At two law firms where I was an in-house marketer, I had the dubious honor of having a marketing committee to work with. One was okay, since it really only served an advisory role, while the other was a total disaster. Could hardly agree on anything, and certainly provided little useful input. Some meetings were…

In too many firms, not everyone has bought into being part of the marketing team. You don’t necessarily want every lawyer writing articles or making speeches. Some may not be very good at it, but they can still be part of the team and contribute in other ways. And I have posted before about making…

Not only should you make your staff part of the marketing team, you should empower them in ways that can increase their effectiveness in assisting clients and improving the image (brand) of your law firm.
Joseph’s Marketing Blog talks about the power of empowerment in a recent post and a couple of points are…

About a dozen years ago, I spoke to 3L’s at a prestigious Midwest law school who were planning to go solo when they graduated. I offered some advice, based on my experience as a solo, on setting up their practice. Additionally, I gave them advice on how to start marketing their practice, since unlike their…

Dave Swanner’s recent post on South Carolina Trial Law Blog about the three most important values he places on hiring employees could equally apply to how lawyers are valued by staff. His three values are loyalty, communication and hard work; and he puts them ahead of intelligence when it comes to hiring an employee.…

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has an interesting post relating to contract blogging as a revenue source.
That reminded me of my belief that we will see small law firms contracting with bloggers to keep the firm’s or practice group’s blog current, especially when they are too busy to maintain it themselves. I have one small firm client that is considering using yours truly for that very purpose.Continue Reading Contract Blogging for Profit

There is a very good article on practice group management by Patrick McKenna of the The Edge Group that was reported on Adam Smith, Esq.. Bruce reports how the train has left the station when it comes to practice groups, and apparently there is no turning back.
McKenna addresses the many advantages of practice group management and points out that the biggest benefits that come from well structured and run practice groups are more and better clients. He used an example of a real estate practice group, but did not emphasize that it is an industry (rather than a subject we took in law school). However, he did indicate that practice groups should be structured across traditional practice areas to meet the needs of a client and industry segment. This brings me to the point of why I too favor practice groups, but have seen too many large firms continue to form their groups based on legal disciplines. Your practice groups should be multi-disciplinary in nature. For example, in the health care area, a group should consist of lawyers with expertise in administrative law, employment, environmental, business entities, contracts, real estate, tax, estate planning, litigation, and so forth. In other words, structure your practice groups to meet the needs of a client segment whatever your firm’s size.Continue Reading Practice Group Management For Small Firms