Law Firm Transitions Blog

How to stop competing on price

The pressure to discount rates has never been greater. Yet studies of complex sales like legal show that less than 10 percent of decisions are based on the value-to-price ratio: So why has price become the cornerstone of so many conversations between lawyers and their clients? There is no question that legal budgets have become…

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Transforming Practices

The career path for attorneys has never been more challenging. While lawyer job dissatisfaction is nothing new, rapid changes in the legal industry create uncertainties for attorneys who plan to practice law for another decade or longer. Increased focus on profitability and changes in the law firm business model impact every lawyer: Service partners who…

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Plan Now for the Next Economic Slowdown

I participated in the Vistage All-City event in San Diego last week where Brian Beaulieu of ITR Economics spoke about how to stay ahead of the curve in light of the economic forecast for 2014 and beyond. His view: The long-term economic outlook remains dark with the next big downturn expected in 2018. Inflation and…

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Required Reading: 5 books for rethinking the practice of law

For the last several months, I’ve been refocusing my service offerings around ways I can help law firms and individual attorneys build law practices that will be sustainable beyond the next five years. In doing so, I realized that several books have become fixtures on my desk. Two are directly related to the legal industry.…

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Lessons from a judicial rock star: How business development is like preparing for a Supreme Court argument

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor officially has reached rock star status with the crowds she is attracting for her book tour around the release of her memoir, My Beloved Life. I had the privilege of listening to her speak Sunday night at the University of San Diego, where she offered the perfect mix of…

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Why Relationships Aren’t Enough to Build Your Law Practice

Referrals are the primary source of business, but a strong network and the ability to build great relationships will not be enough to build your book in the coming years. The buying behavior of those who purchase legal services has changed and the way lawyers pursue new business must change too. For any lawyer that…

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Building a $1-million Law Practice

Do you have what it takes to build a $1 million law practice? As law firms become more business focused in response to economic, technological and other market forces impacting the practice of law, the ability to generate business is increasingly important. Whether it’s $1 million, $10 million, or $250,000, most of us have a…

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2013 Resolution: Overcome the Law Firm Marketing Dilemma

Over the last year, I’ve been analyzing my work with law firms to apply the lessons learned and improve the services I deliver to clients. In doing so, several themes emerged that impact — in some shape or form — nearly every client I have ever worked with: 1) The marketing function — whether handled…

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Taking the Guesswork out of Marketing and Business Development

The legal industry is famous for lookie-loo marketing. They watch what their neighbor does and say we should do that too. The problem with this approach is multifold. First, there are only a handful of firms that see the return on marketing investment time and resources that they want. Second, it assumes all firms have…

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Using Competitive Intelligence Effectively

Despite the financial downturn and increased competition, it continues to surprise me how few lawyers effectively use competitive intelligence to evaluate market opportunities. Lawyers instead look for opportunities where they have found them in the past, wait for opportunities to find them, or engage in random acts of marketing without clearly identifying who they are…

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