Lawyers News And Updates: How Lawyers Work: Aaron Rocke, Driven Problem-Solver by Day & Adjunct Law Professor by Night

In this week’s edition of How Lawyers Work, we hear from Aaron Rocke. Aaron is the founder of Rocke Law Group and primarily practices in the areas of civil litigation, with a focus on employment and commercial litigation.

You can follow Aaron on LinkedIn.

What’s your elevator pitch?

Because our employment is such a big part of who we are and how we survive and thrive, we help small business and nonprofits, and employees of big business resolve those problems.

What apps or tools are essential to your daily workflow and why are these tools useful?

I like Microsoft’s Office 365. It comes with OneDrive for cloud storage, OneNote for taking notes and making lists, To-Do for prioritizing tasks to get things done, and Bookings to let clients look at my availability and schedule appointments online. I’m interested in replacing Bookings, but it is secure, convenient, and free with Office 365. These apps sync across my devices (except To-Do) and my team’s. I ask my clients who do not have scanners to use the app Office Lens, which relies on the camera on their phone to scan documents into .pdf and optimizes for documents. I sound like a commercial, but I live near Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

What does your workspace look like?

My ridiculously large office has lots of desk space, a roundtable, and a view of the Puget Sound. It is big enough to fit my entire ego, plus some growing room.

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How do you keep track of your calendars and deadlines?

We use Outlook to track deadlines and tickles. My entire team sees my calendar, and we have a group calendar. Each lawyer prioritizes their work weekly and reports the plan for that week and how they did on their plan last week. Office has a tool called Planner for that, but we’ve been slow to adopt it.

What is one thing that you listen to, read, or watch that everyone should, and why?

I follow the Building a StoryBrand podcast because in marketing “if you confuse, you lose; noise is the enemy, and creating a clear message is the best way to grow your business.”

What is your favorite local place to network or work solo and why?

My inspirations, best ideas, and best referrals come from fellow solo and small firm lawyers, so I founded a local bar association for us to meet and collaborate.

How do you or your team approach problems?

We use forms with our clients and our opponents to help focus our time on solving novel problems. Our small team regularly pitches ideas back and forth. This exchange is usually in person because we share an office suite. I had to change my wide-open-door policy. To batch my work, I have office hours to empower the introverts to connect with me, and to focus the extroverts’ time with me. It dedicates time to focus, time for teamwork, and lets me be a better human being.

What are three things you do without fail every day and why?

After morning coffee and personal time, I am blessed with manifold problems, most of which I am paid to solve. And I work in a murder of fine lawyers. (Murder as a noun, that is.) I’m transitioning from management by walking around to a weekly report with bi-monthly case meetings.