How can a law firm choose a fee arrangement that is beneficial for the client and calculated to be profitable for the firm? Once that fee is set, how can the law firm best manage the engagement to ensure sustained profitability? How can it measure profitability in this new environment?
How should a law firm approach compensation decisions in the current economy? The fundamentals still apply: a focus on the quality of the compensation decisions and the interrelationship of those decisions with culture and strategy.
ALTERNATIVE BILLING ARRANGEMENTS - On May 11th, I was able to sit in on the Argyle Executive Forum 2010 Chief Legal Officer Leadership Forum event in San Francisco. One fo the topics of discussion was the latest definition of "alternative fees" - information that I will be relaying during upcoming workshops and seminars where I'll continue discussing the importance of alternative billing arrangements. Alternative fees are on way in which lawyers and law firms are able…
ONE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT'S VIEW - For more than 20 years, I have heard in-house counsel say about retention of outside counsel is that in addition to understanding their business, they are taking a risk with every new engagement. To demonstrate how your firm will relieve that concern and provide the best strategy for solving the problem under consideration, you need to demonstrate specific case examples along with unique successes. The message must take your…
Who's doing what; who's going where.
It's time that legal marketing executives take a risk and launch a creative media campaign that reshapes the industry's image and increases the unaided brand recognition of their firm over the virtual stealth existence of their competitors.
How do you integrate your individual online efforts in a coordinated strategy to build brand awareness and achieve your marketing and business development goals?
IT had never really been viewed as a profit center, only as necessary overhead. In the many years that IT has been fulfilling that role, we've seen an explosion of software and hardware choices to meet all of our daily needs. Now, you name the need and chances are good that there is an application out there to meet that need. With this comes a lot of investment: research, trial periods for testing, hardware, software, added personnel, training and consultants to name just a few.
Legal services are not sold, they are bought. You can't sell something that the other person doesn't want. Hence, the most effective way to detect a lead is to find someone ready to buy.
The vision of this article is to provide a model that may be used in discussing how a firm can power into the next few years. It uses a watershed analogy to demonstrate drivers for higher margins and the skills required to maximize each stream of effort running toward the earnings "lake."
