Basics Revisited: Evaluating The Profitability Of New Work
August 02, 2004
Your 50-attorney firm has been operating slightly under capacity; there is not enough work to keep all attorneys billing their standard hours. A prospect would like to engage the firm to handle all its litigation, which would mean a substantial number of guaranteed billable hours. Good news, right? This company, however, wants to negotiate a discounted rate and also wants specific partners to handle the work. Your initial instinct tells you to take on the work to keep the firm at maximum capacity. But will it be profitable in the long run? Should you take on the work? How can you decide?
Partner Compensation: Striking a Balance
August 02, 2004
Partner compensation is invariably the topic of most interest in every law firm. It is also a topic that involves the most fervent debate and encompasses the most varied points of view.
Health Savings Accounts
August 02, 2004
Starting in 2004, law firms have another option in attempting to mitigate rising health insurance costs. Recently enacted Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) offer law firms and their employees a tax favored vehicle to pay for medical expenses.
Publish or Perish!
August 02, 2004
As anyone who has attended a four-year university can attest, "publish or perish" is the mantra for budding academics looking to secure the permanent, and virtually untouchable, position of tenured faculty. In modern academia, many have eschewed that thought ' claiming that it places too great an emphasis on research and not enough on actual teaching. <br>However, more and more lawyers are beginning to grasp the thought that its time for them to take the baton from their academic colleagues ' as the pressures of law firm consolidation and the necessity to stand out in a crowded field demand an aggressive visibility and communications strategy.
The Success Of Demand-Driven Training
August 02, 2004
Consultant David Maister has observed: "Training is a great last step but a pathetic first step. It is sensible to make training available when the professionals are already convinced that they need a new skill, but you can't change people by first putting on a training program." <br>Jenkens & Gilchrist, a 500+ attorney national law firm with nine offices from New York to Los Angeles, has proven Maister right with our Women's Marketing Group. Now in its second year, the Group had its genesis with a female attorney who saw the need for business development mentoring and better communication among her peers throughout the firm. Her idea, developed with the support of a key Board member and with my help as an in-house marketing professional, has expanded to include a quarterly series of firm-wide videoconference meetings for female partners and associates, related business development activities, and an Intranet Marketing Library that we help the attorneys grow themselves.
A Haven For Straight Talk: <b>A Firm Foundation</b>
August 02, 2004
You can't sell legal service the way you sell doughnuts or shoes. But after we get done talking about how different the business of law is, let me suggest that we look at the goals, measurement practices and process management issues that marketing addresses in other industries.
The 'Best Of' Women in Law Programs
August 02, 2004
This is the second half of the article that appeared in our special July/August Women and Diversity issue. Women in Law initiatives and programs are not a new phenomenon. Many firms nationwide have programs that afford their women attorneys business development, mentoring and career counseling. In writing this article, we spoke to ten different firms (see insert which lists the firms in the order in which they are profiled in this article) to learn the how's and why's of their women's initiatives. In Part 2 we have profiled the last five firms.
Electronic Document Coding Comes of Age
July 30, 2004
Over the last few years, the legal-support services industry has been inundated by increased demand for electronic discovery and electronic processing of litigation documents, many of which need some type of coding that will allow them to be searched for in and retrieved from automated litigation support (ALS) databases. <br>Fortunately, advances in technology have produced significant cost-efficiency and workflow improvements make coding a sensible choice for much smaller document collections, whether paper or electronic.
Is Your e-Discovery Provider Asking The Right Questions?
July 30, 2004
With so much at stake, there's no likely way to overstress the importance of e-discovery providers seizing initiative to determine client needs by taking on the role of litigator and asking questions. Qualified e-discovery providers are the best experts to help counsel determine a winning course of action for complete and accurate electronic production that meets litigation goals. Indeed, just as a doctor knows the questions to ask a patient to make a proper diagnosis, an e-discovery provider who is doing his or her job knows which questions to ask to ensure that the discovery process involving electronic files is handled properly.
