Would you do business with yourself?
Roberta Munson asks some great questions, prompted by her less than exemplary experience with a cell phone company:
Turnover is very expensive!
Do you know how much this costs you? When talking with managing partners of the largest law firms, there is a consensus that the number is between $200,000 and $400,000! Yet, there doesn’t seem to be a great consternation about this phenomenon. It’s accepted as a cost of doing business. One managing partner even had a name for it, the “culling process.” Separate the wheat from the chaff, he said.
Continue Reading...Succession Planning
Leading and Learning, Inc. provides consulting services to the corporate world by guiding organizational change management. Billie talks about succession planning -- probably the single most important change that any organization can face.
34 minutes, 55 seconds
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Ethics goes inside
More lawyers than ever, within law firms, are performing ethics and risk management reviews both for their own law firms as well as for corporate clients. This has become a major practice area for lawyers.
Continue Reading...General Counsel Buying Habits
In a recent announcement reported by Elaine McArdle of the Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly, Harvard Law School's Center on Lawyers and the Professional Services Industry, chaired by David Wilkins, said that Harvard was conducting a survey about the issue of how and why in-house counsel hire outside lawyers/law firms.
Budgeting for Internet Marketing
Professional services firms are spending 15% of their marketing budget on the internet, plus another 26% on in-person events.
This is an interesting statistic, but falls short of the mark. There is no indication what this means in terms of money. Since we don't know the size of the marketing budget, we can't relate the percentage to the revenue (and therefore the size of this expenditure).
Also, I suspect that the internet focus is more intense since many of the internet functions can be handled internally, without additional cost to the firm.
Nevertheless, this is some evidence of the increasing importance of the internet to the promotion of the law firm's brand and business development efforts.
Use the internet for marketing
A new resource lets you use the internet for internet marketing purposes. Netaim Info promotes the internet as the wave of the future and the best way to keep in touch with clients as well as prospective clients, telling them about your services and offering the latest tips in your field ... as well as the challenges and scams to watch out for. Blogging, podcasts and newsletters are here to stay ... for now ... and you need to know how to use them effectively. This new resource will help. Go to our Strategic Allies page and learn more about netaim info.
Continue Reading...Planners Make More Money
USA Today Snapshots (November 15, 2006) reports the results of a survey about companies that create a strategy for their future. 70% of those companies with a formal strategy in place report better performance than their competitors ... compared with 27% of those companies without a formal strategy.
And an equally shocking result: 95% of the companies don't tell their employees what that strategy is! This latter statistic is confirmed by a Stephen Covey commentary.
Continue Reading...Cyber Monday is here!
WSJ suggests looking on - line for some great bargains now that Black Friday has come and gone.
See cybermonday.com, fatwallet.com, shopping.msn.com, slickdeals.net and dealtaker.com.
While you're checking out all those great purchase ideas, be sure to guard your wallet ... and your plastic!
Cost of Fear is Huge
FDR said "...the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." And now we have a price tag on our fear.
Business Week reports on a survey by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and CFO magazine. The survey states that our response to terrorism by S & P companies alone costs more than $100 billion per year! This number includes cost of insurance, redundant capacity as well as lost revenue from patrons decreased activity.
Law firms also pay a heavy price. Ignore the technology cost of increased capacities and redundancies. Some of these costs are legitimate defenses against natural disasters which face us daily. But, other precautions result from "terror" against lawyers from disgruntled clients in what is becoming an increasingly hostile world.
What a price to pay when you have to have security in your office such that everyone must first show identification, and be cleared by the law firm, before you get on the elevator to go to the law office, when buildings search the trunk of your car before you park, and when you have to empty your pockets and open your brief case before entering the courthouse! The terrorists have won, when so few have caused so many to change their course of activity.
Yet, in terms of deaths, other causes produce so much more disaster and we seemingly are oblivious to them. There is something wrong with this picture.
Having an ally helps increase your business
The internet continues to surpirse me. There is an incredible amount of free information available to help us run our business. One might even fear getting run out of business because of all the information readily available without monetary cost.
Bank insured accounts
Have you wondered how much insurance is available for your bank deposits? Despite the FDIC promotions over the years to the effect that we have only $100,000 coverage protection, we can have more than $100,000 insurance coverage.
Continue Reading...Surviving Disasters - Not If But When!
GP/Solo Technology eReport this issue features an article I wrote on developing a plan of communications to be able to survive in time of disaster. Communications are essential not only with clients and your colleagues, but others as well.
Lawyer as Doctor?
In the current ABA Journal, Ms. Maher of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility talks about when and how lawyers can call themselves "doctors" when they have a J.D. (Juris Doctor) degree.
Fee schedules are legal!
Fee schedules have been outlawed for many years, since the matter was decided by the US Supreme Court in the 1960s. But, I have just learned that the US Government, itself, uses a fee schedule in arguing for or against fee applications (where “fee shifting” to the “prevailing party” for “reasonable attorney’s fees” is permitted by statute) and in deciding what to offer outside counsel it employs on various matters.
Getting What You Paid For
Two new books, reviewed in today’s USA Today, give us tools to do better, both for our clients and for ourselves:
The first is Unscrewed: The Consumer’s Guide to Getting What You Paid For. The astounding conclusion of the author flies in the face of everything I’ve been taught. Ron Burley says that the reason we get such lousy service today is because it’s cheaper to get new customers than it is to keep current customers! His statistic cited to back him up: The average call to the customer service department of cell phone companies is $20; the marketing cost to attract a new customer if $4! Then, Burley moves on to discuss techniques to make companies pay attention to you and to make good on the quality promises they make.
The next book reviewed is The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything. Here, Stephen M. R. Covey, son of Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey says “Trust means confidence ...” and confidence is the glue that makes everything else possible. Covey continues identifying behaviors that engender this trust:
1. Talk straight
2. Demonstrate respect
3. Create transparency
4. Right wrongs
5. Show loyalty
6. Deliver results
7. Practice accountability
8. Keep commitments
These are characteristics that make an interaction profitable as well as enjoyable.
Managerial chaos - Practice management philosophy
Jack Welch, in a regular column in BusinessWeek talks about the “Dangerous Division of Labor” at Hewlett-Packard caused by the separation of authority between Chairman of the Board and CEO. Welch (and his wife Suzy) contend that governance “experts” are mistaken when they promote placing these two positions in separate hands. There can be only one leader, not two, in a company to be successful.
Continue Reading...Travel tips
Top 5 travel trends for 2006, according to one source:
1. Printing boarding passes before leaving home. Most airlines now allow 24 hours advance check-in via the internet. Helps adance to security check-in more quickly when you have only carry-on baggage.
2. Using luggage shipment services. I first heard about UPS doing this. Now, there are some 17 such services that will take luggage from house or office directly to your hotel room. Sure makes travel easier, though more costly.
3. Focusing on one hotel group. With hotel chains growing by merger, this becomes easier to do ... and the loyalty points that one accumulates results in increased perks, freebies and customization.
4. Showering at the airport is a nuance I have yet to see. But, I'm told that elite airport lounges do provide this. For a weary traveler, this might be just the difference needed.
5. For the international traveler who flies business or first class, and can't sleep sitting up, check the international carriers who are providing lie-flat beds with blankets or quilts.
On the one hand, it's becoming more difficult, stressful and expensive to travel. On the other hand, there are new and pleasantly creative features that are cropping up for the business traveler.
Growth and Profitability Are Keys to Success
Q: Q: How can I make my practice more profitable?
A: Businesses grow and become successful based on the growth of their customers. If you’re blessed with good fortune, you attract clients who grow, need more of your services as well as refer others to you.
Continue Reading...Start-up law practices do succeed
Carolyn Elefant suggests that more lawyers are successful starting new practices than we might think.
Continue Reading...Airstream Saga - Good News
Lessons learned for law firms:
• People change only when there is a reason they see in their self-interest
• You must find what is in their self-interest
• Candid discussion is required to learn the agenda of each participant
• Agreement can be achieved, sometimes with the result that everyone gets what they want
• Discussion is an on-going requirement for successful team efforts
• There needs to be one leader at a time, a managing partner, who needs to achieve consensus for a following. While managing partners have great leeway, they need to remain connected with their colleagues to remain the leader. (In this political season, there are many analogies.)
Millenials will make a difference
According to Business Week, the Millenial Generation (13 - 25 year old folks) are civic-minded and socially responsible. 61% said they feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world and 75% said companies should join them in this effort.
What difference will these facts make in and to your law firm? Quite dramatic, I would think.
Corporate counsel checking legal billings
Saturday’s edition of Wall Street Journal, on page B1, talks about Amtrak checking its legal billings. Several lessons result from their experience.
Airstream Saga -- Challenges before we hit the road
Implode. Dissolve. Terminate. Liquidate. Failure. All, strong words. They can describe what happens to a law firm or a vacation dream if effective communication is missing.
Volume discounts for legal matters
A coaching client of mine presented this fact pattern: He is a contract attorney, doing work for a large firm. During one of our recent sessions, we discussed his fee schedule. After some trepidation on his part, we concluded that it was time to increase his fee and we proposed a new fee schedule that included a volume discount based on a scaled number of hours per month. The managing partner responded by asking that the number of hours and the discount to be applied be reviewed retroactively at the end of each three months cycle.
Continue Reading...The Business of Law, Coming Soon to a Library Near You
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Unique Books to Distribute Law Practice Management Books Published by LawBiz Management Company
Continue Reading...Blogging tips
My article, Ten Ways Blogs Boost a Law Firm's Image, was just published by Law Technolgy News and featured on law.com.
On Line Banking is Suspect
With the many stories of hacking into computers, i have always been concerned about entering into on-line banking. I have risked being called "Neanderthal" about my opposition to going on to the Internet to do banking for fear that someone might be able to see my trail/tracking and follow me right into my bank account.
New Jersey lawyer advertising restriction
A New Jersey ethics opinion is examined by Will Hornsby of the ABA.
