St. Thomas Law Mentor Blog

Prof. Jerry Organ teaches a section of our Mentor Externship and recently shared this e-mail with his class.  With his permission I am posting it here.  Prof. Organ highlights the tension between time management, client relationships, and work life balance.  The article to which Prof. Organ links also points out how technology is increasingly impacting time management.  Here is Prof. Organ’s e-mail:

Friends –

Following our conversation last Wednesday, this came across in the ABA Journal Weekly Newsletter (which I receive by email).

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/check_e-mail_hourly_quinn_partner_says_unless_in_court_in_tunnel_or_asleep

The comments raise several interesting points worth thinking about regarding other ways to handle this situation (e.g., could the partner have called, or sent a reply requested email, or sent a text message to get confirmation that the associate got the message?).   The article and comments also raise interesting questions about where the profession is at the moment in terms of a client-centered service model.  I met last night with a classmate of mine from college who is a name partner in a small, very successful litigation boutique in Ohio, who informed me that 24/7 accessibility is frequently the world he lives in (partly because he has clients in several time zones). He lamented something noted in several of the comments — that “wisdom” and “judgment” are not as easily available when immediate or prompt responses are the norm.

As you consider the importance of time management, efficiency, and the consequences of technology, I simply would encourage you to reflect on whether you can establish client expectations that allow you to be 12/6 rather than 24/7. There is a lot to chew on here.

Peace – Prof. Organ

All the students in mentor externship are required to take a class on time management, organization, and prioritization.  This is another topic that seems, on the surface, elementary to students.  Students sometimes complain that they have already established their own organizational systems and are unlikely to change much.  However, because time management and organization are so essential to both the rules of professional responsibility and also aspirational levels of professionalism it is always worth the effort to help students improve their skills. Further, what works for students to manage five courses at school may not be sufficient to manage tens or even hundreds of cases in practice.

A top client complaint is lawyers failing to diligently pursuing their cases.  If you don’t manage your time well it can be easy for things to fall through the cracks, or worse simple not making the time to do the work you are supposed to be doing.  A good example of how costly this lesson is can be found here: http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/law_firm_to_pay_1.5m_to_settle_claims_that_ex-associate_dropped_cases . Whether the failure to pursue a matter is the result of procrastination or being overworked, improving time management and organization skills will help students meet the minimum standards of our profession and avoid this type of complaint. 

 Further, poor time management often leads to other careless mistakes. If you do not leave the time to review a pleading before it is filed you may miss embarrassing typographical errors that really detract from your professional reputation. Worse, you could even miss a bigger mistake that leads to serious sanctions as happened here: http://minnlawyerblog.com/2009/10/23/slip-up-in-federal-filing-leads-to-5000-sanction/ .

 I also see time management as a part of an aspirational part of professionalism.  Good time management produces better client service.  It leaves more time for your clients to review something before it is filed or sent out. If you are a brand new associate, good time management provides more time for the partner supervising your work to review it before it has to go out the door.  Good time management and organization helps you manage your client relationships by ensuring you have been in contact with them on a regular basis.

 More importantly, effective time management and organization frees up additional time for other things.  If you can handle your case load more efficiently then you can use the extra time in a way that is consistent with your values.  For some people perhaps the extra time can be invested into additional work or time billed.  However, for many the additional time could be used for something else.  Lawyers frequently complain that they do not have enough time away from work for their families, families, or own personal health.  Better organization and improved efficiently can create that time.  Lawyers often put off pro bono work claiming they do not have time to take on non-paying work while managing their other files.  Better efficiency and time management could yield the time needed to invest in pro-bono work that gives back to the community.

My theory is that managing your time well is like managing your money well.  If you could better manage how you spend your money to reduce expenses by $100.00 then you get to spend the money however you like.  If you can better manage your time to free up an extra hour during the week then you get to choose how to spend that hour.  Who wouldn’t want that?

In his October 20, 2009 column, The New Untouchables, New York Times writer Thomas Friedman presents a long essay on how education needs to adapt to the demands the new economy.  You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/opinion/21friedman.html?em

Part of the essay describes layoffs at New York law firms.  Friedman explains that the lawyers who are being laid off are the ones who just show up and work on what it is handed to them.  He goes on to note how lawyers with “the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities, and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.”  In the rest of his article Friedman goes on to note how it is not enough to have intellectual gifts in our new economy.  Instead, the new economy values those who combine intellectual gifts with managing relationships and an entrepreneurial spirit. 

It is interesting to note the parallel between what Friedman is writing about from an economic perspective and what the Carnegie Report identifies from a professional formation perspective. Both identify the importance of relationship management and relationship skills to professional success.  In other words, IQ is no longer enough for professional success. We have to evaluate how to teach and develop EQ skills for the next generation of lawyers.

At the beginning of my sections of mentor externship I tell students that the mentor externship class sessions are less about IQ then EQ.  Often that is frustrating for them.  Some of the topics we cover seem obvious and less important than other parts of their law school education.  However, the Carnegie Report and Friedman’s column support what we are doing in the classroom section. Every time we help advance our students recognition and understanding of relationships we are improving their odds of professional success.

(added 10-29-09)

I should also have included a reference to an article by my colleague Prof. Neil Hamilton.  In the article he describes recent  research on the range of skills needed for professional success.  As you can see from the list, many of these skills are relationship skills that mirror what Friedman is writing about.  You can read Prof. Hamilton’s article here: http://www.stthomas.edu/ethicalleadership/resources/publications/Minn_Lawyer_professional_effectiveness.pdf.

The first two topics we have covered in our 2L class have been networking for class one and building a constellation of mentors for class two.  As the students considered those two topics an interesting topic came up: is a formal mentor program mentoring or networking?  It is interesting to see students struggle with the difference.  Our program is really meant to be a mentoring program.  That is to say, the lawyers and judges that participate in our program sign up intending to do more than simply meet and get to know their assigned protégé.  They want to embrace the different mentoring functions including career mentoring and role modeling for their student key professional skills that transcend practice area as well as career mentoring students on how to excel in the mentor’s practice area.  Mentors in our program also provide students with psychosocial mentoring that is crucial for the student’s development from student into the professional identity of being a lawyer.  Finally, both through role modeling and through the debriefing conversations our mentors help students understand important concepts of professionalism that run through the legal profession.

Certainly networking is a part of mentoring relationships and the opportunity to get to know lawyers and judges in our community as well as be introduced to their professional contacts is a benefit of the program.  However, it is important for students to keep the focus on the primary goal of their professional development.  Importantly, as we emphasized in the class on building a constellation of mentors, protégées have to take responsibility for getting the mentoring that they need by talking openly with their mentors about mentoring functions.  If the student feels like his or her relationship in the program is only networking then the student should invest some time and reflection into the other mentoring functions their mentor can provide. It would be a shame not to take advantage of all that a mentor can offer!

One of the best parts of my job is all of the great lawyers and judges I get to know when they volunteer to serve as mentors. I get to see them achieve great things in their careers. I also get to see the high value they place on mentoring. Today we received word that attorney Todd R. Schoffelman, a mentor in our program every year it has existed, was appointed to the district court bench. You can read more about his appointment here.

I write about this because Mr. Schoffelman highlighted mentoring in the press release. Students sometimes wonder why mentors volunteer for our program. Seeing Mr. Schoffelman highlight his service as a mentor sends an important message about the value our mentors place on the experience. Mentors volunteer because they believe in helping the next generation of lawyers. They want to be there for a protégé. In short, mentoring matters to them as much as it matters to their protégés.

All of us here at St. Thomas congratulate Mr. Schoffelman on his appointment. We are happy to have him as a mentor and thankful for all of his contributions to our program.