Marketing Training for the Next Generation of Rainmakers
March 29, 2007
The practice of law has seen many changes in the past 10 years. The profession has changed to become more client focused, associates are entering at higher salaries, and firms are pressured to be more efficient. All this adds up to the necessity for new associates to be productive sooner — and that includes developing business. However, young lawyers do not learn how to develop clients during law school. They learn to research, cite cases, and think logically, but they do not learn the practical skill of getting and keeping clients. This must be taught by senior lawyers, outside consultants, or others responsible for training.
Midsize Law Firms Shift Recruiting Strategies
March 27, 2007
Big law firms are snatching up qualified graduates as quickly as law schools can churn them out. And with those schools graduating about the same number of students each year, some observers say the tightest squeeze is on midsized firms, those with 150 to 350 attorneys that also want a steady, though smaller, supply of associates each year.
A Case Study
March 27, 2007
This article reports the experience of one law firm's Director of Finance when she and her firm decided to switch software vendors rather than upgrade.
Transforming Practice Areas into Profit Centers
March 27, 2007
Many larger firms have had long experience in systematically managing practice areas, and are now focused on optimizing profitability from each area with the aid of enhanced benchmarking tools and business intelligence software. But for many midsize firms, practice area management has not expanded beyond its original quality-assurance role, leaving largely untapped its potential for improving firm profitability.
Gaining Firm Acceptance of a Profitability Model
March 27, 2007
As law firms grow in size, and expand geographically and across practice areas, the use of firm-wide profitability tools has become a business necessity. But understanding the urgency to adopt or update a profitability model doesn't guarantee its successful implementation.
Must-Sue TV
March 27, 2007
Not to be left behind, the legal community is actively engaged in the ever-expanding blogoshpere. With more than 1000 active legal blogs on the Web, firms and attorneys recognize the value of blogs as unique marketing and business development tools. However, for a blog to be beneficial, it must distinguish itself from the diluted market through creativity, consistency, and a strategic media plan.
When Death Is More Than a Blue Screen
March 26, 2007
Consider all the critical information that would vanish if a key employee of your business died suddenly, and others had to locate that information.
Exchange-Traded Solvency Derivatives
March 26, 2007
In the last ten years, the credit derivatives market has grown from its infancy to approximately $26 trillion of notional value according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. ('ISDA'). The most highly utilized type of credit derivative, the credit default swap, is used by investors to bet on a company's creditworthiness or hedge a position in a fashion that protects against the company's failure to make a payment or satisfy other terms.
