A lot of time has passed since I’ve written book reports, but I felt compelled to write this one after just completing the 2018 ABA Law Practice Division book, The Lean Law Firm, How to run your firm like the world’s most efficient and profitable businesses.

I learned about this book from, of all places, Facebook, when my friend and very techy Columbia lawyer, Jack Pringle, expressed anger that he hadn’t written this book himself. And I was thrilled to learn that one of the authors is also a very techy Columbia lawyer, Dave Maxfield. I don’t know Dave, but I’ve told his sister-in-law, my co-worker Dorothy Boudreaux, to warn Dave that I will be reaching out to him at some point to pick his brain, to ask him to speak at a seminar, and to otherwise figure out how I can relay his very creative and valuable ideas to the dirt lawyers in South Carolina who need the advice this book sets out so well.

What is a lean law firm?  In the words of Larry Port, the other author, from the book’s foreword, being lean is not about cost cutting. “It’s more about creating systems and then finding the constraints and inefficiencies that impede them. Lean lawyers believe in measurement, reducing waste, and producing as much value as they can for their clients. And more than anything else, Lean is about experimentation and continuous improvement.” Would you like to increase your income and, at the same time, reduce your stress? The processes set out in this book are intended to teach you how to accomplish those goals simultaneously.

Unfortunately, most lawyers have little or no awareness of the value of creating systems. We are not taught to run businesses in law school. The lawyers I know and love are so busy practicing law that they don’t take the time to modernize, to focus on processes, and to create the systems that will allow them to run their firms like efficient and profitable businesses.

This book explains in detail how the science of management can be translated to law firms.

Does this sound like very dry reading to you? It is not that at all. In fact, it is the first book published by the ABA to employ the graphic novel approach. It is written in the form of a story about Gray Law Firm, a small struggling firm, it’s newly-hired, former big law lawyer, Carson Wright, who wants to help  “fix” the law firm, and Carson’s friend, Guy Chaplin, who runs an extremely successful racing bicycle manufacturing and distribution company.  Guy slowly teaches Carson the business principles that make his company successful. And Guy helps Carson figure out how to apply those principles to his law firm.

I have to warn you that the book contains a lot of math. But I am not a math scholar by any stretch of the imagination, and I was able to follow the formulas and to see how they would work well in a law firm that handles real estate, especially residential real estate. In fact, my only complaint about this book is that it is not geared specifically to real estate practitioners. Thus, my need to pick Dave Maxfield’s brain.

The book gives very specific advice about the basics of management, standardization, written procedures, checklists, marketing, goal setting and technology. A South Carolina real estate lawyer might find that some of the advice doesn’t apply, but I’m betting that most of it does apply, and I am encouraging everyone to order a copy of this book at www.ShopABA.org and to take its advice to heart.