inspired law practice

I’m intrigued by Cal Newport’s proposition that knowledge workers don’t engage in enough “deep work.” And that this fact may be the reason why we’re not fully satisfied in our work.

(This most certainly could explain a degree of dissatisfaction expressed by many lawyers I know.)

“deep work — cognitively demanding activities that leverage our training to generate rare and valuable results, and that push our abilities to continually improve.”

- Cal Newport

Newport proposes that, by engaging in more deep work and less shallow work (email, logistics, social media engagement - tasks that most anyone, regardless of training, can accomplish), we knowledge workers enjoy three “key benefits”:

Continuous improvement of the value of your work output.

An increase in the total quantity of valuable output you produce.

Deeper satisfaction (aka., “passion”) for your work.

If you’d like to spend less time in the shallows, Newport offers four steps for diving into the deep. I suggest these apply directly to the work of most every lawyer: prepare, clarify, stretch, and obsess. (Read the post to learn how Newport defines each step.)

I follow a sprint-like methodology for focusing on what Newport is calling deep work, and I see parallels in my work to the four steps he outlines. For instance, I prepare for a sprint of focused work by first disconnecting (all notifications off, concentration music on). It’s a ritual and the only way I can get and stay focused.

And his second step, clarify, is critical to my work flow. I’ve got to clearly identify what I’m seeking to accomplish in order to actually do it. 

This is akin to hitting your target: If you don’t know what you’re aiming for, you’re not likely to hit it.

Reflecting on this, I tend to agree with him that creating space for this kind of deep focus supports both better work and deeper satisfaction. Which is why I’m sharing his post here. 

Though I do agree with a comment on Newport’s post by Daphne Gray-Grant: not all deep work has to be hard. Sometimes deep focus on something quite simple can be profound. 

For this reason, I find the first, second and last steps Newport proposes — prepare, clarify and  obsess –  to be the most practical for creating a regular habit of deep work. Not all work need stretch you (though I  do think periodic stretch work is what leads to continuous improvement and professional growth).

Super-excited to be teaching principles of design thinking to any and all who attend the Music City Legal Hacker’s meeting on Thursday, November 19 in Nashville. 

After learning a bit about the design thinking process, participants will jump right in and tackle a problem, working in groups to gather information, ideate (synthesize and prototype), get feedback, and iterate. 

Our foray into design thinking sets the stage for the first annual Music City Legal Hackathon, happening in the spring of 2016. 

For a long time, my favored email pet peeve was the tortiously long email disclaimer. That comes at the end of the email. To be seen AF TER the reader reads the email. [My opinion remains unchanged that email disclaimers are essentially ineffective in protecting the content of emails.]     

My current favorite email pet peeve? The image-laden signatures that everyone seems to be using now. Someone somewhere decided that you should insert a logo image, a Twitter image, a LinkedIn image, maybe a Facebook image, and of course badges for any award you’ve ever won (I’m a Superlawyer!). Oh, and add your Avvo badge while you’re at it.

The result? Your signature is simply way too long, taking up much too much space.  Add this to your 500 word disclaimer and a two sentence email you sent me won’t fully display when opened in Mail on my 11″ MacBookAir screen, thus guaranteeing anyone who opens your email on an iPhone will NEVER, EVER read your disclaimer. It simply doesn’t accomplish the communication goals of email. More is not better. When it comes to email, less is better. Always. Even if you have a beautiful logo and really want everyone to know you’re on Twitter. Even if a designer created your email signature. 

Another problem? All of these images often are attachments to your emails. So you know what can happen? Your emails get blocked by filters and end up in spam folders. I have a recurring weekly reminder on my calendar to check my spam folder for just this reason. Every week, there is ALWAYS an email in there from someone with a bunch of image files attached as part of an email signature.

Another thing that can happen? Your images files are stripped from your emails by recipients’ email platforms. So they don’t see your pretty images at all, but instead see weird boxes or paperclips or something equally meaningless and distracting. 

It’s time to rethink the use of images in email signatures. The files take up room in inboxes. They may not even show up in your email as intended. Or they cause your email to get sent to spam. 

Instead of trying to impress and connect with bunches of tiny images, instead connect and impress with your well-written email content. 

Meet my new favorite Chrome extension — Momentum. It’s a productivity dashboard that appears whenever you open a new tab in Chrome.

Each morning, a beautiful image greats me. I select a primary focus (today’s is “write”), which appears front-and-center on the page. 

I also can make a to-do list — click ‘Todo’ in bottom right corner to add these and they appear in a black box. Click once and the box is minimized, giving you the option of displaying your list (or not). As you knock out tasks, a tally of your number completed appears in the upper right corner. 

Add links to the shortcut menu — click “Links” in upper left corner and another black box with your saved links appears. (I have yet to customize this feature.)

Decide what your dashboard displays by clicking on the gear icon in the lower left and selecting “Customize”: 

Though the interface is simple and functions limited (in a good way), you can access user tips by clicking on the gear icon and clicking “Help” — this box also describes the hotkey functions:

Admittedly, I’m a Chrome extension junkie. But this one? I think it’s going to stick around for a while. I love the images. I love having a primary focus staring back at me every time I open a tab. And I find I’m using the to do list primarily to keep up with those things that pop up during the day, that, unless I write them down immediately, will disappear from my consciousness. 

(I still use Workflowy as the container for my master focus and task list for day-week-month-year, and haven’t quite decided what the interplay with the to do list in Momentum will be. I may end up removing the to do function from my dashboard, in favor of keeping the list in Workflowy. Or not. The nice thing? I can, with just a click in the customizations.)

Only downside so far: sync across different machines is in beta at the moment. I go between three Macs in a given day depending on where I am, so this feature is a must-have for me. It appears sync will launch across all users soon, which will make Momentum a truly handy tool at that point.

Follow social media and blogs covering the legal industry and you’ll find yourself in the middle of an ongoing conversation about lawyers and technology. Take a broad overview of this conversation and it’s fairly easy to conclude that we lawyers generally struggle with technology — that we’re slow to adopt, and that this is not a good thing.

But I don’t think that’s the real problem.

I don’t disagree that many lawyers (and law students) are deficient in some basic technology skills, that probably should be part of any lawyer’s daily existence in the 21st century. (See here and here.) And firms, even bigger ones, are surprisingly slow to adopt technologies prevalent in other industries. (See here and here and here.)

But starting by asking if lawyers are technologically proficient? This is the wrong place to start, and it’s the wrong first question to ask.

The right questions? Try these (and I suggest asking, and answering, them in order):

Are you doing your work in a way that is focused first and foremost on solving your clients’ problems — is your work really client-centered?

Are you doing your best work, given all that we now know about how to be most productive and effective?

Are you doing work as efficiently and effectively as you can, given all of the technology at your fingertips today?

There isn’t a single way to define a stellar 21st century lawyer. What really good work looks like depends on many things. What it looks like for me, in my practice, will look different than what it looks like for you, in yours.

Why? We’re two different people, with different habits, passions, and soft skills levels. We probably work in different practice areas, and practice in different work environments. We  serve different kinds of clients. All of these things factor in to the work we do, affecting how we do it. And how good we are at it.

My work is really, really good when I’m paying attention to how I work well. What it takes for me to be efficient, productive, creative, and serve my clients by focusing first on what they need. And what my clients need? That changes all of the time. What worked for one may not work for the next.

Agility, adaptability, commitment to flexibility within the professional and ethical constraints of our profession — these factors mean more than using a shiny new app to track and bill hours. They mean more than my level of Acrobat and Word and Excel proficiency.

The first step in being the ultimate 21st century lawyer? Really care about HOW you do your work, as much as you care about the output. Ask yourself the hard questions about the way you work — your processes, your systems, your habits, your hangups — and how these help you do truly client-centered work (or how they detract from it).

Change the way your work, if you need to. Reject the Einstellung effect — don’t accept a way of doing things or a solution simply because that’s the way you’ve always done it. Or because it’s the easy or automatic path, though not the best one. Push yourself to imagine new ways to do your work, that lead to your best work. Be prepared to shift the way you work because that’s what results in the best work.

Step 1: Use unnecessary formalities (such as Mr./Ms. Client’s  Full  Legal  Name, Defendant, Plaintiff) so often that these words alone constitute approximately 50% of your email content.

Step 2: Use formal phrasing and lots of commas, so that your sentences are cumbersome and difficult to read.

Step 3: Write in long paragraphs (at least five of your cumbersome sentences), and include at least five paragraphs in the email.

Step 4: Make demands on behalf of your client emphatically and repeatedly to ensure that your communication has no hope of moving resolution forward.

Yep. Follow these four steps, and no one will doubt. You are a lawyer.

Alternatively, you can do none of these things. And perhaps achieve positive communication goals through your email. Instead of giving in to your tendencies to overlaywer an email, consider the following:

Try writing as you speak. Leave out unnecessary formalities. Formal writing is not “better.” It doesn’t make you sound smarter. It often confuses.

Write short, to-the-point sentences. Keep paragraphs to three sentences at most. 

If more than three paragraphs are necessary, then you need to communicate via another medium or write a series of emails. Addressing many issues in a single, long email almost guarantees that your communication goals will fail. (More about that, here.)

What about those emphatic demands? I received an email this week that reminded me how often lawyers confuse “zealous representation” with self-righteous haranguing. Based on 18+ years of practicing law and mediation, I can assure all lawyers that taking your client’s passionate position to the exclusion of reason and good judgment detracts from your client’s position. It doesn’t enhance it.

I recently posted about a Slack team for agile attorneys. (Check it out here.) Its creator is John Grant, an attorney who helps other attorneys achieve an agile practice.

If you’re interested in learning more about agile as it applies to your legal work, you must check out John’s blog Legal Value Theory. In it, he shares helpful insights and thoughts on topics ranging from operational matters to your legal services business model to kanban* for lawyers.

What is agile, anyway? I find the principles behind the Agile Manifesto to pinpoint exactly what makes agile so relevant to work in the 21st century. The manifesto refers specifically to software design, but nearly all of its principles correlate directly to work lawyers do. “Responding  to change over following a plan” is a core tenet, and one especially à propos to the massive change currently churning the legal profession.

I’m currently compiling a list of additional resources for the agile lawyer, which I’ll share shortly. Stay tuned.

My last post touched on applying simple design standards to your communications. And while how something looks really does matter, what matters first is the quality of the communication itself.

Thus, in an effort to encourage the improvement of written communication created by lawyers (and really anyone who has to write, which is most people), I share this brief memo from David Ogilvy to his employees at advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather: 

The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift. You have to learn to write well. Here are 10 hints: 1. Read the Roman-Raphaelson book on writing*. Read it three times. 2. Write the way you talk. Naturally. 3. Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs. 4. Never use jargon words like reconceptualize, demassification,  attitudinally, judgmentally. They are hallmarks of a pretentious ass. 5. Never write more than two pages on any subject. 6. Check your quotations. 7. Never send a letter or a memo on the day you write it. Read it aloud the next morning—and then edit it. 8. If it is something important, get a colleague to improve it. 9. Before you send your letter or your memo, make sure it is crystal clear what you want the recipient to do. 10. If you want ACTION, don't write. Go and tell the guy what you want. David 

I already can hear objections from lawyers. To preempt these, I offer the following (which numbers correlate to the list, above):

2. Many lawyers talk in obfuscation, as well, so my advice to these types would be to write like someone who talks normally, not how you may normally talk.

4. Admittedly, some writing we lawyers do requires legal jargon. But writing to your clients most certainly does not. Using legal jargon is not the way to impress your clients, it’s the way to confuse them. You impress them by writing clearly and like a normal person. Not a pretentious ass.

5. This really is possible. Trust me. Try it.

7. If you only do one thing on this list, do this one thing. This, plus 8. Do those two things.

9. A primary purpose of any communication is to elicit some action, whether it be something you want someone to do, or understand. So tell someone what this thing is, that you want of them. Start off with it, and end with it. 

10. Don’t hide behind a letter or email.

*Writing That Works, by Kenneth Roman and Joel Raphaelson

All communication has an aesthetic quality. They way something looks affects is impact. This applies as much to writing produced by lawyers as it does to glossy marketing pieces produced by PR firms.

Want to have maximum impact? Then care about what your communication looks like.

Start with your documents. Matthew Butterick has made this very, very easy for you. I’ve linked to his summary of key rules for producing attractive, easy-to-read documents. Start there.

And please don’t stop there. Care about what your internal forms look like, what your website looks like, what you business card looks like. Make them easy-to-use, attractive, intentional. 

Why? A well designed intake form that’s attractive and focuses on the right information is one that will be used, consistently and as intended (whether by you or staff). (Every intake form I’ve assessed for a lawyer client has been poorly designed, asked for irrelevant information, or failed to ask for the right information. every.single.one.) 

A well-designed, attractive website is one that communicates competence and trust — two primary goals of your online communication efforts. Why waste this opportunity, with an unattractive site? (Boggles my mind that so many lawyers do.)

Ditto for well-designed business cards. A great card stands out. It will be the one people keep out of the pile they collected at a networking event. They will remember you (fondly) in part because of your card. How can this be a bad thing? 

So far, I’ve focused on practical tools to find flow in your work — challenges 1, 2, 3, and 4 all involved specific activities that relate pretty directly to work.

With #5, I’m going to ask you to stretch a bit. In a good way.

The challenge: SMILE.

Yep, that’s it. Frown less. Smile more. 

You may think this is silly. And that’s fine. But I’ve been practicing law for 17+ years and have observed these two truths: (1) the work required of most lawyers is very stressful and anxiety-provoking, and (2) most lawyers stuck in the grind of this stressful and anxiety-provoking work don’t smile very much. 

Which is unfortunate, because they’re missing out on a great opportunity to counter the stress and anxiety. 

Here’s why: 

Smiling activates neuropeptides, which fight off stress. [1]

The neurotransmitters released when you smile relax your body, and can lower blood pressure and heart rate. [2]

The act of smiling causes serotonin to be released, which can act as an anti-depressant/mood lifter. [3]

People react more positively to those who smile. [4]

All of these things? They support your general happiness and enjoyment in life. But especially at work, where stress, anxiety, and pressure are prone to creep in. Often on a daily basis. 

So, to maintain your well-being and find flow in your work? SMILE.

(And okay, maybe you have to fake it sometimes. Apparently, there’s still a benefit to smiling even if you’re not feelin’ it. Yet another reason to just do it.)

Want to know more? Take seven minutes and watch this TED talk:

[1] Seaward BL. Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-Being. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett; 2009:258

[2] R.D. (2000). Neural correlates of conscious emotional experience. In R.D. Lane & L. Nadel (Eds.), Cognitive neuroscience of emotion (pp. 345–370). New York: Oxford University Press.

[3] Karren KJ, et al. Mind/Body Health: The Effect of Attitudes, Emotions and Relationships. New York, N.Y.: Benjamin Cummings, 2010:461.

[4] Facial attractiveness: evolutionary based research Phil Trans R Soc B June 12, 2011 366: 1638-1659.

Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are all important in this little challenge to move the dial towards productivity (or efficiency or happy work or flow or whatever you want to call it). But #4? For me, it’s the key. (Though #5 is pretty good ... stay tuned ...)

And I’ve already shared it with you. Here. So go read it. 

If you accepted challenge #1, you possibly have a better idea of how you’re spending your (digital) time during the working day. 

And you may be doing these three things if you accepted challenge #2.   

If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for challenge, #3, the wait is over.   

Do this one thing, three times, every day: 

Identify one thing that must get done, to move something forward in your work. Do this, three times. The result? You end up with three things to focus on over the course of the day, to move your work forward. 

When to do this? Ideally, at the end of each day, you spend five minutes taking stock of all that’s transpired that day so you can figure out what’s on the agenda for tomorrow. That’s when you identify the one thing (times three) that you’ll focus on the next day.   

The three things can be three steps in a process for a client’s project. They can be three steps in three different client matters. They can be one big thing and two small things. Or vice versa.   

The point? Be intentional about what you choose to focus on, and then focus on that one thing (times three). Each of the day’s work goals is scheduled on your calendar — time dedicated to that work specifically. 

Why three? Why not two? Or seven?   

I have no scientific study to point to. Only my own experience. Over the past couple of years, I’ve used this focus on three (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) method to strategically accomplish work. Three just seems to work. It’s neither too few, nor too many. Sometimes getting three things done in a day is a stretch. But stretching is good. And if the three aren’t particularly a stretch, I still feel good because I got three of MY things done today. (And yes, some days, one of the three gets carried over to tomorrow.)

For me, this is the power of the three. Your results may vary, for reasons too numerous to even delve into. What I do feel confident in proclaiming: if you’re not feeling good about how you’re working (you’re not as productive as you like, you procrastinate too much, you’re overwhelmed and stressed, etc.), then taking a simple step such as this is a powerful way to initiate a shift. 

By iterating changes in how you work in small ways, you’ll figure out what makes the difference for you. And eventually you’ll find that a meaningful shift has happened: you’re finding flow in your work. 

(Of course you’re going to do more than three work-related things during any given day. The point of focusing on three is that you start each day knowing that you will get these three things done, no matter what else is thrown at you. It’s a way to control your effort and energy so that you stay focused on your important work and don’t get distracted by all the work that everyone else wants you to be doing.)

“I have 3,000 emails in my inbox.” -  actual quote from one of many lawyers with the same problem.

Not surprisingly, you likely spend more than 25% of your work day in email. (I say more because 28% was the average for workers in 2012 and I wager email has only gotten more out of hand since then.)

Or maybe you know exactly how much time because you completed challenge #1. Or, you may know because you end most days staring at a to-do list that hasn’t been started completed. Because you’ve been in email all day.

While it’s the primary one, email isn’t the only culprit. Lots of other (often digital) distractions loom out there, ready to derail your work flow. Your poison may be different than mine, but all are rabbit holes, just waiting for you to disappear into, only to emerge rubbing your eyes and feeling groggy and lethargic from digital overdose.

And your work? It’s still there. Waiting for you. Patiently. In fact, it misses you.

So how do you get back to it? For me, the answer is simple. Yet hard. While your results may vary, there are three simple (yet hard) things I suggest you do. They work for me. They work for a lot of other people. So if nothing else, it’s worth a try.

ONE.

Turn off notifications. If you’re a productivity junkie like me, you’ve likely read these same words 1,000 times. The reason 1,000 other blog posts recommend turning off notifications? Because it works.

By removing this one distraction, you are creating space for work flow.

When you want to get your work done, shut off all device notifications.

If people are used to your instant responses to emails/texts/calls, it’s your job to reset expectations. How? Simply tell people that you check email X times during the day and will get back with them then. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and have yet to experience any pushback.

TWO.

Create and enforce your solitude, for however long you’ve committed to doing your work.  If you can, go to a place where no one will bother you. Or put a note on your (closed) door that says “I’ll be free in X [minutes/hours]. Check back then.” If you work in an open space, put in headphones and put a sticky somewhere folks can see, with the same message.  

How long to do your work? That’s a topic for another post. Quick answer: however long you’re producing good work. Lately I’ve been working for 50 minutes followed by a 10 minute break that involves some kind of movement. Or meditation. Depending on the needs of the day. This works for me.

THREE.

Follow your period of work with a break, before diving into the work others demand of you (e.g. answering email, returning calls, responding to texts). In a perfect world, your break involves movement of some sort. Walking down to the corner for a really good cup of coffee counts. And yes, this is another tip popular among productivity gurus, but this is because it really works.

Sitting is bad for us. Moving is good for us. So if you’ve been sitting for a while, get up and move.

It’s that simple. And that hard.

“I’ve had a really productive day!” A quick reflection, and she’s feeling good.

I prod a bit. “So what did you work on today?”

She pulls out a list (on paper). Not much has been ticked off the list.

She pauses. Her expression changes. She appears to be reflecting. Again.

She realizes that 90% of her “productivity” was responding to others. Other lawyers. Clients. Her assistant. Mostly emails. A few calls. Some texts.

She was in reaction mode all day. So the list of her work? It remained pretty much untouched.

You probably don’t think this is you. Maybe it’s not. But there’s an easy way to find out.

Start by setting yourself up with Rescue Time. Let it run for a week. Then take a look at where and how you spend your time.

Are you focused? Working in meaningful chunks of time? Knocking out your list of must-dos for the day?

Or are you in reaction mode? Starting your day in email, letting everyone else tell you what you should be working on and when?

RescueTime will give you a scary-good sense of what you’re doing.

Prepare to be amazed. (This may be a good thing. Or not.)

An earlier version of this post originally appeared in Law Technology Today, published by the ABA. 

Okay, so Slack is sounding less and less like a chat app or email app. What is it, really? We go back and forth on our own one-sentence description. When we talk more evocatively we say “It’s all your communication in one place, instantly searchable, and available wherever you go.” On the marketing side we give a more concrete description like “It’s a messaging and search platform that creates a single unified archive accessible through powerful search.”

 – Stewart Butterfield, Slack co-founder

Somewhat ill-suited to a nutshell, Slack is most simply described as a platform that puts collaborative, asynchronous communication in one place, with the capacity to share files, search powerfully, and get important communication out of email. I’ve been using Slack for the past few months. I love it. Admittedly, I’m an early-adopter of technology, especially technology that improves communication. But I’m not alone in loving Slack, which claims 500,000+ users. Go here for a  quick lesson in how to use Slack.

From my experience as a Slack user, here are nine things lawyers need to know about the platform:

#1 Your Clients are Using Slack.

Who’s using it? Oh, just a few folks. Like The New York Times. Time Magazine. BIG businesses (like Comcast, Walmart). And every startup on the planet. Want to know if your clients are using it? Check out Slack at Work, where Slack-using companies post job openings.

Why should you care if your clients are using it? I can think of a few reasons …

For one, it’s an important communication and information-sharing platform for those who use it, and thus by default has implications in this e-discovery era. Slack needs to be on the discovery radar, because for many of its users, the important things are happening in Slack — not in email. If your practice involves information discovery, you need to understand Slack. And how it’s being used.

Another good reason? The best lawyers meet clients where they are. They embrace the channels and methods of communication preferred by their clients. If your clients are in Slack, you need to be there, too. My personal experience: being on a client’s Slack team has given me insight into its culture and processes that no other form of digital communication could have. The benefits go both ways: I get things I wouldn’t have otherwise about the client’s business, and at the same time the client’s team sees me as a true collaborator.

#2 Slack integrates your numerous platforms, bringing everything together in one spot.

Our work as lawyers often lives in many places — email, a practice/project management platform, a document control system, a timekeeping/billing platform, etc. Through its ever-growing list of integrations, custom integrations, as well as third party integration apps like Zapier, it’s feasible to move most of your work into Slack. I know because I do it. And so do my clients. 

For one client, 90% of their work happens in Asana, Box, email and video conferencing (through appear.in). All of which integrate seamlessly into Slack. So instead of having multiple platforms open constantly, a team member can keep up with the status of all open projects, documents, and email communications, and instantly join a client video conference — all from within Slack. The result? Team members of the client report spending less time dealing with the administrative aspects of work, more time doing meaningful work, and experiencing far fewer interruptions to their work.

(Note that your work still exists in the other platforms — you simply can avoid having to be in all of the other platforms constantly, through integrating with Slack.)

Slack is available via a web app, Mac/PC apps, and on iOS and Android devices.

#3 Slack is really searchable.

Too many important “conversations” happen in email. Finding the right email or thread at the right time? Maddening. (A big reason I argue that email is the wrong platform for such communication.) Moving communication to Slack creates a rich database of information, instantly searchable. You will find exactly what you’re looking for, at the precise moment you need it. Good luck getting that result out of email.

And yes I know your case management platform is supposed to move all important information out of email. But I also know that this rarely happens doesn’t always happen, and most systems don’t make this process user-friendly.

#4 Slack automates online research and information-gathering.

Following a case, a piece of legislation, an issue in the media relevant to a client? Simply create a channel in Slack, add RSS feeds relevant to the issue, and Slack will keep you instantly updated.

Want to know what people are saying about you, your firm, or your clients via social media? You can add feeds from all major social media platforms into Slack, and track specific mentions.

Want to know when your favorite blogs share a new post? Create a private group (for yourself) or a channel (to share with others) and fill it with blog RSS feeds (or integrate withPocket using IFTTT), and you’ll get instant updates accessible directly from Slack.

#5 Slack shares important information instantly with everyone who needs to have it.

Break down the silo barriers by using Slack to share information firm-wide: Conflict checks? New policies? Links to the firm wiki (e.g. repository of all important institutional knowledge)? Push it out instantly to everyone who needs to know.

The beauty of Slack: you can break down the need-to-know audiences and share information in a very granular way, as well. One example: create a channel specific to a practice group, where you can push out important regulatory or statutory updates instantly.

You already do this via email, you say? I guarantee that not all group members are reading your emails. Because group members are in reaction mode in email, responding to the client or the partner or whoever demands their immediate attention. Your email with an important legislative update? It’s been sent to an Outlook folder that likely hosts hundreds of others just like it, none of which have ever been opened. #truth

#6 Slack improves client communications.

If you’ve got clients already using Slack, join them there. You can be added as a guest to an existing team, or you can add a client to a private group on your firm’s team. You also can communicate one-on-one within Slack, using the @ mention to share information with a single user (instead of everyone within a channel or private group).

For clients already on Slack, communications will be streamlined — they’ll happen more efficiently, more timely, and (again) you’ll have everything located neatly in one spot.

Adding a client who isn’t already using Slack may pose a challenge, but I know from experience it’s possible. And effective. I’ve found using Slack with clients can pretty much eliminate time in email, and reduces phone time significantly (with no loss in quality of communication). And with appear.in and Go To Meeting integration, you can have a “face to face” with a client instantly, directly from Slack.

It’s worth noting that switching between teams in the Slack app is seamless. So going from your firm’s Slack team into a client’s team happens with a single click. But one example of Slack’s uber-usability.

#7 Slack improves communication with colleagues.

What I’m about to posit requires an entire team to embrace Slack. (By team, I mean any group within the firm working together on a matter.) If this requisite is met, then you can expect the sharing of information between and among team members to happen more effectively in Slack than via any other digital medium used heretofore.

Sharing information in Slack tears down the silos. Because now information lives in Slack — instead of living in an email (which may be one of dozens of emails sent in the project/case on any given day). In Slack, everyone on the team can see it, respond to it, react to it, use it, and find it later. Slack creates transparency, which I contend will improve any team’s ability to better serve clients, and simply get work done efficiently.

Security Note: Is Slack a secure place to engage in confidential communications? I don’t know. Slack offers two-factor authentication and describes its  security and confidentiality policies here. But it’s cloud-based and subject to hacking, just as is anything anywhere connected to the world wide web. What I do know: email is not a secure place for confidential communication. And pretty much every lawyer I know uses it as if it were.

#8 Slack supports (improves?) firm culture.

The best firms? They’ve created cultures that acknowledge the personalities and human side of the people who work there. We lawyers aren’t robots. Every so often we like to have some fun. And it’s a scientific fact that injecting play into your day makes you better at whatever you’re doing.Nothing could be easier to encourage play then setting up a channel in Slack for this express purpose. Share gifs, funny cat videos, snarky posts from ATL … get the picture? Slack becomes the watercooler.

Your grumpy colleagues can simply ignore the channel. The rest of you can enjoy it for its intended purpose: to interject some fun, personal connection, and/or play into the typical stress of a lawyer’s workday.

#9 You can shrug in Slack.

Full of fantastic slash commands and shortcuts, my current favorite: type “/shrug” and this appears: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.Surprising how often a shrug = a completely appropriate response. Find a list of Slack slash commands here, and a list of shortcuts here.

This list barely scratches the surface. There’s the slackbot, reminders, snippets, automatic sharing of schedules, and so much more.

While Slack isn’t for everyone, it’s perfect for some. The best way to figure out if Slack is right for you/your team/your firm? Give it a spin. Go here for tips on getting started.

For some reason, Lee Rosen invited me back to his podcast. This time, we talked about iPhone apps. It was a lot of fun. I learned some things! You should listen. You may learn some things, too.