Daily Dispatch

One of the first things we do at the start of a new year is open up our calendar and plug in the dates for conferences most likely to deliver the big ideas. We've poured over the sessions and speaker bios and asked for recommendations for 2015's ...

Business plans. Marketing plans. Professional development plans. The hard drives and filing cabinets of lawyers are littered with them. For some, developing a plan is a worthwhile exercise and a means to a desired end: business development and ...

The staff evaluation form lands on your desk, with instructions to return it within a week. It’s time for the dreaded annual performance review. And it's dreaded not just by those being reviewed. If you are giving the review, it raises ...

A basic rule of good writing is to make every word count. “There is,” “there are” and “it is” are the weakest ways to start a sentence. Used this way, “there” and “it” are placeholders for the real subject of the sentence. They are particularly ...

Question: I read so much about lawyers engaging in social media, but I see little evidence of its effectiveness. How is social media being used by lawyers in a way that is beneficial? For this edition of "Ask the ...

Feedback is constructive information you can use to identify problems you need to correct and strengths you can build on. It can also give you new ideas that will revitalize your practice. But getting feedback, even when you asked for it, can ...

It may surprise some to know that I hold some very strong opinions. One of the burdens of having strong opinions is knowing when to share and when not to. Really, is it conceivable that others would not want to hear the wisdom dripping from our lips?

One of my favorite quotes is, “If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got.” Although a bit inelegant, this phrase is particularly apt with respect to marketing and business development.

Even if your firm has a policy against it, there’s a chance that online shopping is happening in your office — especially during the height of the holidays. Why be concerned? For one, hackers are actively working to compromise any size ...

Forgive me, but I’m going to jump on my soapbox today. I’m a licensed attorney in Arizona and we have a mandatory bar, so all of us have to pay to play. In 2014, I paid $460 for my bar dues, and Arizona was ranked 10th in the nation for ...