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ABA Law Practice Technology Today Headlines Feed
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Various factors seriously threaten the traditional hourly billing system—but some easy-to-implement strategies will help you realign.
Taking place October 22-24, 2010, in Washington, D.C., this year’s workshop is chock-full of opportunities to sharpen rainmaking and business skills.
Women can harness their leadership advantage by expanding the library of stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves.
The ABA Women Rainmakers is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Here’s a look back at some of the early leaders and individuals who helped realize the creation of something bigger than themselves to help women lawyers succeed and thrive in the profession.
Various factors seriously threaten the traditional hourly billing system—but some easy-to-implement strategies will help you realign.
Various factors seriously threaten the traditional hourly billing system—but some easy-to-implement strategies will help you realign.
This speaker at the upcoming ABA Women Rainmakers Mid-Career Workshop says it’s all about working hard and perfecting your skills, even when you appear to be at the top of your game.
Many claim that Macs offer a superior operating system to Windows, but there are situations in which a Mac-using lawyer still needs to use Windows – learn to juggle both!
Given the severe consequences that can result from an online security breach, all law offices need to address these steps to better protect their systems.
Why you need to lay the foundations of Web 1.0 before Web 2.0 can be effective in marketing your practice.
In addition to establishing effective relationships with clients and colleagues, lawyers and their firms need to know how to “tip the scales” in media and public relations, too. Here are rules of the road to consider.
Various factors seriously threaten the traditional hourly billing system—but some easy-to-implement strategies will help you realign.
Are you ready for a practical alternative to the “legal services as commodities” trend? Here’s an approach that builds a longtime client family.
There are multiple reasons why handling cases on a fixed-fee basis is better for both our clients and ourselves.
Making the argument for why fixed fees are better than hourly billing, along with practical tips for how to make the switch.
More and more, clients are directing how the value of the legal services they use is determined and many of them are looking at alternatives to hourly billing.
Getting beyond the hourly billing trap requires admitting there’s a better way—and then acting to implement it.
The creativity can be endless, if you are willing to simply change the way you are used to doing business.
A survey reveals the variety of steps that practitioners are taking to counter slumps in their market.
The current wave of digital dictation tools offers fresh options when it comes to mobility and efficiency.
The iPhone can help you become a more productive lawyer, especially if you know how to make the most of it.
Why and how to employ an alternative billing philosophy in which lawyer and client share risk based on the case’s outcome.
This UPS officer gives back by mentoring young people to pursue their career ambitions.
Partner flight has aggravated financial and cultural turmoil in law firms weathering already rough economic waters.
The operation of a law firm must be understood as a business—and in any business environment, financial health ultimately depends on cash management.
In 21st century BigLaw practice, when the going gets tough, the rainmakers get going—going somewhere else, that is.
Upon inspecting law firms that have recently failed, three common traits can be found among the ruins and lawsuits: leadership, strategic focus and financial discipline.
Decrease the chance of errors when transferring files from your computer to the courthouse by improving your workflow processes, and it will save your clients money, too.
Desperate about the 20,000 unsorted e-mails in your inbox? Remain calm, and you too can master your inbox and regain control over the chaos.
How much more successful could you be if you employed more traditional corporate business principles?
Be the lawyer that gets the referrals with a few key refinements of your personal.
This transactional lawyer advises young women lawyers to become an indispensable go-to person.
To improve their conflict climate, firms need to learn the common causes of internal disputes and what it takes to resolve them.
Here is how a properly facilitated mediation process can help firms convert disharmony into profits.
Insights into understanding the dynamics of organizational learning and structural personalities to help build productive working environments.
If you suspect someone in your firm of overbilling, don’t ignore your suspicions. It can be dangerous to your firm and to you.
Follow this advice to help ensure that your firm isn’t caught off guard by dissention arising from your next space negotiations.
Tap into your ADR skills—and remember, the ultimate goal is to open lines of communication. But first, someone needs to start.
The LPM Nominating Committee presented its report at the LPM Spring Meeting in Las Vegas, with nominations for Section officers and Council members. Elections will be held in August at the ABA/LPM Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
In a profession sensitive to internally exposing highly confidential information, how do you get lawyers to contribute their client relationship information to a firm database?
Video is certainly one of the best ways to market your law practice, but there are some definite rules for what you should and should not do when creating your own videos. Special from Law Practice magazine's May/June 2010 issue.
Becoming paperless isn’t something that happens overnight. Even if you’re just a solo attorney with no employees there are significant challenges in becoming paperless.
Unless there is candid partner communication and buy-in for the firm’s business plan, the firm’s continued existence could be in doubt.
You need to make conscious decisions about your career path, advises this GC of a global telecom company.
The numbers may indicate that firms are failing to provide opportunities for diverse lawyers to flourish at the same time that more diversity is being demanded by clients.
Analyzing clues into what’s behind a dip in the percentage of minority lawyers.
An examination of the causes of bias, the reality of inclusion in the profession today, and motivating factors and strategies to advance inclusion efforts.
With women leaving the practice of law much faster than men, firms must think harder about delivering the initiatives that women lawyers seek.
Law firm culture training might be the missing link to retaining more attorneys of color.
Is it possible to neutralize implicit gender bias in populating ADR panels? Here’s a detailed discussion of key issues involved.
It’s critical that executive committees and management teams take a fresh look at diversity and inclusion, lest they practice the axiom “do as I say, not as I do.”
This special reprint from the YourABA e-newsletter relates what witnesses at the 2009 Annual Meeting’s “Gay Bar” hearing had to say about efforts to address LGBT workplace best practices in the profession.
Here are tips for “pitching,” “catching” and “self-broadcasting” to spread the word about your know-how to the market.
This second installment of a two-part column details the results of a program and accompanying attendee survey on “Ranking the Raters; Rating the Rankers,” held at November’s ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference.
One of the best ways for employers—including law firms—to minimize the destruction and theft of data is to have a departing employee technology checklist and follow it religiously.
The young turks coming out of law school today instinctively connect the dots in ways that traditional lawyers don’t.
This past March, Ed Flitton, the LPM Section's finance director and longtime member of Law Practice magazine's editorial board, passed away suddenly. Ed, who was former managing partner of Holland and Hart, wrote a number of insightful articles on managing a law firm, including the following "Taking the Lead" column, originally published in Law Practice magazine. For more of Ed's writings, including his award-winning "Riding the Economic Roller Coaster: What NOT to Do in the Downswing," see the list of links at the end of this article.
The idea of diversification can also be applied to technology strategy. In fact, given today’s economic challenges and rapidly changing technological innovation, diversification might well be the best approach to technology strategy.
It's time for all lawyers, but especially solos and small firms, to learn more about Open Source software.
Alternative billing is certainly not new to the legal industry. However, with unprecedented changes in the economic climate during the last couple of decades and the resulting chaotic financial backdrops for many law firms, now is a good time for lawyers to really look at what makes alternative billing both economically feasible and practically realistic.
Involving everyone in the office so they feel a sense of inclusiveness will produce more harmony and productivity and therefore increase the firm’s profitability.
This labor and employment partner takes the time to innovate to achieve good results for clients.
Whether they want to sell their practice or groom a successor partner to take it over, lawyers need to know how the value of their practice will support their retirement years.
A former managing partner explains the keys to making succession planning happen with the senior lawyer’s well-being in mind.
Given the wealth of information we have housed on our computers and the Internet today, smart estate and succession planning includes addressing how to handle digital assets.
The best approach involves properly choosing and grooming your successor and working diligently together to effect a smooth outcome.
To prepare the practice for a purposeful transition, study up with this abbreviated list of action items and other points for consideration.
Follow these tips to avoid the chaos, added expense and stress that results when no plan is in place.
The client’s perspective on your relationship is the best foundation for your business development plan.
This is part one of a two-part column on the hotly contested topic of law firm and lawyer ratings and rankings services. Part two will detail the results of the program and accompanying attendee survey from November’s ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference.
This new program offers immediate familiarity, in grafting itself onto and in extending Microsoft Outlook.
Wanna be better, stronger, faster? No, on your computer, silly. This presentation helps you find out how to tap the potential of the most common desktop applications and operating systems. Learn to control Windows and Office applications, instead of the other way around.
How can you make sure that your staff are invested in the firm’s goals and motivated to perform to their very best abilities? Follow this checklist.
Given that many actions qualify as “retaliatory,” what can your firm do to limit potential liability for retaliation claims by employees? Follow this advice.
Today’s associates have myriad opportunities to hone their business development skills. Partners need to foster such initiatives, while also safeguarding the firm’s reputation.
A senior associate takes advantage of a unique firm program and reaps value for herself, future employers and clients, too.
Conflict within organizations is familiar and inevitable—and it is a challenge to manage formally. One solution: Bring in a neutral resource.
Take the traditional level of difficulty involved in human resources administration and protocols and toss it into the world of law firms. The pressure to get it right can be greater than it seems.
From fee deposits, billing and timekeeping, on to time management and beyond, you’ll want to follow these tips for a healthy law practice.
Sticking to your comfort zone is not the best way to build business. Tapping into the trends affecting clients will open up all kinds of opportunities. Special from Law Practice magazine's January/February 2010 issue.
Outsourcing can contribute to work and cost efficiencies, if used correctly as a transparent resource. Here is an overview of the economics and ethics of this HR innovation.
From entry-level scanners through large multi-function machines, we’ll help you understand how to choose the right scanner for your particular law practice. Then we’ll teach you great and creative new uses for the scanner in the law office and show you how to make the most of the software that comes with your scanner. Finally, we’ll demystify the OCR process so that you can convert a hard copy into a word processing document you won’t have to spend hours cleaning up.
For this chief technology counsel, pro bono activities are the proudest accomplishment.
During the ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference, an in-house counsel provided keen insights on common problems that sabotage lawyer-client relationships. Here are don’ts and dos that you should heed.
The mounting responsibilities and constant bombardment of information of a lawyer entering a new phase in his or her career may make evolving technologies seem like yet another challenge. Instead, learn to use some of the new tools available to keep your mind as sharp as the day you graduated law school.
There's something very Web 2.0 about the grass-roots content classification system known as tagging. Here's why tags are beneficial and how to select the best terms. Special from Law Practice magazine's January/February 2010 issue.
These essential how-tos will help you manage the rafts of electronic documents that are critical to every law office.
There are a number of ready-to-go applications for lawyers who run their practices on Macs. Here’s a snapshot of some favorite ones you can put to use in your daily practice.
An overview of some of the SaaS products lawyers are using in their law practices.
A sneak peek into the upcoming LPM book The Lawyer's Guide to Social Media.
Chicago is home to ABA TECHSHOW®, one of the longest running legal technology conferences in the nation. In its 24th iteration this year, ABA TECHSHOW continues to evolve and set the pace for legal technology education.
Are you truly connecting with your clients? In the challenging marketplace that today’s law firms face, learning how to deepen relationships and develop new ones has never been more important.
With time and resources at a premium, a broad, unfocused branding effort is an impractical proposition—and it’s usually no way to make a lasting impression for creating personal connections, either. To convey a clear message of who you are and what you do, niche marketing can be a highly effective course.
Networking is one of the best ways to make personal connections, but often the most difficult and unpleasant. However, the ability to start relationships successfully and memorably will greatly enhance your practice.
Online social networking has become an increasingly popular method of networking, and using social networking tools, in particular LinkedIn, has become more prevalent in business settings. But is it really an effective way to make personal connections?
Do you rely on electronic communications too much for connecting with colleagues and clients? Try these tips for getting out of the office to meet new people and make new connections.
Make use of the environment you are in every day by using internal networking to make personal connections. What many firms, large and small, often overlook is the value of networking internally to leverage existing connections, experience and resources.
Bar associations are oftentimes an overlooked source for making personal connections; however, by taking advantage of what bar associations offer their members, there is no more cost effective tool for making connections and building your practice.
Things can be far more profitable with a well-executed plan. Try these suggestions for your law firm’s first strategic planning session of 2010.
Supplier diversity programs are becoming more important in attracting and retaining corporate clients. These types of programs can enhance a firm's existing diversity efforts and they represent a strategic course that law firms ignore at their peril.
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