The fourth quarter is upon us and now is the time to work on business development and practice management initiatives that will help law firms finish the year strongly and set a solid foundation for growth in the new year. Here is a list of ten Dos and Don’ts for the fourth quarter: Do Focus […]
Law firm attorneys have an uneasy relationship with vacations. This is part a reflection of the fact that Americans take far fewer vacation days than their counterparts in other advanced economies. Moreover, there is an element of business legal culture that takes pride in not taking vacations. To cite an extreme example, Elon Musk has […]
Ray Kroc was the founder of McDonald’s Corporation. He wasn’t, however, the originator of the system of making burgers quickly and uniformly. That credit goes to the McDonald Brothers of San Bernardino, California, who launched their hamburger stand in 1940. The brothers believed in operational systems. They figured out how to make one hamburger to […]
Many law firms overlook a free source of critical marketing data. Law firms and other service providers benefit from understanding their clients and referral sources as well as they can. And yet, in my experience as a business consultant to lawyers and law firms, very few firms take advantage of the wealth of demographic information […]
As a business coach to lawyers and law firms, I hear lots of explanations why someone didn’t get as much as done as they had planned. The most common reason is some variation of “I didn’t have enough time.” Time management is a recurring problem for law firm attorneys, but most attorneys receive little or […]
Effective networking requires being helpful to others, but some lawyers go too far. They are so generous and are so committed to helping others that they don’t take steps that would help them attract more clients for themselves. Here are five real-life examples of that suggest that a lawyer crossed the line from generosity to […]
The rise of litigation funding is by now well-documented. Hedge funds and a wide variety of other financial players see litigation finance as way to generate returns for their investors that are uncorrelated to their other holdings, such as stocks, bonds, and commodities. For clients in divorce, business litigation, and class actions, litigation funding can […]
When law firms consider adding a partner, or colleagues consider starting their own firm, they understandably focus on business metrics such hourly rates, billable hours, and portable books of business. There is no denying that such metrics are critical to the success of any law firm. But in my experience consulting with lawyers, too many […]
With the rapid increase in the number of law firms that are considering adding lateral partners, many aspects of the negotiating process between firms and laterals have become routine. Most notably, almost every large firm sends out a Lateral Partner Questionnaire or LPQ. The LPQ helps firms assess how attractive a potential lateral partner might […]
Law firms could learn a thing or two from commercial banks about marketing to middle-market companies. First and foremost, banks know what the middle market is and have a fairly consistent way of defining it. Specifically, commercial bankers define the middle market as companies that have annual revenues in a given range. That range differs […]