Legal Coaching

No Olympian athlete has won gold without a coach. So why should attorneys have to do it alone? Tap into nationally-renowned law firm strategist and author of guides to practical profit, Ed Poll, for personal, private coaching that will yield Olympic results. Many of our clients increase their revenue by five or six figures, that's $50,000 to $400,000 based on reports thus far.

Ed coaches top performers who are open to increasing profitability

Clients include attorneys, managing partners, executive directors and financial directors at small, mid-size and large law firms. Hundreds of Ed's clients have experienced:

  • Objective, situational assistance from one of the country's top coaches and consultants
  • Increased revenue with long-term strategies for sustainability
  • Attainment of partnership level
  • Enhanced performance resulting from focused energy and reduced stress
  • Feelings of increased control over professional life
  • Heightened productivity due to being held accountable and being questioned and challenged

Our private coaching program is catered to your personal goals

There is a common misconception that being an attorney requires only an expertise in law. But being an attorney is also about being an entrepreneur. Let us help you with the business side so that you can focus on your work.

  • All assignments and coaching strategies are based on the results you want to see.
  • With over 25 years of experience on all sides of the table, Ed will serve as your personal mentor, speaking your language and expertly helping you through the day-to-day minutia that is the reality of any law practice.
  • As your private coach, Ed is available on your time frame and all calls and emails are returned within 24 hours.
  • Ed helps you develop long-term career strategies to get you to your professional goals even after the coaching program is finished.

Choose from three different levels of coaching to suit your professional needs

All coaching is done on a 6-month cycle, based on Ed's belief that it takes 12 weeks to learn new habits and sustain them. You will always deal directly with Ed Poll and all information will be kept confidential.

  • Standard - This laissez faire approach is for those that choose to call their coach on their own schedule. Clients can call or email with questions as often as they want. Appointments are not necessary, and a response is guaranteed within 24 hours during normal business hours.
    $3,500 per cycle
  • Intense - An initial goal-setting discussion will determine objectives to works towards. Afterwards, Ed will call you once weekly, discuss current issues and give assignments depending on the nature of the challenge. Phone calls can last up to one hour depending on the situation. Clients are also free to email and call with questions as often as they want. Responses guaranteed within 24 hours, even on weekends.
    $5,000 per cycle
  • Total Immersion - Before coaching begins, Ed will spend a day and a half with you to develop a strategic business/marketing plan that targets your personal goals. Weekly sessions will follow thereafter to discuss current issues and address challenges to reaching set goals. You will have unlimited phone and email access and responses are guaranteed within 24 hours, even on weekends.
    $12,500 per cycle
  • Invest in your full potential and enroll today

    Contact Ed today and make your first no-commitment appointment to discuss your business goals and objectives and find out if coaching is right for you.

    Legal Consulting

    Nationally recognized law firm strategist and best-selling author of practical guides to profit, Ed Poll, helps attorneys and law firms:

    • Bring in new business
    • Attract higher quality cases and clients
    • Deliver legal services more effectively and efficiently

    Each law firm's issues are varied and unique, so it is veritably impossible to list the many ways Ed's consulting can help you. With his 25 years of senior experience on all sides of the table, rest assured that whatever your need is, a customized solution can be found. Contact us today to discuss your specific needs.

    A small sample of the consulting services we can provide include:

    Individual Coaching
    Great athletes become great and they stay at the top of their sport only with coaching. If it works for Lance Armstrong (cycling), Michelle Kwan (figure skating), Brett Favre (football), and other great athletes, then coaching will work for you. Ed Poll will coach you to achieve more income, control of your practice, and gain peace of mind. You'll get personal advice from Ed Poll, who for 25 years practiced law and served as a general counsel, and for 16 years has coached and consulted with law firms and individual lawyers. By meeting with Ed or speaking to him on the phone, you'll reach your professional goals more quickly.

    Business Development
    Business Development, sometimes call Marketing, has been described as the backbone of all growth efforts. Ed understands how to take you from your current level of revenue to your next level of growth within, your comfort zone. This is not just an advertising push. It is, most importantly, first understanding what you are comfortable doing, what your objectives are and then crafting a plan which you agree to follow that will take you to your goal … quickly!

    Accounts Receivable Advice
    If your firm is collecting less than 95% of its billings, Ed can help you bring in what is owed. A financial expert, he will show you the pre-invoice, billing, and follow-up methods that lead to quick payment. Low collection rates are a precursor to other serious problems, and Ed will tell you how to avoid trouble. He's the author of "Collecting Your Accounts Receivable: Getting Paid From Intake to Invoice" (2003 ABA).

    Profitability Audits
    Drawing on the best practices of the legal profession, Ed analyzes operating procedures and recommends changes to increase profitability margins.

    Turnkey Practice Transition
    Whether you are moving from a large firm to your own practice, moving your practice to a new firm or hanging out your own shingle--Ed will make the transition smooth so that you can focus on your current client work.

    Strategic Planning
    Ed will help you set goals, create a marketing plan, avoid business problems, and create a cash flow statement. Your firm will enjoy greater profits that result from a more effective delivery of legal services to a higher quality roster of clients. Ed is the author of the book The Profitable Law Office Handbook: Attorney's Guide to Successful Business Planning.

    Guidance on Buying & Selling a Law Practice
    Ed can help you successfully transfer the value of your practice through a "merger," "retirement" or "breakup," turning your years of effort in building client files and a reputable practice into real money. Thanks to changes in the American Bar Association's Rules of Professional Conduct in 1991, small firms, sole practitioners, and their heirs can now get full value for their practices just like larger firms do. Ed knows all the ins and outs. Find out more about buying a law practice and selling a law practice.

    Keynote Speaking and Training Seminars

    Ed Poll is a noted member of the National Speakers Association and regularly presents keynote speeches and seminars for law firm retreats, conferences, individual clients, bar associations and other organizations. Ed's practical wisdom comes from his twenty-five years of experience as a law firm chief operating officer, corporate general counsel, government prosecutor, sole practitioner and partner, and 16 years as coach and consultant to the legal profession. Regardless of your audience, Ed speaks your language.

    Thousands of audience members across the country are raving about Ed's popular new way of looking at a practice. Ensure your event's success and call today to reserve your place on the speaking calendar. For more information on how a presentation can meet your goals, contact us.

    Talks are presented in the context of current business trends and increasing competition.

    Slide by slide, Ed spells out his top 15 tips to improve client service and exceed client expectations in the ever-changing business world. Each tip is a specific point of practical, usable information that lawyers can act upon immediately. Presentations often conclude with Ed's Seven Golden Insights, putting his advice into perspective. The following topics can be covered:

    • How to increase revenue with tools to become more profitable
    • How to increase your client base
    • How to manage client perceptions, expectations and needs
    • How to increase client referrals and reduce complaints
    • How to communicate more effectively
    • How to get bills paid on time and in full

    Examples of some of our most popular training, seminar and speaking topics include:

    "Managing Client Expectations: Becoming More Effective and Profitable"
    Stop waking up in the middle of the night thinking about your law firm and start controlling your practice and increasing your revenue tenfold. Ed covers the marketing and collections challenges law firms face in a troubled economy. Attendees will learn about opportunities for growth in "family" work that exists between commodity work and bet-the-company cases. He identifies where lawyers can fail in their profession, and how to succeed.

    "Getting Paid: Collecting Fees from Difficult Clients"
    As in every business there are customers or clients who do not pay their bills with the same promptness as they wish to be served. The national average age of lawyers' accounts receivable exceeds four months. Happy clients pay their bills and Ed demonstrates techniques that keep clients happier with the service performed. Ed's presentation will shorten the fee payment cycle and will result in more new business in the process.

    "Operating and Profiting from Your Law Practice"
    Jump-starting a struggling practice is fraught with challenges that can be overcome. There are subtle traps and snares waiting for firms and lawyers who have not heard Ed Poll's presentation on operating and profiting from a law practice. This seminar examines the important issues on the way to professional practice success and offers practical, nuts-and-bolts advice for successful and profitable law firm practice.

    Find out more about the variety of presentations we offer and contact us today.

    Law Firm Retreats

    Law firm retreats and conferences are unique times for partners to confront tough issues, change the firm's direction, focus on a strategic plan, and/or develop a consensus. A successfully custom-designed retreat can achieve more than you hoped to get done in an entire month. Ed Poll's practical, broad years of experience on all sides of the table can help you make the most impact out of your event. Leave the planning and facilitation up to LawBiz® Management, so that you can focus on the issues being addressed at your event.

    LawBiz® Management can help your firm custom-design every aspect of your retreat, training program, legal seminar or conference:

    Contact us today to begin planning the most successful event your law firm has ever had.
    Thousands of law firms across the country are doubling the value of their retreats.

    Buying a Law Practice

    Many attorneys are opting to what is common in other professions: buying an existing practice rather than starting from scratch. An existing business has a history of sales, revenue and operation costs and--despite what many think--studies show that, in spite of new ownership, customers of an existing business tend to continue their purchasing habits.

    The following people often buy a law practice:

    • Attorneys who want to go out on their own in order to regain the personal touch and total involvement they've lost by practicing at a large firm
    • Law school graduates who have realized that finding a job is not as easy as it was in the 1980s and that they would like to have complete control over their success
    • Attorneys who are tired of waiting for partnership track at their current firm and would like to go out on their own

    LawBiz® Management makes buying a law firm painless.

    Recognized law firm strategist and author of practical guides to profit, Ed Poll, uses his 25 years of senior legal experience on all sides of the table, and 16 years of consulting and coaching, to help you:

    • Find a law practice that fits your needs
    • Act as a third party expert during negotiations
    • Maneuver the ethical considerations specific to buying a law practice and dealing with the rights of clients during the transition process
    • Complete all the Rules of Professional Conduct and State Bar regulations properly

    Check out these resources:

    Selling a Law Practice

    Your law firm is worth more than its books, computers, furniture, and accounts receivable, and more than 40 states now recognize this asset. Whether you are large firm looking to merge, retire or break up, or whether you are a small firm looking to take advantage of the changes in ethic rules over the past ten years and receive full value for your practice-recognized law firm strategist, Ed Poll, can help you turn your years of effort into real money. If one of the following describes your situation, you may be able to sell your practice:

    • You are retiring from law
    • You have been appointed to be a judge
    • You are relocating to a new city
    • You are changing your profession

    Sell your practice quickly and for the most profit.

    Ed helps you sell your practice in the following ways:

    • Based on financial data and marketplace guidelines as well as an evaluation of your firm's revenue and client base, Ed will first help you put a value on your practice.
    • Ed is familiar with the legal marketplace. A prospectus or brochure will be developed to represent your firm and appeal to specific potential buyers.
    • Ed will also advise you on your negotiating strategy so you can get the best offer possible.
    • Ed will ensure that your sale complies with the Rules of Professional Conduct that govern the transfer of your practice.
    • Once the sale is complete, Ed will help integrate the merged practices so that they function as one cohesive business.

    Check out these resources: