The Agile Attorney Podcast

John E. Grant

Episodes

Mentioned books

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Aug 15, 2024 • 44min

030. From Solo to CEO: Lessons in Building a People-First Law Firm with Justie Nicol

Do you feel like you're stuck on the hamster wheel of your law practice, constantly working on being more productive as an individual, but never getting ahead? It's time to explore how shifting your mindset from individual excellence to team excellence can help you break free and build a thriving, sustainable firm.Tune in this week to discover criminal defense attorney-turned-law-firm-owner Justie Nicol's secrets for creating a law firm that supports your personal goals and enables your team to do their best work. From implementing unique meeting structures to tracking meaningful KPIs, Justie offers a wealth of practical tips and hard-won wisdom that can help you transform your own practice.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/30Start 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
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Aug 8, 2024 • 28min

029. Getting Team Buy-in for Change

Engaging your team around process improvement is a vital part of successfully implementing changes in the way you work in your law practice. When everyone is on the same page, working toward the same goals while you empower each member of your team to demonstrate leadership in their field of expertise, process improvement becomes an easier proposition, no matter the size of your firm.Tune in this week to discover my favorite tools and concepts for fostering an environment that is not only open to change, but actively recruits your people to be willing participants, and even leaders in those improvement efforts.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/29Start 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
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Aug 1, 2024 • 19min

028. 3 Signs Your Law Practice Is Over Capacity

Is your law practice feeling overwhelmed? Discover three tell-tale signs that your team may be overcapacity and the risks associated with it. Learn effective strategies to manage your workload and maintain productivity, ensuring you deliver a top-notch client experience. Explore the importance of focusing on value-added work while implementing helpful techniques to regain control of your practice. Join the conversation on how to navigate the challenges of a busy legal environment and foster a more balanced work atmosphere.
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Jul 25, 2024 • 22min

027. The Advantages of a First-In, First-Out Policy

A common piece of conventional wisdom around how law firms prioritize their work is that they should organize everything around deadlines and due dates. While deadline-driven prioritization does have a place, it's my experience that there's a better technique that law firms should be adopting as their default prioritization method: first-in first-out (FIFO).Tune in this week to discover the advantages of a first-in first-out policy in your law firm. I discuss how deadline-driven prioritization leads to overwhelm and unpredictability, and you'll learn how FIFO as a default prioritization method will keep work flowing through your organization.For full show notes, transcript, and more information, visit: https://www.agileattorney.com/27Start 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
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Jul 18, 2024 • 16min

026. Start with What You Do Now

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
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Jul 11, 2024 • 39min

025. Following Your Law Firm Strategic Plan with Melissa Shanahan

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
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Jul 4, 2024 • 16min

024. Sticking with Change When Change Gets Hard

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
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Jun 27, 2024 • 21min

023. Roots of the Lawyer Shortage

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
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Jun 20, 2024 • 26min

022. How to Write Effective Law Firm Policies

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
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Jun 13, 2024 • 23min

021. You Can't Scale Your Way Out of a Sustainability Problem

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

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