Legal Marketing & PR

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The winner in the category "Woman Lawyer" is Mary Ann Dunham, who works in the Pittsburgh office of the 450-lawyer firm, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC.  Highly active in the city's business organizations, whether they gather women or are predominantly male, she efficiently seeks out and capitalizes on opportunities to connect with business executives - not just for her own benefit, but also for the good of others around her.

The winner in the category "Small Firm Lawyer" is Christopher Marston of Exemplar, a law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. By offering soup-to-nuts service to entrepreneurs and startup businesses – and staying on the leading edge of client service in ways highly desirable to clients plus applying business development that truly works – his firm raised revenues 48% last year while others stagnated.

Here's the challenge, according to Darryl Cross. How do you manage profitability in times of turmoil, while maintaining the promise of quality and better outcomes for your clients? The only choice for firms is to manage their bottom line from ALL directions, including the middle and top lines too.  

No lawyer would suggest a client worry about business development only when they have free time, yet many lawyers treat their client development as an after-thought. That won't make sprinkles, affirms Thom Singer. Instead, whatever the size of your firm, every attorney must take the actions necessary to be a rainmaker, and here are some elemental ones that can make the clouds burst for you.

You're a business, not just a law firm, contends Andy Havens, so it's important to measure how well you're doing objectively. One powerful way is market share, the portion of business your firm controls out of the total business for which you compete. Here's the why, the how – and what to do about it.