Your Guide to Getting on the Web: Starting from Scratch
Although the vast majority of large law firms and indeed perhaps every single large law firm may already have a Web site, and although most medium-sized firms have them as well, there still are many solo practitioners and smaller firms that do not. The failure to have a Web site already is, at the least, unusual; lawyers and firms that do not remedy that situation in the very near future will certainly be making a serious and perhaps fatal business and tactical mistake. So get cracking!
Internal Media Communications Planning: Getting the Entire Firm Involved
While a law firm's internal media communications plan should be developed at the highest levels of the organization, the finalized program should not be limited to the activities of a select few partners and executives. It is important to remember that media inquiries can come to any staff member at any time. For this reason, it is critical that the entire firm ' from the managing partner to administrative assistants and other support staff ' be on board with the internal media communication program.
Utilizing a Unique Communications Platform: Video Conferencing
With so many efficiency-boosting technologies available today to help you manage and grow your law firm, it is sometimes difficult to identify the right ones to implement. Given recent trends, it is abundantly clear that law firms are focusing their investments on technologies that can have the greatest impact on growing their bottom line. Due to its numerous benefits, including significant productivity gains, cost savings and employee safety, video conferencing is at the top of the list.
Staying Competitive in the Lateral Partner Market
Part One, last month, discussed how firms can stay competitive through lateral partner recruiting. This month, the article continues with more advice, and stresses the importance of telling a candidate why he or she should join your firm.
Ringtones Breed Tension Within Music Industry
Ringtones funneled $3.5 billion into music-industry coffers last year, and insiders say they may account for 25% of music sales by the end of 2006, thanks to millions of consumers paying $3 for 25-second versions of songs ' when a full-length version of a hit can be purchased for just 99 cents on a digital music store such as Apple Computer's iTunes. <br>Even more mind-boggling is the disarray this suddenly popular technology has caused, as lawyers for music publishers, record labels, performance-rights organizations, re-cording artists, ringtone vendors and others in the music industry struggle to determine how laws that govern the sales of its products apply to ringtones. Recording companies and publishers have always argued about money, and now they have intellectual-property ambiguities and a gigantic new revenue stream to fight over. Publishers, historically the industry's stepchild, may have the upper hand this time.
International Film Production Incentives
Given the ever-increasing expense of filmmaking in the United States, and particularly in California, many filmmakers have looked for alternatives to the traditional Hollywood-based production. While this trend originally was for smaller-budget and independent films, more and more producers and large studios have sought alternate locations in which to film. While certain U.S. states like Hawaii, New Mexico and New York provide tax incentives and other ancillary location benefits, these states haven't generally been as successful in luring so called "runaway production" as have countries with incentives that may be available.
Enlarging the Scope of Disaster Plans
Considering how much damage can result from something as innocuous as a faulty sprinkler system, it may be understandable that many law firm disaster planners previously gave their first attention to common threats, and then never got around to considering large-scale disasters.<br>Some firms were convinced as a result of 9/11 that such a patchwork of miscellaneous point solutions was inadequate. For other firms, Hurricane Katrina should drive that point home. While we can't expect disaster plans to protect our firms from all possible risks, we should expand our planning perspective to include more catastrophic scenarios.
Progress in Automated Benchmarking
Law firm strategic and operational planners commonly use data from periodic law firm surveys to "benchmark" their own firms' performance. Many law firms now also employ business intelligence (BI) technology to extract more value from their internally collected financial data. Recently, interest has grown in a convergence of these two capabilities: using BI software to combine internal and external data streams, making benchmarking more standardized, sophisticated and reliable.
<b>Basics Revisited:</b> Investing Your Lump Sum Without Taking Your Lumps
Many of our specialist readers are so involved in financial intricacies that it may be difficult for them to answer questions on investment basics from non-initiates. Jim Berliner's clear explanations should be useful not only in advising professionals who earn a large fee but also for any firm member or client who is faced with a major investment decision.
