Legal Business Development: Legal Marketing & PR

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Marketing & PR Blogs

Legal Marketing & PR

Legal Business Development

Trends and techniques, updated every Wednesday

Post Frequency: 11.5/day

Last Entry: November 18, 2009 at 02:00:00

Price wars

Posted on November 18, 2009
Around the time I started my recent survey on alternative fees, I had heard many accounts that a price war had broken out among large law firms, with some racing to the bottom to offer ever better deals. So I...

New research on alternative billing: What it means to you

Posted on November 11, 2009
Are you trying to decide what to do about alternative billing, or whether you should be doing anything at all? You have a lot of company, because important changes are taking place. That?s why I recently conducted in-depth interviews with...

Alternative Fees Demand Improved Project Management

Posted on November 04, 2009
This is a guest post by Steve Barrett, former CMO at Drinker Biddle, who recently joined LegalBizDev to help us meet the demand for alternative fees webinars, workshops, and consulting. Alternative fees have been discussed with great frequency over the...

Three questions to ask your most important clients

Posted on October 28, 2009
Back in the good old days, before the economy headed South, I wrote a number of posts about how important listening is to develop stronger relationships and new business. I even posted suggestions to get clients doing more of the...

To access blog feed reader register for free. (You will also learn about new ways to read and access the freshest law blogs.)

An AmLaw 100 senior executive talks about the implications of alternative fees

Posted on October 21, 2009
In the LegalBizDev Survey of Alternative Fees, AmLaw 100 chairmen, senior partners and C-level executives talked frankly about issues that will help and hinder the growth of alternative fees. Here?s how one AmLaw 100 senior executive (who is also a...

Alternative fees survey: Preview edition released today

Posted on October 14, 2009
Over the last few months, I interviewed chairmen, CEOs, CFOs, CMOs and senior partners at 37 AmLaw 100 firms about how they are using alternative fees. (For background on the survey, including a list of the firms interviewed, see my...

Alternative fees survey: An AmLaw 100 chairman speaks frankly about RFPs and project management

Posted on October 07, 2009
Last week, I posted a progress report on our alternative fees survey. This week?s post includes sample comments from one of our interviews. When I asked the Chairman of one AmLaw 100 firm whether general counsel could improve the RFP...

Progress report: The LegalBizDev survey of alternative fees

Posted on September 30, 2009
Last week, I completed the final interview in our survey of how AmLaw 100 firms are using alternative fees, and what they expect in the future. I talked to 9 chairmen and managing partners, 16 executives including CEOs, CFOs, and...

Should law firms spend more on business development?

Posted on September 23, 2009
If you?ve been reading this blog for a while, you know my answer: Law firms that want to survive in an increasingly competitive environment must indeed invest more time and money in business development. But don?t just take my word...

Alternative Fees (Part 25): Experts predict the future

Posted on September 16, 2009
Near the end of my recent webcast on ?Alternative fees: How to implement sustainable programs for the long run,? I asked four senior partners at AmLaw 100 firms to speculate about the future. Some said that alternative billing will grow...

Alternative Fees (Part 24): Management and risk

Posted on September 09, 2009
In my recent webcast panel on ?Alternative fees: How to implement sustainable programs for the long run,? one of the topics that came up over and over was the importance of effective project management. Bryan Ives of Alston & Bird...

Alternative Fees (Part 23): Examples from the AmLaw 100

Posted on September 02, 2009
According to Bryan Ives, a partner at AmLaw 100 firm Alston & Bird, "Law firms our size have no choice but to aggressively talk to clients about alternative fees. These days, almost every new engagement begins with an active discussion...

Progress report: Our AmLaw 100 survey of alternative fees

Posted on August 26, 2009
In the last few weeks, I?ve interviewed chairmen, chief executive officers, and senior partners at more than 20 of the largest firms in the US about how they are using alternative fees, and about what they expect in the future....

The course you should have taken in law school

Posted on August 19, 2009
If you think bloggers should avoid shameless self-promotion, please skip this post and come back next week. This fall, I will be offering a series of five one-hour webinars to help lawyers improve business development skills and bring in new...

Alternative Fees (Part 22): More recommendations

Posted on August 12, 2009
Last week?s post listed the first five recommendations from the new third edition of our free LegalBizDev Guide to Alternative Fees. Here are the rest of them: 6. Define and measure success Some alternative fee projects will be much more...

Alternative Fees (Part 21): Recommendations

Posted on August 05, 2009
The new third edition of our free LegalBizDev Guide to Alternative Fees ends with a series of recommendations. Here are the first five: 1. Don?t over analyze; just do it Law firms tend to make decisions by committee, which is...

New edition of our free LegalBizDev Guide to Alternative Fees released today

Posted on July 29, 2009
Approaches to alternative fees are changing so rapidly that it has been necessary to publish three different editions of the LegalBizDev Guide to Alternative Fees within seven months. The basic concepts and conclusions from the first edition (January 2009) and...

Alternative fees (Part 20): How many kinds are there?

Posted on July 22, 2009
When lawyers are just starting to consider alternative fees, one of the first questions they ask is: how many kinds are there? That?s a logical question, and indeed was one of the first things I asked when I started studying...

Alternative Fees (Part 19): Structuring contingent fees

Posted on July 15, 2009
In contingency arrangements, fees depend on success. Of course, this approach has long been used by plaintiffs? lawyers, but it is now becoming more common for the defense. For example, Duane Morris billed on a contingency basis when it defended...

July 29 webcast on alternative billing

Posted on July 15, 2009
I am pleased to announce the final panelists for our July 29 West LegalEdcenter webcast on ?Alternative Billing: How to Implement Sustainable Programs for the Long Run?. All four are in the forefront of the movement toward alternative fees. I...

Alternative Fees (Part 18) ? Risks

Posted on July 08, 2009
By their very nature, contingent and fixed price arrangements involve risk. Lawyers hate risk. DuPont has led the movement to change the legal service model for nearly 20 years, and may have more experience with alternative fees than any other...

Alternative Fees (Part 17) ? Costs

Posted on July 01, 2009
Alternative fee arrangements can help law firms to survive and thrive in the current economy. Aligning the interests of lawyers with their clients produces more stable long-term relationships, and can help firms improve their competitive position. But these benefits come...

Alternative Fees (Part 16) ? Win-win, or win-lose?

Posted on June 24, 2009
When a law firm agrees with a client on an alternative fee arrangement, both sides usually see it as a win-win for the long term. That?s why they reached the agreement. But what about the short term? Are fixed and...

A panel of experts discuss alternative billing

Posted on June 23, 2009
If you?d like to hear a panel of experts discuss ?Alternative Billing: How to Implement Sustainable Programs for the Long Run?, you can listen in from your PC on July 29, 12:30-2 PM EDT. This is the third webcast in...

If you?d prefer to read my blog in Russian...

Posted on June 23, 2009
Be sure to see Ivan Timshin?s blog Legal Gleanings for translations of selected items, starting with a post I wrote about listening a few years ago. Here's the Russian version.

Bad Advice on Lowering Fees

Posted on June 17, 2009
I rarely read newsletters on weekdays. But I could not resist reading the June 10 edition of Rain Today when I saw the headline: ?What to Say When Your Clients Ask for Lower Fees.? Rain Today is written for lawyers...

Alternative fees (Part 15): The LegalBizDev survey

Posted on June 10, 2009
In a recent survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Counsel, 60% of general counsel and chief legal officers said that the best way for outside counsel to improve relations is to offer more alternative billing arrangements. 77% would like...

Alternative Fees (Part 14): In-house counsel?s reluctance to switch to non-hourly billing

Posted on June 03, 2009
A few weeks ago, after I wrote Why has change been so slow?, I saw some fascinating comments on the post from leaders in the profession. But you probably missed them, because the exchanges were on Legal OnRamp, a private...

It?s time to get serious about marketing

Posted on May 27, 2009
?I?ve been a lawyer for 31 years, and I?ve never seen it like this. Do you have any words of wisdom for me?? The question came from a practice group leader at a 1,300 lawyer firm who subscribes to this...

The down economy (Part 10): The Boston Roundtable meeting

Posted on May 20, 2009
A few weeks ago, senior business development professionals from some of the largest firms in Boston gathered for the quarterly meeting of the Boston Roundtable on Legal Business Development. Our topic this time was ?Developing new business in a down....

Alternative Fees (Part 13) ? Why has change been so slow?

Posted on May 13, 2009
Throughout this series, I?ve been writing about the ways that alternative fees can save clients money and help lawyers build stronger relationships with their clients. The panelists on my recent West Legal Edcenter webcast on alternative fees at large firms...

Alternative Fees (Part 12) ? What?s different for Big Law?

Posted on May 06, 2009
On April 15, I moderated a panel discussion for West Legal Edcenter on alternative fees at large firms. Some of the discussions were similar to those in a related panel on alternative fees at boutiques. But there were also important...

Marketing advice for Harvard Law School students (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on April 29, 2009
When the time comes to find your first summer internship or permanent legal position, the way you relate to people will be absolutely critical. In an article in The Complete Lawyer entitled ?Critical Relationship Building Skills For Associates?, lawyer and...

Womble Carlyle says Big Law has ?changed forever?

Posted on April 22, 2009
Last week, Womble Carlyle announced steps to reduce its annual operating expenses by $5 million, including layoffs and 10% pay cuts. Since the ABA Journal recently noted that ?In the last 15 months, more than 10,000 lawyers and legal staffers...

Marketing advice for Harvard Law School students (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on April 15, 2009
This week?s post was written for a presentation I gave yesterday at the Harvard Law School on Business Development for Law Students and Recent Graduates. The panel was sponsored by the Harvard Law School Program on the Legal Profession, which...

Alternative Fees (Part 11) ? More on how to set a fixed fee

Posted on April 08, 2009
When I talked to four law firm founders during a recent West LegalEdcenter webcast on How boutique firms are delivering greater value with alternative billing, I was surprised by the number of different ways they set prices. Even within a...

The ?Law Firm of the Future? is open for business

Posted on April 01, 2009
For years, I?ve been reading about the changes we will see in the law firm of the future. But until I spoke to Fred Bartlit, Pat Lamb, Bruce Raymond and Jay Shepherd during a recent West LegalWorks webcast, I did...

Wolf-Block goes under - Rainmakers move on, others don?t

Posted on March 27, 2009
Wolf-Block, a 300 lawyer firm in Philadelphia, had survived through good economies and bad ones for more than a century. But now it has joined Heller Ehrman, Thelen, and Thacher Proffit as the latest casualty of the 2009 downturn. An...

Alternative fees (Part 10): Today and tomorrow

Posted on March 25, 2009
Legal gurus have been incorrectly predicting the rise of alternative fees for so long that there is widespread skepticism about how quickly change will occur, or even if it will occur. When The American Lawyer published its Law Firm Leaders...

Alternative fees (Part 9): Hybrids

Posted on March 18, 2009
When I started working on this series, I hoped to find a single definitive list of all possible types of alternative fees. But I?ve given up. There are too many lawyers creating new variations. Consultant Ann Lee Gibson convinced me...

The down economy (Part 9): What to do when demand disappears

Posted on March 11, 2009
My series on alternative fees will resume next week. But first, a word about the economy. When I opened the Boston Globe at breakfast a few days ago, I was planning to read about the Celtics first and then the...

Alternative fees (Part 8): Succeeding with fixed fees, step by step

Posted on March 04, 2009

Second edition of our free Guide to Alternative Fees is now available

Posted on March 04, 2009

Alternative fees (Part 7): More on setting a fixed fee

Posted on February 25, 2009
This week I was planning to post a step by step guide for succeeding with fixed fees. But then several experts raised important issues about last week?s post, so I decided instead to expand my discussion about the most important...

A dream team discussion of alternative billing

Posted on February 25, 2009
On March 17, I will be moderating a West LegalWorks webcast entitled ?How boutique firms are delivering greater value with alternative billing.? If you?d like advice from the trenches on how to get started with alternative fees, you won?t want...

Alternative fees (Part 6): How to set a fixed fee

Posted on February 18, 2009
Lawyers often ask me how to structure fixed fee contracts to eliminate risk. The short answer is: you can?t. As Nobel physicist Niels Bohr once said: ?It is very hard to predict, especially the future.? And by their very nature,...

Alternative Fees (Part 5): Discounting

Posted on February 11, 2009
It is unfortunate that that a single term ? alternative fees ? has been widely used to refer to three very different types of billing: hourly rate discounts, fixed fees, and hybrids which combine hourly billing with a fixed fee...

Business plan webinar on February 26

Posted on February 11, 2009
A few months ago, I wrote in this blog about ?Eight steps to a better business plan.? Since then I?ve given several presentations on the topic, including one at a 1,500 lawyer firm and another at the Philadelphia chapter of...

Future trends for solo practitioners

Posted on February 09, 2009
After I posted last week?s piece on The End of Lawyers, Carol Bertsch, a solo practitioner in San Antonio Texas, submitted this comment: I am a solo practitioner who serves individual consumers. I agree that my practice has changed and...

The End of Lawyers?

Posted on February 04, 2009
Note: My series on alternative fees will resume next week. This week?s post is about a book that?s too important to wait. The title of Richard Susskind?s new book is apocalyptic - The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of...

Alternative fees (Part 4): Why every lawyers needs to consider alternative fees now

Posted on January 28, 2009
In 2009, every lawyer should consider offering alternative fees. If your clients are worried about the economy, the reason is obvious: it?s a great way to offer more value. Last year, you could have gotten by with less radical solutions....

Alternative fees (Part 3): What your competitors are doing

Posted on January 21, 2009
A growing number of visionary firms are leading the charge to alternative fees. Last year, Patrick Lamb, author of the widely read blog, In Search of Perfect Client Service, founded a Chicago litigation firm which takes its name from the...

Alternative fees (Part 2): An idea whose time has come?

Posted on January 14, 2009
In the most recent issue of Forbes, Evan Chesler, the Chairman of Cravath, published an article with the provocative title Kill the Billable Hour arguing that: ?For reasonable periods of time during the life of a lawsuit, say three months...

Alternative fees (Part 1 of 5): What?s wrong with billing by the hour?

Posted on January 07, 2009
In discussing the economic outlook for 2009, Business Week (January 5, 2009, p. 39) says that most companies are ?scrambling to protect their bottom lines? and ?costs cannot be cut fast enough.? For law firms, that will mean more pressure...

Marketing tip of the month: Set aside an hour a day for client service and business development

Posted on December 31, 2008
Have you noticed that times are getting tougher? If not, just click on this link for ?The Layoff List?. Last time I checked, this summary of ?Employment shifts at The Am Law 200? listed layoffs at 48 large firms. Do...

Special offer to start 2009

Posted on December 31, 2008
Get your marketing off on the right foot for 2009 with this special offer: Buy a copy of The LegalBizDev Success Kit through the LegalBizDev webpage by February 28 and get two free teleconferences to discuss your 2009 business plan....

My favorite blog posts from 2008

Posted on December 24, 2008
The holidays are a good time of year to step back and get some perspective. So I just spent some time re-reading what top bloggers wrote in 2008. Here are a few you won?t want to miss: From Tom Kane?s...

ACC Value Challenge (Part 3): What your competitors are doing

Posted on December 17, 2008
Last week, I wrote about what one law firm is doing to offer more value to their clients in the current economy. This week I?ll talk about what three other firms are doing, as explained in the ACC Value Challenge...

ACC Value Challenge (Part 2): Six Sigma at Seyfarth

Posted on December 10, 2008
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Association of Corporate Counsel?s Value Challenge to help law firms give ?corporate clients [what they] want and need: value-driven, high-quality legal services that deliver solutions for a reasonable cost.? The more I...

Eight steps to a better business plan (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on December 03, 2008
Step 6 - Coordinate with others. Coordinating your business plan with other lawyers in your firm will increase your efficiency, and it will increase your chances of followup. I can?t tell you how many times I?ve heard stories about large...

Eight steps to a better business plan (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on November 26, 2008
In Part 1 of this series, I talked about the need for better legal business plans in the current economy, and the first step in developing them: Identify the tactics that will have the greatest impact for your practice. Now,...

Eight steps to a better business plan (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on November 19, 2008
For many lawyers at large firms, last year?s business plan was simple: bill more hours, then raise rates. Those were the days. But the economy has changed everything, and this year?s business plan will require more thought. If your revenue...

ACC?s Value Challenge (Part 1)

Posted on November 12, 2008
With nearly 25,000 members in 75 countries, the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) is the largest organization in the world for corporate inside counsel. So when ACC says that ?Many traditional law firm business models... are not aligned with what...

Marketing tip of the month: Form a business development group

Posted on November 05, 2008
Developing new business is like going on a diet; you will not succeed unless you stick with it. One way to assure that you follow up consistently is to work with other people, so you can encourage each other, compare...

Roundtable report: Harvard Law and current trends in the profession

Posted on October 29, 2008
This month?s meeting of the Boston Legal Business Development Roundtable was the first time we invited an outside speaker. Seven senior business development professionals from Boston?s largest firms talked with Dr. David Nersessian about his work as Executive Director of...

Announcing Train the Trainer workshops in December, February, and April

Posted on October 29, 2008
Do you help lawyers develop new business? To increase your impact in these challenging economic times, sign up for our Train the Trainer workshop and learn how to adapt proven tools and techniques to your firm?s culture and needs. Last...

Down economy, Part 8: What to do if your revenue goes down

Posted on October 22, 2008
Last January, I wrote a post entitled ?The first thing lawyers should do in a recession.? Now that the recession is really here, it?s time to think about the second thing to do, and the third. This week?s post reviews...

What clients want, according to Ram Charan

Posted on October 15, 2008
In the new book, What the Customer Wants You to Know, Ram Charan describes how the internet and the global economy are changing the way customers think, and what it means to people who sell. The basic issue is that...

The down economy, Part 7: A tip for legal marketers

Posted on October 08, 2008
I was saving the post below for November?s ?tip of the month.? But when I read The Boston Globe yesterday morning, I decided that it couldn?t wait. Maybe it was the page one headline ?Worldwide Worry.? Or maybe it was...

Marketing tip of the month: Meet with a top client to discuss the economy

Posted on October 01, 2008
What are you going to do this month to increase new business? How about meeting with a top client to ask how the economy is affecting their business? Explain that there will be no charge for your time, and make...

How to beat your competitors: The incremental advantage

Posted on September 24, 2008
To succeed at selling in any field, you need to be just a little bit better than your competition. The bad news is that other law firms are getting better at marketing, and hungrier. The good news is you don?t...

The down economy, Part 6: How bad is it?

Posted on September 17, 2008
Given the recent events at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac, the economy clearly has problems. But what does it mean for your practice? I?ve been giving talks about the down economy at law firms for...

The down economy, Part 5: Defensive marketing

Posted on September 10, 2008
When lawyers talk to me about marketing, they usually mean finding new clients. But most of them should be focusing first on defensive marketing: protecting the clients they already have. For one thing, there?s the economy. This series about the...

Women Rainmakers?What?s Different, What Isn?t? Part 2

Posted on September 03, 2008
This concludes the article I published in the August issue of Of Counsel, the Legal Practice and Management Report. Pillars of Success When discussing the success of the WEB program, and others like it, the question is raised: ?What?s different...

Women Rainmakers?What?s Different, What Isn?t? Part 1

Posted on August 27, 2008
This is Part 1 of an article I published in the August issue of Of Counsel, the Legal Practice and Management Report Selling is all about building relationships, and as you may have noticed, the way that women relate to...

How to improve relationships with large clients, Part 2 of 2

Posted on August 20, 2008
Last week?s post described Harris E. Berenson?s ideas on how to develop a new relationship. After you get in the door, the focus should shift to maximizing and maintaining the relationship with open communication, realistic expectations, and a willingness to...

How to improve relationships with large clients, Part 1 of 2

Posted on August 13, 2008
Given the way the economy is going, this is a great time to improve client relationships. When Altman Weil surveyed 126 chief legal officers at large companies a few months ago, 48% said that they had fired at least one...

Train the Trainer webinar in September

Posted on August 12, 2008
A few months ago, I announced that we were offering the first public Train the Trainer Workshop in the legal marketing profession, to help experienced professionals coach lawyers more efficiently. But I just realized I've been so busy that I...

What are the top marketing priorities in a down economy? Part 4

Posted on August 06, 2008
Last week, I reproduced an article by Mark Usellis, CMO at Davis Wright, about how to get more marketing results in a down economy, even when budgets are flat. His answer was built around zero-based budgeting, which Wikipedia describes as...

What are the top marketing priorities in a down economy? Part 3 by Mark Usellis

Posted on July 30, 2008
I wrote Part 1 and Part 2 of this series a few months ago. Today?s Part 3 is a guest post by Mark Usellis, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Davis Wright. This post reproduces a piece Mark published...

How to improve legal business development coaching

Posted on July 23, 2008
If you coach lawyers on business development, you probably think you could do better. Everyone can. But how? Exactly what should you do to increase results? In other professions, trainers and coaches answer that question through train the trainer workshops...

One way to win friends and influence people: Don?t argue

Posted on July 16, 2008
I?m sure you?ve heard of the book How to Win Friends and Influence People. It was published in 1937 by Dale Carnegie, has sold over 15 million copies, been translated into 16 languages, and is still on Business Week?s latest...

The top ten ways for lawyers to increase client satisfaction

Posted on July 09, 2008
In the current economy, other lawyers will be coming after your clients. Every lawyer would therefore be well advised to increase client satisfaction and protect the relationships that ultimately pay your salary, bonus, and rent. You can?t make clients too...

How to get started developing new business

Posted on July 02, 2008
There are three major ways that lawyers can work to develop new business: With a coach With a group of lawyers Independently A coach will provide business development expertise, someone to bounce ideas off, and a regular schedule of meetings...

How to increase results by planning sales advances

Posted on July 02, 2008
Many lawyers increase results by adapting the concept of ?advances? from Neil Rackham?s system of SPIN Selling, based on the most systematic research ever conducted on the sales process. One basic idea from SPIN Selling is that if you measure...

Roundtable report on business development best practices, Part 2 of 2

Posted on June 25, 2008
Spending Several participants at the May meeting of the Boston Legal Business Development Roundtable expressed frustration at the types of things that lawyers want to spend marketing funds on, and the things they don?t. Lawyers sometimes use marketing department funds...

Roundtable report on business development best practices, Part 1 of 2

Posted on June 11, 2008
A few months ago, I wrote about the first meeting of the Boston Roundtable on Legal Business Development, a group of senior business development professionals from the largest firms in Boston. Our second meeting was held a few weeks ago...

Two webcasts on marketing in a down economy

Posted on June 10, 2008
On Wednesday June 18, I will present a National Law Journal Web Audio Conference with Tom Kane on ?The Top Five Ways to Increase Your Legal Marketing Results in a Down Economy.? This presentation is similar to the talk I?ve...

What are the top marketing priorities in a down economy? Part 2

Posted on June 04, 2008
In the six weeks since I posted Part 1 of this series, economists have issued a number of conflicting forecasts about how long and how deep the downturn will be. Similarly, lawyers seem split about what the economy means to...

Matt Sherman?s advice on client development programs

Posted on May 28, 2008
Note: This week?s post was written by Matt Sherman, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Welsh & Katz, a mid-sized intellectual property firm. I have never before posted an item written by someone else, but when I saw Matt?s...

Put it on your calendar: Build relationships

Posted on May 22, 2008
Every lawyer understands that developing new business is all about building relationships. But who?s got time? Clinton Swan, business development manager for Clyde & Co?s Middle East region, headquartered in Dubai, says that the answer is to plan a targeted...

Put it on your calendar: Build relationships

Posted on May 21, 2008
Every lawyer understands that developing new business is all about building relationships. But who?s got time? Clinton Swan, business development manager for Clyde & Co?s Middle East region headquartered in Dubai, says that the answer is to plan a targeted...

How to delegate

Posted on May 14, 2008
My blog is about legal business development. So why am I writing this week about how to delegate? Because if you delegate more legal work, you will have more time available for business development. I started thinking about this a...

What junior associates must know about marketing

Posted on May 07, 2008
It?s that time of year again. Law school graduates are reporting to their first jobs, and junior associates are moving up a level. Many have a vague idea that the legal profession is changing, and they should be doing more...

Self-test: How efficient are your business development tactics?

Posted on April 30, 2008
Note: This test is for partners and senior attorneys. Associates are different. Do you have a marketing To Do list? Can you name the top marketing tasks you need to accomplish? If you can consistently do that without ever writing...

What are the top marketing priorities in a down economy? Part 1

Posted on April 23, 2008
A few months ago, a number of influential legal bloggers wrote to warn of a coming legal downturn, including Gerry Riskin, Larry Bodine, and Pat Lamb. Well now the downturn is here, and the blog discussion is becoming more pointed:...

West Legalworks Webcast on April 29

Posted on April 22, 2008
Next Tuesday April 29 at 1 PM Eastern time, Arnie Herz and I will present a one hour webcast entitled ?Critical Relationship Building Skills for Lawyers.? It?s one of those topics that they probably should have covered in law school,...

Helping lawyers to focus on client needs

Posted on April 16, 2008
A shorter version of this piece appeared in the March/April issue of Law Firm Inc When Iris Jones was appointed Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer at Chadbourne & Parke last summer, one of her chief goals was ?to help...

The most important trends in legal business development (Part 5 of 5)

Posted on April 09, 2008
Value. At one level, everything comes back to price. But at a more fundamental level, the price that clients think is fair is based on their perception of value. Lawyers typically believe that the quality of their legal work is...

The most important trends in legal business development (Part 4 of 5)

Posted on April 02, 2008
Process. Very simply, general counsel are being held accountable by their management, and their management is being held accountable by shareholders. In this type of environment, it is professional suicide to award business to people simply because they take you...

The first public Train the Trainer workshop in legal business development

Posted on April 01, 2008
We now interrupt our five part series on legal value for a brief word from our sponsor. Have you heard about the LegalBizDev Train the Trainer Workshop in Boston June 5? The first legal marketing event I ever attended was...

The most important trends in legal business development (Part 3 of 5)

Posted on March 26, 2008
Loyalty. For lawyers, the reduced importance of client loyalty first became apparent with the rise of the DuPont legal model. In 1992, DuPont established a ?convergence process? to increase efficiency, reduce the number of law firms they used, and to...

The most important trends in legal business development (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on March 19, 2008
Last week, I introduced the idea that trends in five areas?loyalty, relationships, process, price, and value?are transforming the legal profession. The same trends are affecting many other businesses due to the pressures of an increasingly competitive global economy...

The most important trends in legal business development (Part 1 of 5)

Posted on March 12, 2008
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with the general counsel at a Fortune 500 firm, and we got talking about some of his best, and worst, experiences with law firms. Maybe it was just the questions I asked, but...

Why lawyers should ignore good ideas

Posted on March 05, 2008
A few months ago, a lawyer I?ve known for a long time asked me about his New Year?s resolution. He wanted to develop more new business in 2008, and was looking for advice to help him succeed. My answer was...

For managing partners only

Posted on March 04, 2008
Do you think managing partners will use the internet to seek advice from their peers? Managing Partner magazine is about to find out, through their new Leadership Advisory Board, announced today Download leadership_advisory_board.pdf . If you are a managing partner...

Tracking the new business pipeline

Posted on February 27, 2008
When law firms install CRMs, many hope is that they will be able to follow the example of professional sales organizations to track the ?pipeline? of prospects who may some day become clients. The pipeline metaphor comes from the idea...

CRMs and tracking sales activity ? the view from the trenches

Posted on February 20, 2008
A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was organizing a new quarterly Boston Roundtable on Legal Business Development for senior biz dev people from the largest firms in Boston. We limited this ?invitation only? group to seven firms to...

These are a few of my favorite blogs

Posted on February 13, 2008
If you have managed to find time to keep up with top legal marketing bloggers over the last few months, you can skip this post, because I?m just going to write about things you?ve already seen. But if you?re like...

Teaching associates to build stronger relationships

Posted on February 06, 2008
A shorter version of this piece appeared in the January/February issue of Law Firm Inc. When law school graduates start at their first firm, they often seem both intrigued and mystified by marketing and business development. Intrigued because they know...

The first thing lawyers should do in a recession

Posted on January 30, 2008
I was not planning to write about the economy this week. But then I saw Business Week?s special report on the current ?market reckoning? (February 4, 2008 issue, p, 26). It explains how ?We?re at the beginning of a long...

And now a word from our sponsor: Upcoming presentations

Posted on January 29, 2008
If you hate it when bloggers promote themselves overtly, please skip this post. On Tuesday, February 12, at 2 PM Eastern, I will be offering a webinar through the Legal Marketing Association called ?Six ways to help lawyers increase results...

Business plan tips and formats

Posted on January 23, 2008
If you already have a solid business plan, please don?t read this week?s post. Use the time you save to follow up with clients and prospects. When it comes to legal marketing, every second counts. For everyone else, I?ve said...

Cross-selling (Part 5 of 5)

Posted on January 16, 2008
In the new book Escaping the Price-Driven Sale, Tom Snyder and Kevin Kearns argue that changes in the economy are making cross-selling ?more and more compulsory? (p. 122). Although the book was written for sales professionals by two leaders from...

Cross-Selling (Part 4 of 5)

Posted on January 09, 2008
Lawyers are not the only ones who have ever tried cross-selling, and they are not the first to fail. Has your bank ever approached you about adding a credit card or a retirement account to your checking and savings? Chances...

Cross-Selling (Part 3 of 5)

Posted on January 02, 2008
This week?s post is based on the first half of an article I wrote for the November/December 2007 issue of Legal Management: The Journal of the Association of Legal Adminstrators (page 58). ?Cross-selling? new services to existing clients sounds easy....

Cross-selling (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on December 26, 2007
Part 1 of this series appeared a few months ago. Today?s post describes another successful cross-selling effort that I wrote about for Law Firm Inc. The version that appeared in my December column was a bit shorter, because it had...

The most important difference in legal selling: Time (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on December 19, 2007
To win at selling, you just need to be a little better than your competitors. For lawyers, many of those competitors had no selling skills at all, so even the most basic actions could have an enormous impact. No doubt,...

The most important difference in legal selling: Time (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on December 12, 2007
This piece originally appeared in the November/December 2007 issue of Strategies: The Journal of the Legal Marketing Association. Just about everyone agrees that selling legal services is different from selling used cars, and even from selling other professional services...

What?s different for women rainmakers?

Posted on December 05, 2007
What?s different for women rainmakers? I wrote about this question a few months ago in my post about a survey of female rainmakers conducted by the Legal Sales and Service Organization and BTI Consulting Group. This post adds more thoughts,...

A new product to help lawyers increase business development results

Posted on November 28, 2007
When I started working with lawyers on developing new business, I was surprised by the lack of standardized reference and training materials. In the 20 years my company had been developing training and coaching materials for companies from American Express...

Do you believe that legal excellence is the most important factor in success?

Posted on November 21, 2007
If you believe that legal excellence is the most important factor in success, I have bad news for you: Your belief is associated with failure. A few years ago, the Brand Research Company (a division of Greenfield/Belser) published a study...

Do you want to learn how to close faster?

Posted on November 14, 2007
Me too. But we can?t. Teaching people how to close deals faster is a little like teaching gardeners how to pick tomatoes. Picking them isn?t the hard part. The hard part is growing them. I?ve written before about how selling...

How to assure that you follow up consistently

Posted on November 07, 2007
There?s no way around it: Business development takes time. To build new business, you must follow up, week after week, month after month, year after year. In The Sales Bible (p. 197), Jeffrey Gitomer sums it up this way ?Most...