Cultivating Connectors from a “Standing Start”
Force multipliers or “connectors” are often easier to cultivate than are prospects. It can be easier to build a history and therefore trust because the relationship is not weighed down by the “heaviness” of a retention goal. At the same time, it can be hard to build trust if you are viewed to be merely […]
QNBT: Extracting Real Value from Non-Billable Time
“Your billable time is your income; your non-billable time is your future.” David Maister Non-billable time gets little respect Many perceive non-billable time as something that can be conjured at will. Taking someone to dinner who may or may not be a qualified client prospect can be recorded as business development. Furthermore, that two-hour dinner […]
Storytelling Is an Effective Communication Strategy
“Storytelling” may seem an odd word choice for a profession like law, which focuses on very academic-oriented activities like drafting contracts, legislative provisions, proposing a regulation, writing a will, researching case laws, etc. However, the increasing competition faced at home and abroad demands that lawyers make efforts to guide their teams to surpass expectations and discover […]
Sell the “Whole” Legal Product
“We partner with our clients.” “We build relationships with our clients.” “We understand our clients’ businesses.” Blah, blah, blah. . . . What does all this really mean? Generally speaking, not very much! Clients don’t have time to tell you how to add value, but they are very open to working even more closely with […]
The Role of the Law in the Growth of an Economy, with a Special Focus on Developing Economies
Law and Business are not mutually exclusive sub-sets. Neither of them can be practiced in isolation. However, the interplay of law and economic growth has always been an intriguing subject for legal researchers and those associated with the legal sector. With an increase in the number of opportunities available for growth, especially in developing economies, […]
Ask Gerry Riskin: Should Corporate and Other Transactional Groups Spin Work off to Litigation Teams?
Question from a Client* While it seems to be a commonly held assumption that corporate and other transactional groups in firms spin work off to litigation teams (and that this is and should be the primary source of clients for litigators/trial attorneys), we aren’t finding any literature or research that supports this premise. Our numbers […]
Do You Understand your Firm’s DNA? What Are the Good and the Bad Bits?
The DNA acronym is sometimes used with reference to the inherent characteristics of a firm or a part of the firm. Unlike the originating definition of DNA – an organic chemical of complex molecular structure which codes genetic information for transmission of inherited traits – which is fixed, the important thing about this loose use […]
Managing and Growing a Law Firm, Part 3
In this final article in the series of three, I highlight the legal scene in Asia, the changes to the legal industry, and the different resources available to law firms for expansion. I also take a look to the future, and share key leadership qualities. In my first article, I shared my thoughts about managing and […]
Managing and Growing a Law Firm: Part 2 of 3
In this series of three articles, I highlight the legal scene in Asia, the changes to the legal industry, and the different resources available to law firms for expansion. In my first article, I shared my thoughts about managing and growing a law firm. In Part 2 of this series, I share thoughts on the global […]
Managing and Growing a Law Firm: Part 1 of 3
In this series of three articles I highlight the legal scene in Asia, the changes to the legal industry, and the different resources available to law firms for expansion. Being a lawyer and managing a law firm are two different spectra and require different sets of skills. Some 85% of law firms in Asia are actually […]