Forgive a personal note
On June 18th, only 8 days ago, Mitchell Gibson Poll entered the world, a strapping 8# baby boy! He joins the "cousins club" of 10 other grandchildren and I'm looking forward to meeting him.
I'm leaving on Thursday for New York, taking my bike with me, and will introduce myself to him. It's marvelous when new life begins ... and, because of him and his sister, I expect to become more familiar with Westchester County and New York City ...
I'll be out of the office for two weeks, but with this marvelous (depending on your point of view :-) ) thing called technology, I'll be in touch ... May even write a few more blog notes now that the book is out of my hands! :-)
Happy and safe July 4th to all.
Ed
Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Planning for Law Firms
We're at the printer! Our book, Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Planning for Law Firms, will be released and ready for shipment by the middle of July!
The book has received great acclaim from those who've seen the Advanced Readers Copy (what used to be call the "blueline").
There are only a few days left to take advantage of our pre-publication price ... ends June 30th.
Ed Interviews Mimi Donaldson, Co-author of Bless Your Stress: It Means You're Still Alive!
Bless Your Stress: It Means You're Still Alive! Written by Ed's guest, Mimi Donaldson, and Leslie Charles. Most of us are concerned by the high stress of our lives, but Mimi suggests that our stress comes from within. While an outside events may be provocation, it is our attitudes toward the outside events that create our stress. She points out that the same event can cause severe reactions from one person with none or little reaction from another. And, it's the "pause" button in our brain that allows us to handle the stress in a more reasoned way. Listen to the author who says it's better to think like a winner than a whiner!
20 minutes, 39 seconds
4.8MB
Getting paid - CA Supreme Court weighs in
In 2004, the California Supreme Court in Fletcher v Davis said that a lien by an attorney on a fund or judgment the lawyer receives to ensure compensation of an hourly fee engagement is enforceable.
Continue Reading...I'm a grandfather -- again!
On this date, my daughter-in-law gave birth to a strapping 8 pound baby boy! Enough said -- naturally I'm very proud and happy that mother, son ... son are doing well.
Marketing vs Sales
Alan Weiss, noted management consultant, said that "... marketing is the creation of need, and selling is the providing of an alternative to meet the need. If your marketing is strong enough in professional services—in other words, you create strong brands—selling is unnecessary because the buyer already wants you. He or she is convinced that you fill the need. That's true brand equity."
Continue Reading...Flash drives may have come and gone!
I was really impressed with flash drives, the little pencil sticks with now up to 2 gb of memory. In fact, I was so impressed that I ordered a bunch to give away to friends and clients! But ...
Continue Reading...Increase your legal fees in one easy step!
Failure to collect fees can sink a law firm. After billing $100, some lawyers can collect only $65. Can your firm survive with a realization rate of only 65%? What enables some lawyers to collect what they bill and other lawyers unable to do so?
Collecting Your Fees: Ethically Getting Paid from Intake to Invoice will be offered by the ABA on June 21st at 10 a.m. PT.
New law firm lessons from the Airstream
Law firm management lessons learned from this trip:
1. Being a member of a team has challenges, but also many rewards.
2. Clients want to know that you have a team working for their benefit. The team can be no more than a secretary or paralegal or even "outsourced" components such as expert witnesses, et al., but a team nevertheless.
3. Building a team, as with any finely tuned mechanism, takes time. But, your perseverance will pay off handsomely in both economic terms as well as personal satisfaction.
4. The right team, both as to members and as to size, will always do better than a sole practitioner or "BigLaw." Evidence of this can be observed in almost any sport, from the "team" sports of basketball and football to the "solo" sports of golf, cycling and figure skating.
Get a job by blogging
Kevin O'Keefe relates a story about a student who got a job right out of law school in a 150 lawyer firm merely by blogging! A new way to show one's smarts!
Justice run amok
Floyd Landis won the Tour deFrance in 2006. After what was perhaps the most incredible single day performance, normal drug testing samples were taken - as they always are from the winners.
Several days later, negative results of the tests were leaked to the press ... and Floyd Landis has been living under a cloud of suspicion ever since.
