A Plug...for Me

In general, I don't think it is a good idea to use a blog to sell your services (at least not overtly). If you blog regularly and provide good content, readers will see that you are knowledgeable about your subject area and that you are ready, willing and able to share your wisdom. Self promotion on a blog will turn readers away.

On the other hand, an occasional plug is generally acceptable. After all, even if you are good at what you do, it doesn't mean that the world even knows what you do.

So if you are interested in learning how to market your law practice more effectively and would like to find out how coaching can help, here is a description of how it works. I've worked with several coaches myself over the years and I believe that it is an invaluable service.

Sign up for three months of coaching by June 30th and I will throw in a free month. It's a great time to position yourself for the turnaround. You probably have more time on your hands so you might as well use it productively. You can reach me by e-mail at legal@seckler.com if you have questions. Phone is fine as well (617-244-3234).

Time to Get Serious About Marketing

A marketing consultant says that in these times, lawyers should spend at least 3 hours a week on marketing activities. But what if you can't figure out how to spend those three hours most effectively? Hire a coach. That's what Jim Hassett suggests.

When hiring a coach, make sure you find someone who you feel you can work with. Do you want a drill sergeant? A cheerleader? A strategist? An individual who shares your values? For more on coaching click here.

Thinking of Switching to Law Firm Management?

Lawyers who are thinking of switching to a management role at a firm have some advantages over non-lawyers. Presumably, they understand how lawyers think, how work gets done and how to best serve clients. But management requires a set of skills that is very different than the skills required to be a good lawyer. For starters, managing requires a focus on the big picture while much of lawyering requires a strong focus on the big picture. In working on a deal or a case, there is generally a beginning, a middle and an end. Managing people is much more open ended. For more on the subject, there is a very good article on Law.com.

More Law Firms Shifting Marketing Dollars to Coaching

That in today's WSJ (subscription req.).

Many lawyers can benefit from individual coaching. Firms are starting to see the value of training lawyers on how to build business relationships more effectively. Some firms are waking up to this reality by shifting dollars away from marketing and towards one on one support for individual attorneys.

Marketing is of course important. Law firms need to do things that build their reputation and their visibility in the media. But over time I've come to realize that marketing is only the back drop. If the desired end result is to have more clients calling you and referral sources sending you prospects, then writing articles, getting quoted in the press and speaking in public are probably not enough.

Coaching is a great way to bridge the skills gap for many attorneys. I've written about this on many occasions including an article I published here in MLW.

Thinking Creatively About The Practice of Law

Why would any law firm client be willing to pay more than the agreed upon billing rate? Why would any law firm agree up front to discount its rates for clients who are unhappy with the service they received? Well at least one law firm is banking on being on the winning side of this billing strategy.

The firm, The Rimon Law Group, is a relative newcomer to the “virtual law firm” space. Based in the Silicon Valley, Rimon is the brainchild of two large firm ex-pats, Michael Moradzadeh and Yaacov Silberman . Both practiced corporate law at the law firm Ropes and Gray until they reached the conclusion that they could better serve technology clients using a different model. While they were accustomed to working with highly credentialed lawyers, they realized that there is a large group of former large firm attorneys who have chosen to live in less expensive locations (and are therefore able to provide high quality services at greatly reduced fees.)

Rimon brings together the talents of lawyers who have at least 10 years of large American firm training. Some are in the U.S. living away from major urban centers and some are Americans who have chosen to move to Israel and other countries that enjoy a lower cost of living.

In speaking with Michael Moradzadeh, it struck me that Rimon’s business model relies on many of the principals on which IPEngine was founded (i.e. that client work should be performed at the least expensive location where quality can still be achieved ).

Rimon will undoubtedly continue to experiment with ways that it can increase client satisfaction; but right now, the firm is beginning to tweak the way it charges for its services. The founders of Rimon both believe that a pure model of hourly billing creates the wrong incentives for lawyers. At the same time, it can be difficult to estimate how many hours a transaction will require before the transaction is well under way so flat fee billing can be difficult to estimate.

Rimon has therefore chosen to stick with the hourly model; but clients who agree to complete a client satisfaction survey at the end of an engagement can enjoy up to a 20% discount if they are unhappy with the firm’s responsiveness. At the same time, clients who sign on to this program also agree to pay up to a 20% “tip” if they are particularly happy with the results, the service, the level of professionalism, etc.

It’s a creative approach that is bound to pay dividends; but I guess I better check back in six months. Like all good ideas, what works on paper doesn’t always work in practice.

Want to Be Successful? Keep an Open Mind

That from an interview with the inventor of Star Trek's Klingon language. This has a lot of relevance to lawyers and today's economy. If you think creatively about your options, you are more likely to find success in these challenging times. This may not be easy for many lawyers; but thinking outside the box is a skill we can all cultivate (even risk averse lawyers who spend their days advising clients how to avoid risk).

Solos Have Unique Advantages During Harsh Econonmic Times

In The Complete Lawyer. Solos can be more nimble, adapting more quickly to changing market conditions. Of course it is harder to serve business clients as a solo; but there are many specialists out there who form relationships with small firms and other solos in order to keep a steady pipeline of work coming from more sophisticated clients.

Advice for Keeping Your Law Firm Job

Make sure to keep up your billable hours (free subscription required). Seems like old fashioned advice since hourly billing is under attack right now.

But until the law firm model truly changes, your survival in a downturn depends on your ability to show that you are generating sufficient revenues for your firm.

While anyone who understands the practice of law knows that hours billed are not a good measure of true productivity, for now, that is the metric that counts at most firms.

The Era of Delayed Gratification

Interesting discussion on WBUR's On Point. Did easy credit play off of one of our foibles as human beings (the difficulty we have in avoiding pain in the future when pleasure is here right now).

While I'm hardly an ascetic, I do think that one silver lining of the Big Recession is that we will all learn to plan a little more for our futures and do more investing before we reap the rewards of our hard work.

Associates at large firms will have to stick around for a while if they want to see large salary growth. Most of us will probably eat out less and prepare more of our own meals (probably a healthy thing). We'll buy fewer consumer goods (that we don't need anyway). Not good for the economy as a whole? Perhaps, though savings do provide companies with capital that can be used for investment.

Are You Fit for Solo Practice?

Here is a good list of ten qualities of an entrepreneur. The list has relevance if you are contemplating striking out on your own (or starting a new firm with partners). Item #4 is probably the hardest one to translate to the law (Do you have a unique service or product?) It's hard to come up with a new practice area that the marketplace needs.

"Unique" in this context may relate more to the clientele you serve or how you deliver your services. For example: find effective ways to bill clients that do not rely on traditional hourly billing; identify an emerging industry that has a common set of legal problems; create a firm that provides a multi-disciplinary approach to solving a set of business or individual problems (making sure to adhere to the ethical rules which bar non-lawyers from owning law firms).

The point is that you need to distinguish yourself from service providers that already exist.

Checklist for Starting a Solo Practice

A good overview if you are thinking of going out on your own.

Freelance Lawyers

I've never seen the term "freelance lawyer" but it's a great way to differentiate "contract" lawyers who do large document review projects from "contract" lawyers who really act as associates for hire. While the words could be used interchangeably, there is clearly a difference between the lawyer who decides to do higher level work on a contract basis and a lawyer who joins a contract agency and gets send out with a small army of other contract attorneys to sift through business records.

It's nice to know that I now have a word for it (and as the article mentions, there is even an association for freelance legal professionals).

Free Download on Selling Legal Services

Providing free content to prospects is a great way to market yourself. The Wellesley Hills Group has done just that by serving up a free e-book called Mastering Rainmaking Conversations.

It's a quick read and of course no single book can turn you into a rainmaker. But for someone looking for a Reader's Digest version of the subject matter, this is a very useful tool. The device of providing this book as a free download also illustrates how putting up content on the web is a great way to position yourself as an expert.

Twitter, LinkedIn and the Tower of "Babble"--Part II

Several days ago, I posted some general thoughts about how to make sense of Web 2.0. It's the wild west right now so what lawyers really should be doing is experimenting. In some ways, this advice is not all that helpful. After all, it's fine to say go ahead and experiment. But where should you start?

One way to start is to follow the lead of someone else who is already using a variety of social networking tools. Here is one such template from an Altman Weil consultant.