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Have a few rules and repeat them often. As the CEO of an expert witness referral firm, I found myself single-mindedly focused on the task of connecting as many lawyers as possible with the finest and best experts. Yet success did not come. Why? I did not make my intentions known; it was a quiet and personal endeavor. 

Then I started communicating more. I developed a mantra and repeated it often. When colleagues, clients, and experts asked me what I wanted, what I was thinking, I always had the same three answers: 1) that we will deliver expert resumes faster to our clients, 2) that more customers will engage the expert witnesses we present, 3) that our clients will be delighted with our service. Success followed: our expert witness referral firm was named to Inc. Magazine's "Inc. 500" (now called the Inc. 5000) list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. an unprecedented four times.

As a lawyer on a case, what is your mantra? Are there 2-3 key points that you are trying to make, to get across to the jury? It is so easy to be distracted in a trial; the attentions are drawn away from the crux of the matter by, for example, the wiles and caprices of the opposing attorneys. You must stay focused and consistent in the face of the trials and tribulations of a legal drama. Have a few rules, or key points, and repeat them often.

Cato the Elder, a Roman Emperor, took it up as his mission that Carthage must be destroyed.  Indeed, he would end every speech in the Roman Senate with the words, "And may Carthage be destroyed." Sometimes he would even conclude his regular, personal conversations with the phrase. Everyone knew what Cato stood for. Ronald Reagan was consistent in his mantra throughout his political career: government is too big, and Communism must be destroyed. At Round Table Group, our mission is to have every lawyer call us first whenever he needs an expert witness. Lately I've even been concluding my e-mail messages with this phrase: "And may every lawyer call Round Table Group when he needs an expert message." One mantra, repeated often.

Special thanks to expert witness extraordinaire Dr. Ernest Chiado for bringing clarity to this insight.

Russ W. Rosenzweig

Accountability

A father without a father

Has difficulty balancing.

A master without a master

Is dangerous.

We look up to our parents, our teachers, and our leaders with trust and expectation. Their responsibility is to guide us, educate us, and even make judgments on our behalf when circumstances are uncertain. Ultimately, they are to bring us to the point where we can make our own decisions, based on the wisdom they have helped us develop.

Now, you are your own person, a parent, a teacher, a leader. And you are more than that: a law firm partner is a teacher's teacher, a leader's leader, a lawyer's lawyer. You make your own decisions now, but as a partner the decision has great weight, awesome power - the power to bring about justice, or the miscarriage of justice. Usually lawyers are rigorous and methodological in all aspects of their work. According to our research, this rigor does not extend to the realm of selecting expert witnesses. Too often, we select experts without undertaking a thorough, methodical search. And yet, an expert witness can win or lose the case

Law firm partners are wise leaders, but the potential for mistakes is great, such as when selecting an expert witness -- what person can be right all the time? A simple lapse at the wrong time can cause confusion, psychological scars, even great disaster if a jury is wrongly persuaded. That is why we need a master for the master, a leader for the leaders, an expert for the experts. This prevents errors of power.  In the past even kings had wise advisors.

Every lawyer who would select an expert witness should have such assistance.  And who should this mentor be? Let us invoke not deities but pragmatism. It is experience that is the ultimate teacher.  Round Table Group connects attorneys with expert witnesses in all fields.  Round Table Group has a network of 95,000 expert witnesses. Round Table Group can connect its clients - those engaged in important litigation matters - with other experts who have "been there, done that," who have the experience to share, the knowledge to provide, to ensure that the expert witness is not a "dangerous expert witness."  [Adapted from "365 Tao."]

Russ W. Rosenzweig

A world-class law firm partner knows that the formula for success = concentration * consistency * cooperation.

1) Concentration. The mind of a law firm partner has a natural tendency to slip into the memories/worries of the past or thoughts of the future. A partner rarely may be tempted to multitask, to switch back and forth between various cases, CLE, personal matters during the day. It is well documented (see, for example, "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot") that the brain is far more effective when it is single tasking and not multitasking. The mere act of checking your e-mail while engaged in an important task requires a "reboot" that is highly inefficient and does not serve the cause of justice. A partner must do his duty to the cause of justice by concentrating in a focused way on the task at hand, and not multitasking. 

2) Consistency. Know what you know, know what you don't know, and know what you stand for. The opposition will scrutinize everything a lawyer (and the expert witnesses he hires) has ever said, written, or published. Set your tasks and goals and follow them. You are a partner because you were called by society to serve the cause of justice.  Accent is on the work, not the fruits of the work. Be consistent in your thoughts and actions. 

3) Cooperation. A partner cooperates with all parties and acts as selflessly. You are working for a cause (justice) far greater than yourself and your own "needs." Be amicable, friendly towards all, and cooperative. 

Something extraordinary happened this week in Chicago: Yo Yo Ma performed three of Bach's Cello Suites to a sold out audience. It was an awesome experience, watching one of the world's greatest living musicians performing the non plus ultra of his art. What is the key to Ma's artistry, and what can law firm partners learn from him and the world's leading musical artists? Focus and discipline.

Tony Schwartz wrote about this topic in his recent Harvard Business Review article, "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time" and also in his fantastic booked co-authored with Jim Loehr, the Power of Full Engagement. The take away for world-class law firm partners: DO NOT MULTI TASK. If you are focused on, say, reviewing documents for an upcoming deposition, focus ONLY on reviewing the documents. Do not take calls. Do not check e-mails. Even the mere act of taking 5 seconds to check your e-mail creates neural activity that decreases productivity. A truly professional law firm partner owes it to her clients, to the cause of justice, to be focused and disciplined when working on the matter. Yo Yo Ma was completely and totally focused and in the present, performing the pieces with skill, grace, and passion, just as the law firm partner does in her daily work.

Jim Loehr is Chairman, CEO and Co-founder of the Human Performance Institute. Check out the Human Performance Institute's free "Self Profile" performance analysis for more information.

Yesterday's blog discussed the idea of a "mantra," a 1-3 sentence "elevator pitch" about who you are, and how do you crisply and succinctly describe your expertise.  Something that is practiced, rehearsed, mastered. 

As a law firm partner, you are expected to grow the practice, to bring in more clients, to build business development routines.  To accomplish this, the firm must "know who it is," just like yesterday's mantra exercise was about you knowing who you are.  So here we broaden the mantra, to describe your practice or firm and how it is different from others.

Geoffrey Moore, in his seminal book "Crossing the Chasm," has an "elevator pitch framework" that I especially like.  I have used this framework to craft Round Table Group's vision for connecting lawyers with expert witnesses in all fields.  I also use this framework to teach expert witnesses and business students in my New Entrepreneurs' Program class at the University of Chicago's Graham School and in my Business Frameworks class at the IIT Institute of Design.  The framework looks like this:

For (target customers)

Who are dissatisfied with  (the current market alternative)

Our product/service is a (product category)

That provides (key problem-solving capability)

Unlike (product alternative)

We have assembled (key product features)

Round Table Group's idea statement might be as follows, as an example:

For litigators

Who are dissatisfied with the current alternatives to finding expert witnesses: doing it themselves (too time consuming and inefficient), and outsourcing (few truly professional firms who can be counted on to deliver quality experts)

Round Table Group is an expert witness referral firm...

... That connects litigators with expert witnesses in all fields

Unlike the traditional, old fashioned, and unreliable methods for finding expert witnesses

We have assembled a team of professionals who locate, assess, and deliver the right expert witness at the right time by using rigorous methodologies, relationships with numerous firms, and proprietary databases.

Give it a try, and write a 6-sentence elevator pitch at this deeper level to describe how your practice or firm differs from the others; why you are uniquely qualified, above all others, or serve the cause of justice by making your expertise available to clients.

Russ W. Rosenzweig

It is my pleasure to introduce Round Table Group CEO Russ Rosenzweig, who will be regularly sharing his extensive expert witness referral experience and legal business knowledge with law firm partners across the country on a recurring basis.

Russ W. Rosenzweig is the CEO and co-founder of Round Table Group. Prior to joining Round Table, Mr. Rosenzweig served as a senior consultant for the management consulting practice of PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Chicago. Mr. Rosenzweig was previously the youngest corporate finance analyst at Alpha Capital Venture Partners, a venture capital firm in Chicago, where he focused on providing debt and equity financing to middle market public and private companies.

Mr. Rosenzweig holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and mathematical methods in the social sciences from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He also holds a Certificate in Liberal Arts from the University of Chicago and a Certificate des Etudes from the University of Paris (Sorbonne).

At Round Table Group Mr. Rosenzweig is an advisor to law firms on matters related to location, selection, and retention of experts. He also advises fast-growing private companies on location and selection of advisory board members. The firm maintains a network of 95,000 university professors and industry experts around the world.

An authority on innovation and strategy within larger firms, Mr. Rosenzweig co-created the "Internal Venture Marketplace" framework with Professor Harry Davis of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and is the co-author, with Professor Davis, of an article on the topic published in "The Virtual Strategist," an academic journal. He has advised BP, ExxonMobil, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Black & Decker, FMC Corporation, and other companies on new-venture creation and on promoting entrepreneurship internally. He has applied distance learning and web-based technologies to teach entrepreneurial strategy to hundreds of managers around the world, including, formerly, as Director of the Booz Allen & Hamilton Certificate Program in Business Strategy.

Mr. Rosenzweig serves on the board of advisors of several companies in the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. He was the founder and former Managing Director of Michigan & Oak Partners, a private equity and startup advisory concern. He is an active "angel" and real estate investor.

Mr. Rosenzweig's accomplishments have been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Crain's Chicago Business, Fortune Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and in four business school case studies published by Stanford University. In 2007, Inc. Magazine named RTG for the fourth year in a row to the "Inc. 500" (now "Inc. 5000") list of the fastest growing private companies in the US. Mr. Rosenzweig is regularly quoted in news articles as an expert in entrepreneurship and business strategy. Recently, Crain's Chicago Business named him a member of "The Internet 100," a select group of influential executives, decision makers, financiers and idea people in the Chicago business community.