According to a Gallup poll on the perceived honesty and ethics of various professions, most people (79 percent) rate lawyers average or low. Just below bankers. Congressmen and car salesmen ranked lowest. How can you convey that you really are trustworthy? Trust is essential for all effective relationships, whether personal or business. There’s no quick fix when it comes to gaining the trust of others — especially once it is lost. It takes a genuine desire and small everyday efforts. So where do you start? ... READ THE REST

Effective branding creates a psychological connection between a “thing” and the people who'll willingly pay money for that “thing.” In my own branding, I've always done what came naturally. I didn't start out by thinking about rules or processes. Over time, though, I realized that much of what I was doing could be put into a formula — the "three P's" — to teach others my branding processes. My formula for branding is PASSION + PERSONALITY = PERSUASION, where the final goal is to persuade people to give us money to help them.

There are lots of cybersecurity worries to give you the willies in the wee hours of the morning, but we were asked to pick five. So here are some of the most common threats for lawyers to keep in mind. 1. Ransomware. We continue to see law firms struck by ransomware, which is a type of malware that encrypts your data (restricting your access to it) and then demands a ransom payment — usually in bitcoins — to get your data back. ... READ THE REST

It’s widely accepted that law schools don’t do a very good job — or in many cases don’t do anything at all — to teach law students how to develop business. Many commentators lament this failure, criticizing schools for not focusing on business development basics.

I coach one-on-one with hundreds of lawyers each year. When they plop their legal pads on the table as we work, I can see the notes they have created for public speaking or trial advocacy. With just a glance, it’s immediately obvious how unhelpful those notes are for the task at hand. Written too small and illegibly, they lack any discernible visual structure. Like a newspaper without headlines over articles, the topics often have no headlines, and no beginning or ending. A speaker making a presentation or conducting an examination of a witness cannot possibly find such notes very helpful. What would Donald Trump do? ... READ THE REST

Any nontrivial decision presents a tournament of reasons. Choosing document drafting tools for law practice is a classic case, featuring a complex dance of circumstances, candidates and considerations. This is the third in a series of short pieces about that process. To recap key themes from my earlier posts (Choosing a Document Automation System and […]

Question: My secretary is sick and absent from work a lot. Yet I need someone here every day to help me. What can I do? If your assistant is missing in action more than you like, you can find yourself in a world-class pickle: Where did she save the client file? What's the tracking number on that courier package she sent out last night? And how can I get all this work done? Today's experts from the Association of Legal Administrators, Pamela Sachs and Cindy Snook, have dealt with this before. ... READ THE REST

In 2016, reputation and relationships remain fundamental to client development. If anything’s changing, it’s the tools at our disposal to create, nurture and solidify our relationships.

The more I conduct client feedback interviews, the more I realize how few quality contacts lawyers make with their clients outside the substantive legal work being done. The number of times clients fumble for the name of a lawyer who is actively involved in one of their matters is pretty astounding. Recently, one client said, “I can't remember who it is and I've never met him.”

Without the right management tools in your firm, chaos, stress and confusion often reign. If you feel out of control (and plenty of lawyers do), getting a grip on your law practice will require these three things.