New England Biz Law Update
This is the fourth in a six-part series on “Succeeding In-House,” explaining why basic legal skills are not enough for long-term success as an in-house attorney.
By Christopher Mirabile
In-house practice is a whirlwind of competing priorities, multi-step processes, multi-functional group projects and beguiling distractions. Thriving in that kind of environment is a challenge for even the most accomplished multi-tasker. Success requires you to think as much about what you do, and how you do it, as you do about the work itself.
With a few systems and a little awareness, you can turn yourself into a well-oiled machine and power your way through the chaos smartly and effectively. First, a few basics:
Be in-humanly organized — Start a folder the minute a new matter or question arises. Use regular pads, not bound notebooks, and keep a big stack of them somewhere handy so you can quickly grab any pad and jump into a meeting. Then tear out the pages, date them and put them into the relevant folder when you return.
Mixed notebooks with multiple topics are trouble. They can cause you to keep more than you should, require you to carry more than you need everywhere, force you to produce more than you want in discovery and cause you to risk losing too much with one misplaced book. Folders and loose-leaf sheets of paper will be your salvation.
Keep a running to-do list at all times — This task seems so obvious, and yet so few do it religiously. Not only do you get a sense of accomplishment from crossing off items, you inspire confidence in those around you. And a list actually prevents you from forgetting things and provides a forcing function that keeps you organized. Use whatever medium or system works for you.
The key is just to keep the list religiously as a clearinghouse for all to-dos. Copy it frequently, each time re-prioritizing the most important items to the top. Keep it in the same place on your desk; in the center, next to your phone, is best so that you can use it to jot down calls and call-back information on the same to-do system.
Conversation to-dos are special to-do lists organized by person, not task. Write them in the margins of your to-do list and meeting notes. During meetings, get into the very simple but valuable habit of writing a person’s name in the margin of the list with an arrow or reference to the related items whenever a person becomes relevant to more than one to-do item or discussion point. When you bump into that person, you aren’t stammering to remember that “one other thing I wanted to ask you.”
To become really effective, get in the habit of running your conversation list as a parallel version of your to-do list, except organize it not by task but by related people.
Advanced issues
Recognize systematic problems — This is a classic “big picture” skill that involves recognizing the difference between one-off problems and systematic problems and approaching the systemic problems holistically.
Are you seeing the same issue repeat itself over and over? If it is systemic or recurring, treat the disease not the symptom. Ask whether it is something that should be subject to its own policy, process, checklist or model form. Ask whether it can be standardized. Ask whether it can be automated. Ask whether it can be shifted to a lower- cost resource.
If none exists, ask whether a lower-cost resource or approach can be developed. If you have the authority to make such changes, you will improve your organization in a permanent way. If you don’t, your manager will undoubtedly take grateful note of a process improvement suggestion raised in a professional way.
Don’t do work you shouldn’t — Being effective means being efficient. In the in-house context, this means asking if something really is legal work and, if so, asking if you are the right lawyer to do it.
Being efficient means doing the right things and doing them as efficiently as possible. That means asking the following questions about every single thing you do: Is this the right thing for me to do? Is it actually important, or merely urgent? If merely urgent, go find something important to do.
If genuinely important, proceed to: Is Legal the right function to do it? Is this something better done by the business but shifted to Legal because that department has good follow-through or writes well or seems happy to work late every night?
If Legal is the right department, then proceed to do it, but first ask: How can I do this as efficiently as possible? Am I the right lawyer in the group to do this? Are there any pre-existing commitments of greater importance? Are there any relevant pre-existing skills elsewhere?
If no, then proceed to: Am I going about it in the best possible way? Don’t just grab an existing approach or document and blindly revise it and try to make it fit. Work backward from the end point: What is the most useful possible deliverable here? Go create that.
Delegate instantly and thoughtfully —
If you are part of an organization, efficiency often involves getting things done through others. This often requires delegation. Smart in-house practice means that if you can delegate something, you do so without delay. Don’t wait to delegate until you think you have the problem fully analyzed. Delegate as soon as you identify a task that should be delegated. It allows you to use the delegate to help you analyze the task; it gives the delegate the maximum time to do the task; and it avoids developing a reputation for manufacturing crises by delegating at the last minute.
Create tool kits — This concept is a cousin to the foregoing point about systemic problems. Many repetitive tasks can benefit from the use of tool kits, such as issue checklists, sample clauses, deal guidelines, successful negotiation responses and the like. They don’t have to be formal or complicated. Something as simple as a list of “deal issues” by subject matter, with a note of which agreements contain those issues, will allow you to quickly find model language.
If you have interns, or routinely have to train people on basic tasks, there are many useful kinds of guidelines that, once developed, will not only save you repetitive teaching but will improve in efficiency and completeness if they are maintained and added to over time. They will also ensure consistent standards across members of the function.
Moving to the next level
Invest in your growth — In the early years of your career, it is hard to avoid training, particularly if you start in a law firm. But as you advance, the responsibility to continue your training falls increasingly on your own shoulders. Make the time and put in the effort to avail yourself of the educational and developmental resources all around you. On your own initiative, seek out opportunities to learn. It is remarkable how often you wind up finding an immediate use for that learning.
Don’t procrastinate; integrate learning and professional reading into your everyday routines. Remember the two-minute rule: Don’t put it aside for later; if it is short, skim it now.
If you see a good seminar invitation, make the determination right then and there whether you can go; then just put it on the calendar, and register on the spot rather than setting it aside to be found again after the date has passed.
Leverage available resources — Use your network. Your professional colleagues are an incredibly important resource. Seek them out. Ask them for help. Don’t settle for the answer; ask them how they analyzed the problem.
Find helpful external advisors. For example, use a good insurance broker. Use a value-added real estate agent to help with reviewing leases. Join professional associations, and familiarize yourself with the incredible knowledge bases they have compiled. A little effort digging can turn up a great primer or starting resource on virtually anything you need to tackle.
Don’t re-invent the wheel trying to think up all the angles on your own. It’s not efficient, and it is how things get missed. Take the 10 minutes to dig around before diving in blindly and trying to adapt the wrong form.
Use technology—There are myriad ways in which information technology can be leveraged to make your in-house practice smarter. Tools such as the BlackBerry or a cellular modem for your laptop can allow you to keep up your “through-put,” even when you are mobile, and are commonly cited examples of leveraging technology.
There are many work-flow, data storage/retrieval and matter management solutions out there that can have hugely positive effects on your productivity. And not all solutions are expensive. Even small departments can afford a basic scanner and some software to scan and process executed contracts so that they can be stored in a searchable format in a centrally accessible place. Not only does that give everyone central access to all the documents and make them easy to circulate by e-mail, it can provide a very good backup/disaster recovery benefit as well.
Take the time to analyze how you do things and proactively seek the technology aids that will allow you to do them smarter, faster and better. Taking the time to work smarter not only improves the quality of your life, it improves the quality of your professional work product.
Don’t accept the chaos of in-house practice as your mode of operating. Get organized, systematized and proactive, and you can spend more time in the inspiration quadrant and less time in the perspiration quadrant.
Christopher Mirabile is the former chief financial officer and general counsel at IONA Technologies, an integration software company based in Waltham, Mass., and Dublin, Ireland. (The company was recently acquired by Progress Software of Bedford, Mass.) He is vice president and president-elect of the board of directors of the Northeast chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel.
