If you want to know how to get more clients, there’s a flood of information out there. Google it! But just as there are good lawyers and … not so good lawyers, there’s good marketing advice and, well, let’s just say that some of it’s oversimplified. Bruce Marcus is a longtime authority on professional services marketing. […]

The day that first computer appeared on a lawyer's desk, it brought a promise of simplicity. Technology would organize, systematize and calendarize the daily chaos, leaving our human time and minds free to address the really critical stuff. Ha! If anything, the chaos deepens. So we're particularly excited about Daniel Gold's new column. He'll be bringing us good ideas for amping up our productivity and changing the way we get things done—in a big way!

Recently, New York became the first state to require that law students perform 50 hours of pro bono work before they can be admitted to the bar. Plenty of bloggers have already chimed in on whether this is a good or bad idea. There’s little that I can add to that debate. But I like to […]

Wouldn't it be nice to make a clean sweep and set up your practice from scratch—applying all your hard-earned wisdom? Great ideas for setting up a new law practice was the focus of the Chicago Bar Association's Law Practice Start Up Boot Camp last week. A dream team of practice management advisors—Catherine Sanders Reach of the CBA, along with Jim Calloway, Natalie Kelly and Reid Trautz—delivered rapid-fire information on the A to Z's of getting up and running. Budgeting and billing, marketing and client service, systems and technology (pfew!), plus much more. For this Friday Five, we're pointing to some of the best bits of wisdom of that day for fine-tuning your practice—whether you are just starting up or you need a productivity boost. (And don't we all?)

If you read my post on "How Hourly Billing Kills Law Firms," maybe you’ve been inspired to figure out how to price certain legal services based on their value to a client, not the number of hours you spent. Now all you have to do is figure out what it costs to provide those legal services. Now let’s be honest. Budgeting, cost tracking and other accounting metrics are often ignored by lawyers—regardless of firm size. But with a little investigative work, you’ll get a better handle on your practice and which of your services are actually profitable. ...

Here’s something I don’t understand: clients who are late for meetings. They set up the meeting based on their availability, and even confirm it the day before—yet sometimes I find myself sitting in a conference room waiting for them after the appointment was supposed to have started. Most of my clients do arrive on time, but this happens often enough that it annoys me. What happened to the rule, "If You’re On Time, You’re Late"? ...

Like you, I hate keeping track of my billable time. I used to spend hours each week going through sent emails, my calendar and my notes to figure out what I did every day.I knew there had to be a better answer than notepads and start/stop timers. The problem with the start/stop timer, for me, […]

Law school provides aspiring lawyers with a ton of information. For example, I learned about the Constitution and I learned how to panic. While studying for the bar, I learned about commercial paper and I learned that I cannot grow a full beard. What law school fails to teach aspiring attorneys is how to act like a normal, functional, regular business adult. Most law students go straight from college to law school without stepping a foot outside of their childhood bedroom. These “lawyers” can draft a brilliantly researched brief on the substantive and statutory procedural requirements of the admissibility of expert testimony in federal court. These “lawyers” cannot conduct a client meeting, cannot figure out how to bill time, and oftentimes cannot find the bathroom. Unlike other professions, we lawyers are simply not properly trained. ...

In his book The Checklist Manifesto, surgeon Atul Gawande asserts that checklists are a “cognitive net,” a mechanism that can help prevent experienced people from making errors due to flawed memory and attention, and ensure that teams work together. Or, as Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame put it, “the book’s main point is simple: no matter how expert you may be, well-designed checklists can improve outcomes.” In a law office, checklists help reduce errors and increase efficiency. They ensure that work is done, and in an order that makes the most sense. They can also be used as part of a task management system, showing each person in the organization how her responsibilities on the checklist affect the entire procedure. Two collaboration tools specifically focused on lists and tasks recently launched online. One, Asana, created by former Facebook employees, provides a web-based “to do” list for up to 30 people. The other, Trello, lets users create shared boards with task cards. Both are free. So which one is better for task and project management based on procedural checklists? Let’s compare.

Okay, we know the business of practicing law is in transition. (Some say "crisis"). It is evolving into ... something. But what? That's the question the College of Law Practice Management wrestles with each year at its Futures Conference. Some of the best minds on the topic will gather this month in Washington, DC, to discuss the future of managing partners, the nuances of value, new models for law firms, the consumer law revolution and the "new normal" perspective of in-house counsel. It's bound to be one of the best conversations all year. We hope you will be there, but even if you're not, let's get your juices flowing for your next after-hours roundtable with these five likely topics