A recent tax court case dealt with two issues that are relevant to many law firms. The first issue is the allocation of partnership income to the partners in the absence of a written partnership agreement. The second is whether income generated by a limited liability partnership is subject to self-employment tax.
DO IN-HOUSE COUNSEL USE LEGAL DIRECTORIES? 80% of Chief Marketing Officers said, in a recent poll, that directories play no role in their marketing efforts. Boy are they wrong. Reviewing the 2011 BTI survey on "How Clients Hire" sheds an entirely different light. 1. 80.8% identify outside counsel in an unfamiliar jurisdiction when a personal referral is unavailable. 2. 77.1% validate the credentials of a referral. 3. 73.4% evaluate outside counsel qualifications. 4. 70.1% identify outside counsel experts in…
VOICE OF THE CLIENT - Comments made by in-house counsel at ALM's recent MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP FORUM: 1. Most don't bother to look at RFP Responses. 2. They want to see you in settings where you "show your stuff." 3. In person opportunities include: A. Presentations at conferences B. In front of them in small groups, such as lunch/dinner tables at conferences, or small forums at various meetings. C. For client retention, it's not enough to…
Professional services marketing is not a litany of mechanics. It's a process that's designed to bring a firm and its prospective clientele together. More than just accumulating clients, the effective marketing program helps shape and secure a practice that's relevant to the dynamic needs of both the firm and the clients it serves.
If not politically, at least analytically, given local governments' experience with insurance reform and the financial assumptions used in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the PPACA should be considered DOA!
When the decision to purchase traditional practice management software or subscribe to a Software-as-a-Service ("SaaS") provider arose this past January, I didn't have time to become mired in a rigmarole of sales calls and consultants. I simply wanted direct access to a product that would increase my productivity, file sharing and practice cohesiveness. I also wanted something that fit into my hardware preference for Mac products.
LEGAL RFP'S II. - Continuing the discussion of whether or not to respond to RFP's, here are additional critical questions to ask. * Who will be reviewing the submittals, what time period has been allotted and are their objectives clearly stated in the document? If not, will the issuer permit contact prior to submittal. And if yes, is this person clearly identified? * Is the company now using rfp's for all legal work, or just…
They First Put In Charge Of Mailing Lists If the computer hadn't been invented, professional services marketers would have had to invent it. We depend so much, after all, on knowledge and data, and manipulating it, and accessing it, that we couldn't get past 10 A.M. without the computer to help do it all for us. '
LEGAL RFP'S - To respond or to not respond; that is the question? [The first in a blog series on Legal RFP's] Shakespeare's classic question focuses debate on a serious leadership challenge for law firm decision makers. It also requires the corporate/agency rfp sponsor to carefully consider the information it should make available to the firms who will be responding. As a business development consultant advising clients on the efficacy of responding to rfp's, let me present…
While the volume of available information about managing law offices is expanding, information is not readily available about what, specifically, should be the "hands-on approaches" that managing partners and members of management committees should embrace to coalesce their partners, associates and staff into a well-managed and informed organization, with all of the professional and administrative personnel working together to achieve both the firm's immediate and longer-term objectives.
