Law Firm Management

Part One of a Two-Part Article

Attorneys are generally not great salespeople (caveat: some are great salespeople, aka rainmakers) and they are often introverts. While lawyers may like to speak about themselves, many are not effective in how to speak about themselves and their work in a way that is appealing to clients.

It's the budgeting and planning time of year. And, if the legal industry literature is anything to go by, strategies are in for law firms. A well-defined and well-communicated strategy provides a tangible way for law firms to identify their strengths and differentiators.

The Department of Labor (DOL) issued regulations that revise the ERISA claims procedure regulations for employee benefit plans that provide disability benefits. The scope of the new regulations are broader than you may realize and apply to any plan, regardless of how it is characterized, that provides benefits or rights that are contingent on whether the plan determines an individual to be disabled.

With an Eye on Efficiency, Firms Are Ditching Old Methods for a More Corporate Form of Governance

A growing number of firms in the United States and the United Kingdom are eschewing historical partnership norms in favor of more centralized management, and with that comes fewer and fewer partnership votes.

To achieve your highest potential, to be more “actualized,” you must embrace your leadership style. What is your style? Are you an Achiever, Affirmer, or Asserter? Which of the Nine Attributes of Actualized Leaders do you need to focus on to improve your leadership?

The increasing competition in the legal industry highlights the importance of differentiation and adding value beyond the work product. Face-to-face interactions with clients are a critical component in differentiation because they provide the opportunity to understand better the nuances of clients' businesses, develop deeper relationships, and drive productive collaboration.

Develop content with a purpose in mind versus simply creating content for its own sake. Retweets and shares are fine, but they shouldn't be the end goal of a lawyer's effort. Instead, creating content should be about enabling the lawyer to feel comfortable and easily engage with clients.

For members of a conservative industry that — literally — wrote the rulebook on sexual harassment, law firms need to be ready for a day of reckoning that seems inescapable.