Law Firm Management

The ability to convert capital expenditures to operating expenses, tax considerations and other cost-savings benefits are sending businesses to the cloud with glee, while the legal profession is lagging behind but getting the hint. As the evolution of security measures becomes more imperative, tales of international disagreement regarding security regulation make the location of a vendor's servers a question of paramount importance in selecting a cloud provider. For lawyers, this question of location is compounded by jurisdictional considerations.

Who's doing what; who's going where.

PLAN AHEAD FOR BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT - As we've said before, closing business does not begin with the presentation of an engagement letter. It begins with the introduction and first handshake-whether that happens at a conference, dinner, fundraiser, or even a PTA meeting. From there, it's important to plan ahead, to take the next steps, and working toward the closed sale. So what are the next steps in business development? If the prospect is a first-time acquaintence, offer…

Would You Buy a Used Car from This Ad? One of the great exercises in frustration is trying to get some sell into an ad, a Web site, a brochure, or any of the social media for a law or accounting firm. Anyone whose experience resides in promotion in any of these media tends to gravitate towards the hard sell ' to channel those wonderful TV pitchmen. And you can bet that it's the way'

THE MOST OVERLOOKED CLIENT DEVELOPMENT RESOURCE - is your clients! In our work with law firms, we often oint out that new business only comes from 3 sources - clients, referrals and new prospects. It is amazing how often I then hear, "but how do I ask clients for referrals or repeat business without offending them. Rubbish - that's just an excuse. If your firm's work has been solid and helpful, and you are working on…

The British have a marvelous expression for foolish activities. They call them "a mug's game." Well, prognostication is a mug's game.

The reason that predictions are so hard to get right is simple to fathom. In today's dynamic world, any course of action will likely be affected by unforeseeable random events that alter that course. For example, just a few years ago, who could have predicted LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter ' much less the impact the social networks would have on society and business? Many of us remember when blogs were considered to be fads that would ultimately die or fade away. Now, blogs are ubiquitous, and an integral part of the business process. The fascinating thing about these devices is that they impacted the business world so rapidly that there wasn't time to predict them before they became important business tools.

OBSTACLES TO ATTORNEY MARKETING - One of the toughest challenges for business development and marketing professionals is overcoming the excuses we've all heard for not wanting to market. One of the questions I often ask at the beginning of workshops or keynote speeches is what have you heard attorneys use as excuses? * I'm in law, not sales. * It's unprofessional for me to market * Why bother? * I don't have time to market'

What are reasonable assumptions about the future of the legal profession in this dynamic society? Here, we can surmise ' if not predict ' a future by extrapolating two things from the past.