What are you willing to risk to grow your practice?
What are you willing to risk to grow your practice? The reality is that reward almost always requires some risk, whether it’s the risk of stepping outside your comfort zone, the risk of putting an investment on the line, or the risk of rejection. There’s no point in taking foolish risks, but without taking some […]
Can’t-Miss Articles
There’s a lot of analysis these days about practice and law school in light of the recession and the recovering economy. Most of these articles are focused on large law firms (for a variety of reasons ranging from the better availability of data to the different economic pressures), but the discussions are relevant whether you’re […]
Legal Business Development: How to Decide Whether to Write an Article, Deliver a Presentation, or Attend a Conference
“Should I write an article for this publication? Should I accept this invitation to speak? Should I attend this conference?” Since neither time nor money is unlimited, you’ll have to make some difficult decisions about which business development activities to pursue and which to let pass. Especially if you’re eager to get new business, it’s […]
Independence as a Goal for Building a Practice
When I have a consultation with a potential client, I always ask two questions: what do you want to create in your practice, and why? More often than not, one aspect of the “why” addresses the desire for independence. Service partners, for instance, often mention the desire to regain some scheduling freedom. Freedom in being […]
Legal Business Development: What You MUST Learn From Law Firm Layoff Trends
On Monday morning, I read a Wall Street Journal article sharing the news that law firms have “regained some of their pricing power” and that hourly rates are up an average of 4.8% from 2011. Later Monday, other news started to roll out: Weil Gotshal announced a layoff of 60 associates (7% of its associates) […]
Legal Business Development: Where do you stop yourself from getting results?
A few days ago, a colleague and I were swapping stories about our business missteps: the things that just didn’t work, and the things that were colossal, flaming failures. To listen to us, you might think that neither of us had a viable business, must less a successful one–but fortunately, that isn’t at all the […]
Rainmaker’s Book Review: Network Like A Fox
Networking has a negative reputation among so many lawyers. It’s often time-intensive and, if not done well, can be a waste of time. Lots of us (especially us introverts) dread the thought of walking into a crowd of strangers, so we spend time with people we already know, hang out on the fringes of the […]