Attorney Client Relations

Today’s large corporate legal and insurance claims departments are learning from their peers in purchasing and HR how to leverage technology. And they are training a new category of professionals to better manage the business of law. These legal ...

Law firms are busy places, and sometimes the smaller operations are even more chaotic than their large firm counterparts. It’s important to keep that behind the scenes, though. Your clients should see only a well-oiled machine — beginning the ...

A client dinner is a beautiful thing. There’s food and wine and balloons and maybe a small token of appreciation. Somebody makes a speech that mentions “paradigm shift” 31 times and everyone falls asleep. Sometime between the main course and the ...

Corporate clients are increasingly savvy about performance metrics — often more so than the lawyers whose work product is being measured. Many lawyers are unaware of the categories and parameters clients are using to evaluate them. And unless ...

There is an old folk story that makes a fine metaphor for client development. In the tale, hungry strangers (read: the law firm client team) facilitate the people of a town (the team’s clients) giving them food (solving a problem and ...

If you’re a solo practitioner or in a small law firm, you are likely a slave to your smartphone, making sure clients can always reach you. As the managing partner at a small firm, I found it increasingly difficult to keep up with my clients' ...

A big part of a lawyer’s role is negotiation, and that means numbers. A lawyer has to be able to calculate the value of whatever is being negotiated. Case evaluation is part art and a lot of math. Pulling a number out of the air and hoping the ...

This is something old-school lawyers say a lot: "Your best sources of referrals are your existing clients." And, for word-of-mouth, referral-based law firms, it’s probably true that referrals from other lawyers or from existing clients are 1-2. ...

You’re at Fancy Restaurant with Super Important Client and the senior partner. There are three forks, two spoons, four glasses and a tiny little dish with a tiny little knife that you assume is for the table elf. You’re reading the menu, ...

Every leader needs feedback. (Some need a little too much!) But, truly, how can you do your job without an understanding of what is going on in the lives of those impacted by your work? In the case of a lawyer, I’m thinking, of course, of your ...