Today rounds out three predictions for 2013. The first was the importance of The Team, and the second the reality of keeping The Score.

Today, we talk about The Practice. Years ago, “practice” referred to what an outside counsel called his work, for his clients, charging what he wanted, thank you very much. And yes it typically was a “he.”

Today, though, I am referring to practice not like that, but more like what a team does that wants to score better and win.

You know, like what Allen Iverson spoke eloquently about in 2002, when he had “creative differences” with 76ers coach Larry Brown about whether, he, “AI” (aka The Franchise) had to attend practice (like everyone else):

People who watch this video focus on the classic repetitions of the word “practice.” But the true lesson for today’s intrepid lawyers is in the single Q&A at the end of the video:

Reporter:

Is it possible though, from where he is coming from that, with practice, not you would be better, but your teammates would be better?

Allen Iverson:

How the hell can I make teammates better by practicing?

I’m not saying that some superstar lawyers agree with Mr. Iverson, but at least he is a refreshingly honest person, who could not hew the company line if he tried.

We are entering an era when even superstar lawyers need a team. And to score well together requires some practice at key skills.

New technology (for project management or collaboration, for example) can’t easily take hold because people don’t know how to (or don’t want to) work together. In fact, I think many lawyers today think that technology is more often the problem, not the solution.

I know that “practice” is a hard concept to explain without it degrading into visions of firewalks and rope ladders and teams of people zip-lining over crocodile-infested waters.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

I will offer some examples of what to practice early in the new year.

For now, I think 2013 will show us that when a well-selected small group (a team) uses a few key metrics (the score) and takes seriously the importance of working together well (the practice), they are more likely to best the competition than those who continue with the status quo.

And they just might have a bit of fun in the process. Here’s to more fun in the new year.

This is the second installment of predictions for 2013. The first was “The Team.” (No, I didn’t think about a sporting tone at the start.)

Number two in this hit parade is “The Score.” As in lawyers working in the enterprise space (inside or outside) need to know that some things count and other things are just part of the process in getting there.

It used to be easy for outside counsel to keep score. They counted hours, and regaled peers about going beyond 2,000 hours posted and paid in a calendar year.

In-house counsel also kept score years ago. They typically regaled their former peers in firms about how they did not count hours.

Now in-house counsel need to keep score about how their corporate legal function drives top line revenue, removes costs to bolster bottom line earnings and controls risk so shareholders see gains (and keep them).

It’s harder for outside counsel to keep score now, since they are being pressed by those same in-house counsel to lower costs. Billing higher rates by the hour is a luxury for a few law firms, not a strategy for the rest.

As a general counsel, I remember when an outside lawyer would push back on a given issue when I tried to calibrate it by linking it to a discrete corporate result. The refrain on at least one occasion:

That’s a business issue.

(I wish I had an iPhone then and could have grabbed it and played this. Loud.)

Part of keeping score in 2013 will require an understanding that if something isn’t a “business issue” then it probably shouldn’t be worked on by corporate counsel in the first place.

Pursuing legal questions for the law’s sake is great. It’s just not part of the corporate landscape any more (if it ever was).

We have heard this through the Great Recession:

Do more with less.

I think in 2013 many in-house counsel will move past that bromide. They will be part of growing the enterprise, which will involve handling more work with existing staff.

The “less,” if at all, may refer to fewer outside law firms, charging lower unit costs. And getting better results along the way.

That’s how we keep score today.

[Story.]

OK, I’m going all in. We needed Herm Edwards in law school, or a least as a keynoter for an Association of Corporate Counsel annual meeting:

This is the time of year for predictions. Last year I put forward seven (State of Legal 2012: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7). I was tempted to just pick three and update.

Honestly, the first one is an outgrowth of last year’s “It takes a lawyer.” Here’s the essence of that point:

What I mean is that for all the talk of cost control, collaboration, teamwork, project management or social media “connecting,” nothing gets done unless someone does something. Each of those laudable concepts or techniques can get bogged down by the fact that often everyone is expecting someone else to take ownership and initiate action.

As change in the enterprise legal industry continues at its glacial pace, I find myself less interested in large organizations and more interested in the small teams inside that can actually do something.

How big of a team, you ask?

Well, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos observes the “two pizza rule.” To encourage innovation and limit groupthink, he holds that if a team can’t be fed with two pizzas at a lunch meeting, it’s too big. (The team, not the pizzas).

Does that mean five? Probably not many more than that. If you have the brawny lad from IT onboard, it may be four.

In the legal sphere, we see this when an excellent small team in a lawsuit can prevail over a larger, if more diffused, group.

We also see this in the sometimes metaphysical realm know as “collaboration.” My working definition: where many are “on” but few are “in.” Like when many are on a conference call, but few are in on key decisions, and almost no one is all in: staking one’s reputation on getting a result.

That last person is called a project manager, or, more generally, a leader.

Change in the law only happens when a small group of well-selected lawyers does something important in a better way.

This is a sobering fact for large law firms and big corporate legal departments: there used to be strength in numbers. Now there can be inertia in that historical critical mass. But when they leverage their people properly, watch out.

If you have ever been on a small team that worked well and got good stuff done, you are lucky. You know how rare it is and much it makes you look forward to going to work.

So I hope in 2013 you are part of such a team. And that you don’t take the last slice of pizza.