The Plight of the Practice Group Leader - Part 1: Implementing practice initiatives and - Part 2: The costs and benefits of investing in practice group leaders

Published October 2017 by Ark Group in its special report "Effective Practice Group Leadership"

Part 1 of articledescribes the opportunities and strategies for practice group leaders to provide leadership in the group's efforts to get new business, to assist with knowledge-sharing efforts, and to introduce process improvements, despite generally not being compensated for management and not having authority over the partners in their group. Part 2 demonstrates through financial modeling how requiring practice group leaders to devote 50 percent of their time to managing their group, and compensating them primarily based on performance of the group, can result in improvements to the group's financial performance that more than offset the leaders' lost billings.

Using Knowledge Management to Increase Firm Profitability and Pricing Predictability

Published November 2016 by Ark Group in its special report "The Mechanics of Law Firm Profitability:  People, Process, and Technology"

This article is an updated version of the March 2013 article referred to below. It applies the law firm economic model for computing profits per partner and the model's five drivers - realization rate, average standard rate, leverage, margin and utilization - to examples of knowledge management projects. The article explains how to demonstrate the effect of the example projects on the five drivers, and therefore on profitability, in order to support proposals for projects and to measure their success.

The article also contains a new appendix outlining how to start or restart a practice efficiency program in a law firm.

The article is co-authored by Jack Bostelman, President of KM/JD Consulting LLC, and Chris Boyd, Senior Director of Professional Services at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

Efficiently Assimilating New Practice Developments in a Law Firm

Panelist, November 22, 2013, on a program discussing new rules permitting general solicitation in private placements, entitled "Invest in this Offering! The Brave New World of Rule 506 Offerings," at the Fall Meeting of the ABA Section of Business Law, Washington, D.C.

The white paper submitted for this panel, authored by Jack Bostelman, suggests seven ways that a law firm can efficiently assimilate new learning among its lawyers. The main goal is to improve the quality and consistency of service to clients. This makes clients happy and reduces risk to the firm. A further benefit is that junior (and lower-cost) lawyers can more quickly get up the learning curve, which reduces the cost to the client. These lower costs generally lead to reduced write-downs and write-offs, which improves realization rate and profitability.

Work Smarter, Not Harder - Introduction to Knowledge Strategy for Practitioners

Panelist, November 20, 2013, in a webinar presented by the Productivity and Knowledge Strategy Committee of the ABA Law Practice Division

The white paper submitted for this webinar, authored by Jack Bostelman, introduces the field of knowledge strategy to practitioners at large and small firms. Lawyers' know-how is integral to the adaptation of law firms to new methods for delivering legal services. This program describes how lawyers can more effectively share this know-how. This program also addresses: Why is it not about technology? How can it help me? What are some specific projects? How do I get involved?

Click here to purchase an on-line recording of this CLE webinar from the ABA.

Showing the Positive Financial Impact of KM in Law Firms

Why Is Senior Management Now Driving Knowledge Strategy?