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The Confucius of the Legal Profession
The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius is best remembered today for The Analects, a compilation of his teachings in the form of concise aphorisms. Confucius said, for example, "Have no friends not equal to yourself" and "When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them." It is hard not to think of Confucius upon a visit to Matthew Homann's blog, the [non]billable hour.
Homann, a lawyer who founded LexThink and styles himself an "innovator," has been hard at work lately on a series of his own aphoristic rules for various law-practice topics. The latest, published yesterday, is Ten Rules for New Solos. Also recently, he has published Ten Rules of Legal Innovation, Ten Rules of Legal Technology, Ten Rules of Hourly Billing and Ten New Rules of Legal Marketing.
All his rules have a distinctly Confucius-like ring to them. Consider this advice for the new solo: "Your solo practice is far more likely to fail because you're a bad business person than because you're a bad lawyer." On innovation, Homann offers this: "If you have to tell your clients you’re being innovative, you probably aren’t." Among his technology rules is this sage piece of advice: "You should never have a bigger monitor or more comfortable chair than your secretaries do." As for legal marketing, Homann advises: "The single best marketing strategy in the world is to find your best clients and ask them, 'How do I get more clients like you?'"
If you want to read more of what Homann says, you can also follow him on Twitter, where he often previews his rules before publishing them to his blog.
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on December 3, 2008 at 11:09 AM | Permalink
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