The Agile Attorney Podcast

Why is the concept of "start with what you do now" crucial for creating meaningful and durable change in your law practice? This principle helps you understand your current processes and the people involved in them, recognizing why you are where you are, so you can make more informed decisions about how to move forward.Tune in this week for a dive into a foundational aspect of the Kanban Method: Start with what you do now. I share tips for initiating sustainable change in your law practice, respecting the roles and titles of your current team, helping them embrace the changes you want to see in your firm, and allowing them to become a valuable part of the change process.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/26Start your Agile transformation today and check out free resources, including my Law Firm Policy Template, to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Melissa Shanahan, founder of Velocity Work and host of The Law Firm Owner Podcast, teaches her clients a planning and accountability method she calls Monday Map/Friday Wrap. This method highlights some vital parts of the Agile practices of weekly planning and weekly review meetings.Monday Map/Friday Wrap is about creating micro-feedback loops within the context of a larger strategic plan, which is the kind of thing I love, so tune in this week as Melissa and I unpack this methodology, and have an all-round entertaining discussion about strategic planning and its benefits in general for the leaders of legal teams.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/25Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Visualizing your work on a Kanban Board can be a life-changing improvement to your and your team's overall productivity. But adopting the board as a tool and the Kanban method more broadly can be a little uncomfortable at first, especially when you see all of your to-dos laid out in one place. So, how do you stick with change, like using a Kanban Board, when change gets hard?Your Kanban Board can be overwhelming to look at, especially if you're new to the concept, so tune in this week to discover how to stick with it and keep your work flowing, even if your workflow looks overcommitted right now and you want to give up on your Kanban Board altogether.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/24Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

The lawyer shortage is a complex issue with multiple factors at play, but the impacts are becoming apparent everywhere, from the public defender crisis to the civil access to justice gap, to the fierce competition for hiring and retaining mid-career associates. But what are the roots of this lawyer shortage?Tune in this week to discover what I believe are the roots of the lawyer shortage. I highlight the significant shifts we've seen in the legal services industry, analyze how increasingly complex federal laws and regulations have changed the landscape of legal demand, and I discuss what all of this means for the future of your legal firm and our whole industry.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/23Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

I've spoken before about the importance of making policies explicit. But what does it mean to draft an effective policy in your law firm?Tune in this week to discover what I believe are the elements that comprise a good policy, and learn how to get your team on board in implementing your policies. I share a template for writing effective policies in your law firm, give you examples of policies I use with my clients, and I even dive into the slightly meta idea of a policy for writing policies in a law practice.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/22Grab my free Law Firm Policy Template & Policy Library and other resources mentioned in today's episode to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice here: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

One of the features of modern business is that there's tons of pressure to grow, scale, and do more with less. Lawyers and their teams aren't exempt from this expectation. It makes sense to leverage our resources and our impact. However, growth for the sake of growth isn't necessarily the healthiest approach for your business, or for the people in it.Tune in this week to discover the critical importance of prioritizing sustainability before scalability in your law practice. I discuss why you can't scale your way out of a sustainability problem, and you'll learn how to identify the areas of your law practice that are currently unsustainable, so you can clear a pathway toward making scaling a real possibility.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/21Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

In past episodes, I’ve talked in detail about individual practices and how the Kanban method has upleveled them, and today’s show provides living proof. That’s because I’m talking with two clients of mine, Jess Birkin and Megan Heitkamp, of the Birkin Law Office, about the start of their practice and how they’ve transformed their business with systematic improvements.Together we’ll discuss how these concepts and frameworks are wholly trainable and teachable, allowing you to bring full teams on board and then streamline processes even more effectively (think automated lead nurturing campaigns). Even better, this episode can serve as a case study that these systemizations can improve your practice too. For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/20Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Have you ever put a ton of time and attention into a piece of legal work only to realize that it's not quite hitting the mark for your client? Or maybe you've delivered a technically flawless document, but your client’s just sort of “meh” about the whole thing, like they just don't seem to be satisfied? Tune in this week to discover how the Fit for Purpose framework helps you deliver what your clients need, when they need it. You'll learn the three core components of evaluating whether your legal offerings are Fit for Purpose, how to come up with user models around common Fit-for-Purpose criteria, and how to design Fit for Purpose products and services that are 'just right' for your firm's context and resources.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/19Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

Most lawyers think of their intake form as something that they need to send to the client so they can get the information they need to actually do the legal work their client requires. But what if we shifted the perspective and instead asked the question, "What is the job that my client is hiring my intake form to do?"Tune in this week to gain a deep understanding in "Jobs To Be Done" Theory and unlock hidden client needs in the process. You'll learn how to better understand the job that your client is hiring your product to accomplish, as well as get clarity around the scope of competition for your products and services, so you can innovate the products and services you offer in your law practice to better meet your clients' needs.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/18Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start

As you work to meet the high standards you set for yourself, it can become impossible to get tasks all the way through to done. However, in today's episode, I'm bringing you a framework that will help counterbalance your natural tendency to overbuild in the early stages of developing a process or product, so you can ultimately land on a higher-quality output than if you'd tried to build the perfect product from the outset: the minimum viable product or MVP.Tune in this week for some insight into the minimum viable product and the valuable role that minimum viable products can play in delivering quality in your law practice, especially when you're setting out to create something new and you aren't yet 100% sure what 'good quality' is going to look like.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/17Start your Agile transformation today and check out these free resources to help you and your team develop a more Agile legal practice: https://www.agileattorney.com/start