Trust Is The Key to Getting Paid What You Deserve

You'll never get paid what you think ought to receive, writes Seth Godin in "Getting paid what you deserve," only what others think you're worth:

...people don't make buying decisions based on what's good for you--they act based on what they see, need and believe.

He's not speaking specifically to lawyers, but he might as well be: clients will gladly pay you exactly what they think you've earned. It's up to you to make sure that number is in the right range.

Read the post. Then focus on building and maintaining the trust of your clients, on ensuring that your work product matches your reputation, on providing meaningful value in every representation. On establishing "long-term trust," as Godin calls it. Whatever you call it, it's the key to getting paid what you deserve.

Want to Add Meaning to Business Relationships? You'll Have to Work At It

Warm sentiments are nice, writes David Ackert in "How to Add Meaning to Business Relationships," but going out of your way to help others in need is the dynamic that builds meaningful relationships:

... among my business contacts, there are a few people to whom I feel particularly loyal. They are the ones who ... were willing to inconvenience themselves for me.

Read the post. Make a note of who might be in need of a helping hand or a kind gesture or a sympathetic ear. Then reach out, and keep checking in until their situation improves. You'll be glad you did. And so will your contacts.

Delivering Value is Smart Marketing

If you're not adding value to your relationships, writes Eric Fletcher in If Your BizDev Plan Doesn’t Specify Targets, Don’t Expect Great ROI, you're not doing it right:

"Delivering real value to your network is the most eloquent marketing message there is, creating visibility with staying power."

Read the post for useful ideas on how to make yourself consistently valuable to your network. Read the post for guidance with developing a meaningful target list. Read the post for insight into building a pipeline that will produce opportunities. Read the post.

Three Business Development Lessons from UPS

Corporate Counsel recently talked to the General Counsel of UPS to find out how the company hires lawyers (UPS GC: Firms Come to Pitches Surprisingly Ill-Prepared). Their findings offer three valuable lessons in client acquisition and development:

1. Clients Are Changing It Up: you might think that #48 on the Fortune 500 list would use the same lawyers over and over. After all, there’s tremendous value in the institutional knowledge that comes with decade-long relationships. But that can also lead firms on the list to become complacent, taking clients and work for granted. To combat that, UPS requires all firms, including those already on their panel, to submit RFPs for new work. That gives newcomers a chance to land legal assignments from the company. And it gives traditional firms added incentive to show UPS how much they know about their business. Over and over again.
2. You’ve Got to Prove Yourself to Get Bet-The-Company Work: “In order for us to feel comfortable with a firm handling a large matter, we have to have some relationship with them on the small matters,” said UPS’ GC, Norman Brothers. More to the point: unless you blow their socks off on the mundane – good work, good results, good price – you’re never going to get a chance to show them how well you can handle the big stuff. If the name of the game is value, then the size of the matter doesn’t, well, matter: you either produce value for UPS or you cost them money. 
3. Preparation Is Everything: You already know that if you don’t bring your A-game to the pitch, you’re not going to get the work. But “bringing your A-game” isn’t limited to knowing the judge or having handled hundreds of similar lawsuits or worked on the year’s biggest acquisition. According to Brothers, some firms haven’t even read UPS’ annual reports when they walk into their offices. Those firms can’t know the big picture of UPS’ business and legal challenges. And more often than not, they can’t get to Round 2 of the pitch. 

Read the article. It’s full of the insight you need.

"Client Focus" Is In The Eye Of The ... Client

There's only one way to give your client she expects, writes Gina Rubel in How In House Counsel Defines Client Focus. You ask her:

The phrase “client focus” can take on many meanings for lawyers. [...] One thing is certain, it is important for every attorney to ask his or her client what their expectations are as they relate to providing client-focused service and then do everything it takes to meet those expectations.

Read the post for Rubel's take - and that of a handful of in-house lawyers - on what it really means to "focus on the client." Then start doing it.

Want To Add Value? Stop Talking About The Law

"I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail," wrote Abraham Maslow in The Psychology of Science. For lawyers, that often translates into talking about the law, about legal issues, about rules and regulations and requirements. And that's precisely where they go wrong when they're trying to develop and enhance professional relationships, explains Josh Beser in Lawyers: How to Be Valuable ... Aside from Practicing Law:

Lawyers have a problem. We’re consistently perceived as experts on one thing: law. This not only dominates how others view us, but also dominates how we view ourselves. If we start talking about law, especially early on in a conversation, we will only be viewed as lawyers. This dramatically limits how others perceive what we can do to help.

Read the post. Then find ways to implement Beser's three strategies to help others without practicing law. You - and they - will be glad you did.

Sorry Mr. Lennon - Lawyers Need To Imagine There's No Billable Hour, Too

Hourly rates are starting to look a little dated, says Maria Polczynski, head of legal at Australia's Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. That's why the bank is no longer working with law firms that don't offer value-based pricing.

But there's good news for the firms able to make the switch, Ms Polczynski recently told Lawyers Weekly (Resistance to value-based pricing: a failure of imagination): not only do they get to keep an important client, they can ratchet up profitability when they get the formula right:

“If what you are delivering is worth a whole lot more [than the cost of your time] then we accept that [and] will pay considerably more than … [the] standard hourly rate. That’s where we think the opportunities are for the firms to up their profitability even while they are reducing their billable hours."

Read the post. Ask yourself which clients are likely to follow Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. Then figure out a way to help them.

Do You Know How Your Clients Define "Value"?

Like every business, writes Bruce MacEwen in What's Value? Answer One Question, in law there is room for the "sell it for more" firms (the equivalent of Ritz-Carlton and BMW), just like there is room for the "make it for less" ones (think Ikea and Motel 6). But it only works if you're defining "value" in exactly the same terms as your clients, something very few firms are able to do successfully. And that means that everybody else is fighting for the same clients in the middle:

... the middle market is an extremely tough place to survive and thrive, precisely because it is so densely populated with law firms which, to many clients, are indistinguishable from yours.

For MacEwen, the key to success in this "awkward in-between space" is giving your client a different kind of value than "best" or "cheapest," precisely because that value is so hard to define. Read the post. Then call your clients.

What Do You Call a 20-Year Relationship With Your Clients? A Good Start

When you're building your practice, stay away from the "fire and forget" work, writes Keith Lee, founder of Associate's Mind, in How To Build A 20 Year Relationship With Your Clients. Instead, focus on building a long-lasting relationship with your clients, providing customized, high-quality products and services that they'll brag about. Like apparel companies Gramicci and American Giant:

Gramicci built a relationship with me by providing a product that has lasted decades. American Giant wants to build that same sort of relationship. They’ve told me – everyone – that when you buy their products you buy them for life. These relationships are built on a high degree of quality that encourage me to place my trust in their products.

Read the post. Turn your clients into advocates and ambassadors for your work.

Finding your zen. The legal pricing way.

John Wallbillich's "Zen and the Art of Legal Pricing: Summary" on his blog Wired GC. Still trying to sort out alternative legal pricing? Understand the billing arrangements that clients are looking for, and how you can provide them? Rebuild your delivery of service model around value instead of time or documents or stuff? You should be. Because doing nothing is standing still. And standing still is the new moving backwards. Wallbillich's post, and the eight "Zen and the Art of Legal Pricing" posts behind it, will give you the perspective you need to move your pricing strategy to the next level. You clients will thank you. And making clients happier is a great way to find your zen.

Did you want fries with that patent application, Ma'am?

"Law firms need to stop selling and start listening" in Lawyers Weekly. For any law firm, cross-selling is a key step in expanding client relationships and growing revenues. It's important. As well it should be. But cross-selling isn't a commercial running non-stop, every time you pick up the phone. That's up-selling ("Did you want fries with that patent application, Ma'am?"), and it doesn't help anyone. Not your clients. Not your firm. Not your bottom line.

Don't believe me? Then read what Paul Rogerson has to say about it. Rogerson is the former head of compliance at Westpac and current head of legal at NRMA Motoring & Services in Australia, so he's heard it all. And the things he likes to hear best are those that offer meaningful solutions to the issues facing his company. Read the post. Listen to your clients. If the solution they need sits in an office down the hall, tell them. But don't pitch your tax practice when they need antitrust advice.

Sure you're listening. But do you hear what your clients are saying?

Pam Woldow's "5 Key Takeaways from General Counsel Outside the US" on her blog At The Intersection. Ever wonder what keeps your clients up at night? Read this post, and you'll have a pretty good idea. Woldow surveyed more than 60 in-house lawyers on legal costs, budget control, and outside counsel when she was at the Latin American Corporate Counsel Association annual meeting last month. If you've been paying attention, the results probably won't surprise you much (although the frank responses might). But the question that should be keeping you up at night isn't whether you already knew that in-house lawyers are increasingly concerned about their legal spend and budget overruns. The one worth losing sleep over? What you are going to do about it now that you know.

All's fair in love and war. Shouldn't it be the same for legal fees?

Ed Wesemann's "Regain Control of Pricing: 7 Tactics for Law Firms" in the Fall 2010 edition of the Edge International Review. It's no secret that the pricing of legal services is one of the most significant challenges currently facing lawyers, law firms, and clients alike. Or that it is also one of the most written-about topics in law firm circles. So why should you read this piece? Because Wesemann isn't content with merely adding his perspective to the ongoing debate. Instead, he proposes practical solutions, the kind that will help lawyers and firms meet the pricing challenge head on and provide their clients with the value they need, at a fair price that generates a fair profit.

Finding the islands of value in a sea of connections.

Valeria Maltoni's "You're Connected, Now What?" on her blog Conversation Agent. In today's world, where even those who claim not to use Twitter followers and Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections as metrics still do, it's easy to fall into the "more is better" trap. It isn't. More is simply more. But whether you've got five or five thousand connections, the real challenge is Step 2, identifying the valuable ones and taking them to the next level. Maltoni's post will show you how to put the "work" back into networking and perhaps even turn some of your connections into value, if you do it right.

You can't always give what they want. Not without asking questions, anyway.

Allison Shields' "Do You Know What Your Clients Really Want?" at her Legal Ease Blog. No, it's not the start of a bad lawyer joke. Giving your clients what they want and what they need -- even when the two are in conflict -- is part of the adding value equation. But much of the time you won't know what they really without doing a little digging. Without asking a few questions. Without challenging their answers a little bit. Without understanding their short-, medium-, and long-term objectives. Without articulating what you can realistically provide, and comparing it to the results they hope to achieve. But don't take my word for it. Read the post and draw your own conclusions.

This is creative? Innovative? Can't you do better than that?

Julie Kay's "Companies Get Creative to Cut Legal Costs" at Law.com. Unless you've been living under a rock, you're well aware of the ever-increasing pressure on in-house counsel to reduce legal costs. So the fact that Microsoft and H-P are outsourcing their work to India, using solos instead of BigLaw whenever they can, and negotiating alternative and fixed fee deals isn't particularly newsworthy. So why read this article? Two reasons. First, because there's an interesting discussion of just how important international skills and experience have become to global clients:

"When I started, everything I did ... all the regulatory work ... was centered in Washington,"
[Microsoft Corporate VP and Deputy GC Horacio] Gutierrez said. "Now the centers of power are Asia, Sao Paulo and Moscow. The majority of our revenue comes from outside the United States." 

That drives corporate counsel to hire lawyers who are multilingual and understand the cultural sensitivities of other countries, Gutierrez said.

But more importantly, because if H-P and Microsoft look at outsourcing, solo practitioners, and alternative and fixed fees as "innovative" and "creative," it's clear that they still measure the value of legal services by the cost of those services. Doesn't that leave room for the firm that is truly creative, truly innovative, truly interested in solving their clients' problems, whether they be obtaining patents across the globe, or managing a diverse team of 50 patent lawyers, or demonstrating to corporate that they are getting maximum value from their legal spend? Maybe that could be your firm.

Solving your client's problems. The right way.

Dan Hull's "Cross-Selling: You Folks Really Partners? Or Just Sharing Space?" at What About Paris? Cross-selling isn't up-selling, convincing the client to buy additional services merely because you offer them. It's knowing your client, her legal needs, her business objectives, her pressure points. It's knowing your partners, their strengths, their experience, their weaknesses. It's putting the pieces together to determine if indeed the solution to your client's problem sits in the office down the hall. When done right, cross-selling is introducing one friend with a problem to another with a solution. Isn't that what you do, solve your client's problems?

Some lawyers believe cross-selling is a myth. Not Hull. And he's right: cross-selling isn't a tall tale, it's your job, your duty to your clients and to your partners.

Trying to price value? Talk to your clients.

Meredith Hobbs' "In-House, Firm Lawyer Trade Views on Alternative Billing" in Law.com's Law Technology News. Lawyers should be talking to their clients about many things: service, value, delivery, skills, etc. But alternative fee arrangements ought to be at the top of that list. Why? AFAs are unknown. They're different. They're daunting. And they are important to clients. Very important. To offer AFAs that make their clients happy, that make their partners happy, that reflect the value of the services they provide, lawyers need to develop arrangements that are win / win for everyone involved. The only way they can get there is by talking to their clients, by understanding what's important for them, by setting goals that reflect the needs of both the firm and the client. Kevin Gallagher and Ronan Doherty had one of those conversations at this ACC Georgia panel discussion. Now it's your turn. Read this post. Talk to your clients. And figure out different ways to price the value you give them. Your clients will thank you.

Signing the checks means clients get to determine value.

Fred Wilson's "A Challenge to Startup Lawyers" at his blog AVC. Here we go again with the client perspective.... Regardless of what lawyers tell themselves, fees are generally a pretty big deal for most clients. Whether you charge $5,000 or $17,000 for a specific transaction (in this post, it's an incorporation and seed round), your clients are probably looking at the work done and the fees paid to determine value received. Does that mean you should lowball fees on every representation? Of course not. It means that you should know your clients and their expectations, their challenges, their pressure points. It means that you should take a long-term perspective in evaluating the relationship and its value to you. It means that you should be open to change. Read the post. And read the comments. Are you ready to accept Wilson's challenge?

The value of the client's perspective.

Toby Brown's "The Value of Law Firm Experience Lists and Other Musings from an AGC" at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Like Brown, I geek out on this kind of stuff. The Associate General Counsel for Litigation at the 37th largest US corporation? Sharing his perspective on how law firms sell themselves, what they do right and what they do wrong? It rarely gets any better than this. I've said it before, when clients talk, law firms need to sit up and listen. Because more often than not, they tell you exactly what they are looking for. Paul Beach, AGC at United Technologies, is no different. Up to 95% of experience not worth mentioning? Proposals in hard copy only? Proclaiming how much time you are writing off because they client is so important to you? Read the post. Change the way you sell. Your clients will appreciate it. And when your clients appreciate you, you're light years ahead of the competition.

Got a brand? Um, maybe not.

Rees Morrison's "Brands of law firms – doubtful thoughts after a Georgetown Law Center conference" on his Law Department Management blog. Morrison writes for law departments, not the lawyers who serve them. As such, his blog is full of valuable and often unique insight into the ways that lawyers can improve the delivery of the services they provide and the value they add. This post is a good example. Think your branding efforts are working, that they are resonating with your clients, that they are articulating your "promise to clients"? Morrison doesn't. Read the post. Should you change the way you communicate the value of your firm? How?

Mind the gap.

John Wallbillich's "Howrey 3: When is a Law Firm Brand Too Good?" on Wired GC. Day Three of Wallbillich's Howrey retrospective is about brands, branding, and slogans. But underneath all that, it's about the same thing we talked about yesterday: perception. Perception of value, of client service, of skills and expertise. The gap between the message you think you are sending and the message the rest of the world receives can be huge. Sometimes unbridgeable. Don't get caught out. Talk to your clients. Talk to your friends. Talk to your competition. If they message they're getting isn't the one you're sending, don't expect them to change. Adjust your message. Then talk to them again. And repeat the process until you know they're hearing what you want to say. Mind the gap.

Sometimes picking up the phone is the first step.

Debra Baker's "Value Perceptions: Real or Illusory?" on her blog, Law Firm Transitions. Think you're adding value? Meaningful value? The kind of value that goes beyond providing legal advice and helps your clients run their businesses better, sleep better at night, make more money? The kind that gives you a distinct competitive advantage over all the other law firms that provide the same services? Maybe you should ask your clients. The gulf between what you believe and what your clients perceive can be significant. Talk to them. Figure out what you're doing right (and what you're doing wrong). Make it better. This post is a good place to start.

We've recommended a lot of posts on value. Baker's post is a good addition to the list.

Flipping burgers for your clients.

The Legal Bizzle's "How flipping burgers can make you a better lawyer" at his blog, The Bizzle. What did you do before you became a lawyer? According to this post, even it was working in a burger joint, that experience can make you a better lawyer, as in better advisor, better negotiator, better provider of client value. And it just might give you an edge over the competition, too. But don't despair if you went to law school directly, without a stop in the workaday world. You probably have some life experience that you can draw upon for the benefit of your clients. Like this lawyer. And this one. And this one and this one too. Find it and use it.

Solving problems and having fun. A guide to BigLaw.

Kimberly Egan's "Everything associates didn't learn in law school" from The National Law Journal. Want to work in BigLaw? Understand the unwritten rules? Meet and exceed the unspoken expectations? This piece from Egan, a partner and practice chair at DLA Piper, will help. But even if that's not you, you should read the article. Because it's really about providing service and adding value and being the lawyer who clients want to work with.

Kissing and Telling

Lida Citroën's "Saying you’re a good kisser doesn’t mean it’s true" from ColoradoBiz. It's one thing to tell the world what a good lawyer you are, how your commitment to clients sets you apart from your peers, how professional and ethical you are. It's another thing to be it. Day in and day out. Saying you're a good kisser doesn't mean it's true. Trust, the kind that people buy (not the kind you try to sell) comes from credibility, from articulating your values and beliefs through your actions. Focus on that, and your practice will market itself.

Do as you say. Really

Patrick McKenna's "Signal What You Value as a Leader" at Slaw.ca. This post was written especially for new managing partners and practice heads, but it applies to everyone. You are what you do, and analyzing your actions, where you spend your time, what your activity signals to your colleagues and clients is always a useful exercise. Modifying those actions so that they align with your real objectives - and communicate your real priorities - is even better. Read this and get started.

Clients have expectations. Know what yours are?

Cordell Parvin's "How to Meet or Exceed Your Client's Expectations" on his Law Consulting Blog. What's the easiest way to fail to meet your clients' expectations? Not knowing what those expectations are. Talk to your clients before you start to work. Come to agreement on what they need, when they need it, how much it will cost, how they want to be updated, etc. Good communication leads to greater satisfaction. This post will get you started.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Holden Oliver's "Rule 5: Bombarding the client in real time" from What About Clients? Over-communicating is rarely a bad thing, especially when you're being paid for the work you do on someone else's behalf. Not the "man, I had to work so hard for you today, stayed up all night" variety, but the kind that sounds like "this is what I did today, who I talked to, what I wrote. And here's your copy." If your client doesn't know you did it, you didn't. Make sense? It makes even more when Oliver says it. Read this post.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Stacy West Clark's "20 Free Services Lawyers May Want to Offer to Clients" from The Legal Intelligencer (posted on the lawjobs.com site). There may be 20 suggestions on this site, but they all boil down to one: "add value." Find ways to make sure your client gets more from having you as her lawyer than good solid legal work. She can get that from any number of lawyers. Help her be more successful. Reading this post is a great start.

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 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 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 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 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 a shel of my former self: An open letter to leaders of companies who block employee access to social media

"An open letter to leaders of companies who block employee access to social media" from Shel Holz' a shel of my former self. I've noticed a number of "an open letter to..." blog posts lately. This is one of the better ones. What starts out as an argument in favor of opening the workplace to social media quickly evolves into an eloquent description of the role that social collaboration plays in the decision-making process. Read it and you'll agree.

Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?

I attended the Georgetown University Law Center Conference on “Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?” this week. It was tremendous. The presentations, the discussions, the ideas and the overall energy made this one of the best conferences I have ever attended in my career, and a powerful reminder of why I do what I do. Sound over the top? Read these articles, blog posts, papers, and other commentaries on the conference, and then tell me what you think.

Conference Papers and Related Documents

• “Abandoning Homogeneity in Legal Education,” Thomas D. Morgan
• “Business Models in Legal Practice: Toward Definition and Assessment,” Stephen Mayson
• “Chinese Law Firms After the Financial Crisis: The Case of Shanghai,” Sida Liu and Xueyao Li
• “Coase, Schumpeter, and the Future of the (Law) Firm,” David McGowan and Bernard A. Burk
• “The Consolidation of the Global Advertising Industry: Lessons for Law Firms?,” Andrew von Nordenflycht
• “The Death of BigLaw,” Larry Ribstein
• “Evolution and Revolution in the Governance of Law Firms,” Laura Empson
• “Hiring Teams from Rivals: Theory and Evidence on the Evolving Relationships in the Corporate Legal Market,” Michele DeStefano Beardslee, David Wilkins, John Coates and Ashish Nanda)
• “Law firm of the 21st century: The clients’ revolution,” Eversheds
• “Layoffs, Lawyers, and Learning,” Paul Oyer and Scott Schaefer)
• “Make or Buy Decisions: Theory and Evidence in Legal Services,” Mari Sako
• “The New Normal,” Paul Lippe
• “The Return of the Apprentice: New Lawyer Training Models for the 21st Century,” Jordan Furlong
• “Supply Chains and Porous Boundaries: The Disaggregation of Legal Services,” Milton C. Regan, Jr., in 78 Fordham L. Rev. 101 (2010) (forthcoming).
• “Third-Party Litigation Funding,” Anthony Sebok
• “Will There Be a Changing of the Guard? Law Firm Lessons from the Great Depression,” Peter Sherer

Session Recaps from Ron Friedmann at Prism Legal

• “Emerging Relationships Between Law Firms and Clients (Tweeted Conference Report)”
• “Creative Destruction and Innovation (session report, Georgetown Law)”
• “Business Models: Strategy and Governance (Session Report, Georgetown Law Conf)”
• “David Wilkins on Mega Trends for Legal Profession (Session Report, Georgetown Law Conf)”
• "KM in Action (After Action Review at a Conference)"

Articles and Commentary

• “The Change Agenda: Are We There Yet?” from Aric Press at AmLaw Daily
• “The Change Agenda: Is Mega Law a Dead Man Walking?” from Aric Press at AmLaw Daily
• “Calls for New Model of Law Firm-Client Relations at Georgetown Conference” from Law.com's Small Firm Business
• "Extreme Makeover: Law Firm Edition" from Vault's Law Blog
• “From Georgetown Law: ‘Law Firm Evolution-Brave New World or Business as Usual?’” from The Posse List
• “From Georgetown Law: ‘Law Firm Evolution’ – a video interview with Richard Susskind, author of ‘The End of Lawyers?’” from The Posse List (see also video interviews below)
• "From Georgetown Law: 'Law Firm Evolution-Brave New World or Business as Usual?' -- our review of the conference" from The Posse List
• "Georgetown Law School evokes Punk rock" from Joshua Kubicki on Legal on Ramp (registration required)
• “Is the Law-Firm Model Dying? Not Yet, But It Might Be On The Clock” from WSJ Law Blog
• "Law firm evolution at Georgetown" from Larry Ribstein's Ideoblog
• “Law Firm Evolution Conference at Georgetown in the US: my take” from Robert Sawhney’s Marketing Asia blog
• "Law Firm (R)Evolution & Gaps" from Joshua Kubicki's Legal Transformation: The Changing Legal Profession
• “Law Firm Time Bomb: You Have 18 Months To Try And Keep Your Clients”, from Business Insider Law Review
• “Lawyer Layoff Patterns: Young Go 1st, and Top 10 JD Is No Shield” from the ABA Journal
• "Layoff Patterns: was there a method to the madness?" from Above the Law
• "Murmurs of Change, but Where's the Proof?" from ABA Journal
• "New Model Evolving: Law Firms Have 18 Months Maximum to Adapt" from Law and More.
• “Panelists Explore New Business Models for Big Law” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Panelists Predict Changes to, Not Death of, Big Law” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Patterns Emerge from Lawyer Layoffs” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Paul Lippe, Lewis and Clark, and Google Maps” from In Search of Perfect Client Service
• "Report Finds Power Shift and Declining Support for Law Firm 'Up or Out' Model" from the ABA Journal
• "Secondments will rise if more firms decide they are a prerequisite to become a partner" from Rees Morrison's Law Department Management
• “So Long, Blank Checks: Clients Saying Get with the Program, or Get Out of the Way” from Shatterbox
• "Total median compensation of a group of general counsel was five times salary" from Rees Morrison's Law Department Management
• “Warnings Toll for BigLaw Firms Resistant to Change” from the ABA Journal

What the Hashtag?! Twitterstream

Video Interviews from Gregory Bufithis of The Posse List and Lisa DiMonte of MyLegal.com

Leah Cooper

Anthony Davis



Jose M. de Areilza

Michele DeStefano Beardslee

Deborah Epstein Harry

Ron Friedmann



Cynthia Fuchs Epstein



Jordan Furlong



David Galbenski



Susan Hackett

Joshua Kubicki

Bruce MacEwen

Stephen Mayson



David McGowan



Marisa Mendez



Thomas Morgan

Mitt Regan



Larry Ribstein



Timothy Scrantom

Reena SenGupta

Paul Smith

Richard Susskind

Laurel S. Terry