How did your law practice do in 2020? Did you meet your goals? What worked in this Covid 19 period and to what extent? Allow yourself to consider that achieving a goal does not necessarily have to be an all or nothing situation, win or lose, black or white. There can be gradations.
What are your law firm and legal career goals for the new year? You need to distinguish the three types of goals available to you as a lawyer and use them wisely.
The Covid virus is here, if not to stay, for at least into the foreseeable future. What has been the effect on your law firm, on your legal marketing? Some marketing tools have been severely affected. Relationship marketing, the development of relationships with prospective clients or referral s...
In yesterday's New York Times there was an article about retirement, a subject most relevant to the many "Baby Boomer" attorneys in the U.S. It is an interview with Ken Dychtwald, who has been studying retirement for over 40 years. Here is a link to the article. He points out that "retirement" has changed, it is getting longer, and instead of winding down at 65 many p...
If you want to retire or transition out of your law practice, how do you do it? Here are 5 tips that can help: Know Yourself Be Practical Go to Something Take your time Allow for Course Correction
COVID19 is having major impacts on the legal profession. This blog post examines some of these impacts and offers one positive benefit the Corona Virus offers to attorneys.
Having a weekly meeting-with-yourself is an effective way for lawyers to review their law practice and determine what needs to be done.
How to use a goal tracker in your law practice to help you keep track of progress toward your goals and what to consider in choosing the right goal tracker.
How is your legal career working out? If you are like a number of lawyers, not as well as you wanted. And that's OK; it's OK because you can change it. We lawyers went to law school for a variety of reasons: to change the world; to help people; to right wrongs; to make a difference; for prestige...
How you market your law practice depends on what type of practice you have. For some practice areas such as personal injury, bankruptcy, criminal and, to some extent, family law, direct marketing via advertising through websites, emails and print, and TV works well. Relationship marketing, simply put, is getting to know potential clients and referral sources, then developing and maintaining a connection with those people.
Love it or hate it, the billable hour is the primary way many attorneys bill for their time. To its credit, the billable hour is a proven and reliable method for charging for your legal services. However, as with any billing method, it has its downsides. Here are a couple of ways to capture all of your billable time and avoid writing off billable time.
Habits can improve your productivity. I am a big believer in systems. The more systems in your law practice, the easier it is to handle the flow of legal work as well as the myriad of administrative tasks required to run your law practice. Habits are a subset of systems but are more focused on your personal actions.
Are “Sunk-Costs” preventing you from making a wise decision that will further your legal career or law practice? A well known economic term, sunk-costs refer to sticking by a decision, even when you shouldn't, because of the investment you have already made. As an attorney you have made many de...
Law firm marketing for the holiday season should be a high priority. Of course, continue to follow your legal marketing plan (you have one don't you?) but the Christmas season offers opportunities that are not available during the rest of the year. I want to touch on one of those opportunities: C...
What change is it time to make in your law practice, in your legal career? It is election day in the United States. No matter the outcome, come January 20 there will be changes aplenty for the nation. Despite the unpleasantness of the current Presidential election, one constant factor has been o...
How about taking the Lawyers Life assessment? To build a successful law practice you need to do two things: Play to your strengths. Know and utilize those personal and professional characteristics and abilities that give you an advantage over other attorneys. Correct your weaknesses. Under...
Do you really enjoy litigation? Most litigators, truth be told, do not. Based on my experience as a professional lawyer coach, there is a small percentage of lawyers who truly enjoy trial work. They love the strategy, challenge and competition it provides. But these attorneys are in the minority...
An extremely interesting article is in the latest issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today. It describes a study on the question of whether rainmakers are born or bred and what are the characteristics of a legal rainmaker. Are some lawyers just naturals? What is it that sets the highest practice d...
Making partner in your law firm is probably the most critical hurdle in a young lawyer's career. Yet so many attorneys don't have a strategy for how to make that happen. I have touched on this subject before on my website and in the Lawyers Life blog. I was interviewed by Law 360 last week and m...
It is vital to the sustainability of your law practice that you are paid, and paid timely, for your legal services. Yet invoicing clients and collecting legal fees are constant challenges to many lawyers. Handling cases without being paid is simply bad business: you incur unnecessary malpractice ...
The American Bar Association held its annual meeting in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I was asked to serve on a panel of coaches, recruiters and career consultants in a program called “Career Advice Live.” It was directed to attorneys with one to six years of experience. My topic was Legal...
I have been a fan of Flipboard for quite a while. For those of you who don't know, Flipboard aggregates internet content and displays it in a magazine style on tablets and smart phones. You can customize the content you receive by category as well as by participating print magazine. It is simila...
It seems obvious, doesn't it? The decisions attorneys make will have a huge impact on their success as lawyers. Decisions such as choosing between government and private practice, in-house vs. law firm, the legal practice area(s) to pursue, the law firm to work for and the structure of their law ...
Happy New Year! A couple of years ago I posted a series of three blog posts designed to help fellow attorneys 1.) examine their existing law practice 2.) evaluate what changes in practice areas they want to make and 3.) make those changes. I hope they were helpful, I received a lot of positive f...
You have worked hard getting through law school, finding a job and now putting in the hours at your law firm. But what about partnership? How do you get there? Here are five tips that will help: 1. Know the criteria. If you don't know what is expected how can you possibly achieve the goal of pa...
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