), and would feel privileged to pay even higher taxes.

Still others will point out that on an hourly basis you earn less than your secretary. However, what they fail to consider is that your secretary doesn't get to keep working past 6 pm or bill hours on the weekend. You see, it isn't just about great pay, but about opportunities to contribute to the firm's profits per partner. Chances are that you'll never partake in any of those profits as a partner yourself, but keep your head high and the dream alive. Shine on you crazy diamond.

Written by BL1Y of Constitutional Daily.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.