Book Review: <i>The First Myth of Legal Management Is That It Exists</i>

Triskaidekaphobics will try in vain to find a chapter in this book they're willing to skip: the 13 articles assembled here are all too relevant and important to miss. Most are also too funny to miss.

Written by our new Board of Editors member, Ed Wesemann, and published in 2004 ' with profits donated to the ALA ' this collection of skillfully crafted essays provides illuminating observations and pithy advice on a wide range of challenges facing law firms and lawyers. The book's first chapter, on profitability problems larger firms have with small clients, was the springboard for this month's roundtable discussion.

Directed primarily to firm managers and administrators, the book is rich with examples of the interplay between managerial decisions and the rational self-interest of individual associates and partners. I hate the term “must reading,” but the chapter on “When Good Law Firms Go Bad” is exactly that. Another chapter on social-economic dynamics examines why nonequity partnership is becoming a desirable option for some associates. Surprisingly, the same chapter goes on to explain how de-equitizing an underproductive partner inadvertently sabotages that partner's ability to regain productivity.

Several other chapters focus on topics of high interest to individual professionals. One offers irreverent suggestions to associates on how to build up their client lists (eg, make yourself indispensable to a successful mentor who has numerous clients and who smokes a lot); another offers “seven laws of successful networking.”

Paging back after an enjoyable read, I note my marginal check marks next to many other intriguing ideas, eg:

• A faster and better substitute for mission-statement committee meetings.
• How compensation formulas often confuse and misdirect partner-managers.
• Why motivating partners with the promise of a larger share of profits often backfires.

To order the book from Author House, call 800-839-8640 or search for Wesemann at www.authorhouse.com/bookstore.

' Joe Danowsky, Editor-in-Chief

Triskaidekaphobics will try in vain to find a chapter in this book they're willing to skip: the 13 articles assembled here are all too relevant and important to miss. Most are also too funny to miss.

Written by our new Board of Editors member, Ed Wesemann, and published in 2004 ' with profits donated to the ALA ' this collection of skillfully crafted essays provides illuminating observations and pithy advice on a wide range of challenges facing law firms and lawyers. The book's first chapter, on profitability problems larger firms have with small clients, was the springboard for this month's roundtable discussion.

Directed primarily to firm managers and administrators, the book is rich with examples of the interplay between managerial decisions and the rational self-interest of individual associates and partners. I hate the term “must reading,” but the chapter on “When Good Law Firms Go Bad” is exactly that. Another chapter on social-economic dynamics examines why nonequity partnership is becoming a desirable option for some associates. Surprisingly, the same chapter goes on to explain how de-equitizing an underproductive partner inadvertently sabotages that partner's ability to regain productivity.

Several other chapters focus on topics of high interest to individual professionals. One offers irreverent suggestions to associates on how to build up their client lists (eg, make yourself indispensable to a successful mentor who has numerous clients and who smokes a lot); another offers “seven laws of successful networking.”

Paging back after an enjoyable read, I note my marginal check marks next to many other intriguing ideas, eg:

• A faster and better substitute for mission-statement committee meetings.
• How compensation formulas often confuse and misdirect partner-managers.
• Why motivating partners with the promise of a larger share of profits often backfires.

To order the book from Author House, call 800-839-8640 or search for Wesemann at www.authorhouse.com/bookstore.

' Joe Danowsky, Editor-in-Chief