What's In a Name?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Clearly Shakespeare was not giving advice about marketing when he wrote those lines in Romeo and Juliet. What you call your business can have a great impact on how you are perceived by potential clients. Even if you are a great personal injury lawyer, calling yourself Business Lawyers of Boston is going to attract the wrong inquiries.

For many years, I have operated my business under the name Seckler Legal Consulting. While I realized long ago that "consulting" is an ambiguous term, I was trying to cast a broad net that would include both the coaching I do and the consulting I provide to law firms.

But as coaching lawyers on marketing and career issues has become my primary focus, my messaging needs to change. And so, Seckler Legal Coaching is born.

While I'm still the same professional who helps both individual lawyers as well as law firms, Seckler Legal Coaching better captures my primary focus. I still care about how law firms manage themselves in a changing business environment for legal services. I still consult with firms about how to attract, develop and retain talent and how to market more effectively. But "Coaching" best captures the essence of what I do.

Check Your Checks and Balances

This post by Jim Rhyner, worldwide lawyers professional liability insurance product manager, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, is one of a series of guest posts on CounseltoCounsel. Special thanks to Jim for his contributions.

In my last Counsel to Counsel post, I talked about recent financial scandals in the legal profession. In both cases, a senior partner’s deception slipped through the cracks after a period of rapid profit growth. These incidents underscore the value of an effective system of checks and balances which can help ensure that no one person has total control over the inflow and outflow of the law firm’s cash.

In some law firms, financial responsibilities are limited to a small group or an individual, allowing the rest of the firm’s attorneys to focus on the practice of law rather than running the business. This format may work in some contexts, but it is not without risk. If only one person is responsible for keeping the firm’s books and signing the checks, the opportunity for that individual to commit theft or fraud is heightened – and it reduces the likelihood that others in the firm will discover such behavior. Spreading financial responsibilities (such as billing, payroll, and reconciling the firm’s expense account reporting) among several people makes it difficult for one greedy employee to cause trouble for the whole firm.

Attorneys who aren’t directly charged with managing finances can consider the tips below which may help reduce their firm’s exposure to embezzlement and internal theft:

• Ask questions and speak up – individual attorneys are ultimately responsible for safeguarding their clients’ funds; even if it’s the senior partner who’s guilty of raiding the coffers, you could be held personally responsible, so trust your instincts if you think something is amiss
• Get it in writing – make sure that all of the firm’s transactions/payments are recorded
• Check the checks – two signatures on every check a firm issues to ensures that no one person has total control of the finances.

If You Want to Build Business Relationships, Go for Small Gatherings

Every few years, I decide I'm going to attend the annual dinner of one of the charities I support. The event is touted as a great place for lawyers to meet each other but in truth, it's really a lousy way to meet new lawyers. I go because it provides me with a quick way to shake a lot of hands (i.e. I know a lot of people in the organization so I see people I already know).

In sharp contrast, I joined a tiny Squash and Tennis club in my hometown and on the first day I went to work out, I met more new people than I ever do at one of these gala events.

I have nothing against large events. And I think this charity is extremely effective and does good work (and I'll continue to support it.) But I don't think I'm coming back. It's just not worth the time and effort.

The reason is simple. Large crowded rooms filled with a lot of people you do not know are generally not a good environment for relationship building. If your objective in getting involved in non-profits is to make connections while doing good, aim for committees, projects or much smaller events where you will actually have the chance to connect with people you want to meet.

8 Rules for Social Media Use

I've posted again as a guest blogger on the MA LOMAP blog. If you haven't seen any of my earlier posts about LOMAP on this blog (and you are a lawyer in Massachusetts looking for cost effective resources to help you run and market your practice ( i.e. free consulting) this is a great place to spend some time.

For example, next week, LOMAP is one of the co-sponsors of a free workshop on the new data privacy law in Massachusetts.

Social Media and Your Overall Marketing Plan in the New Year

This Thursday, January 7, I'll be leading a discussion on how to integrate social media into your overall marketing plan. The session is sponsored by the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program (LOMAP), a relatively new entity that is already doing great things to improve the quality of legal practice in Massachusetts. It is part of a marketing group that meets periodically by conference call. This first session of 2010 (which meets at noon) is open to anyone.

If you or someone you know has a limited budget for law practice consulting, LOMAP offers many free resources (particularly aimed at smaller firm practitioners who are just starting out; but anyone is welcome to participate.) If you can't make this session, take a look at their website for other resources and upcoming programs.

LinkedIn Poll Results

My wholly unscientific poll about LinkedIn has confirmed what I already thought: i.e. no one is really getting clients directly from LinkedIn

Almost 1/2 of the respondents make minimal use of the tool. But the poll also shows that about 1/2 of my respondents have found it to be a useful way to strengthen relationships.

There were also some interesting comments posted.

My own conclusion is that the true value of LinkedIn is yet to be realized by most of us who use it. There is actually a lot of useful information that can be gleaned from reading people's updates and as more and more professionals post information on LinkedIn, it will only grow in usefulness.

Keeping Up Appearances Could Cost Your Firm

This guest post by Jim Rhyner, Worldwide Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance Product Manager, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, is part of an effort to diversify the voices and opinions that appear in Counsel to Counsel.

From pro athletes to Wall Street executives, big paychecks beget big egos – and the same is often true in the legal profession. And while there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the lifestyle that’s been well-earned, some law firms can run into big problems when a lawyer’s desire to live large eclipses his or her better judgment.

Sensational news stories about individuals raiding corporate funds are increasingly featuring attorneys at law firms. Just recently, the founding partner of a South Florida law firm was charged with raiding the law firm’s treasury for his own personal use. He allegedly used the firm’s money (reportedly up to $500 million) to fund a lavish lifestyle including the purchase of beachfront property, Lamborghinis, private jets and other trappings typically associated with extravagant lifestyles.

In the South Florida case, as well as the case of a prominent New York firm that experienced a similar scandal last year, it is noteworthy that both firms enjoyed huge growth just prior to these incidents. While in most instances, a steep increase in profits is a good thing – occasionally, it can unfortunately become a trigger for greed. In firms where only one or two senior people hold the exclusive authorization and access to law firm funds, it can become much easier for fraudulent activity or theft to slip through the cracks, unnoticeable by a firm’s other attorneys until it may be too late.

I’ll share some tips for checks and balances at law firms in my next post – in the meantime, what are your best practices for keeping law firm employees honest?

Posted by Jim Rhyner, Worldwide Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance Product Manager Chubb Group of Insurance Companies

Poll on LinkedIn Benefits

I've posted a poll on LinkedIn to find out how people in my network are benefiting from using LinkedIn (if at all). Click here if you would like to participate. If I get back any interesting results, I'll post the results on this blog.

Don't Forget to Turn On-line Relationships Into Off-Line Relationships

Social media helps us to greatly expand our reach. Through Web 2.0 tools, we can connect with professionals who we might not otherwise come in contact with (because of geographic distance or simply because we travel in different circles) and communicate with them over time.

But connecting through LinkedIn, through a LinkedIn group, through Twitter or through any other social network is no substitute for in-person (or telephone) contact.

In other words, although social media has given us a host of new communication channels, it supplements, not replaces, the traditional way of doing business.

"Three Cups of Tea" (a new book by a mountain climber who strayed into a remote Pakistani village in 1993 and since then, has built 55 schools) highlights the importance of building the relationship in person. I heard an interview with the author on WBUR the other day (my local public radio station), and realized that in many ways, business has always been based on relationships and will always be.

Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything--even die.

Keep Up the Momentum During the Holiday Season

Thanksgiving has come and gone and between now and the end of the year, hiring will slow down at most companies. If you are in the unenviable position of job hunting right now, or even if you are gainfully employed but trying to build your law practice, this can be a tough time of year. The reality is that little is likely to happen before we turn the last page on 2009.

The good news is that there is no shortage of ways to occupy yourself in productive activities during this season. There are plenty of holiday parties to go around and it is also a good time of year to check in on your network just to say hi.

It's all too easy to succumb to negative thinking during these dead weeks. But resist the temptation. Use the time to set up informational interviews, even if the meetings aren't going to happen before January. Queue up your appointments so you can hit the ground running when the holiday season comes to an end. You'll have more momentum as the new year starts and you won't feel like you wasted an entire month waiting for opportunity to reappear.