The Business of Law® is not a generic term. In 1995, lawyers did not think they were in a business, let alone a service business. And I was successful in my application to register this as my mark. It has been my mark for more than 10 years.
Today, lawyers in the large law firms understand that law is an honorable profession, but is also a business.
Peter Zeughauser in the ALM Law Firm Leaders conference said that the AmLaw 100 revenues are $64.5 B. That’s BILLION dollars. And 3 firms account for 10% of that number; that “profits” (why are we talking about profits if we’re not in business?) increased 8.7% in 2008, ranging from a low of $410,000 to $4.95 million.
David Maister started out his ALM session for the Law Firm Leaders Forum by saying that all law firm strategic plans are the same! They’re all correct, but not unique. The bottom line problem is that, like a drunk, there is no will power on the part of law firm leaders to hold partners accountable for their failure to reach the goals of the strategic plan.
Rick Borstein is the Business Development Manager of the Legal Market for Adobe Systems, Inc. He talks with Ed about all the differnt versions Adobe Acrobat 9 and their associated features. He also discusses Acrobat.com for file sharing and collaboration.
For those who want to learn more about Adobe’s products after listening to this interview, you go to Rick’s blog, at www.adobe.com/go/acrolaw.
CNN just released a poll that suggests that most Americans are angry, worried, and stressed out about current conditions in our country. The legal profession is not immune to these forces. Law firm leaders from small, mid and large sized firms gather for a two day program designed to provide guidance on what the law firm of today needs to do in order to stay competitive in a changing economy. The sponsor of the program is ALM (now IncisiveMedia).
LMA LA presented a program today on social networking. It was well attended and the speakers were all outstanding. Those in attendance, like me I’m sure, felt like someone had just turned on the firehose and spewed forth a whole lot of knowledge. Now our trick is to implement the ideas expressed.
What does “social media” mean? How does it differ from “social networking”? I’m not sure I understand the difference, but Sally Falkow, president and senior strategist of Expansioin InternetmarketingPR, had as broad a definition as any. If I am paraphrasing her correctly, it’s using the internet to communicate with clients and prospective clients. It’s not relevant which technique or application you use, just that you use the internet. I like this broad definition. It goes along with my definition of “marketing.” Marketing is every technique you use to communicate your ideas to another. Looked at it from this perspective, lawyers even market in their presentations before a judge and a jury, though I know few would agree with me.
Jonathan L. Handel, an attorney with Troy Gould, told how he used social networking to expand his base, starting from just 14 months ago. There is just too much to say about Jonathan in this short space. So, I will suggest, instead, that you go to Google and search on his name. You will be surprised at how many times his name will appear. Suffice to say, Jonathan is a regular contributor to many of the major newspapers in the nation as well as blog sites pertinent to his field. Congratulations must be given to Jonathan.
Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog was the moderator who, as usual, did an outstanding job of explaining the technology and asking the right questions of the panelists. Kevin has taken his business from the beginning stages of entrepreneurship to a spiked growth rate. I’ve know Kevin since the time he was practicing law in Wisconsin. In fact, he was one of the first subcribers to our audio series, Law Practice Management Review: The Audio Magazine for Busy Attorneys. That series has now morphed into our podcasting that can be heard both here and at our web site.
An outstanding program and its coordinator, Cheryl Bame, is to be congratulated. “This baby has legs” and just may go on the road to other LMA chapters.
This topic is now so exciting that LawBiz will be hosting David Nour, an expert in the field who just had his new book, Relationship Economics, published by John Wiley & Sons.
During times of economic crisis, law firms need to be even more careful with the economics of their practice, according to writer Shannon Nelson of Law360.
Peter Zeughauser and Greg Nitzkowski, of Paul Hastings, will, among others, present on Thursday. I have the pleasure of participating in a segment on Thursday as well.
If you’re in New York then and reading this post, let me know. Perhaps we can get together.
I was having a conversation with Marc W. Matheny, a sole practitioner in Indiana, today. And the conversation turned to voice mail messages.
The message I’ve heard a number of lawyers leave on their machines says that they do not accept ex parte notices on this line. I had never thought about this before, but I pose the following question for your consideration: How is it that you can refuse to be served? If you were personally served with a summons and complaint, can you refuse to accept service? During my 25 years as a practicing lawyer, I can’t remember an instance when refusal was permitted. I admit that it’s been awhile since I practiced, perhaps the rules have changed.
If your phone number is your normal business contact point, and if phone service for ex parte matters is acceptable in your jurisdiction, how can you tell the other party that you refuse to accept service just because youir answering machine is on?
This poses an interesting question for me … and one I suggest lawyers address with their local court rules before relying on the sufficiency of the voice mail statement concerning service. At the very best, you will be fighting a battle about the sufficiency of the service rather than the merits of the matter … and this is usually not productive either for the lawyer or the client.
Allison Shields asks a fascinating question, “What do the Flying Wallendas have to do with strategic planning?” This was in response to my blog post reflecting an earlier conversion among Allison, Aviva Cuyler and me.
And I agree wholeheartedly with Allison’s conclusion: “If your firm hasn’t started the strategic planning process, now is as good a time as any to begin. Your strategic plan can begin by focusing on where your firm is now, what challenges it faces and what resources are available to meet those challenges and anticipate what might happen in the future and begin scripting a response so that you can act instead of panicking.”
