LOOKING FORWARD TO 2000©

December is traditionally a time for reflection on the year that’s ending and planning for the new year. We would like to use our newsletter this month to let you know about a number of things past and future.

First, we’d like to thank all of our clients and friends for an excellent year. PeopleWealth has been busy in 1999. We have had the opportunity to speak with many of you and to work with others. In the busy world we all inhabit, our contacts are much too infrequent. We hope you’ve received your holiday card by now with our best wishes for a joyful holiday season.

As regular PeopleWealth clients know, we are strong believers in the value of fun and joy in the work place. Lest you believe "fun" and "joy" are fuzzy concepts with no place in the business world, we’d like to remind you that research routinely demonstrates that we all perform better and learn more when we work with humor than when we don’t. Lawyers are people first, lawyers second. So enjoy the holidays to the fullest and look forward to a wonderful new millennium!

This year, we met many of you during our very successful career design workshop at the 50^th Annual Meeting of The Florida Bar, the Michigan Defense Trial Counsel, the Hillsborough County Women Lawyers Association, and The Associate Summit 2000 sponsored by Business Development Associates. Putting faces with your names helps us serve you better.

Because of all of the very positive feedback we’ve received from you, we plan to continue our monthly newsletters next year. If you would like to receive back issues, please contact us. For your convenience, you will find a list of topics and dates attached to this issue. If you know of someone who would like to be added to our list, please let us know. Or, if you would like your name removed from our mailing list, please contact us.

In the past year, we have seen many signs that the world of law practice is continuing to change and to move in a new direction that is more lawyer friendly, more fun and will produce more joy to lawyers. Lawyers and their associations are beginning to take back the respect we’ve lost, renew our commitment to client service, and return to professionalism.

Lawyers and their practices are beginning to think creatively and to solve personal concerns in innovative ways. We are understanding that, while law is a vocation, it is not and should not be the only focus of our lives.

We have come to accept that job satisfaction for lawyers must be improved, experienced lawyers must remain available to the public and lawyers must be viewed as well respected leaders in their communities. Many of us welcome the acknowledgment and the responsibility that comes with it.

From the business world, we are learning how law practice and the lives of lawyers will change in the next century. In the new economy, both law and business have learned that one person with a link to the World Wide Web, a strong network of personal contacts, some venture capital and a good idea can reinvent an entire industry. Other lessons from business that are yet to be absorbed by law practices will further change our environment. Consider these axioms well summarized in Fast Company magazine’s December 1999 issue:

• The team with the best talent will succeed because law practice is powered by the energy of the individual.
• You can outsmart the competition, so keep your mind and your ears open to new ideas.
• You must implement your ideas; action is required.
• Command and control leadership will no longer succeed. You need grassroots leaders who can take initiative at every level of the practice.
• A clear sense of purpose is required. "When anything is possible, what really matters? When one person can make a difference, what’s worth doing?"

Law Practices who have embraced these ideas already have a significant advantage. Those who are moving in the direction of maximizing individual lawyer success will define law practice in the next century.

PeopleWealth is looking forward to a very exciting 2000. Our book will be published in the Spring by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. Lawyer Retention: Improving Job Satisfaction for Lawyers is a project we are very excited about. The editors and reviewers who have helped us on the project all feel this book will be of interest to every lawyer and every practice. We look forward with eager anticipation to your comments.

As we reported last month, we have accepted several invitations to speak at national meetings next year, including the annual meetings of the American Bar Association in July, the Association of Legal Administrators in May, the National Association of Law Placement in April, the Florida Bar in June and Puritan Bennett’s meeting for medical device lawyers in June. These engagements will take us to New York, Denver, Boston, Boca Raton and Jackson Hole. We hope to see many of you there and to make some new friends.

Soon, our web site will be up and running. After December 31, check us out at www.PeopleWealth.com

We look forward to our opportunities to serve your lawyer retention needs in the next millennium. We hope to address your concerns in these newsletters and we invite you to contact us with suggestions for newsletter topics or speaking topics. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

If you would like further information about PeopleWealth or our services, please contact our office or e-mail us: info@peoplewealth.com

©PeopleWealth December 1999

Please Complete and Fax Back to (813) 221-8116

Would you like to continue receiving our newsletter? YES___ NO ____

(include name and address)

Would you like copies of past newsletters? YES___ NO___

(check issues requested)

____ Improving Job Satisfaction for Lawyers (and keeping the ones you want to keep), November 1998

____ Beginning a New Year With Lawyers You Want, December 1998.

____ Variable Compensation, January 1999.

____ How Life Balance Issues Affect Lawyer Retention, February 1999.

____ Keeping Lawyers in a Buyer’s Market, March 1999.

____ Best Lawyers: Luck or Design, April 1999.

____ Create Client Loyalty: Focus on Lawyer Retention and Job Satisfaction, May 1999.

____ Developing a Challenging and Successful Law Career, June 1999.

____ Workshop Success at the Florida Bar Annual Meeting, July 1999.

____ "Happy Lawyer" is Not an Oxymoron, August 1999.

____ Successful Lawyer Retention Through Mentoring, September 1999.

____ Creative Lawyer Retention in a Competitive Market, October 1999.

____ What Do Mid Level Associates Want?, November 1999.

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