Lawyer Skills

Want to build your law practice? Then the first thing you want to do is get a little bit famous. And one route to fame is getting your byline in print and pixels. To all who just muttered, “Yeah, but that’s nearly impossible,” oh no, it isn’t! ...

Innovation is the cornerstone of our economy. Finding new ways to do things, unique things to sell and better ways to sell them—that’s what it's all about. How does this apply to your law practice?

You probably aren't surprised to hear that Americans now spend more time online than they do watching television. But would you guess that 85.6 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed at least one online video in the month of June 2011 ...

Let's say you have a meeting scheduled with your client to review an important time-sensitive document. Moments before, your client calls to cancel because she's caught at home during a snowstorm. At one time, you would have had no choice but to ...

I don’t know about you, but I like to spend as much money as possible on my firm’s phone system while making sure it is as inflexible as Bakelite in winter—and nearly featureless. Wait. I may have reversed that. What I really like is to ...

Some years back, I worked in an office where the boss was obsessive about how callers were greeted on the phone. Then a new receptionist was hired who just could not get the phrasing to his liking—no matter how hard she tried or how many ...

It’s become an article of faith that lawyers are poor writers. That isn’t really fair. The problem is not with lawyers’ writing, I think; the problem lies with lawyers’ tendency to overwrite. Ask a lawyer for a tune and she’ll give you a ...

“I told him right to his face what the deal was. And you know what? That lying scumbag now claims I told him something else! I’m gonna nail him, his client and his client’s mother, if that’s what it takes to teach him not to lie to me!” ...

While you probably don't give it much thought, the value of answering your phone properly can be enormous. On the other end of a ringing phone may be a potential client worth thousands of dollars or someone who may be able to refer many new ...

When it comes to self-promotion, are you your own worst enemy? Sometimes you just have to get out of your own way and simplify your thinking about establishing a public voice and a presence—be it via the traditional media, social media or a ...