Dennis Kennedy’s Fast Fish, and my move from large to small
Link: I’ve been reading Dennis Kennedy’s materials on legal technology for years. The linked article discusses the advantages small firms and solos have over large firms when it comes to innovation and technology in the delivery of legal services. I’ve read the article before, but it truly hits home now.
I recently left a large (100+) attorney firm for a small firm in my hometown. I started my legal career at the large firm. I’m a certified technology freak, and knew from the beginning that I wanted to apply technology to build a better legal practice. When looking for my first attorney position, I thought the resources of a large firm would allow me to experiment and develop the practice I envisioned.
I was wrong.
The structure of the large firm made it a slow fish by nature — a tech committee that rarely meets, established lease contracts (”…Here’s your Dell, take it and love it. We’ll be back in three years to swap it.”), and little interest in change to its approach on technology. It brought nothing but frustration. Major technology moves at the large firm included incremental changes such as implementing a web e-mail interface and deploying an army of Blackberries.
Not what I had envisioned.
I left the large firm to come home to family, not because of my technology frustrations. But, now that I am in a small firm, my frustrations have all but disappeared. This is a side benefit of my move, and one that I am only beginning to appreciate. Technology committee? Its me. Want to use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft? Go for it. Need a new all-in-one? Go to BestBuy this afternoon. This is amazing, and I’m loving it.
Blogging is a perfect example. I started this blog at about the same time I left the large firm. I had thought about blogging for at least a year prior to my departure, but didn’t act on it for a variety of reasons. After my switch, I introduced other attorneys at the new firm to the blog and blogging generally, and they loved it.
Shortly thereafter, Dennis’ article hit home. Within two months of my arrival, a senior (77 years old) attorney in our group left for Florida. Not to retire, but to live there part time. He wanted to keep up on the goings-on in the office. The solution? A private blog. I suggested it, and we ran with it. That evening (remember, we don’t have to wait for committee approval), we set up a TypePad account and created the blog. Now the cool part. We have a 77 year old attorney who blogs everyday…and loves it. All of the admininstrative staff enjoy it as well.
Its the perfect solution that only a fast fish would get.
Could I have gotten that done at the large firm? No way. Truth is, I probably wouldn’t have been asked.
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Amazing, we have almost an identical story here with an individual we just hired. Came from a large firm, and really enjoys the freedom of a smaller firm. Great post!