That “LPM” up there stands for “Law Practice Management.” From time to time on The Bartlett Blawg, I’ll post some reflections and tips regarding the running of a law practice, and I’ll always title them under “LPM.” For the past eight years, I have been working in someone else’s shop. Whether it was Judge Dennis’s chambers at the U.S. Fifth Circuit, or as an associate in the 70-lawyer firm of Liskow & Lewis, or as a senior associate and of counsel attorney at the 20-lawyer litigation firm of Krebs, Farley & Pelleteri, my only focus was on being purely a lawyer - researching, writing, arguing to courts, managing clients, dealing with opposing counsel. But all the other stuff, the LPM? That was, by and large, someone else’s concern, or rather, several someone elses’.
Now, with the new firm, The Bartlett Law Firm, I still get to be a lawyer and all that entails, but I also get a taste for being managing partner, office manager, comptroller, librarian, blogger, runner, and, most daunting, I.T. guy. I’m sure I’m leaving a few things out, and that there are some other hats I haven’t worn, yet, but will in the near future.But I am not complaining. This is a fantastic set of roles to inhabit. Perhaps the organizational skills necessary to be an appellate lawyer are helping me through. But so far, so good.
If you have any questions about LPM for a solo or small firm, drop a comment to this post, or email me at bartlett@bartlett-legal.com.
2 Comments
I wonder???
I’ve noticed that many large firms once upon a time had much more permanent staff, but now if you walk around, you will notice empty cubicles, part-time librarians (or no librarians), reduced IT staff and no file clerks. Do you think that there will come a day when even Big Law lawyers will need to master LPM skills?
I think that, even in fully staffed large firms, the savvy attorney at least learns the LPM skills for herself, even if not called upon to use those skills. In my first gig out of my clerkship, at the larger of the two firms I worked for, it would have been possible to never know how, for instance, to file a pleading, since you could hand it off to your secretary, who would take care of ascertaining the correct filing fee and then hand it off to one of the army of paralegals, who would then walk it over to the court and file it and, when necessary, take care of service. I made it a point to go walk through the process myself a few times, so as to not be coddled into a state of ignorance.