It’s highly unlikely that your law practice is anywhere near as noisy and chaotic as Times Square. Quite the contrary: When you go to meetings, or present to groups of lawyers or potential clients, the space is relatively calm and quiet. Most significantly, your audience arrives with at least some intention of hearing what you have to say. You don’t have to compete for attention like a billboard in Times Square. That doesn’t mean you should take audience interest for granted.
March 12, 2018 0 0In previous columns, I have talked about the concept of tribes and building a network to support you when your practice takes off in a major way and you need extra help. But have you thought about ways to broaden the scope of your community to help avoid violating ethics rules?
March 8, 2018 0 0Straight out of law school, I joined a small law practice. I didn’t start out as an associate with a large salary and plenty of document review projects to hit my hours. I had to eat what I killed and immediately begin bringing in clients. If you've recently hung your shingle and need some ideas for generating clients, here's what worked for me.
Originally published March 7, 2018ABA TECHSHOW 2018 is bringing lawyers and technology together starting today, March 7-10, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago (a new location for the 32-year-old event). The conference is showcasing advances in law practice management and offering educational sessions and continuing legal education programming on practical technologies to help provide legal services to clients. The exposition hall, which opens Wednesday evening and closes Friday at 3 p.m., includes more than 100 vendors.
Originally published March 7, 2018Just because you see a word or phrase in public media doesn’t mean it is being used correctly. Here are five common incorrect usages. Nicole Kidman’s husband is real. Because a person is famous does not make that person an urban legend. Keith Urban has won a number of music awards. He is celebrated in his field. You might say he is legendary. You could say the same of John Legend. Despite their names, neither Urban nor Legend are urban legends.
Originally published March 6, 2018Welcome back to our "Year of Publishing Strategically." Having covered a variety of writing tips and tactics in this column, this year we are exploring the ins and outs of content strategy. Put another way, we are all about getting your content to work harder and smarter for you by doing more thinking upfront. You accomplish this by crafting a well-designed content strategy before you ever sit down to write.
March 5, 2018 0 2In the past, if you wanted to put call-tracking numbers on your local directory listings, you'd get some dirty looks. That's because 100 percent consistency in your NAP (name, address and phone) is critical. The thinking was that adding call-tracking numbers would ruin your citation profile and your search rankings. Well, things have changed: You can use call tracking on your GMB listing. Here's how to do it.
Originally published March 1, 2018I have a group of mental gremlins that live in my head. Other people I know call their gremlins “the girls” or “the committee.” These are the voices in my head that tell me I suck at everything. Do you have a name for yours? When my gremlins get on a roll, my thoughts can snowball quickly out of control. They can start with any topic and then run the gamut within a matter of minutes: “I’m a bad dog parent. I suck as an athlete. I’m a crap lawyer. I never get anything done.” Of course, everything they say is a lie, and thankfully, I know that. But their perpetual negativity is hard to live with at times.
Originally published February 27, 2018Pandemic or not, our clients don’t stop needing us. As a lawyer and mother, I often say, “I don’t have time to be sick!” As we all know, without your health, nothing else matters: You cannot work, take care of clients, be there for your family, or manage your work and life. While many people focus on medications to get them well once they are sick, you can take preventative steps to boost your immune system and avoid getting sick in the first place. Here are five tips to help you stay healthy
Originally published February 23, 2018As members of a conservative industry that — literally — wrote the rule book on sexual harassment, law firms need to be ready for a day of reckoning that seems inescapable. Right now, the focus is still largely on Hollywood, mass media, Wall Street, Silicon Valley and politics … all professional arenas historically known to operate by their own set of rules that have been at equal turns brushed off as socially acceptable, emboldened after career-ending threats kept censure at bay, and vigorously defended in a courtroom. But the shakiness of this dynamic is that the lawyer standing beside every Steve Wynn, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer, Gavin Baker, Travis Kalanick or Al Franken is most likely operating from his or her own "house of cards."
Originally published February 22, 2018