More tips for staying afloat

by David J Bilinsky

The sky is falling
And no one will lift their eyes to see
The sky is falling
And no one will care as long as it lands overseas...
Music and lyrics by Thrice

The news these days is filled with economic woes. There are corporate bailouts, countries are failing (Iceland, Ukraine and others) and people are being laid-off worldwide. Yet Canada seems to be a bubble in the storm. Can it be that we will largely escape the woes that seem to be surrounding us? I think not, if for no other reason that we are a major trading nation and our biggest customer (the USA) is on very hard times indeed. As any managing partner knows, if your biggest client takes a nosedive, you had better be building a contingency plan. So here are some tips against the (possible) hard times ahead:

1. Be careful of what you cut: We all know that when times are tough, management starts tightening the belt. However, at the firm of McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago, after announcing staff layoffs they announced that they were cutting back their coffee service for staff. Wrong move. Not only would associates (and partners) have to run down the street to Starbucks for a caffeine hit, they would lose half hour of billable time in the process. According to the ABA Journal, a partner said in an email that this cut “will make only a small difference financially while sending a ‘message of desperation.’”
2. Make the jump yourself: If you get the feeling that your job isn’t secure, it may be better to start aligning your ducks to make the move to solo or shared office practice yourself, rather than be facing a pink slip. There is something inherently satisfying in taking control of your life and practice in the long term, even if this entails uncertainty and the unknown in the short term.
3. Go green and cut costs, too! There are numerous ways to cut expenses without cutting into production. Here is a short list:

• Vampire power: Most offices have devices that draw power whether or not they are on. Furthermore, most offices leave photocopiers, computers, monitors and scanners – virtually anything that draws power, on or in a “sleep” state over night or on weekends. Shut these down at the end of the day or use powerbars with an on/off switch to ensure that those little vampires are not sucking energy needlessly (powerbars can save you from power spikes as well).
• Go paperless: Digital Lifestyles reports that more than 210 billion emails are sent every day. There is a big cost on the environment and to your pocketbook if your share of those emails are printed – particularly if you use an inkjet printer (since the price of inkjet inks are stratospheric!) Better to spend the time to organize your office to handle all communications in a paperless manner. Look to Worldox or iManage or other document management software.
• Create and file documents electronically (see Tech Tip on page 19). In this way you only print the absolute minimum number of documents necessary. Furthermore, you save all the transportation costs involved in moving physical copies around.

By preparing now, we can avoid running around like Chicken Little if the worse should happen and the economic sky starts falling around us.

David J. Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor for the Law Society of British Columbia. E-mail: info@thoughtfullaw.com; Blog: www.thoughtfullaw.com.

This article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.