The Hidden Dangers Lurking Within Law Firms
By Nancy Byerly Jones

A few all-too-well-known malpractice and grievance traps include: conflicts of interests, missed deadlines, lack of competency, confidentiality/fiduciary breaches, clerical errors, failure to document adequately and poor client relations. This list should embarrass all of us due to the long-term survival rate of these traps; traps that each of us should know how to avoid so as not to harm or outright murder our clients' cases.

This column focuses not on these common malpractice errors, but on a few of the hidden dangers that could be lurking right under our noses.

Sloppy Leadership. This may include the total absence of leadership, sporadic effective leadership, internal competition amongst the firm's leaders, or a lack of understanding regarding what leadership means.

Ineffective Daily Management. Even firms smart enough to have full time legal administrators can experience ineffective day to day management if the wrong person is chosen for this critical position. Other firms refuse to spend the money on administrators because they lack the foresight to see beyond the salary costs or to recognize the big picture benefits for the firm with an experienced and properly selected administrator on board. Other attorneys refuse to give a non-partner the authority needed to do their jobs properly.

Sloppy Hiring, Training & Supervision of Staff. Malpractice will ultimately raise its destructive head when too little attention and planning is given to who is hired, the quality of the training offered and to the supervision of our employees. All too often, the hiring decision is made too quickly and with little thought put into the interview process itself much less the potential "fit" of a particular applicant within the firm's culture. No supervision is preferable to supervision by the wrong person. Those addicted to abusing their authority or with poor interpersonal skills are all too often put in supervisory positions. With no watchdog over them, the odds are greatly increased for high employee turnover, low office morale, increased malpractice risks and lower productivity.

Greed. A multitude of problems begin to invade our firms when monetary greed begins to outweigh our compassion for our clients and dilutes our loyalties to the oath we took when we became Officers of the Court. Greediness (and likewise extremely poor planning and management) can quickly lead to an excessive number of cases on our plates. When our volume is too high in comparison to our attorney and staff capabilities, our work quality and the time to commit to each matter is severely compromised. Chronically excessive caseloads may appear to be a mark of success, but at the risk of appearing harshly blunt, stupidity is the more accurate word.

A Firm in Name Only. Do you share the costs and liabilities with partners, but otherwise operate as individual practices that just happen to be under the same roof? Are regular and productive communications among the partners few and far between? Does each section of your firm follow its own systems and procedures separate and apart from other departments?

Firms in name only are ticking time bombs for many hazards including petty and not-so-petty internal bickering and competition. How can we expect to maximize our potential and minimize the risks of malpractice and other profit killers unless we are utilizing the powerful resources of the entire community? Too many attorneys fail to see the negatives far outweigh the positives when their firm name is mere verbiage for identification purposes only. Furthermore, the department that excels in implementing good policies and reaching their goals will share the negative fallout from another department's failure to do the same.

No Accountability. To set goals, adopt systems or formulate procedures is a bit useless unless all attorneys and staff are held accountable to do what is needed and expected of them. What does accountability mean in your firm? Has leadership taken the necessary time to define different levels of accountability and the corresponding disciplinary actions? Are the rules fairly enforced across the board? If an attorney's account receivables are constantly too high, is he or she ever held accountable to stop the financial seepage? Do some employees get away with ignoring office policies while others are expected to strictly adhere to the rules? Holding ourselves and others accountable is one of the largest gaps in our paths to success. We want success, but when the steps towards reaching our goals are awkward or tough ones, we often shy away causing huge detours (or worse!) in our efforts to reach our firm's goals.

Poorly Balanced Lives. The well-balanced, healthy lawyer wins. It's that simple. Ignore your health and the importance of finding a healthy balance between your professional and personal lives and it will catch up with you in and out of the office. Worse, a failure to encourage healthy balance for your employees with ultimately backfire as well.

Lousy Attitudes. Chronic, lousy attitudes are the perfect feeding ground for the germs of malpractice. We all know the energies zapped and productivity loss when in the company of a chronically negative individual. The bad effects of their poor attitudes far outweigh any skills or "pedigree" they may have. Other attitude monsters are reflected in statements such as "It's someone else's job" or "I'm too busy" both of which are simply copouts to do one's part. If we are enabling such an environment to exist within our firms, we should not be surprised when we must also share the "costs" of the harm done by such attitudes.

Final Two Cents Worth. We all need to remain acutely aware of the age-old traps that can harm our clients and be alert to the hidden dangers that may be alive and well within our firms. We may think we're too busy to bother with such matters. When a malpractice claim or grievance lands on our desk, however, many new deadlines will be imposed upon us whether we have time for them or not … not to mention the other negative ramifications and "costs" we will not doubt incur. It's a no thinker that to avoid such a path is a very wise decision to make and more importantly, to act upon.

This article was originally published in Lawyers USA in June 2006.

About the Author: Nancy Byerly Jones, attorney and mediator, works with law office personnel as a leadership/management consultant, retreat facilitator, coach and mediator. For more information, please visit her website at www.nbjconsulting.com or contact her via e-mail: nbj@nbjconsulting.com