Succession planning in your law firm. Crystal ball need not apply.

Tom Grella's "Five Questions to Ask About Your Firm’s Succession Readiness" in the May / June 2011 edition of the ABA's Law Practice Magazine. Is your firm ready for the future? Not the "practicing in the cloud" future or the paperless office future or the Watson advising clients future. The future as in the next generation of leadership, when the current managing partner and practice leaders and office heads have retired, taking the recipe for success with them, leaving new leaders the challenge of practicing law and managing a firm and figuring out how to create value for the partnership. Think you're ready for that future? Shouldn't you be sure before it arrives? Grella's article, along with every other piece in this issue of Law Practice Magazine, is a big step in the right direction.

Strategy as it should be.

Bruce MacEwen's "Third in Our Series on Strategy: Bad Strategy" on his blog Adam Smith, Esq. Think you've got strategy? Then you need to read this post, which is easily one of the best pieces on law firm strategy I have read (and I read a lot of 'em). Law firms are notorious for spending time, money, and resources developing strategic plans that do little more than confirm a broad range of unrealistic assumptions, about the market, the firm, the competition, the potential for increased revenue. Not on purpose, mind you. It just happens. Because they fear dissent if everyone doesn't have a voice. Because they think if they want something bad enough it will come true. Because good strategy is hard: it requires making difficult choices, admitting weaknesses, setting unpopular priorities. MacEwen's post can help you break that cycle. If you heed his advice, that is:

"Doing it the hard way-the right way-may be more painful in the short run, but anything else is sure to be far more painful in the long run."

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.

Today's Law Marketing Resource

Beth Flynn's "A Relational Rule of Life," written as a guest post on Thoughtful Legal Management. When was the last time you really focused on the relationships that drive your success? Not just the who and the what and the where, but the why and the how? This post lists ten guidelines for "developing leadership by cultivating relationships."  They're really ten steps for improving the value of your relationships by improving your relationship skills. Read them, and get to work.

Top Ten Law Marketing Resources of 2010

In 2010, I featured more than 100 posts on this blog. Here are my favorites.

1. 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.
   


2. Adrian Baron’s "Lost in Translation. The Advantages of a Bilingual Law Practice" from his blog 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? Baron tells a great story. Telling good stories, and if you're lucky great ones, is a powerful marketing technique. This is how one lawyer does it right.
   


3. 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.
   


4. Jim Hassett’s "Another mistake: Overestimating the value of personal relationships" from his blog 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.
   


5. 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? Forward this post to your clients, and ask THEM to rate YOU. They'll love it, and you'll probably learn something.
   


6. 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).
   


7. Bruce MacEwen’s "Report from London" from Adam Smith, Esq. I've recommended 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?
   


8. Mark Herrmann's “Inside Straight: Business Development” series 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. "Part 1" 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? In "Part 2," the 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. Herrmann uses "Part 3" to answer a question he's already answered before (which might even be 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.
   


9. Carolyn Elefant’s "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.
   


10. "12 Leadership Guidelines for Leading through Learning in Turbulent Times" from Michael McKinney on 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.

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

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

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 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 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 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 Corcoran's Business of Law Blog: "Does a CMO need an MBA?"

"Does a CMO need an MBA?" from Altman Weil consultant Tim Corcoran in his Corcoran's Business of Law Blog. What makes a good law firm Chief Marketing Officer? How is that changing? Will an MBA better prepare the next generation of CMOs for the challenges they're going to face, to their jobs, to marketing the law firm, to the legal profession itself? Corcoran thinks so, and I'd have to agree. Read what he has to say, then add your comments to the discussion.

From a public defender: The presumption of guilt

"The presumption of guilt" from a public defender. I could recommend this post because my Blawg Review #257 question led to it. But that's not why you should read it. You should read it because it's full of passion, full of truth, full of candor. Because it makes you think. Because it articulates, in one of the best posts I've read all year, the most difficult aspect of being a public defender. Read it and you'll surely 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

What I learned from two days at the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting

It was the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting last week in Denver. Two days of informative seminars, of making connections, of strengthening relationships, of exploring new ideas and learning the latest intelligence and understanding the challenges facing our clients, our firms, our industry. But don’t take my word for it. Read these:

Session recaps from Lindsay Griffiths on Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance and Gina Furia Rubel on The Legal Intelligencer Blog.

• "Keynote Event - Insights into the Future" (Lindsay Griffith)
  
  
• "Social Media Strategies for Small to Mid-sized Law Firms" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Leveraging Social Networking - Real World Applications of Web 2.0 That Have Led to New Business" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Examining the Current Use of Alternative Fee Arrangements" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Recovery: Refocusing the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership to Maximize Profitability" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Creating and Implementing a Sales and Business Development Culture in your Firm" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "General Session: What We Love Most about Our Lawyers - A Client Panel" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "The Digital Firm 2015 - The Changing Face of Professional Services Marketing Communications" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 1 Biz Dev" (Gina Furia Rubel)
  
  
• "Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 2 Competitive Advantage" (Gina Furia Rubel)

General Observations

• "Migrating from Marketing to Business Development" from Karen Lorimer in Canadian Lawyer
  
  
• "Paramjit Mahli reports on the Legal Marketing Association conference in Denver" (video) from Legal Broadcast Network News Blog
  
  
• "The Social Web Revolution and Law Firm Marketing Professionals" from Jayne Navarre's Virtual Marketing Officer
  
  
• “Your People Are Your Brand” from Alli Gerkman’s Beyond Credits
  
  
• “Here’s a story about Social Media” from John Bryne’s The Byrne Blog
  
  
• “LMA 2010 Takeaways” from Jon Holden (video)
  
  
• “Me, Twitter, LMA and Laura Gutierrez” from Heather Milligan’s The Legal Water Cooler
  
  
• “LMA10 Conference part 1: my message to marketers” from Nancy Myrland’s Myrland Marketing blog
  
  
• “The Great Legal Marketing Tweetup of 2010” from Nancy Myrland’s Myrland Marketing blog
  
  
• “Confessions from a Social Networker: How Twitter Shaped My #LMA10 Experience” from Gina Furia Rubel on The PR Lawyer
  
  
• “High on Hashtags” from Russell Lawson on Progressive Marketing
  
  
• “It’s About Relationships” from Lindsay Griffiths’ Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance

#LMA10 Twitter stream

• Twitter Search
  
  
• Twapperkeeper
  
  
• What the hashtag?!