Law Practice Management, Lawyer Coaching, Legal Consulting, Law Firm Retreats : LawBiz Blog : Ed Poll

Talent is scarce. Every client with whom I work utters the same frustration -- We want to grow, but are afraid to get more work because we can't find qualified lawyers to handle the new work.

Bruce Marcus, a marketing consultant, talked about the need to attract talent and suggests how to do so.

"... Recruiting advertising is like any other, in that telling people what you want won't work. Offering people what they want, and how you're going to give it to them, works. Some ideas that have succeeded mightily:

Sell the environment. Some headlines that worked:
We Cherish Excellence. You bring the excellence, we supply the opportunity.

We Cherish Professionalism. You get the opportunity to do your best work here.

For lateral hires, an ad that really pulled said, "If you've been practicing your kind of law but haven't enjoyed it where you are, bring your skills here. We'll supply the pleasure of good legal practice."

Don't be dull. "Wanted: a lawyer with 3 years experience" is for recruiting labor, not professionals. A tremendously successful recruiting ad said, "Imagine. Professionally."

Be different. Be imaginative. Otherwise, you'll lose good candidates to a firm that's different and imaginative.

Be a firm that good people want to work for. For example, don't advertise that you're an up-to-date firm but don't have a Web site. How up-to-date is that? Make sure that you are contemporary, technically and professionally.

Use your Web site as a major recruiting tool. Today's young lawyers and law students go right to the site before they'll talk to you. If they don't like what they see, you won't get the candidate. Your site should reflect your firm as exciting and professional, one that anybody would want to work for. It should show the environment as appealing -- the kind of place that any ambitious professional, new or experienced -- would enjoy working in.

And most important, as with any advertising, don't offer what you can't deliver. If you find that you don't like the way your firm is perceived, don't think you can change that perception by manipulating symbols. You can't. To change the way you're perceived, change what you are.

If you lose a good candidate to another firm, take the trouble to find out why. You'll learn how to do it better next time.

As the market for lawyers gets more competitive, and as the demands for legal services get more complex, getting the best talent is a major survival tactic. In today's economic, regulatory and technical environment, talent counts heavily. Recruiting the best is no longer an option. It's vital." (Emphasis added.)

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March 19, 2006
Venice, CA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release

LawBiz Coaching Summit to be Offered to MN Attorneys

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Larry Bodine in his excellent Blog on marketing, highlights a comment I made in our new Special Report concerning business competencies needed to be successful lawyers.

He cites a personal experience with a law firm that charged him $102 to listen to a voice mail message and, rather than credit this amount when Larry complained, told Larry to find another law firm to do his work.

Larry's story is an excellent example of lawyers' lack of sensitivity to the wishes/needs of clients. Can you imagine losing a 5 year client with more business in the future over $100? ... I'm sorry, $102! ... They would gladly have discounted the billed rate if asked, but got all hung up over a request not to be charged for emails.

In today's world, with major corporations dictating what they will and won't pay for, I can't imagine this happening. But, I'm sure it still does somewhere.

When responding to emails (and even voice mail messages to a lesser extent) about litigation and transactional matters, this is legitimate work that frequently gets forgotten by lawyers for billing purposes because of the speed of response ... and the failure of lawyers to note their effort in their time logs.

Bottom line lesson: Lawyers lose revenue when they don't bill; speed of response frequently causes lawyers to overlook the need to note their time. When on a billable hour system, this oversight can be very costly to the lawyer.

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Are you worried about your job being outsourced? To India? According to a new regulation in India, if you're not licensed by the age of 45, you cannot become an advocate!

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Paraphrasing the commercial, (for those of you liviing on the West Coast, "Larry, you're killing me!"), "... voice mail is killing your practice."

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Venice, CA
March 20, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Business Competency for Lawyers: A LawBiz Special Report
Edward Poll, principal of LawBiz Management Co., announced the publication of Business Competency for Lawyers: A LawBiz Special Report.

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In my recent article for ABA's Law Practice Today, I spoke about blogs as a tool of marketing, not an end unto itself.

Joel Shoenmeyer takes issue with me, suggesting that I said others should write your blog ... and that, if that is the case, "... prospective clients aren't learning anything about your legal knowledge or your personality. And if you use a ghostblogger and don't disclose this fact to your blog's visitors, then you are also a liar."

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What is

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Check out Adam Smith.

Citing a McKinsey report, management of a law firm will determine its success. Management is not irrelevant.

See our new Special Report, Business Competencies for Lawyers in The Business of Law®....

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Patrick J. Lamb, in his new blog, says:

"There is a difference between hearing what the law firm can do to improve the work it is currently doing and whether there is more work to handle. I've done north of twenty client service interviews. I know clients are savvy enough to distinguish between a discussion about how you can serve them better and how you can serve them more."

I agree that the client will know, by the "smell test," whether you are seeking to serve him better or serve him more!

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Adam Smith writes the following question:

"Most businesses know their leading indicators of sales. For example, if the company increases the number of sales calls in January, there will be more sales in April.

"Has anyone analyzed empirically what the leading indicators of sales are for AmLaw 200 law firms? Do the indicators include ads in the trade press? Fancy dinners with potential clients? Rounds of golf with potential clients? Publishing articles in legal or trade journals? Giving speeches? Winning jury trials? Closing big deals?

"It strikes me that law firms have very little idea of what business development activities they really want to encourage among their lawyers and so take a scattershot approach to the effort.

"Has anyone thought intelligently about this?"

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Ann Althouse discusses BuzzMetrics and the revelation that there is software available to track public opinion.

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Today, Consumers Reports published a study that listed the top ten cars ... None of them were American owned.

Some have concluded that the lack of quality in American cars is the reason for the current disfavor of American manufacturers. And that lack of quality is directly laid at the doorstep of unions.

That view has been expressed by a friend of mine, Terry Brock, in his blog post today. If you want a different perspective, read on.

The question, however, for our readers is how does this apply to law firms? The answer, I believe, is simple: You must provide a quality product/service to your clients. They must understand what you do and how you do it. They get this understanding only because of the way in which you AND your staff conduct yourselves. There is no management and staff ... there is only a team that creates quality service and work product for the benefit of our clients.

I love the phrase, "No man is an island unto himself." And that is particularly true in delivering legal services to appreciative clients who pay their bills on time and refer their colleagues to you for more services.

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