Good improv comics have an ability to walk onto a stage and connect with an audience effortlessly. It may seem like this is because of their innate acting talent, but that's only part of it. Improv training gives these actors a toolbox of learned skills that allow them to bring their talent to life on stage. These same skills work just as well on the business stage as they do in a theater.

With spellcheckers and online grammar guardians such as Grammarly, proofreading has become a nostalgic pastime for some writers. But proofreading is more than spotting typographical errors; it is a chance to impartially consider usage and sentence construction. Like mindfulness, proofreading contributes to peace of mind.

The internet is really helpful at listing common ways people waste their money. But legal technology spending is a bit trickier to control than your gym fees or cable bill. Even when it's just you and your laptop. So, where are law firms losing money? Today, legal technology experts Heidi Alexander, Sharon Nelson, Catherine Reach, Nora Regis, Deborah Savadra, John Simek and Courtney Troutman point to the biggest money-wasters in law offices — and share their tips for spending wisely.

In a country with increasingly diverse demographics, effective marketing must appeal to but not insult any group. Sticking to One's Own. People may be most comfortable consulting a lawyer in their own demographic, but that isn’t always possible. The more specialized your practice area, the more important it is for all potential clients to feel comfortable retaining you. Your marketing efforts may reflect your own cultural biases, sometimes in ways you may not realize. Certainly, you will want to reach out to potential clients who you know will view you as simpatico. But think hard about what you can do to appeal to others.

Much has been written about clients’ reactions to escalating legal costs, but what are the implications of a client challenging individual billing entries? It may not be about billing at all, but about how well your operating style aligns with your client's. Here are a few common billing challenges to set the stage.

Athletes often discuss the fact that each time they advance to the next level the game “speeds up.” The leap from high school to college ball is a significant one. Players are bigger, faster and stronger, and the game moves at a more rapid pace. College to pro is even more drastic, as things move at dizzying speeds. You’ve just turned pro. While there were smart, insightful people in your law school class, you're now participating on a professional playing field at an entirely different level.

On Sept. 1, 1994, a man named Marc Duke started The Original Pet Drink Co. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His vision? Provide flavored bottled water for pets, free of the chemicals found in tap water and fortified with essential vitamins and minerals. Two months later, Duke’s company was shipping 175,000 bottles of beef and salmon-flavored Thirsty Dog! and Thirsty Cat! to stores across the country weekly. Business seemed to be booming. And why wouldn’t it be? The company tested the water on 15,000 pets and tweaked the formula about 100 times before arriving at the final product. But today, Thirsty Dog! and Thirsty Cat! are recognized as among the biggest product flops in history.

Jamie Spannhake | Tal Fagin on the importance of leaving your lawyer at work so you can have a better personal life.

Lawyers spend too much time chasing after unpaid invoices. LawPay’s Scheduled Payments feature helps build a predictable, steady cash flow for your firm. Lawyers spend far too much of their valuable time chasing after unpaid invoices instead of working billable hours. Being able to schedule payments in advance provides both you and your clients with […]

Law firms are busy places, and sometimes the smaller operations are even more chaotic than their large firm counterparts. It’s important to keep that behind the scenes, though. Your clients should see only a well-oiled machine — beginning the moment they first make contact with the firm. Often, the first interactions will involve your support staff. Theirs are the first faces a client sees when she walks through the door, the first greetings on the phone, and they are sometimes involved in the actual pre-screening process, too. So, it’s crucial that each of your support team members understands the message you want to send to the public and conveys it when dealing with clients, whether in person, on the phone or by email.