Strategic planning is key to success
Adam Smith echoes my philosophy -- and discusses the importance of the intake procedure. Collecting Your Fee from Intake to Invoice further echoes the importance of the intake process. I maintain that you can tell at the beginning, from the intake interview, whether you will get paid at the end!
Lawyers should go where the business is
It's time to stop focusing on real estate, construction, banks, mortgage companies and airlines, according to Larry Bodine. Go where the money is: energy, steel, industrial metals, coal companies and railroads. See the 10 Best Performing Industries on MarketWatch.com.
This reminds me of the book written by Harvey MacKay, Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty or the phrase "... fish where the bass are..."In other words, provide services that your clients need ... If your skills are no longer in hot demand, modify your practice area to adapt your skills to the needs of the clients. If you're in the larger firms, and are practicing real estate law currently, you might be better advised to learn bankruptcy or workouts to adapt your current skills to the needs of the clients. If you're in a small firm or sole practice, this might be more difficult to accomplish with less personal economic impact, but still possible.
The key is to either provide services the market needs ... or to have the capital to sustain the wait until the market comes back to your skills.
MCLE provider renewed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ed Poll
LawBiz Management
(800) 827-5415
edpoll@lawbiz.com
LAWBIZ® EXPERT RENEWED AS PROVIDER FOR LEGAL EDUCATION
Ed Poll Was Renewed as an Approved Provider of Education for California Lawyers
Venice, Calif. September 13, 2007 – California-based law practice management expert and lawyer Edward Poll was once again approved as a provider of education for lawyers licensed by the State of California for the term of September 1, 2007 to December 31, 2010.
Ed brings to lawyers a new and enhanced appreciation for the The Business of Law® and its impact on improving lawyer-client relations. Thousands of lawyers have benefitted from Ed’s teaching over the years. The provider status granted by The State Bar of California recognizes Ed’s contribution to the education of California lawyers.
Ed is a nationally recognized coach, law firm consultant, and author. Principal of LawBiz® Management Company, he advises law firms and their leaders on practice management, business development, and financial matters. Ed has practiced law for more than 25 years, was the chief executive officer and chief operating officer of several manufacturing businesses, and has been a consultant to small and large law firms for 15 years. Ed is also the immediate past President of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the National Speakers Association, recent chairperson, and current advisor to the Law Practice Management and Technology Section of the State Bar of California, and an active member of the American Bar Association.
ABOUT ED POLL
The LawBiz® Expert Ed Poll, J.D., M.B.A, CMC, is a nationally recognized LawBiz® coach, law firm management consultant, and author. He practiced law on all sides of the table for twenty-five years—as a corporate general counsel, government prosecutor, sole practitioner, partner, and law firm chief operating officer. He is admitted to the California Bar, and has been a member in good standing for over forty years. He is the author of “The Coach’s Corner” column in Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly and the author of the following books: Business Competency for Lawyers: A LawBiz® Management Special Report; Selling Your Law Practice: The Profitable Exit Strategy; Collecting Your Fee: Getting Paid from Intake to Invoice; Attorney & Law Firm Guide to The Business of Law: Planning and Operating for Survival and Growth, Second Edition; Secrets of the Business of Law: Successful Practices for Increasing Your Profits!; The Profitable Law Office Handbook: Attorney's Guide to Successful Business Planning.
Financial planning for law firms
At the ABA conference in San Francisco last week, I had the pleasure to moderate an outstanding panel of experts about the financial management of their firms and their "best practices." The panel consisted of Bob Hirshon, CEO of Stoel Rives in Portland, OR (and former ABA president); Marcia Wasserman, COO of Nossaman Guthner Knox & Elliott; Larry Kleinberg, CFO of Munger Tolles & Olson; and Ron Yano, CFO of Loeb & Loeb.
Reid Trautz mentioned his observations from our panel:
"From a terrific panel of firm financial managers moderated by Ed Poll, comes these interesting ideas:
- Firms are taking advantage of the new check scanners offered by some banks to more quickly and securely deposit client checks.
- More firms are closing their billing on the 25th day of each month to get their bills into the "first of the month" billing cycle of clients--both businesses and individuals.
- Law firms are putting more pressure on partners to collect bills sooner (nothing new there!), but they are using automated e-mail and other added technology features now available in many time & billing programs to keep the pressure on, well, automatically!
- Larger firms are doing more to ensure that each new client matter has a signed representation letter or agreement before starting any work. This is a smart practice, and is just one area where large firms tend to lag behind smaller firms."
Disaster Recovery -- Part II
In response to an inquiry about communciations being the essential ingredient for disaster recovery planning, I responded as follows:
My article in Law Technology News in October 2001 about disaster planning and my work with a number of larger firms brought me to create a Disaster Recovery Roundtable. The net result of that effort was the development of a template that was modified and is being used by a number of firms today.
Lessons learned from that experience include: i.) This is not just about recovery from a disaster, this is about succession; ii.) Communications is an essential ingredient to any such plan (as it is in every plan); iii.) Creating a plan on paper is insufficient to achieve your goal of recovery and succession; iv.)Practice makes perfect (as in everything!) and failure to practice usually means that the edicts of the plan are forgotten or become outdated quickly and, when needed, are not/cannot be implemented.
Thus, just creating the plan is insufficient. Every 6 months or so, the firm must pretend there is a disaster and seek to implement the elements of the plan. Then change those facets of the plan that didn't work as well as desired.
Re communications, with the rapid change of cell phone numbers and movement of people (with change of addresses and land line phone numbers, it takes a diligent effort to keep information current.)
Just some observations from my experience.
