The other day, Oriella, one of the young legal secretaries, wore these sandal-type shoes with long leather straps wrapping up to mid-calf. I thought they looked pretty, and a little sexy, and remarked on them to one of the older partners. His response was, “Well, I guess it’s time to revisit the old dress code again.” I shuddered at the thought. Like most firms, mine has undergone many battles over attire over the years. In the '60s it was long hair on lawyers (all men, of course). How far over the collar was acceptable? What about that new associate’s ponytail? We blew past the no bra trend quickly. (As someone quipped, “The proponents had no support.”)

Sometimes it just seems like you can’t get a break, doesn’t it? The network’s down, you just received your third nuisance filing this week from opposing counsel … and you’d think an associate could draft a simple brief without supervision! Sheesh. You can complain all you want about the caliber of the young lawyers that […]

At the Legal Marketing Association’s 2012 Technology Conference West, held last week in San Francisco, a long list of experts and exhibitors were on hand to share their top tips with lawyers. The big focus was on sharing tech tips—of course!—that can increase your visibility, your productivity and, ultimately, your revenue. Here are five of them.

Many firms use cloud computing services for remote access to data, email filtering, contacts and calendars, system backups and other hosted IT functions. In particular, lawyers are finding that cloud transfer and storage services (like Box, Dropbox, Google Drive and iCloud) are a great way to access client materials on their smartphones, tablets or off-site computers when working away from the office. According to state ethics authorities that have spoken on the topic and the American Bar Association Commission on Ethics 20/20, a firm or an individual attorney may store client materials in the cloud ethically, provided that the lawyer takes reasonable care to protect the confidentiality of confidential client information. Most of these opinions explain that “reasonable care” includes learning enough about the technology you chose to use to make an informed decision about where to store client materials and staying up to date on developments in whatever technology you decide to use. Using reasonable care to protect client confidences is nothing new for lawyers, of course—we make decisions about protecting client confidences when we read files on a crowded subway, discuss matters in elevators, decide what can be included in an email, or even take written notes during a conversation. But what might “reasonable care” entail in the context of cloud computing? While admittedly not comprehensive, here is a list to consider. ... Read more

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"? ...