Greg George, Managing Partner of top security firm GTI Advisors Threat Management Practice Group has created a comprehensive due diligence report — among his many recommendations, he suggests that businesses consult a law firm  - is your law firm ready to answer that call?  SECURITY may be a lucrative future-oriented practice area awaiting your firm.

I recommend:

1)  Check out GTI Advisors Threat Management Practice Group

2)  Download (free) and read Beyond Due Diligence

3) Note the section "Qualified Legal Counsel Is Worth Every Penny" on page 18.

4) Discuss this in your firm and explore an appropriate strategy before you are left in the dust by forward thinking firms that will.

Footnote: Determine if you are the cobbler with no shoes (when it comes to security) — perhaps your law firm could use a few of the amazing ideas in this document as well.

Note:  For international clients, this piece is clearly written for American audiences but I believe the vast majority of the content will be useful regardless of your location.

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

This clever animation may reinforce Dan Pink's message from his new book Drive. 

Compensation has been the tool of choice in law firms to reward good performance, punish the absence of it and drive change.

You will not want to believe what you are about to hear and see…  ask yourself why?

If you are enlightened, gather your management team and start thinking about how to harness the learnings to create peak performance and lower turnover in your firm.

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

We are very proud of our latest Edge International Review.    For a complete downloadable version (or just the articles you want) click on the cover or go to EdgeInternationalReview.com

If you have any questions , comments or suggestions, please shoot me a note.

(You can also check out our Edge International web site at Edge-International.com)

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

Nearly three decades ago, in the early days of Edge International, there was only one writer in the area of managing a professional firm that commanded our unqualified respect and attention. That was David Maister.

“Managing the Professional Services Firm” is the Bible, according to many leaders of some of the largest professional service firms in the world. “True Professionals” spoke to the firms for whom dignity and quality service were the engines of success. And he wrote so much more in collaborations and articles.

In Edge, we were lucky enough to find ourselves presenting at a few conferences in common with David, in various places around the world and one day ended up having a very private informal retreat. This led to the creation of PracticeCoach®, an extraordinarily comprehensive video-based resource to help law firm leaders around the world. It stars David.  What a joy it was to create with him.

His philosophy was so in harmony with ours.  For example, we loved his guarantee of satisfaction (and were proud that we offered one as well even before we knew he did).

There were some very cool things I learned from David:

• David loves his wife, Kathy, with such passion and always treats her as his trusted advisor and coach. (She's the Guru's Guru.) With Kathy, David taught my wife, Bethany, and me how to travel for weeks internationally without checking luggage. “IMPOSSIBLE!” we said standing on the curb in front of their place one morning with four huge suitcases’s while David and Kathy had their little rollers behind them. “You just need to learn how to pack properly…” they replied, and during our next visit we got the tutorial. (Actually, David and Kathy, if you wrote a book based on that tutorial….) Bethany and I owe David and Kathy the moon for that advice.

• David exemplifies passion. He loves his wife and his music collection which is of a magnitude that makes it the 8th wonder of the world…and he’ll sing till dawn. :-)

• David has energized audience after audience…forcing thought about important issues and even more importantly, sometimes with the help of voting machines, making them actually decide on things.

I am not surprised by the awards and accolades* he has received… just delighted.

The good news is that this is not a eulogy (even if it sounds like one). David and Kathy’s infectious smiles will remain available to us for many many happy years to come.

If there is a sad note in this homage, it is that David's retirement represents a loss to my beloved legal profession and all the other professions he served so well.  However, his books and programs live on. As I write this, I am helping a prominent South American firm to use the study in his book, “Practice What You Preach,” to help them analyze and choose the most fruitful areas of focus for their continued improvement.

Maybe David’s and Kathy's retirements will be like some famous souls who preceded them who were coaxed back into the game for an important gig or two.

By the way, Kathy retired from one of the most incredible video enhanced blogs in history: startcooking.com where you can still experience valuable lessons - check it out !  This is not an amateur undertaking - you will find broadcast-quality production values.

David and Kathy, Bethany and I treasure you and I know if we gathered those of like mind we’d need a mighty big arena.

Retire in good health!! Well earned - BRAVO!

*awards and accolades

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

Tom Peters gave me the thrill of my life when he endorsed my book The Successful Lawyer.  I have revered this genius over his many masterpieces starting with In Search of Excellence and then so many more amazing literary, video and blogging contribution

So, law firm leaders, as you think about excellence in 2010, enjoy this message delivered by one of my heroes, Tom Peters (in under 2 minutes).

I hope you'll take hours to reflect on its meaning in your context.

Gerry

PS  If you have partners who won't look at the video , here's a transcript

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

Take a few moments at the beginning of your next (executive, practice group, industry group, client team) meeting and watch this piece from Australia's George and Margaret Beaton (Beaton research and Consulting).  They have been friends for a long time and not only built an amazing high end consultancy but have done it with panache and imagination.  You will see some data that will act as a catalyst for the thinking of your leadership team.

Enjoy:  The Big (Legal) Picture video

Punchline:  The legal Profession absolutely refuses to stay the same so don't let your partners treat it like it will.

Pat Lamb's added this commentary at his awesome Blog,  In Search of Perfect Client Service:   You'll like irrelevance even less

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

It is a proud day for all of us at Edge to add such a distinguished partner.  After law school, Jordan articled with one of Canada's leading law firms and then opted for a career in legal journalism culminating with more than 10 years as editor-in-chief of the Canadian Bar Associations distinguished well respected National magazine and executive editor of CCCA Magazine

Now Jordan joins us to offer both strategic and tactical advice to lawyers, law firms and legal organizations, centered around his very clear vision of a legal service marketplace undergoing massive and irreversible change.

Among his other accomplishments, Jordan is an award-winning blogger.  He has been writing since January 2008 at Law21: Dispatches From a Legal Profession on the Brink, where he chronicles the extraordinary changes underway in the legal profession. He is an Honourary Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and Chair of the College's InnovAction Awards, which recognize and reward creativity and innovation in legal services delivery.

Welcome aboard Jordan !  (See his biography on our Edge International site)

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.

I believe in capitalism and free enterprise.  I have a business degree before law.  My practicing years were spent helping clients increase their profits… managing partner years helping my partners increase theirs.  You'll get no socialistic psychobabble from me.

I encourage you to assimilate the compelling evidence that increasing compensation in the hope of enhancing performance actually backfires.  Law firm leaders need to understand when money motivates and when it does not.   In fact, "too much" money demotivates.   Get an introduction to the science that supports this hypothesis in the Ted Talk below.

Once the basic compensation is right, there are better ways to motivate.  If not money, then what?  According to Dan Pink, the presenter in this Ted Talk, the three motivating elements for those who work with complexity, like lawyers, are:

• Autonomy
• Mastery
• Purpose

PUNCHLINE: Investing 18 minutes and 40 seconds may start you on the path to leading your firm to legendary performance, your lawyers staff and clients to legendary satisfaction and, last but not least,  your firm to legendary profits. 

Originally posted at Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices. Please visit http://www.gerryriskin.com/.