Today's Law Marketing Resource

Richard Russeth's "If Nordstrom's Was A Law Firm, I'd Give Them All My Business" from his blog, The Last Generalist. Lawyers, here's a new year's resolution that will make you smarter: read this blog. In this post, Russeth shares seven common client service mistakes he's seen as general counsel to an international company.
Think they don't apply to you? That you'd never commit them? Then forward the post to your clients, and ask THEM to rate you. They'll love it, and you'll probably learn something.

Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2011 to all!

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Dan Hull's "Distinguish yourself. Surprise clients." from What about clients?. Looking for a solid new year's resolution, one that you can keep, one that will make you a better lawyer, make your clients love you? Look no further than this post.

Do yourself a favor. Add this blog to your RSS feed and read it every day.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Bruce MacEwen's "The Boundaries of the Firm, and Constraints" from Adam Smith, Esq. This is one of my favorite legal blogs, and it's posts like this one that remind me why. His analyses of the workings of (mostly Big) law firms are full of practical lessons for all lawyers, about marketing, about management, about staffing and more. Read it and get smarter.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Mark Herrmann's "Inside Straight: Business Development (Part 3)" from Above the Law. We love this series, even if Herrmann uses this post to answer a question he's already answered before (and even if it's the wrong question to ask). But hey: as far as we're concerned, he can write about blogging as business development tool as often as he wants, because each time he adds new insight. Read this and you'll agree.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

"China Business. It Helps To Know The Culture" from Dan Harris and Jason Patent at China Law Blog. Think you know your market? Everybody does. This post, and Part II and Part III that follow, remind us that it never hurts to question that: "The only way to succeed in China is with the curiosity to examine our own beliefs and practices, and the humility to see other ways of doing things as equally valid."

Isn't that a valid lesson for just about everything? Read these posts for more just like it.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Brian Tannebaum's "Do You Want More Clients, Or More Referrals?" from his blog My Law License. Lawyers: don't read this post if you're looking for magic bullets. Or if you think that you don't have more work because you haven't learned all of the marketing secrets. There are none. It's just work. Tannebaum lays out in this post just what that work should be. And he does it for free.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Carolyn Elefant's "Some Marketing Projects for 2011" from myShingle.com. If you liked yesterday's two-fer, you're gonna love today's post, which provides links to the eight posts that make up Elefant's "Best of 2010" from her Legal Marketing Blawg at Nolo. There's something for everyone here, so get reading.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Dan Hull's "Cross-Selling: You guys partners? Or just sharing space?" from What about Clients? Today's resource is a two-fer: not only does Hull give you his own perspective on the barriers to cross-selling, he also points you to a post from Tom Kane that lists five "killers of cross-selling success." These barriers can be broken down, but first you need to recognize them. Read these posts and you will.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Mark Herrmann's "Inside Straight: Business Development (Part 2)" from Above the Law. In this second installment of what we hope will be an ongoing BigLaw-lawyer-gone-in-house biz dev advice series, Herrrmann addresses every lawyer's favorite marketing tool: the brochure. His take? "...I now typically delete them unread." But there's more to this post than poking fun at law firm brochures. See for yourself.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Vivia Chen's "Resume Tips for Oldies (That's You--Baby Boomers)" from her lawjobs.com blog The Careerist. Good solid advice for everyone, not just boomers, because the underlying message drives to the heart of client relationships and service: don't assume that the way you think things should be done is the best smartest most logical only way to do them. Most of the time the view from the other person's shoes is more relevant than your own. The message received is the message.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Scott Greenfield's "What's the Buzz?" from Simple Justice. Greenfield has a special place in his heart for legal marketers, but that doesn't stop me from reading his blog. And it shouldn't stop you, either: he calls 'em like he sees 'em, and most of the time his analyses are spot on. Like this post.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Jay Fleischman's "Law Firm Marketing and the “Buy My $#!^” Mentality" from Legal Practice Pro. For many lawyers, getting new clients is all about convincing people to buy. But it shouldn't be. Law isn't a product, don't sell it as if it were. Nobody listens to that “buy my $#!^” noise, anyway (at least not the clients you need).

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Carolyn Elefant's "MyShingle Turns Eight" from her blog MyShingle.com. Elefant is one of the premier bloggers in the solo lawyer space, but her practical advice is relevant for all. This post captures some of the lessons she's learned over the past eight years, about blogging, about practicing, about finding success. When you're done reading it, check out Elefant's other law marketing blog: Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg. 

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Mark Herrmann's "Inside Straight: Business Development (Part 1)" from Above the Law. I never thought I'd be recommending Above the Law as a law marketing resource, but Herrmann's new "Inside Straight" columns have given it a decidedly more practical focus. This post draws on Herrmann's experience on both sides of the aisle -- as seller and as buyer -- as he looks for an answer to the question "business development: what works?"

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

"Cost Reduction is Good, Cost Certainty is Better" from Dan DiPietro and Gretta Rusanow writing for The AmLaw Daily. Valuable insight from the people responsible for the Citi Private Bank Law Watch. Read this post for a comprehensive overview of the key challenges facing the profession, the ways firms are responding to those challenges and, if you read between the lines just a little bit, the things you must do to stay relevant in "a smaller market with more competitors."

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Adrian Baron's "Lost in Translation. The Advantages of a Bilingual Law Practice" from his blog The Nutmeg Lawyer. I recommended this post a few months ago, but it's good enough to read twice (and I'm pretty sure this is an updated version of the earlier post). Telling good stories, and if you're lucky great ones, is a powerful marketing technique. Read this to see how one lawyer does it right.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Holden Oliver's "All Hat, No Cattle" from What About Clients? This site, also know as What About Paris?, should be on your RSS feed. The posts are short, concise, and full of valuable lessons, the kind you normally have to pay a lot of money or work really hard to get. This one questions the notion of "client service," not as in "do we need it" but rather "everybody talks about it but do they even know what it means?" Read it.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Jordan Furlong's "The new battlefield: convenience" from Law21.ca. I've featured Furlong's work before (follow these links to find all those posts), and for good reason: his explorations of the issues facing lawyers and firms are always thorough and thought provoking. In this post he contends that "convenience is the battleground where our innovative competitors are massing their troops," and asks what law firms are going to do to meet this challenge, to make the delivery of legal services more convenient for their clients. What's your answer?

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Brian Tannebaum's "A Sense of Violated Entitlement" from My Law License. Tannebaum can be abrasive, but his in-your-face, call-it-like-it-is blog posts articulate a profound passion for the practice of law, one that every lawyer should be so lucky to have:

"... the notion of going to law school for any other reason but to make money, is total bullshit. So it's worthless for me to say that when I went to law school I had no idea what lawyers made. ... I went to law school to be a criminal defense lawyer. "

Think you got passion? Think you communicate that passion to clients and potential clients? That's what they're buying when they hire you, so you need to get this right. Like Tannebaum does. 

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Kevin O'Keefe's "Why doesn't law firm senior management champion the use of social media?" from Real Lawyers have Blogs. A pioneer in legal blogging, O'Keefe's mission is simple: articulate the value of blogs -- and social media in general -- as meaningful marketing and communications channels for lawyers. And he's good at it (after all, he convinced me to join Twitter and start blogging back in 2008). This post takes a crack at sorting through the reasons why law firm leaders aren't embracing social media, and offers a simple solution to get them started that just might work.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

George Murphy's "Basic SEO for Law Firms" from Lawyerist. Understanding -- and implementing -- search engine optimization techniques for your website can be daunting. This post will help you sort through the basics of monitoring your site's appearance on Google and other search engines, an important first step in making sure you're reaching your intended audience. Read it. You'll learn something useful.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and vote for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Lisa Salazar's "Should Lawyers List Contacts on LinkedIn?" from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Lawyers: if you're afraid that sharing your contacts will cost you relationships, you probably should be. Yes, client relationships are the fuel that drives your success, but if the only thing keeping you from running out of gas is hiding those names from the rest of the world, you need to strengthen those relationships, not cover them up.

Today's law marketing resource was selected from the nominees to the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Go here to register and vote (and save one of your votes for 22 Tweets).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Joe Kelly's "The 53 Runner’s Commandments" on the Pine Belt Racers Club website. Every runner knows that running is a philosophy, not an activity. Like being a lawyer. Today's post hammers that home. Read these 53 commandments, and ask yourself where you might be able to slip in "lawyer" or "client service" or maybe even "value" to make them relevant to you. Yeah, not all of them apply to lawyering, but if you read closely and think about how some of these commandments might help you be a better lawyer, they will.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Seth Godin's "The one who isn't easily replaced" from Seth Godin's Blog. If you're not reading Godin's blog, you should be. Practical, no-nonsense advice that will help you understanding marketing and how to get better at it.

"[E]ither you do something I can't do myself (or get from someone else), or I pay you less than you'd like.

"Why else would it be any other way?"

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Gary Mitchell's "Start Client Development Early On" (PDF), published in Lawyers Weekly. Intended for junior associates, this piece offers solid, practical advice on developing the business development practices that will help throughout their career. But don't let that keep you away: lawyers at all career stages will benefit from reading this back-to-basics overview.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Jim Hassett's "Building partnerships for alternative fees" from his Legal Business Development blog. Hassett's alternative fees survey of AmLaw 100 firms provides an interesting perspective on what Big Law thinks (and what they think their clients think) about the evolution of legal fees. In this post he pulls together some quotes that address the importance of client-firm partnerships. Whatever your position on alternative fees, the message is clear: successful billing arrangements are built around relationship and trust.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Steve Woodruff's "Social Media is not a Strategy" from his blog, Connection Agent. Lawyers, don't make the mistake of treating your social media presence (Twitter, Facebook, blog, etc.) as a strategy. It's a networking tool. Don't see the difference? Read this and you will.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Cordell Parvin's "How To Prepare A Business Plan That Will Make You More Successful" from The Practical Lawyer (pdf). It's a year old, but that doesn't take anything away from this article. It's full of practical advice, the kind that takes you from where you are to where you want to be. Whether you aren't sure you need a plan or you just don't know how to get started, this will point you the right direction and give you a little shove to get you on your way.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Margaret (“Molly”) DiBianca's "Complex Ethical Issues of Social Media" from The Bencher, the flagship magazine of the American Inns of Court. This post provides an in-depth analysis of the ethical impact social media has on the practice of law (and not just as a marketing tool). Although it appears to be written primarily for lawyers not active in social media, all lawyers will benefit from DiBianca's thorough review of these issues.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Venkat Balasubramani's "A Topic That Refuses to Die - What Drives the Law Blogger?" from his blog, Spam Notes. A lot has already been written on the "why" of lawyer blogging (including from me), much of it simply re-hashing the same concepts over and over again. Not this post. Read it and see for yourself.

But don't take my word for it: Antonin Pribetic likes it too, and tells us why in "Why Bother Blogging" over at The Trial Warrior Blog.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Doug Jasinski's "Marketing Legal Services On The Deepening, Splintering Web" from his blog Jasinski on Legal Marketing. This is a great post reminding us that in the increasingly crowded and fragmented online legal marketing landscape, it's still the basics that count. Read this for a good discussion of why you should continue devoting the lion's share of your efforts to content, conversations, and search.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Michelle Golden's "Do You Make it Easy for People to Call You?" from her Golden Practices Blog. Sometimes it's good to get back to the basics. This is one of those times. Don't make it hard for people to get in touch with you. They might decide it's not worth the trouble.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Dan Hull's "The 12 Rules of Client Service" from What About Clients? 12 rules. 83 words. There's no fluff here, just practical, to-the-point principles for aligning "the interests of clients/customers and service providers to the fullest extent possible." Read them. Print them out and tape them to the wall above your computer screen. Make them part of your personal mission statement. You, and your clients, will be glad you did.

Every so often you come across a blog that feels like home. What About Clients? is that blog.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Scott Preston's "Technology is not your friend – your client is," from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Technology -- the kind that helps add value, like extranets and collaboration software and voice mail and email -- is good. But it's no substitute for interacting in real life with your client, for asking them questions and listening to the response, for knowing their business and helping them make it better. That's your job.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Debra Bruce's "Listening Means Business!" from her Lawyer Coach blog. Sometimes it's good to get back to the basics. And listening is one of the most important skills a lawyer can have. So spend some time getting better at it. This post will help you.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

"Lawyers must be culture vultures" from Lawyers Weekly, featuring Gerry Riskin on cultural issues, dealing with lawyers in other countries, and why lawyers must give regard to cultural differences while sitting in their own office. This is Globalization 101, and lawyers not heeding this advice are going to be left behind. Don't be one of them.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Jay Shepherd's "Two kinds of lawyers" from his blog The Client Revolution. Regular readers know that I like what Shepherd has to say. He's clever and funny and knows his stuff. More importantly, he practices what he preaches, and his perspective on billing and pricing comes from jumping off the cliff and completely eliminating the billable hour from his law practice. Like this: 

"You can go to all the two-day seminars on AFAs you want, but mostly you'll be learning about Not Pricing. Your time would be better spent learning about your client and how they value the solutions to their problems and whether you can make a profit solving their problems for that amount.

That's pricing."

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Janet Ellen Raasch's "Client satisfaction interviews help law firms keep clients close" from her blog Constant Content (part of a three-post series; see also parts two and three). It's written for those not convinced that interviews make sense, but the anecdotal information found in the full series provides a useful reminder to all lawyers that talking to clients about the work they're doing is a valuable and meaningful business development effort.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Guy Kawasaki's "Why Websites Suck" on the American Express Open Forum. #1 reason? "Organization-centricity:"

"At the root of practically, every website failure I’ve come across is the organization wanting the customer to fit around how it’s organized, how it thinks, and the language that it uses. By contrast, great websites organize around the customer."

Does that describe your firm's website? How could your site be organized around your clients?

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Cordell Parvin's "12 Ways Social Media Client Development Tools Benefits Lawyers and Law Firms" from his Law Consulting Blog.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Tom Kane's "Legal Project Management as Marketing Tool" from his Legal Marketing Blog. Want to learn more? Check out "A Practical Approach to Legal Management" from Pam Woldow and Doug Richardson (registration required). And follow Pam's Twitterfeed, full of valuable resources and great insight (she's @pwoldow). 

Today's law marketing resource

Michael Chang's essay on "Managing Change," from ACC Docket, in which Chang recounts what his life experience has taught him about being a better lawyer. 

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Adrian Lurssen's "Social media delivers law firm content to people who want it" from The Scoop. See also "Social media is not about distributing your law firm's content to people", the post from Kevin O'Keefe that inspired Lurssen's post (and another on the same topic that Kevin wrote last year: Distribution of law firm content is not what social media is for).

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Today's law marketing resource: Jim Hassett's three-part series on alternative fee strategies from his Legal Business Development blog. 

• Part 1: Aggressive risk-taking
• Part 2: Conservative risk avoidance
• Part 3: Transparency and shadow billing

Today's Law Marketing Resource

I've started posting a daily law marketing resource on the 22 Tweets Facebook page and will start posting those links to this blog going forward. To catch you up, here are the resources I've identified so far:

• "Building a Law Practice from the Ground Up. Now." from Elizabeth Munnell on her Posterous blog.
• "Marketing Law Firm Value: Alternative Fee Arrangements" from Shani Magosky in The National Law Review.
• "Recent ethics opinion: Lawyer websites" from Peter Geraghty in Your ABA (including the link to the opinion).
• "How Far Should You Go for a Client?" from Brian Tannebaum in GPSolo Magazine.
• "Tweet disposition - the tech-savvy lawyers making social media work for them" from Sofia Lind in Legal Week.
• "Your Call Is Important to Us" from Jordan Furlong on Slaw.
• "Don’t Nickel and Dime Your Clients. Just Don’t." from Susan Cartier Liebel on the Solo Practice University Blog.
• "Technology and Ethics: Online Marketing and Networking" from Aviva Cuyler in GPSolo Magazine.
• "11 More Thought Provoking Questions I Keep Pondering" from Cordell Parvin on his Law Consulting Blog.
• "Attorney Advertising (So how are YOU going about it?)" from Eric Turkewitz on his New York Personal Injury Law Blog.
• "Why Law Firm Marketing Plans Fail" from Allison Shields on Slaw.
• "Why Law Firms Should Wow Their Current Clients" from Carolyn Elefant on Nolo’s Legal Marketing Blawg.
• "Strategic Planning for Law Firms: Key Steps in the Process" from Colin Cameron on Cameron's Profits for Partners Blog.
• "Are Law Firms Really Ready for Project Management?" from Bill Henderson in Business Review USA.
• "PR Tip: Make Friends with Reporters and Editors" from Tom Kane on his Legal Marketing Blog.
• "Five ways to not screw up your next networking attempt" from Peter Shankman on his blog, P.S.
• "Budget Essentials for Law Firm Business Development" from Deborah C. Scaringi in Legal Marketing Reader.
• "The Art and Science of Lawyer Bios" from Bob Ambrogi in his LawSites blog.
• "7 Things that Blogging Does" from Mitch Joel on Six Pixels of Separation.
• "What Makes a Good Facebook Business Page? (Pt. 1 of 3)" from Adrian Lurssen on JD Scoop.
• "10 Items for Your Law Firm Marketing 'To-do' List" from Stacy West Clark on Law.com’s Small Firm Business.
• "Writing a winning proposal" from Dr. Tom Sant on Law Marketing Portal.

From Business Review USA: "Are Law Firms Really Ready for Project Management?"

"Are Law Firms Really Ready for Project Management?" from Business Review USA. This post could be subtitled: "Reality may intrude." Bill Henderson, professor of law at Indiana University School of Law, thinks that project management as a discipline should and will take hold in the delivery of legal services. But it will take time and effort, and significant change to law firm culture, compensation, and cost-structures.

Bill Henderson's work focuses on empirical analysis of the legal profession, on the business of law, and on legal education. You can--and should--read what he writes at the Legal Profession Blog and on SSRN.

From The Bizzle: "The limits of outsourcing"

"The limits of outsourcing" from The Bizzle. Want to know what keeps your clients up at night? Read this blog, and you will. You'll also find out what in-house counsel wants, needs, and thinks of the lawyers they hire. Not enough? You'll get hard-to-find insight into the legal and non-legal matters in-house lawyers deal with every day. Like this post, which looks at outsourcing from the client's perspective, exploring the tension between outsourcing-as-cost-savings and outsourcing-as-a-management-and-cost-control challenge:

"The more complex the outsourced service, the more scope there is for errors and omissions in the list of activities. This is often to the benefit of the supplier, in the sense that it can name its price for the rectification of the contract to include an omitted activity."

From Law Consulting Blog: "My Top 10 Tips for Young Lawyers"

"My Top 10 Tips for Young Lawyers" from Law Consulting Blog. Cordell Parvin's blog is full of practical advice, and this post is no exception. Don't let the title fool you though: lawyers at all stages of their career can benefit from these tips. So can everybody else. My favorite? Number 1: "Seek to become a better lawyer every single day." Shouldn't we all strive to that goal, no matter what we do?

From Sui Generis: "Large firms: Take next social media steps"

"Large firms: Take next social media steps" from Sui Generis. If you're not reading this blog from Niki Black, one of the authors of Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier (and the inaugural 22 Tweets interviewee), you're missing out on a valuable perspective. This post is no exception. Ostensibly written for large firms trying to understand the basics of social media, it in fact provides useful guidelines on establishing and managing a social media presence for all lawyers.

From Law Biz Legal Pad: "What business are you in?"

"What business are you in?" from Law Biz Legal Pad. Today's post isn't a post at all, but rather a video from Ed Poll. I don't recommend many videos, mainly because I don't watch many, but I liked this one because it gives practical advice on thinking through what you offer clients. Questions that can help you better understand your market and your competitive advantages if you answer them honestly. Questions that can help you focus your practice on the things that clients really need, not those that you think they need. But don't take my word for it:

From Alan's Blog: "How to Think Like a (Successful) Consultant"

"How to Think Like a (Successful) Consultant" from Alan's Blog at Contrarian Consulting. We could all benefit from thinking more like consultants and less like technicians. This post sets out 12 solid ideas that will help you do just that. My favorite? The first one, because it's all about value. Read them and then add Alan Weiss' blog to your RSS feed. You'll be glad you did.

From Oregon State Bar Bulletin: "Unbundling in the 21st Century"

"Unbundling in the 21st Century" from Oregon State Bar Bulletin. Under the auspices of telling lawyers "How to Reduce Malpractice Exposure While Meeting Client Needs," this post provides an (almost) exhaustive list of questions every lawyer should ask, in every situation, as they move into the unfamiliar territories of outsourcing and unbundling. Change is hard, particularly when your client's needs, rights and privacy are thrown into the mix -- along with your own reputation and potential malpractice exposure -- but it is practical and useful posts like this that will help lawyers manage the change, minimize the risks, and move the profession into the 21st century.

Hat tip to Jim Calloway for the link in his Law Practice Tips Blog.

From Nolo's Legal Marketing Blog: "Why Law Firms Should Wow Their Current Clients"

"Why Law Firms Should Wow Their Current Clients" from Nolo's Legal Marketing Blog. It's easy to focus your marketing dollars and efforts on finding and landing new clients. But it doesn't always make the most sense: studies show that it costs 11 times more to bring in a new client as it does to get additional work from an existing one. This post gives a good, common-sense, look at how you can make your current clients happier, and how it will always help you in the long (and short) run.

While you're at it, check out "A Short, Concise Client Development Tip" on Cordell Parvin's Law Consulting Blog for more tips on how you can make clients happy by showing them how much you care about their business.

From The Nutmeg Lawyer: "Lost in Translation. The Advantages of a Bilingual Law Practice"

"Lost in Translation. The Advantages of a Bilingual Law Practice" from The Nutmeg Lawyer. I've spent close to half of my life living or working outside the US, so this post resonates particularly well with me. But that's not why I like it so much. I like it because the underlying message isn't that lawyers should speak another language because it makes them smarter or richer, but because it will allow them to help people who might not be able to get good legal advice because they aren't fluent in English.

The bonus? Adrian Baron tells a great story. Read this and I'm sure you'll agree.

From Accredited Online Colleges: 100 Great Blog Posts for Lost Law School Grads

"100 Great Blog Posts for Lost Law School Grads" from Accredited Online Colleges. Not a lot to say about this post that the title doesn't already cover. 100 posts on passing the bar, finding your passion, unemployment, life after law school and a whole lot more. Some are better than others, but with a cool hundred to chose from, there's something for everyone.

From Law21.ca: "Measuring lawyer productivity"

"Measuring lawyer productivity" from Law21.ca. This post is more than a year old, but the issue is no less important today. If lawyers are no longer billing by the hour, do they need time sheets? More to the point, do time sheets provide any meaningful data on lawyer productivity and profitability? Read this post and see how Jordan Furlong (and others) responds to this question.

From Law.com's Small Firm Business: "How Can Law Firms Help Their Lawyers With Marketing?"

"How Can Law Firms Help Their Lawyers With Marketing?" from Law.com's Small Firm Business. We all know it: change is hard. For small firms struggling to maximize the value of their marketing and business development money, time and effort, change can be even harder. This post is written for that crowd, the ones who want to change the way they market the firm and its lawyers, to do those activities that will lead to meaningful results, to move their marketing efforts to the next level. But don't let that stop you from reading it: the lessons it provides are useful for everyone.

From Lawyerist.com: "Legal Blogging: The G.Y.I. System"

"Legal Blogging: The G.Y.I. System" from Lawyerist.com. If you've read my blog before, you probably already know my views on blogs as marketing channels for lawyers and law firms: they work. But only when they're done right. This post provides practical advice for lawyers on how to effectively use a blog to communicate their message, transmit their knowledge, establish their expertise, and most importantly demonstrate their value.

From Marketing Asia: "Marketing vs Sales in Professional Services: Here we go again!"

"Marketing vs Sales in Professional Services: Here we go again!" from Robert Sawhney's Marketing Asia. If you're not reading Bob Sawhney's blog, you should be. This post shows why. Legal marketing is more than just brochures and websites and PR. A lot more. And firms that relegate marketing to the "nice to have" category will never develop the high-performance, the information-sharing, the marketing culture they must have if they hope to realize the full value of their relationships, of their brand, of their institution. This post articulates the why (and even the how). Read it, and add Marketing Asia to your RSS feed.

From Law Marketing Blog: "Creative Destruction: How to Get that Great Next Job"

"Creative Destruction: How to Get that Great Next Job" from Law Marketing Blog. Every once in a while you come across a post that reaches out of your computer and smacks you right in the face. This is that post. Rethinking the value proposition, how you provide greater value to your clients and then articulate that value in terms that demonstrate precisely how you can help your client be more successful, sleep better at night, achieve her business objectives? Read this post, and follow Gordon Miller's advice. It's hard to imagine that it won't help you become more successful yourself (and get that great next job, if that's what you're after).

From Leading Blog: "12 Leadership Guidelines for Leading through Learning in Turbulent Times"

"12 Leadership Guidelines for Leading through Learning in Turbulent Times" from Leading Blog. You probably won't ever need to rebuild a 53,000-employee, embroiled-in-chaos-after-its-founder-and-chair-resigns-amidst-massive-accounting-fraud company. But Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen did. This post captures 12 guidelines they followed as they turned Satyam Computer Services around. Powerful advice for any leader. Want more? Check out their book Riding the Tiger: Leading through Learning in Turbulent Times.

From The Lawyers Weekly: “Get on headhunters’ radar”

“Get on headhunters’ radar” from The Lawyers Weekly. In spite of its title, this post is useful for all lawyers, not just those seeking employment. In answering the “how-can-lawyers-get-noticed-by-headhunters?” question, it provides good, solid advice for lawyers seeking clients, too. You’ll have to read it yourself to find out what the 4 P’s are (hint: there’s no magic, just planning and hard work), but you’ll be glad you did. H/T to Eric Magraken (@erikmagraken) for the link.

From Legal Business Development: "Another mistake: Overestimating the value of personal relationships"

"Another mistake: Overestimating the value of personal relationships" from Jim Hassett's Legal Business Development. Think your clients are still your clients, day after day, year after year, because you play golf and tell jokes and have great fun together? Think again. Personal relationships no longer drive business. But don't take my word for it. Read this post, and the multiple examples Hassett cites, and you'll agree that value is the new golf.

From Simple Justice: "Simple Justice: Through The Eyes of Scott Greenfield"

"Simple Justice: Through The Eyes of Scott Greenfield" from Simple Justice. If you're not reading Scott Greenfield's blog, you should be. You might not agree with everything he writes. You might think that he's too curmudgeonly, that he's too negative, that he should just lighten up a little bit, for cryin' out loud. But you'll always find passion, conviction and honesty. And you'll be glad he writes more posts before breakfast than most people blog in a week. Like this one.

From Law21.ca: "How to compete on price"

"How to compete on price" from Law21.ca. Jordan Furlong's analyses of current trends in the legal profession, what those trends mean for lawyers and firms, and how they will affect clients and services are always insightful, informative, and instructive. Just like this post. Don't want to compete on price? There might be a better way. Read this post and see if you agree.

From Adam Smith, Esq: "Report from London"

"Report from London" from Adam Smith, Esq. I've recommended Bruce MacEwen's posts before. His observations on what firms are doing, delivered in a no-nonsense, "identify-the-problem-and-solve-it" style, provide valuable insight into the economics of the legal profession. This post is no exception. Yes, it's written for the AmLaw 100 crowd, but that doesn't mean that other lawyers won't find it useful. This is what is happening right now. How are you going to respond to it?

From The Scoop: "LinkedIn Homepage as Intelligence Agent - 3 Tips"

"LinkedIn Homepage as Intelligence Agent - 3 Tips" from The Scoop: On Legal Marketing. I'm all about knowing your target clients: their businesses, their news, their legal needs, their people. This post talks about ways you can gather some of that valuable intelligence, the kind that helps you improve your client relationships and get more work, using LinkedIn's tools and data. Makes great sense, don't you agree?

From My Law License: "The Cause Of The Defenseless Or Oppressed - 15 Years Later"

"The Cause Of The Defenseless Or Oppressed - 15 Years Later" from My Law License. Brian Tannebaum's 15th-anniversary-as-a-lawyer post is full of his passion and satisfaction and pride as a lawyer. It's also full of valuable, first-hand advice that comes in the form of 60 lessons that Brian has learned in 15 years of criminal law, like:

[17] Some people don't matter. Never treat them like they don't matter.

[20] People hate lawyers, think they are greedy, and don't respect them. That will never change. Don't waste your time trying to convince society otherwise. Spend your time convincing your client through your work that they shouldn't hate lawyers, lawyers aren't greedy, and lawyers deserve respect.

[26] Take every opportunity you can to teach a young lawyer something, regardless of their response.

[35] The people you walk by and ignore, notice.

[50] Speaking and writing is a better advertisement than your angry photo next to the words "aggressive," and "Available 24/7."

But that's not the half of it. Read it and see for yourself.

From Women Legal: "Loud and Clear"

"Loud and Clear" from Women Legal. I'm struggling to articulate why you should read this blog. Not because I can't think of a good reason: it's one of the most comprehensive and practical career guidance posts I've read all year. Not because I can't say who should read it: with a tag line of "Advancing women in the legal profession" the audience is clearly defined (though I strongly recommend men read it because they too need to know this stuff, as much as and perhaps even more than women do). I guess it's because I can't decide if it is a manifesto, or a self-help piece, or lesson plan for an "owning your career" class. But ultimately, that's not important because it's one of those posts that grabs you by the shoulders, looks you straight in the eye and says

"Stepping up, making a difference and taking charge of your career are all things you have control over. Don’t wait for the dark clouds to pass or to be invited. Do it now."

Read it. You'll be glad you did.

From Law 360: "GCs Detail Do's and Don'ts Of Keeping Business"

"GCs Detail Do's and Don'ts of Keeping Business" from Law 360. We all know the Golden Rule: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Turns out that general counsel feel the same way about their law firms. Law 360 talked to some, who shared their perspective on what NOT to do to maintain a relationship. Think you already know this stuff? So did the firms that committed these mistakes. You know, the ones that used to work for the GCs interviewed for the article. Read it. You'll learn something.

From Convince and Convert: "Is social media too big for its britches?"

“Is social media too big for its britches?” from Jay Baer's Convince and Convert. Social media and social networking for lawyers is something I read about, write about and actively enable. But truth be told, sometimes the discussions bore me. You know the ones. The blog posts and twitter feeds and videos extolling the virtues of participation, decrying the social media faux pas committed by luddites, praising the power and the glory and the revolution of social media. We need to move to the next step, to stop talking about social media like it is new and amazing and the new black, and to start talking about how it fits into your broad communications strategy, about the specific benefits social media can bring, about the concrete actions you should be taking to drive the results you seek. This post from Jay Baer does just that. It’s a big step in the right direction.

From The Conglomerate: "The death of big law and the future of legal education"

“The death of big law and the future of legal education” from The Conglomerate. This piece from Professor Larry Ribstein reflects on the impact to legal education of the death of big law. And Ribstein should know. He is, after all, the author of “The Death of Big Law.” Read it and you'll see why you need to read everything Ribstein writes. The bonus? Ribstein’s post is just the first in an ongoing dialogue amongst the Conglomerate blawgers around the theme of "Minding our own business: How changes in the business of law might affect law schools and what law professors should be doing about it."