Columns & Departments
<b><i>At the Intersection:</i></b> Five Critical Questions Every Client Should Ask Law Firms About Budgets
Although dramatic changes in law's economic landscape have conferred far greater bargaining leverage and purchasing power on clients, in budget discussions with outside law firms, many in-house counsel just aren't asking the right questions.
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How to Show a Partner the Door
The practice of law is a business. Typically, partners in a law practice are responsible for keeping the firm afloat through bringing in business. Because partners are expected to bring in money for their firms, making partner in a law firm is no longer the lifetime guaranteed 'employment it once was.
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Billing Scrutiny Creates Tension
Legal bill scrutiny in its many forms ' internally by legal departments, by nonlawyer staff elsewhere in the company, by third-party auditors, or via e-billing software ' has the potential to affect how and when law firms get paid, but the practical effect is up for debate.
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<b><i>Professional Development:</i></b> Trust: Addressing The Issue In Business Development Training
If your Professional Development program does not include a component focused on the importance of trust and isn't engaged with firm leadership on how best to overcome the two most prevalent types of trust in a professional services firm, that may be the reason why the firm's client team program isn't as successful as everyone would like it to be.
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Your Clients Want Alternative Fees
Think you're being responsive to your clients about fees? They think you can do better.
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Hit It Out of the Park: Lessons Learned in Practice Group Management
This article reviews a methodology that has transformed our practice group leaders and our firm's approach to practice group management. What follows are some best practices and lessons learned from one midsize firm's year-long endeavor.
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<b><i>Business of Branding:</i></b> Seven Signs You Should Be Thinking About a Rebrand
Just because you want a new "look and feel" doesn't mean you should enter into a lengthy, complex and potentially expensive rebranding project. There are a number of "signs," though, that might indicate you should consider rebranding or at least refreshing your firm's brand.
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The Global 100
The Global 100 appears to have found its groove. After the turbulence of the financial crisis, which in 2009 caused the world's 100 highest-grossing law firms to collectively suffer their first-ever fall in aggregate fee income, the group has now settled into a pattern of slow, steady growth.
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Data Sharing In the Cloud
Storing and sharing data "in the cloud" has become, in many instances, a business necessity. The practical and economic advantages of cloud computing are clear ' it eliminates the need to send client data via traditional, costly methods, and is significantly less expensive than building and maintaining the same data storage capacity in-house.
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How to Fix Reputational Harm
The speed with which negative Internet postings spread can cause immediate reputational harm. To remedy this harm, the nature and extent of the damage must be quantified, which is no easy task. However, new digital tools can now be used to assess and quantify damage caused by these kinds of negative Internet postings.
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