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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Legal Sales Strategies
Eric Dewey
The “best choice” provider pitch may not be the optimal sales strategy. It's better to adjust to where the prospect is in their buying decision process — whether that means they are looking for providers, they are studying the situation, they already have counsel, or they have decided not to address the issue.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Are You Facing a Problem or a Crisis?
Elizabeth Lampert and Lara Cupit
Recognizing the many degrees of severity and activity levels is crucial when a matter presents itself. Is it time to go scorched earth or take it in stride and allow a situation to fizzle? When defining the spectrum from minor issue to crisis, it is vital to understand how a problem can become a crisis if left unattended or how jumping the gun and overreacting can be disastrous.
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Marketing The Law Firm
6 Steps to a Successful Business Development Plan
Melissa “Rogo” Rogozinski
Driving Growth Through Client Success and Thought Leadership
Business development is a critical part of a law firm’s growth strategy. It balances client success, competitive marketing and new acquisitions in order to sustain the firm’s reputation as a high-quality service provider. It is the bridge between marketing and sales. Here are six steps to building a modern business development plan that is guaranteed to drive growth through client success and thought leadership.
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Marketing The Law Firm
The Care and Feeding of the Legal Client
Jaimie B. Field
Do your attorneys know the difference between a customer and a client? I have always defined the difference as a customer is someone who buys something from you once, while a client is someone who keeps coming back to you over and over again; mainly, since the legal industry is becoming more transactional daily. And that subtle difference is what makes a lawyer just a lawyer and one who becomes a rainmaker.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Redefining Attorney-Client Collaboration with Technology That Delivers Greater Value
David Carns
If savvy law firm attorneys haven’t done so yet, they should take this time to adjust their expectations and increase their comfort levels with new technologies, processes, and workflows. Going forward, their clients will expect the emphasis to be on relationships and outcomes, not billable hours.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
What’s the Difference Between a ‘Customer’ and a ‘Client’?
Jaimie B. Field
a customer is someone who buys something from you once, while a client is someone who keeps coming back to you over and over again. And that subtle difference is what makes a lawyer just a lawyer and one who becomes a rainmaker.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Are Large Firm Rates Pushing Clients to Seek Other Alternatives?
Andrew Maloney
Firms have been especially deliberate during the pandemic to increase the number of touch points they have with existing business, deepening ties with their roster of current clients by referring matters across practices and rewarding partners for that kind of origination. But with marketing spend surging and clients increasingly willing to move work around, Big Law firms’ incumbent advantage could begin to wane.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Experience Is Everything: Why Focusing On Client Experience is Critical and How to Get Started
Kristen Dallman
In this marketplace, one thing is abundantly clear: To remain competitive, you must adapt. So how can you adapt in a way that meets the increased expectations of today’s client? Focus on client experience.
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Marketing The Law Firm
The Impact of Trust On Cooperation
Mike Whelan
a tendency to trust optimizes outcomes on average — but you have to think in individual transactions. Are lawyers too distrusting to make good decisions in those instances? This article explores the concept of trust, the impact of trust on cooperation, and whether lawyers have trust issues and what that means for them and for their clients.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
The Connection Between Process Improvement, Project Management, and Pricing
Catherine Alman MacDonagh and Frederick J. Esposito Jr.
Law firms must continuously review business and legal processes to operate and interact with less waste and costs and develop pricing models that address client needs while generating profits for the law firm. This is actually simple, but not easy to do.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Why Focusing on Client Experience Is Critical and How to Get Started
Kristen Dallman
In this marketplace, one thing is abundantly clear: To remain competitive, you must adapt. So how can you adapt in a way that meets the increased expectations of today’s client? Focus on client experience.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Aligning with Client Expectations: Is Your Firm Walking the Walk In 2022?
Vivian Hood and Terry M. Isner
The adage is true: Actions speak louder than words, and active participation and engagement are critical for fostering real change. Your clients demand it, your competitors are doing it, and your attorneys and staff want it. This is how we will be measured.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Will the Lateral’s Clients Move?
Eric Dewey
The promise of new client relationships is driving the vast majority of lateral partner movement today. Is there a way to accurately project which clients of the candidate will move?
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Marketing The Law Firm
Tips for Building Authentic Referral Relationships
Meranda Vieyra
While many attorneys know referral partners are an integral piece of their career, they don’t take the time to build authentic referral relationships. To their current and future detriment, they don’t make quality referral relationships a priority.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Aligning with Client Expectations
Vivian Hood and Terry M. Isner
We’re well into 2022, and despite the flip of the calendar, COVID is still sweeping the U.S., it feels like not much has changed. Or has it?
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Do a Lateral’s Clients Move With Them?
Eric Dewey
There is no way to guarantee a lateral’s clients will make the move to a new firm. But a series of questions can examine the quality of these relationships and the likelihood that the client will move with the lateral candidate.
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The Intellectual Property Strategist
CA Court of Appeal Offers Insight on Business Consulting vs. Legal Services In Entertainment Case
Stan Soocher
The question has been frequently debated in the legal community: What is the difference between an attorney providing business consulting services or acting as legal counsel? The California Court of Appeal recently issued an opinion on the concern.
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Marketing The Law Firm
In the New Year, Be Sure to Highlight Client Service Skills
Sharon Meit Abrahams
Demonstrating client service before the engagement serves attorneys well into the ongoing relationship. This checklist can help professionals discuss important topics with new clients and demonstrates their skills in quality client service.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Law Firms and the Rise of Hospitality
Anthony Davies
The law firm office cannot remain unchanged, as if frozen in time set to some date prior to the onset of pandemic, when the terms and meaning have all changed. In fact, the office must now provide benefits or an experience the lawyers and staff cannot get at home.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Highlight Client Service Skills In the New Year
Sharon Meit Abrahams
Attorneys need their clients to see them as a trusted advisor and partner in their legal solutions. If the lawyer takes time at the beginning of the relationship to establish expectations, then future conflicts can be avoided or resolved more quickly.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Understanding Your Clients’ Changing Needs In a Post-Pandemic Legal Market
Marci Krufka Taylor
If it was challenging to get facetime with clients pre-pandemic, that challenge has only multiplied in the post-pandemic world. As firms look for creative ways to reconnect with clients, client interviews and surveys have become more important than ever for ensuring client satisfaction, loyalty and profitability.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Stakeholders: How to See Things from the Client’s Perspective
Catherine Alman MacDonagh
Without hearing the Voice of the Customer (or Client), we risk missing the mark in our strategy, messaging and positioning, as well as delivery of work, product and service, operations, technology, staffing and so forth — in short, we potentially miss on everything.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Voice of the Client: Stakeholders: How to Hear the Voices of the Clients and See Things from their Perspective
Catherine Alman MacDonagh
Without the Voice of the Customer (or Client), we risk missing the mark in our strategy, messaging, and positioning, as well as delivery of work, product and service, operations, technology, staffing, and so forth — in short, we potentially miss on everything.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Beyond Se Habla Español: Changing How Attorneys Market to the Growing Hispanic Population
Natalie Fragkouli and Liel Levy
Law firms frequently lack the appropriate marketing strategies to engage the growing U.S. Hispanic population. The lack of a cohesive strategy poses a risk to a law firm's current and future growth potential. This article explores practical insights for law firms that want to serve this rapidly expanding market.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Closing the Information Security and Governance Gaps In the New Operational Model
Kyle Reese and Nathan Curtis
In 2020, information governance may have been sacrificed in the face of an urgent, global crisis. As understandable as that is, it’s time now to step back and assess best practices for the new operational model that is here to stay.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Ramped Up Internal Technology Is a Win-Win for Law Firms and Their Clients
Brandie Knox
This article identifies why investing in digital tools and applications is more important today than ever and provides examples and potential questions law firms should contemplate.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Preserving the Privilege In the Corporate Setting
Jonathan S. Feld and Kevin Connor
Assessing the risks and liabilities of a potential transaction requires frank and open communication between the parties, including legal counsel. Understanding the scope and limitations of this privilege in transactional settings and who “holds” it is vital to its preservation.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Hindsights, Insights and Foresights: Producing Content That Clients Value
Eric Dewey
This article describes a model to help your lawyers evaluate the relative value of the information they are sending to their clients and help you communicate the importance of delivering value in their written communications to clients.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Maintaining Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product Protections over Forensic Reports in Light of 'Wengui v. Clark Hill'
Kim Peretti, Jon Knight, and Emily Poole
The Clark Hill opinion is notable because not only does it follow a string of recent opinions that have found data breach forensic reports not to be entitled to work product protection, it also goes one step further to find that a data breach forensic report is not protected by attorney-client privilege.
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Marketing The Law Firm
How Do Business Development Efforts In High-Performing Law Firms Differ?
Meghan Frank
As firms and their clients continue to navigate ongoing business challenges in 2021, BD and marketing professionals first need to understand how mature their efforts are in specific areas. Then, they can look at what the successful firms are doing differently, so they can position themselves to join those ranks.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Voice of the Client: What In-House Counsel Need from Outside Counsel As Pandemic Landscapes Shifts
Jennifer Simpson Carr
Responses from GCs on what matters most to their companies when hiring outside counsel.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Competitive Intelligence: How Do You Listen When You’re Not In the Room?
Patricia Ellard
Although we understood how important in-person listening was before the pandemic, the background listening was something we used to take for granted. Here are five ways to practice active listening and remain engaged when we can’t be in a physical environment.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Building Successful Partnerships Requires Collaboration
DeWitt A. Sullivan
Partnerships are relationships, ideally relationships built on trust and a common goal. Successful partnerships require all parties working together — working together to service a client fully, generate revenue and to build a business. This requires openness and coordination.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Asserting the Common Interest Doctrine In Plan-Related Discovery
Francis J. Lawall and Marcy J. McLaughlin Smith
The common interest doctrine can be a powerful tool when used to block discovery of relevant and sometimes critical evidence. However, a determination of when it can be invoked requires a highly fact-intensive analysis.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Pandemic Drives Law Firms and Clients to Common Ground on Pricing
Dan Packel
The current circumstances are giving rise to conversations about pricing, and driving both sides of the law firm-client relationship to seek common ground — both in the form of tried-and-true alternative fee arrangements and those that reflect a more innovative approach.
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Cybersecurity Law & Strategy
Using Legal Tech to Help Lawyers Protect Privilege and Better Serve Their Clients
Daniel Farris
A recent UK High Court ruling has provided lawyers everywhere with a stark reminder on the scope of privilege for electronic communications: just because an email itself is privileged does not automatically render the documents attached to that email privileged.
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Marketing The Law Firm
The Effective Act of Listening
Jennifer Papantonio
With GCs and other business leaders facing such incredible challenges, how do lawyers continue to manage clients’ transactional, litigation, compliance and regulatory needs, among others, while simultaneously providing professional, and even personal, support?
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Marketing The Law Firm
Media & Communications: What ALM Reporters and Editors Expect from Law Firms and PR Pros In 2021: Part I
Gina F. Rubel
Instead of sharing my insights, experience and opinions as a 20-year vet in legal public relations, I went directly to the source – the ALM Media editorial staff. Here is what they had to say about the impact of COVID-19 on the industry as a whole and what they want and expect from law firms and PR pros in 2021.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Sales Speak: 7 Reasons Networking Is Dead — Or Should Be
Eric Dewey
Networking is not the business development panacea many would make it out to be. In fact, I think networking can do more harm than good. To make my point, here are 7 ways “connecting” is better than “networking.”
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Marketing The Law Firm
Digital Dive: The Digital Buyer’s Journey: How to Nurture Your Potential Clients
Spencer X. Smith
Is there an elegant and effective way to use the power of online media to nurture your potential clients? Yes, and here’s a process to follow for each of the steps of that journey:
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Marketing The Law Firm
Voice of the Client: Map Processes and Workflows Together to REALLY Hear the Voice of the Client
Catherine Alman MacDonagh
Clients want better answers than “we are a fabulous, client centered team.” They want to know what you are doing for real and how working with you will actually help them. Process improvement and project management are incredibly effective for this purpose.
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Business Crimes Bulletin
Does Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege Extend to Company Executive?
Elkan Abramowitz and Jonathan S. Sack
The question of when does company counsel also represent a company executive often comes up in white-collar issue investigations.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Why a Mutuality of Services Mindset In Legal Makes for A Better Post-COVID Culture
Leigh Vickery
In the legal industry, transitioning to a culture of care poses more of a challenge to law firms than other businesses. What is needed now is for attorneys to seize the chance to reshape their profession and strengthen their position as leaders of our society.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Providing Superior Value to Clients In a Rocky Economic Climate
Roger E. Barton
What kinds of firms are best positioned to provide superior value to clients and why this is such a critical consideration in the current economic climate.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
AI Is Calling Time On the Billable Hour
Jason Brennan
The game has changed substantially for law firms today — the evolution of the legal business model is underway and artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a big role in calling time on the billable hour.
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The Bankruptcy Strategist
Implications of Transfer of Attorney-Client Privilege In Bankruptcy Cases
Andrew C. Kassner and Joseph N. Argentina Jr.
One of the most misunderstood areas of law for non-bankruptcy and bankruptcy attorneys alike is the attorney-client privilege, including the scope of the privilege, who holds it, and when and by whom it can be waived. As is often the case, in bankruptcy, additional complexities arise.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Professional Development: Three Essential Muscles Law Marketers Must Flex While the COVID-19 Crisis Continues
Debra Baker
During times of uncertainty lawyers can hunker down and wait it out, hoping that an opportunity to reengage with clients will present itself. Or they can lean into their discomfort and suspend their self-interest, meeting clients where they are even when there may be no immediate billable work or new business to be had. The latter approach creates a meaningful opportunity for lawyers to deepen relationships and set themselves apart from the pack.
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Marketing The Law Firm
Competitive Intelligence: Back to Basics In Times of Uncertainty
Patricia Ellard
One of the keys to success in competitive intelligence is communication. Effective communication builds rapport with your clients, which, in turn, builds trust and instills confidence that you will be able to get what they need to achieve their goals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these elements of trust and rapport have never been more important. In times of stress, there is no time, and it’s harder, to build trust and instill confidence.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Back to Basics In Times of Uncertainty
Patricia Ellard
One of the keys to success in competitive intelligence is communication. Effective communication builds rapport with your clients, which, in turn, builds trust and instills confidence that you will be able to get what they need to achieve their goals. In the last few months, this element of trust and rapport has never been more important.
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Accounting And Financial Planning For Law Firms
Communicating During the COVID-19 Crisis
John J. Buchanan
The COVID-19 pandemic has likely changed how law firms operate from now on, and it has affected all areas, from client service and IT to business development and attorney recruiting and advancement. One area that has been especially hit hard is the communications function.
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