<b>Media & Communications Corner:</b> Becoming Your Reporter's Best Friend
July 28, 2005
If there is one thing that everyone in your law firm marketing department can agree upon, it is the importance of cultivating and maintaining relationships with editors and reporters. Your team has likely recognized this basic point for years, as have the marketing departments of your competitors. It is just as probable, though, that one (or both) of you have seen these efforts stagnate, as happens all too regularly. You lose track of the fundamentals. In what manner, then, can your firm begin to refresh its efforts, and keep ahead of the Jones, Jones & Jones LLP's? What creative methods can you implement that will make a reporter think of your firm and your attorneys first?
Networking, Growing Books Of Business. Dare I say it? Sales!
July 28, 2005
Professional services practitioners ' be they lawyers, doctors, accountants, financial planners, or even insurance agents ' all have one thing in common: They need clients in order to provide their services. <br>But how much time studying about building a career? Attracting clients to the firm? Establishing relationships? Exactly; not much! Nonetheless, recognizing that you need training and getting good training are not necessarily one in the same
Billing Your Client? Think Branding In The Process
July 28, 2005
The foundation of marketing is branding. Although branding drives most attorneys crazy because brands resist logical definitions, your firm's brand is an essential element of marketing legal services. In essence, brands are an array of impressions and beliefs that surround your firm, and create expectations about the kind of attorneys the firm has and the work it performs. Since brands create an emotional connection between attorneys and their clients, your brand can be considered your firm's personality.
Finding Where The Work Is
July 28, 2005
Each calendar year, attorneys with private law firms are charged with the unique challenge of creating and realizing a target number of billable hours. In a quieter moment, perhaps late at night, we ask ourselves: "Where will this work come from?" <br>Searching for, qualifying, and closing new or additional business is as important to building a successful practice as your numbers this year for annual hours worked, billed and realized. So, how do we do that?
'Plane' Speaking: In-Flight Networking
July 28, 2005
I don't have time to network." "There's no way I can spend time at all the events people tell me I should go to." Does this ring true for you? If so, consider this: Networking doesn't just happen when you take time out of your busy schedule to appear at an official "networking" event. In fact, networking can happen anytime, anywhere. Every minute you're around other human beings is a chance to network. Self-made billionaires are known for their tendency to network everywhere and all the time ' on the golf course, but also at the doctor's office, at the health club, or on a plane.
AbacusLaw: Practice-Specific Case Management
July 28, 2005
Over the years, case management software has become more and more refined. However, there are still several programs that don't take into consideration the fact that most attorneys need a program that is more adept at their particular area of practice. <br>I practice in the area of family law, and needless to say, most of the case-management programs floating around don't account for the language and the rules involved in my practice area. That is to say, not until now.
How To Choose An EDD Trainer
July 28, 2005
Even the most seasoned techie, not to mention litigator, may be puzzled by such arcane terminology as deduplication, metatags, blowbacks and concept querying. To make sense of the electronic-data discovery (EDD) process in general, and to further ensure that the litigator is adept in using the selected litigation review and production tools, selecting a trainer with the appropriate skills and pedagogical technique, combined with "real world" experience in setting up review workflows and meeting production deadlines, is nothing short of critical.
Lexis Closes Research Gap/LiveNote Acquires RealLegal
July 28, 2005
For years one of the major distinctions separating Westlaw from LexisNexis was West's headnote integration. Well, this gap in the capabilities of the two major legal research providers has apparently been closed with Lexis' recent announcement that its Shepard's Reports citation tool is now completely integrated with LexisNexis Headnotes. This integration of LexisNexis Headnotes into Shepard's will permit faster and more effective validations as well as "looping" Shepard's into the research process via Headnotes.
EU and U.S. Data Regulations
July 28, 2005
You have likely already read a great deal more about the implications and requirements of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) legislation than you would have otherwise liked. The new reporting, data retention and accountability regulations are of obvious import both legally and financially. What is of equal interest, however, for firms that are either multinational or do business overseas is the conceptual differences between this recent U.S. legislation and privacy legislation and regulations adopted in the EU. Essential in understanding where U.S. and EU data regulations conflict or compliment each other is understanding the root motivations behind each set of rules.
