Woodworth & Frisella

Last night I was honored to Judge the semi-final round of the negotiation contest at my alma mater law school. The contest was among 1L’s, who have been in law school for less than 2 months and they handled themselves beautifully. I judged two competitions, and both were very close contests. My thanks to the students at Boston College Law School for inviting me.

I’ve been thinking a lot about negotiation lately, partly in preparation for this competition, partly because I just read Gerald Williams’ great article in the Commercial Law League Magazine on the same subject.

I have always thought of negotiation as more romance than table pounding. It’s easier to make a deal with someone you like, rather than someone you loathe. So from the outset of any case, I actively seek common ground with my “opponent”. Be it the CEO of the company, their talented lawyer, or the guy working part time in accounts payable, I look for something unrelated to banter about. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a news junkie and so more often I just scan my brain for something happening where the other person is located, and we are off and running.

Along the way I’ve found that there are some pretty interesting people out there who owe my clients money. People can tell when you are genuinely interested, and I am. I learn something new from nearly everyone I deal with. It’s one of the best parts of my job.

It’s important to understand my adversary and his business – and in that process I’m often able to create a bond which results in an agreement to work together to find a solution to the problem. That is the beginning of any negotiation; it points both parties in the same direction – that of getting the problem solved, and it is more often than not, a huge leap forward in the process.

This is a repost from the early days of this website. Since it is still the advice I give to every client, I’ve brought it back to the top.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to distinguish my law firm from all the others you can choose from to collect your unpaid receivables. My best answer may be in the following story…

On a recent Saturday morning, while cleaning up some things in my office, I got a call from a man in Germany who wanted me to collect a debt in Oregon for his company. Curious, I asked where he got my name. “Joe Smith recommended you.”

We talked some more about what he needed done, and made arrangements for him to send me the file. I asked him what Joe said that inspired him to call me in Massachusetts from Germany about a case in Oregon.

Joe was the accounts payable guy for a company against which I had collected a debt. He said that Joe told him that last year he was charged with managing the accounts payable for a company that had a mountain of debt. As a morass of collectors, lawyers, and angry accounts receivable people dogged him daily, I was the one person he remembered and the first person he paid when money came in.

Thrilled at this response, I asked if Joe had told the caller why he found my approach compelling enough to put my claim at the top of the pile.

“You did exactly what you said you would do. If you said you would call Tuesday, you called Tuesday. No one else did. So when the money came in you got paid first.”

Collecting overdue debt often requires romance, sometimes requires hardball, but always requires vigilance. Early action is critically important. According to the Commercial Law League of America, when an account receivable is past due, even after only three months, the probability of collection drops to 72.3%. After six months, your chances of collection decrease to 56.1%. At one year past due, there is a mere 29.7% chance that the delinquent account will be collected.

It is that balance between vigilance, early action, romance, and – when called for – hardball that my firm offers. Excellence and judgment in all these areas is what differentiates our work. I’d like the opportunity to show you what my law firm can do. Contact me so we can get started!

Last Saturday night (May 20,2006) I named Amy “partner” and changed the name of our lawfirm to Woodworth & Frisella.

I’ve been planning to make Amy partner since things settled down last October. I decided to do it at a party for friends and clients, which she was in on, but oblivious to the real reason for the party. The party was a great success, and Amy was (thankfully) thrilled with the promotion.

Amy is a graduate of Northeastern law school, worked for Senator Cheryl Jacques before coming to The Law Office of Jane T. Woodworth.

She is a brilliant lawyer with a steel trap mind and a wonderful sense of humor.

Congratulations Amy!

The blogosphere is all abuzz about Declan McCullagh’s report about a “law” inserted by Arlen Spector in the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act, recently signed by President Bush.

Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime.

It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

Before you put your lawyer on permanent retainer, read Orin Kerr’s analysis over at The Volokh Conspiracy.

This language is an amendment of the telecommunications harassment statute that goes back to the Communications Act of 1934. That statute prohibits harassing telephone communications.

As Orin explains, the law only applies to speech that falls outside the 1st amendment.

So unless you cry “FIRE” in a crowded theater in email, the chances of getting hauled off to the hoosegow over this amendment are slim to none.

It’s the beginning of the year and time to dust off those files sitting on the back of your desk and make hay while the sun shines.

Collect your overdue receivables starting today.

1. Start out by sending the debtor a letter with a specific time frame for payment and consequences for failing to pay. (copy your lawyer with her permission)

2. Call the debtor 1-2 days after he is scheduled to receive the letter.

3. Work out a deal or begin the consequences.

4. If you work out a deal make it time sensitive with additional consequences for any failure – e.g. “you agree to pay $10,000 a week due on Friday, and if you fail you waive any defenses”.

5. Make the promises clear and put them in writing.

6. Follow up on any failure to meet a deadline immediately.

7. Encourage the debtor to call you before you call him if he can’t make the date.

8. Watch the cash stream in.

In a down-turning economy, December is the best time to collect debt. The season really starts in September, and if you are inclined to send cases out for collection, diary them for the day the kids go back to school, or at the latest when the leaves begin to turn because they will then be ripe by year’s end.

The reason is simple: Companies can write things off at year end, and if they have the cash, they want the write-off.

Back in 1999 when the dotcoms were busting, everything settled in December. Companies were tripping over themselves to write checks.

One of the ways that I can tell the economy is doing well is that we simply don’t have the same rush to settle. The companies who owe money aren’t yearning for write-offs, they are simply limping along. Secondly, and more interestingly, the amount of debt out there has diminished with slight upticks here and there.

After they got burned in 1999, many companies got more serious about who they will sell to. The VC movement came and went. Spending money was no longer a sport, and the old models of buying and selling were back in vogue. That’s a good thing from a business perspective.

None of that changes the impact of December and year end. If you haven’t called those who owe you lately, call them and make a deal. If you reduce the amount owed make it due on a date certain. December 20th is good, or at the latest December 31st.

Tis the season and all that.

Sometime in 1999, some friends of mine Feng shui-ed my office. I concentrated most of the energy in the “wealth sector” and tripled my income in one year. Since then, I’m a convert, albeit a sloppy one.

Feng Shui is the ancient Chinese art of placement. Each space is broken into a grid with nine sectors:

Wealth – Fame – Love

Family – Health -Children

Wisdom – Career – Helpful People

The trick is to move your stuff around to enhance the flow of energy in the sectors where you want it to concentrate.

It works better if you keep the place neat and tidy – not one of my better skills. Still I’m a convert based on past results.

In the office we just moved from, the wealth sector was inaccessible. In this office I’ve plunked myself down in the middle of it. It’s too early to tell if it is working, although so far the signs are all positive.

For a good book on the subject, I recommend MOVE YOUR STUFF, CHANGE YOUR LIFE by Karen Rauch Carter. It’s easy and fun to read. In the meantime, move your desk into the wealth sector and see what happens.

After a hellish move, we are back – well almost back.

Phone service will be reinstated this afternoon. Jim Hogan from Computer Help 2 U worked like a dog on Saturday to get us wired, plugged in and up and running. My nieces Paige and Laurel and my nephew Josh showed up about 2:00 AM on Saturday and pitched right in to help clear out the mess. Just stacking the boxes and bagging the paper felt like a gift from above. My eternal thanks for their generosity. The movers – ACLASS Moving were great too. If you are relocating in central MA, I highly recommend Phillip Thomas and his gang. They were careful, efficient, and had a sense of humor, something I value highly.

So now it is a matter of settling into our new digs.

They are light and modern and I can see the birds and trees from my window. And we are staying here for a long time.

I’m in the process of moving my office. The moving date was November 4th until yesterday when the broker called and said I had to be out October 27th. I conditioned the closing date on an extra week where I would occupy the old and new offices. Apparently the buyers did not get the message.

So Amy and I are cranking, day and night to get it done. I’ll be without Internet until at least the weekend. Blogging will resume next week.

Our mediation turned out very well. I was pleased with the mediator, the case we put on, and the result.

I’ve written before that I am a big fan of mediation. I serve as a mediator on cases on occasion so that is no surprise. If you are not familiar with the process, it generally involves two sides sitting down and crafting their own solution to the pending case. Most cases are about money (as the one we mediated yesterday was) but there is also room for very creative and innovative solutions. A good mediator is a Godsend. And yesterday we had a very good mediator who I would use again.

The mediation was booked through JAMS which specializes in complex business mediation.

The day was harrowing in the beginning. The traffic into town was worse than normal and our 1.5 hour commute took 2.5 hours making us late. I do not do late well. I had to wave an extra $20 in front of a parking attendant to get him to let my car into his full lot. That part was fun. I’d never done that before.

Generally in a mediation you start out with everyone in a big room together and each side makes a statement about what their case is about. We were attempting to compel the defendant to pay on a contract it said we breached. Our position was that no breach occurred and the issue involved the defendant’s own ability to use the product we sold them.

Once both sides explain their position the parties break into two different rooms and the mediator goes back and forth between the parties in an attempt to get them to come to an agreement. While the mediator is talking to the other side, each side retools their position, second guesses where the other side is going and tries to figure out where to go next. Sometimes it is fairly apparent where it is going to end up, and in this case the mediator motioned what he thought the ultimate number would be, when we started. Getting there is a different story of course.

Getting there can be a log slog. And it was yesterday. But we made it and it is done.