They say admitting you have a problem is the first sign of recovery. For most law firms, that means acknowledging that you don’t have a business plan for practicing law. How is your firm doing? If you can answer the following 12 questions with concrete answers, you are on the right track. If not, it…
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I’ve been following with interest the debate prompted by so-called “scam bloggers” over the value of a legal education and the obligation of law schools to provide accurate data to students about post-graduate job placements. I empathize with graduates entering the workforce in search of jobs that don’t exist. I appreciate the added stress on…
Reflections on the impact of the emerging Global 25: Part 3 The first time I heard the term, ‘lawyer’s lawyer’ was during an interview with a senior partner about what made his firm different. His response was that they were “lawyer’s lawyers.” He was referring to the reputation the firm’s lawyers held within the legal…
Reflections on the emerging Global 25: Part 2 Legal is a profession, not an industry. Law firms are different; They don’t sell widgets. These are the theorems I was first introduced to when I started covering law practice management for the ABA Journal after graduating from law school in 1998. I challenged the first when…
Reflections on the impact of the emerging Global 25: Part 1 The American Lawyer’s “Second 200” issue provides more evidence of the widening gap between the country’s largest firms and everyone else: A $1.1 million gap to be exact. That is the difference in average profits per partner for the top 23 firms compared to…
I recently started attending a networking group comprised largely of professional services executives. In talking with one of the founders of the organization, he noted that they’ve had a hard time keeping attorneys as active members. He personally invited about 25 different attorneys to participate. They attended a few events but slowly dropped even though the…
I launched Law Firm Transitions a year ago this week. My goal for starting a blog was to join and help drive the conversation about changes law firms need to make to better serve clients. From my perspective, the business model needs to change. So it seems apropos that I chose this week to report on…
I attended Legal Tech West in Los Angeles this week and tweeted for the first time during a CLE session. Shortly after I did, I got a direct message from Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog, Inc. He was attending the same session as me and suggested we meet. It was a great opportunity for me to…
“[INSERT LAW FIRM NAME] is a full-service law firm with market-leading strengths in the energy, financial services, real estate, technology, pharmaceutical, and [insert industry] sectors. Our multidisciplinary teams handle business transactions, M&A, intellectual property, corporate governance, complex litigation and anything else that could come your way. In other words, we do anything for anyone.” …
What do you get when you cross a firm unaccustomed to pursuing business strategically with the internal announcement of a major business development initiative? Answer: Confusion. Many firm leaders coming out of the economic downturn realize that “random acts of marketing” are not going to see them into the future. They are adopting disciplined marketing…
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