Ramblings

The Deed Is Done

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

The deed is done, the shingle hung, and practice begun!

The weather conspired against a June 29th opening (when the crop is ready and the weather is right you harvest and all else gets delayed), but on July 8th the planets aligned and I opened the doors to my new office.

In no particular order here is what I’ve discovered about opening a practice:

  1. If a tape measure says the distance between your computer and the network port is 15 feet, use a 20 foot cable to connect the two.
  2. Telemarketers start calling about 3 days after phone service installation. The corollary to this is that junk mail is the first to find its way to your address, followed shortly by bills.
  3. The “new” wears off guest chairs after the 4th use or so – don’t get attached to unblemished furniture.
  4. There are two types of installers – those that say they’ll be there in 2 weeks and then show up in 2 days and those that say they’ll be there in 2 days and show up 2 weeks later. I don’t think this is due to the random nature of work – I think it is somehow related to how difficult it will be to fit a given time/date into my schedule
  5. Buy local – don’t always assume that you get the best price on-line and/or in the big town just down the highway. Paying for personal service often trumps paying for shipping and handling.
  6. Pens walk out the door with installers, delivery people, contractors, etc – make use of this and have your pens imprinted with your name and phone number.
  7. After all the preparation and the hustle and bustle of moving-in and setting up, opening day will seem like an anticlimax.

Sixty Pounds of Oats

/ Bruce Cameron / 1 Comment

When doing field work there comes a point, when keeping the tractor on course becomes automatic and the drone of the engine merges with the radio to produce a banjo punctuated white noise, that is marvelously conducive to deep thought and contemplation. As it is hay season here in Rural Lawyer land, there is plenty of field work to do. While baling, I found myself contemplating the supposed death of the billable hour and the various heirs to its throne.

As far as I can tell, the billable hour’s cause of death was a lack of value – that too little work was spread out over too much time and billed at too high a rate. And, if I understand the argument for using some type of alternative fee structure is that they replace the possibility for this kind of abuse with new and different possibilities for abuse Continue reading →

Looking for Zebras

/ Bruce Cameron

Background  item #1 – when faced with the task of outfitting a law practice, it does not help when your trusty computer decides that it is time to pack up and move to that great bit-dump in the sky.

Background item #2 – I’m a guy, a pilot and a blooded computer geek which means that shiny gadgets attract me like a trout to a fly. It also means that I’ve a passing knowledge of what can go wrong and the associated costs to fix it. It also means that I’m a wee paranoid about losing client data.

The perfect storm has arrived – I need new hardware; time to go shopping Continue reading →

Stepping Off The Pier

/ Bruce Cameron / 2 Comments

The entrepreneur is essentially a visualizer and an actualizer. He can visualize something, and when visualizes it he sees exactly how to make it happen. — Robert L Schwartz

It seems that fate, fortune and the real estate market have pushed me off the pier and into the full time practice of law, much to the surprise of my original plans. I had grown comfortable with the idea that I would grow my small rural practice slowly on evenings and weekends while relying on that solid day job to cover life’s necessities. The only hitch… office space and the snail’s pace of small town government to issue things like conditional use permits and zoning variances (hey around here, plowing, planting and milking take precedence over council meetings).

When all seemed at a stand still, fate stepped in and I was offered affordable (so affordable I’ll be able to reduce my daily rate by $400) office space in a recently developed business incubator site lying at the junction of suburbia and the untamed rural countryside. Where once a dairy farm stood now stands a several blocks of office suites and a cash-strapped developer. The bad news is that to make this work, I’ve got to be a full time lawyer.

June 29th is the target date. Until then, blog entries may be a bit irregular – right now I’m alternating between Snoopy joy dances and blind panic. Hopefully the latter will eventually subside. Wish me luck.

A Pattern For Procedure

/ Bruce Cameron

Checklists and procedures seem to go hand in hand. We all seem to have them, lists that outline the key points to cover at that first client interview, to perform when handling a real estate closing, to cover when closing a file, etc. The elements of standard procedure reduced to bullet points and checked off one by one as the task is performed. The problem with checklists is that they are really designed to be used by two people – one to read the list, the other to perform the action. Running a randomly ordered checklist solo is inefficient – sure you can cover all the points, but ask yourself: how many times did you lose your place, or have to back up a step or two just to be sure?

Now for the good news, there’s a way to improve checklist efficiency. Its the flow concept and comes from aviation. The idea is to accomplish a task through the use of specific patterns. A flow simply structures an important task so that every element is completed in the correct order and nothing is missed. Think of it as a Gantt chart you perform.

The basic concept is to:

  • arrange the flow so that items are performed in a natural, logical sequence so that step B builds from step A
    • memorize the “killer” steps – those things that have to be done even if everything else is forgotten
  • interact with the steps in the flow
    • touch the physical item a step refers to
    • verbalize each step as it is accomplished
  • follow up with a single run through of the checklist

A good flow acts as a type of mnemonic, allow a procedure to be accomplished smoothly, naturally and efficiently.