Hourly billing actually did not become of age in the legal profession until the 1950s, after a series of reports showed that firms that charged by the hour were more profitable than those that charged on the basis of the service sold. Those lawyers who kept accurate time records and billed by the hour made more money. Go figure. Here we are, 60 years later, trying to figure out if flat fees are — or can be — more profitable than the hourly billing system. The focus is shifting away from hours and cost toward value, transparency and improved collaboration between lawyer and client. With so many inherent problems with hourly billing, a good question to ask is: Why continue with it when there are other pricing options — like flat fees? While flat fees are certainly getting a lot of attention, hourly is still the preferred method of billing. But with the rise of the entrepreneur lawyer, legal technology and a more sophisticated legal consumer, flat fees may become the new normal for legal billing in the near future. If you are ready to try flat-fee billing, here are some questions to consider.

A common frustration among lawyers is that their networks are too low caliber to provide access to decision-makers. If you have a business development plan, it is probably too generic to give you a meaningful edge over the competition. You wish you had started planting the seeds of opportunity earlier — but as a new lawyer, you didn't have the expertise or network to make traditional marketing activities fruitful. It's a conundrum that can't be solved by attending more bar association events or cocktail mixers. Instead, try using these two strategies to upgrade your network and identify better business opportunities. ... READ THE REST

Lawyers are routinely told how necessary it is to maintain an active presence on Twitter. With good reason: With 284 million monthly active users (48.2 million of whom reside within the U.S.), it’s a safe bet your potential clients are there. More importantly, consumers are increasingly turning to social media channels when evaluating purchasing decisions — even legal services. Plus, clients control more of the purchasing journey than ever before — often, by the time they reach out and contact you, they’ve already decided to retain your services. Therefore, it’s become imperative that you remain top-of-mind by communicating, engaging, building trust and establishing relationships with the people who could someday become your clients. But on a platform where more than 500 million messages are sent every day and the average lifespan of a tweet hovers around 18 minutes before it disappears into a void of cat pictures and TV show spoilers forever, how do you make sure you’re getting return on your social media investment? ... READ THE REST

You’ve finished law school and passed the bar. Now the youthful energy that carried you through six, seven or eight years of higher education needs to focus on paying the bills. If you are like many new attorneys, you are carrying six figures of debt on your back. So what if you’re part of a trend? […]

Calendar management continues to be a major source of anxiety among legal professionals — with good reason. Calendar-related errors are the leading cause of malpractice actions against lawyers, accounting for more than a full third of all malpractice claims. Missed deadlines, filing dates, and court appearances attributed either to procrastination, failure to maintain an up-to-date calendar, or user error when adding calendar entries can be incredibly costly for law firms, with the average malpractice claim in the some states costing as high as $100,000. Malpractice claims hit small firms particularly hard — according to the most recent Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims study prepared the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers' Professional Responsibility, more than 70 percent of all claims are filed against firms with five or fewer attorneys. ... READ THE REST

“I don't know what to do!” he cried. “Now we're forming committees to make decisions.” I had listened to his travails for the last year as his firm slowly moldered. Morale was bad, profits had slipped down over time, senior partners had become unhappy with their compensation, and the firm's reputation had taken a couple of hits.

Gabriel Cheong started his own law firm straight out of law school. One year later he purchased the law firm where he once interned. Now Gabriel runs Infinity Law Group while blogging, tweeting and marketing his firm. He'll be one of four speakers participating in this year's "Lightening Round: Avvo Success Stories" May 13 at Lawyernomics 2015. We asked him to share some hard-earned lessons he's learned using social media for his family law practice. Unless you’re willing — and financially able — to employ someone to coordinate all of your law practice's social media, chances are you’re doing it yourself, when time allows. I'm a lawyer, not a social media "expert," though I have worked with some so-called experts for my firm. Here's what I’ve come to realize about using social media for your law firm. ... READ THE REST

We’ve all seen how technology can help level the playing field, allowing smaller firms and solos to compete with larger rivals, and scale quickly to meet clients' needs. That’s good news for small firms and clients alike. But just because a firm is small doesn’t make it lean — or mighty. Too many lawyers stick with the old ways of doing things simply because it’s familiar. Here are tips for running a lean law practice, rethinking how you can provide the most value to your clients, in the most productive way. 1. Focus on the practice of law — not on IT. Of course, you’re focused on providing counsel and service, not on IT. But the trap many "would-be" lean lawyers fall into is overthinking the role technology should play in their practice. ... READ THE REST

That iPhone or Android in your pocket already does nearly everything but wash the car. So why not apply your smartphone's smarts to getting and keeping a healthy glow? Today, lawyer and certified health coach Jamie Spannhake launches our "Fit Five" series, counting the ways (and apps) your smartphone can keep you running smoothly. One consistent item in all our lives is our smartphones. Since we have them with us all the time, we should use them to help us get and stay healthy. Here are five ways. 1. Assess first. In any good plan to accomplish anything, you first need to assess where you are. My favorite app for this health-wise is MyFitnessPal. ... READ THE REST

Some lawyers still think a brand is a logo, the firm name or a tagline. Others don’t see how branding applies to the legal profession at all. Even those who embrace the notion struggle mightily to get it right.