To grow your law practice, you have to get more clients, right? But is that really the best growth strategy? Not necessarily. For many law firms, the right strategy is to get better, not bigger. Pursuing growth — more clients, more billable hours, more staff — for growth's sake is often counter-productive. Good growth — sustainable, manageable, profitable, enjoyable — requires a different approach.

Let's say you're an average Joe who needs to find a local lawyer. Finding the right one can certainly be a difficult quest. Where do you start? Many might think a person's automatic first step would be to ask a few friends if they've used a lawyer they can recommend. But according to a new FindLaw survey, consumers are more likely to head straight to the Internet. Thirty-eight percent of people in the 2014 FindLaw survey said they would use the Internet to find a lawyer, compared to 28% who said they'd ask a relative or friend. That's a big shift from a similar survey less than a decade ago, in 2005, when only 7% said they'd use the Internet and 65% said they'd ask a friend or relative. The problem there for lawyers? The Internet is such an overcrowded space that the only thing more difficult than finding the right lawyer might be getting found if you’re that lawyer. Enter the solution: Learning how to win at "local search marketing" ... READ MORE

It’s simple math, actually. You can fiddle around with yearly billables expectations, “pieces of the pie” and annual hourly rate adjustments — and even stop stocking free coffee in the break room. But your ability to build a legal business that thrives — one that makes money — is going to require a more systemic approach.

Your vocabulary is probably better than the average reality-show star, but if, you know, you are addicted to “amazing,” or find yourself, like, OK, wanting to, like, break some of your, uhm, bad speech habits, this post is for you.

The legal world really is starting to work differently. And while the path is uncertain, change is certainly creating opportunities for new career directions. For our "New Math, New Money" download, legal careers expert Wendy Werner asked a few smart people for their best advice in response to this question: “What’s the one thing a new lawyer should do right now to prepare for tomorrow’s law jobs?” For this Friday Five, we have their smart answers, plus Wendy's own wisdom for new lawyers. READ MORE

Question: “After several networking lunches and casual meetings with a potential client, she invited me to come meet with her and her staff to “tell us what you can do for us.” What should I do? How can I make sure I stand out and get the work?” In this edition of “Ask the Experts” we hear from Legal Marketing Association members Stacy Smith, Jim Jarrell and Paul Bonner. ...READ THEIR ANSWERS

In this series, Oklahoma attorney Noble McIntyre has been offering tips on rolling out the welcome mat for clients and prospective clients. His first two posts provided pointers on phone etiquette and office appearance — but it's the people in your firm who set the tone. In this installment, Noble looks at how their behavior can help instill client confidence. In every interaction with a client, the people involved are the most important element. And on the firm's side, it’s not just about you, the client's lawyer, but about the other people in your office, too. ... READ MORE

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) held its annual conference last week in Orlando, Florida, attended by more than 1,200 professional marketers. The buzz focused on a range of topics, from adapting to the “new normal” and sophisticated pricing strategies to using technology to market legal services and considering generational differences in your marketing message. 1. New normal. Jordan Furlong of Law21 and Edge International presented an audience of chief marketing officers with a startling image of two worlds colliding. The client’s world, driven by the need to reduce costs and improve efficiency is crashing into the law firm world, characterized by the billable hour, a reluctance to change and well-established client service delivery methods. READ MORE

The best way for potential clients to gauge chemistry and competence — short of meeting you in person — is by watching you in an online video. With a mere tap on their tablet or smartphone, they can get up close and personal for a sample of your style. While the technology gets easier, secrets remain about how to come across well on video. Drew Keller, expert on just that topic, will give tips on "How to Tell Your Story with Video" at Lawyernomics 2014. We asked him for a preview. ... READ THE INTERVIEW

Katy Goshtasbi provides an excellent yet simple definition of a personal brand: It's what people say about you behind your back. Essentially, it’s your reputation. As people have become more active on social media, though, the idea of a personal brand has expanded. Before social media, I suspect your reputation was largely based on what your professional peers thought of you in the workplace. Now, however, people share their activities and thoughts outside the workplace with pretty much everyone. This forces us to be more mindful about how our personal posts could affect our professional reputation. Recently, a law school asked me to speak about how to build a personal brand. ... READ MORE