In Part 1 of "Purge Toxic Clients," we walked through how to identify a bad client. Today, having identified them, let's look at how to actually end the relationship. When ending a client relationship, you have three goals: 1) Politely explain the situation; 2) Be professional — you never know where people will be five, 10 or 15 years in the future; and 3) set clear expectations of what to expect from you next.

You can create a video that simply exists on your website, or you can create legal videos that help you capture new clients and cases. While there is no magic formula to creating effective legal video content, there are general rules and guidelines you can follow to ensure that your video is positioned for success. If you’re venturing into the realm of video marketing for the first time (or if you’re looking to fine-tune your content to achieve the best results), here are five common characteristics of highly effective legal videos.

Question: How can I get my partner to cross-sell me to her great contacts? One of the toughest nuts to crack in a law firm is getting that important introduction to someone else's client. You know they need your expertise and experience, and you're positive it would be good for the firm. Too often, though, your partners hold their clients so close they lose sight of what those clients may need from others. Here's advice from the Legal Marketing Association's Adam Severson and Lisa Simon.

With so many choices (and new features being added constantly), shopping for practice management software can be overwhelming. So, we asked the practice management technology experts for a little perspective. First, what’s their best advice on making the decision, especially for smaller firms considering switching programs or investing for the first time? Then, what’s the […]

Years ago, someone told me about an accounting firm’s business development training philosophy. The firm had developed a continuum from 1 to 10, where “1” was something like “Would recognize me on the street,” and “10” was something like “Take family vacations together.” They asked the professionals to list their top contacts and indicate where each one fell on the continuum. After this exercise, the firm advised the accountants that their goal should be to move each contact up one number per year.

When Jeff Sherr was introduced to Slack, it struck him as a better way to capture and share those “short explosions of ideas” that happen after conferences and other events. You know when you’re out to dinner, talking with people, and new ideas start popping up? “Some of the best innovative ideas happen at those dinners,” says Sherr, who is the training director for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, and a leader in the National Association of Public Defenders.

Key performance indicators (KPIs), or performance metrics, are receiving some attention in the legal field. KPIs enable businesses to make data-driven decisions, and I, too, believe that KPIs are the next big thing for lawyers and law firms. Mantras like “measure or perish” have been bantered around many legal events over the past couple of years. However, measuring utilization and profit per partner are not the focus of the new breed of KPI. Instead, the focus is shifting from measuring inputs like available hours to measuring outputs that include value.

The inaugural Legal Marketing Technology Conference/Midwest, produced by the Legal Marketing Association's Midwest Chapter, took place June 23, 2016, in Chicago. While all attendees gained insights on a host of sophisticated tools that legal professionals can use to identify, attract and support clients, the presenters also helped law firm marketers understand how to work with our law firms to turn those insights into actions. Here are five takeaways from the conference.

An infinitive is the barest form of a verb. Usually, we refer to a verb form as an infinitive when we use “to”: to go, to run, to think. If you studied a foreign language, you probably learned the infinitive form of verbs and then how to conjugate them. In English, we don’t need the “to.” We can refer to a “bare infinitive” without the “to.” But some sentences do require infinitives.

Most law firm websites have similar issues when it comes to search engine optimization — some major, others that are relatively simple fixes. But almost half of the websites I see are missing the basics. Title tags, for example, can have a huge impact on your rankings. While Google looks at over 200 metrics to rank a website for certain keywords and phrases, the title tag is still one of the most important factors.