In today’s discussion on Larry Bodine’s Law Marketing site, a law firm indicated it was being investigated for including paralegals along with attorneys on its web site under the category of “attorneys.” The question was asked why is this a problem?
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When a product or service is well-branded, the summit of success is achieved. For example, the one product with the highest brand equity is reputed to be Coca-Cola. Can a lawyer ever achieve that kind of name recognition? (more…)
Where there’s smoke, they say there is usually fire. When people begin to talk about "sales attorneys," attorneys whose function is to sell the services of the law firm rather than perform legal work, the closer to reality that position will become. (more…)
Yesterday, I attended the West Regional NCAA basketball game between UCLA and Texas A & M. I also watched the Stanford / Marquette game that preceded the West Regional UCLA game. Both games were about as rough and close as basketball games can be. Both games featured some of the best college athletes playing today. One lesson to be learned from these young athletes is that the game is not over until over … UCLA, for example, had mental toughness to stay in the game despite playing one of their worst games of the year. As a biased UCLA fan, I do not believe their performance was influenced that much by their opposition, notwithstanding that their opposition was excellent.
For me, this is reminiscent of the discussion I had recently with a client who asked me to do a profitability analysis of her firm She and her partner believed that the expenses of their small firm were too high My review of the data indicated that there were areas where reductions or revised characterization would be relevant. For example, several capital expenditures could be removed from the expense side of the profit and loss statement and recast as assets; a management fee could be removed or recast as a draw by one of the partners because such a fee is inappropriate for a small firm. However, the real focus for this firm should be on increasing its revenue. That would have the most dramatic impact on the performance of the firm. Recasting the expenses would not change the cash flow of the firm, but would help generate the mental toughness confidence that they are not in terrible shape, that they could succeed, and provide the mental toughness to continue seeking the appropriate client base to generate increased revenue.
Looking at the relevant data helps remove the fear of failure, engender confidence that small changes in one’s own behavior can have large impact on one’s success, and bring the realization that success is just around the corner.
LawBiz Tips edition for the current week has been released. Using financial benchmarks to analyze your firm’s performance has been the focus of several financial software companies. Is this of interest to you?
Also, I talk about dreaming having a poor ROI. What does this mean for the law firm? Read LawBiz Tips and learn my approach.
Lisa Solomon is tech savvy. I learn from her everytime we’re together.
We went to dinner while in Chicago this last week and she took several photographs. Here are two of them that are listed on Facebook, one of the sprouting social networks. One should be careful what is placed on internet boards such as this … This entry is sedate and trustworthy. This is the first posting for me, excluding our Airstream trailer, of photos on this site.
On a listserv recently, a lawyer requested comments about his proposed letter to his clients. He wants to "shout from the highest roof" (from an old Doris Day film) to his clients that he plans to maintain his current fee structure, that he will NOT raise his fee rates. I responded as follows: (more…)
Karen Mathis, immediate past chair of the American Bar Association, focused her year on developing a new awareness for the legal profession. She said recently that 400,000 lawyers will retire in the next 10 years. That’s the entire current membership of the ABA!
Most lawyers work on Main Street, not Wall Street. Yet all lawyers are impacted by the American Bar Association’s social and political efforts. In my opinion, the single most important power given to the President of the United States is the appointment of Supreme Court justices. It is unfortunate that this process is so tainted today by political ideology and so very fortunate that the ABA is there as an independent third party to challenge the process. That may be its most important function.
However, as the Executive Director of the ABA, Henry F. White, Jr., at the ABA’s Solo Caucus in Los Angeles’ Mid-Year meeting, February 10th, said, “At the end of the day, it’s all about money, despite the goodness.” He, and his fellow panelists, M. Joe Crosthwait, Jr. (moderator), Karen J. Mathis (ABA immediate past president), and H. Thomas Wells, Jr. (ABA president-elect), were preaching to the choir. (more…)
In a recent poll, the following areas were said to be the greatest concern for sole and small firm practitioners: