While Ronald Reagan wasn’t one of my favorite Presidents, he produced one of my favorite quotes about leadership: “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things." The decision-making process most firms seem to use for selection of [...]
Most businesses – especially law firms – must market to some degree. And they do. They have a website. They print business cards. They make sure the logo is used on tombstone ads and sponsorship programs. Law firms do spend some money on marketing, and some of their lawyers even spend time on marketing – [...]
Strong leadership is critical to successful firms, especially as so many firms experience the transition from retiring senior partners to the next generation. Gone are the days when a firm could rely on a handful of rainmakers to bring in enough work to keep everyone busy. When those senior partners leave, the door to that [...]
Years ago, when lawyer attrition started to reach alarming rates (which for some reason we are more complacent about now), Catalyst in the US conducted research to determine why so many female lawyers were leaving the profession. Not that only female lawyers were leaving; that was simply the focus of their research. They found that [...]
I often get asked “what kind of marketing should we do?” Or I’m asked to “just provide us with a bunch of great marketing ideas”. No time spent determining what the firm wants to look like in the future. No proper assessment of where they are today. No indication of what success would look like. [...]
Instead of business as usual this year, I invite you to consider managing your firm like it's a business instead of a law firm: through business goals and plans. Most law firms only have a general sense of what they want to accomplish this year as a business. Earn more revenues. Grow our client base. [...]
Client teams may be one of the most powerful business development tools at your disposal, but are an oxymoron to most lawyers. As a profession, lawyers aren’t usually known for being team players. By nature, they are individual thinkers and doers. They like their autonomy, and tend to feel that too many rules restrict their [...]
The purpose of any business is to be profitable, and provide conditions for a satisfying work experience for those who work there. The collective intelligence within a law firm should make these goals a slam dunk; unfortunately, in many ways the culture of the typical law firm works against its financial success. See if any [...]
Law firm marketers have been fundamental to the establishment and management of many law firm practice groups and client teams in North American law firms. Critical to the success of these efforts has been the ability to help train team members in their respective roles. Toward the end of my time in-house, I conducted research [...]
In 2016 I attended an event that allowed me to hear, for the first time in person, from business writer Tom Peters. My first impression was that he’s reached an age where he really doesn’t care about what people think of him – he just tells it like he sees it, which is refreshing. His [...]