I recently came across this list of productivity tips published at the ABA site.  Some of these are great suggestions.  But, as I look at the list I can’t help but think that, although calculated to lead to increased productivity, trying to consider all of these would be overwhelming to the point of ineffectiveness - the exact opposite of its purpose.

The article does recommend Basecamp and Jott - two tools that I highly recommend as well.

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I just finished meeting with a new client in a nasty custody case.  She is paying me $10,000 to represent her in defending the motion to modify filed by her ex-husband.  She has a good case, and the law is on her side.  The interesting thing is that she had another lawyer representing her.  I know this other lawyer - he is competent, and experienced - 30+ years in the business.  And, although he doesn’t practice family law exclusively, he has done plenty of it to know what he is doing.

So, why did she fire him and hire me (something I initially tried to talk her out of doing)?  Apparently, he told her no less than three times, “I’ve never seen anything like this in 34 years of law practice.”  He was referring to some of the underhanded tactics that the opposing party and lawyer were pulling to try to get custody and how the opposing lawyer would not return his phone calls.  I’m not sure why he told her this.  Maybe he really hadn’t seen it before (I’m not sure how that could be) or maybe it was hyperbole.  But, as she said, that is not what she wanted to hear coming from her lawyer.

Sometimes we don’t think about our language and how even the most innocuous comment might affect our client’s perception.  There is a lesson here (a $10,000 lesson).  Make sure you get it - act like you’ve been there before.

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Susan Cartier Liebel at Build a Solo Practice recently posted an article to her blog describing the billable hour as the cockroach of the legal profession. It is a good analogy - a pest that won’t die. Her broader point, though, is more important. She concludes her post by discussing how the internet as a communication tool may lead to broader acceptance (and demand) for alternative fee arrangements. I definitely believe that is the case.

In my recent white paper on Pricing for Maximum Profit I stated that I feel that the market will increasingly demand alternatives to the billable hour from professionals. You guys may tire of me writing on this subject. But, I will continue to beat this drum. Death to the cockroach!

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As many of you know, I recently switched to the Mac OS from Windows (or as my friend Grant likes to say - Windoze). One of the programs that I can’t live without is Mindjet’s MindManager. I was relieved to find out that they have a Mac version. I’ve already got it installed, and I love it.

If you don’t know, Mindmanager is a mind mapping software. If you are at all inclined towards visual learning as I am, then you need a mind mapping program - and Mindjet’s is the best, in my opinion. I use it for everything from mapping out marketing strategies and establishing my case management systems to organizing my to do lists. I attach a very simple mind map below that I use for personal organization. Each of the blue “map” icons to the right of the text is a link to another mind map with that particular topic in it.

I commend mind mapping to you generally, and Mind manager specifically.

my-life.pdf

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In recent weeks there has been much discussion on the blogs and listserves about the relative merits of the hourly billing model, and the fixed fee/value pricing model. I’ve made it clear on this blog (and most recently in this free article on pricing) that I advocate a fixed fee model (and use it exclusively in my own law practice and in my consulting company).

I recently came across this wise post by the wise Carolyn Elefant (one of my favorite bloggers). In it she discusses the often overlooked fact that when it comes down to the conflicting interests between client and lawyer, often the individual lawyer’s character may trump the billing model they choose to employ in deciding how that conflict is resolved. For all the benefits of the fixed fee model, in the end you can’t “scheme away” these potential conflicting interests. We are, after all, individual lawyers making individual choices about how we conduct ourselves and represent our clients. No pricing model can change that.

Thanks for the reminder Carolyn.

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Jack and I had made tremendous progress in a month’s time.  He got clear on his goals and vision for his firm, he chose his target market and honed his marketing message, and he created his prospect kit and other essential marketing materials.  With the groundwork in place, he was finally ready to start marketing effectively.

In our next session we began talking about what lead generation strategies he wanted to employ.  This step is the easiest to understand, but requires the most effort.  Up to this point, all of the steps we took required an initial investment of time but the results would pay dividends for months and years to come.  Yes, he would have to review and adjust his goals, his marketing message and his materials, but the effort to modify them would not take nearly as long as the initial effort to create them in the first place.

On the other hand, lead generation is an ongoing process.  There are certain things we would do to systematize his lead generation activities, but much of it would require an ongoing commitment of time and effort on his part.  Jack got the iced coffee and the banana nut muffins and I pulled out my notepad and started jotting down a list of potential lead generation activities for him to consider.  Here are the seven activities that I included on the list in the order in which I suggested he should employ them:

• referral systems
• writing and publishing (a book, his blog, trade journal articles, and/or consumer articles)
• joint ventures
• speaking, workshops and teleseminars
• networking
• publicity (online and offline)
• direct response advertising (optional)

I suggested he add one strategy at a time, and that he attempt to add a new strategy at least monthly (while continuing to utilize the strategies already put in place).  For example, we would first put into place a formal referral marketing system.  Once that was in place and was being utilized on an ongoing basis, then we would begin a formal campaign of writing, and so on.  Eventually he would have all seven methods working for him (if he chose to advertise).

Note: each of these lead generation activities deserve further explanation beyond what this article allows.  I will begin posting about each one separately from this series of articles.  Those articles exploring the specifics of each lead generation activity will be categorized and tagged “lead generation” for your easy reference.

Because Jack was launching a blog, we decided to pursue the first two strategies simultaneously.  We discussed his referral marketing strategy and how he could be more systematic about it, and we agreed on a posting schedule for his blog.  Because he was just launching it, he committed to post to the blog 3-5 times per week for the first 60 days in order to maximize his search engine results.

Although we were not ready to begin implementing a joint venture strategy yet, we began brainstorming potential j.v. partners; the obvious choice for his divorce practice being marriage counselors.  We discussed the other strategies and mapped out a marketing plan for a full year.

These were the marketing tactics that Jack had expected we were going to talk about when we first started meeting several weeks earlier.  And, although he now understood that we had to take those foundational steps first, he was excited to see how the marketing plan was coming together.  Next week we would discuss what to do once he started getting leads.

Coming Next: Lesson 5 - Follow Up & Educate

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Well, I’m a bit later getting this eBook completed than I had intended, but it is now complete. You can download a free pdf copy of Pricing for Maximum Profit from the Resources section of this blog. The eBook discusses value pricing as I do it in my own family law practice, as well as practical steps you can take to command premium fees in your own solo or small firm law practice.

I hope you profit from it. And, I’d love to have your feedback either in the comments section of this post or directly by e-mail at msherman @ lawforprofit. com.

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The most recent edition of Law Practice magazine contains an article entitled “Hours Expectations for New Partners.”  That article contains this quote, “Available information indicates that an average partner in an average firm should plan to log at least 2,500 hours per year (or 50 to 60 hours per week) in pursuit of the aims of his or her firm.”  Are you kidding me?  And, if that is the average, presumably there are firms that require more than that.  So, the average lawyer is working 50-60 hours per week?  No wonder they are so unhappy.

And, of course the most telling part of the quote is the last phrase which points out that these hours are logged “in pursuit of the aims of his or her firm.”  In other words, it’s not about the client.  Those hours need to be logged for the firm.  What if you removed any billable hour requirement?  What if the focus was on getting the job done for the client as efficiently and effectively as possible and doing so at a profit to the firm?

There’s a novel idea.

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After working through Jack’s marketing message we were ready to get into some of the more tactical marketing decisions.  The first step would be to create some marketing materials - we called them Client Attraction Tools.

Jack had decided to focus on divorce and family law.  So, we were going to create the following tools for his practice:

1. A divorce blog;
2. A “prospect kit” to send to prospective clients; and
3. An audio CD called The Alabama Guide to Divorce.

The prospect kit would, among other things, include the following items:

• the audio CD - this would be in interview format where he would address common questions that his prospects have;
• a booklet of client testimonials (which under his jurisdictional rules would have to be first submitted for review to the State Bar);
• his bio;
• a sheet on his value pricing model and why that is superior to an hourly billing model;
• an article he had written that was published in the local paper;
• an article he and I wrote on 9 Questions to Ask the Lawyer Before You Retain Him; and
• a personalized cover letter thanking for them for contacting the firm and inviting them to contact the office to schedule an appointment (if they had already scheduled the appointment, the letter would instead remind them of the appointment time).

On the blog (and other lead generation marketing efforts) prospective clients would be offered the Audio Guide for free.  When they request it, the entire prospect kit will be sent to them.

It would take us several weeks to put this together.  The most time consuming process would be gathering the testimonials.  Because Jack had not collected them on an ongoing basis, we would have to contact past clients to try to get at least a dozen or so to start with.  Others could be added later.  We created a script for his assistant to follow in calling past clients and requesting testimonials.  Jack was excited that he could now see some tangible progress in his marketing plan.

Once we completed his Client Attraction Tools, we would be ready to make the decisions on what strategies he would use to generate leads (besides the blog).

Coming Next: Lesson 4 - Lead Generation

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As I announced a couple of weeks ago, I recently made the switch to Mac when I replaced my Dell laptop with the metallic beauty of a MacBook Pro. The more I use it, the more impressed I become with it and with the Mac Operating System. It’s got some features that make me wonder how I’ve been computing without them.

With this post I begin a list of the REASONS I’M GLAD I SWITCHED TO MAC. Enjoy.

Reasons 1-10:

1. Parallels - The Mac lovers will not like me starting with this one. But, Parallels Desktop allows me to run Windows while also running the Mac platform, side by side. This has been very helpful as I’ve made the transition to the Mac. Additionally, there are a couple of programs that I just don’t see abandoning with the move (CaseMap being the primary one that comes to mind). With Parallels, I don’t have to.
2. Speed - This baby REALLY moves. The Mac OS loads so much faster than Windows that it is hard to believe. Applications run much faster as well. What is really strange is that when I run Windows on Parallels it loads faster on my Mac then it did when I was running it natively on a PC. Go figure. And, to top that, I can run a windows program on Windows running on Parallels, running on Mac OS, faster than the program ran on my Dell Latitude PC. That is crazy.
3. Spotlight - This is Macs built in search utility. It too is lightning quick. It displays results as fast as you can type. Literally. And, it not only searches or files and folders, it searches the contents of files. Very cool. And, did I mention it is really fast?
4. Pdf printing and viewing without Acrobat or Reader - I can read pdf files with the built in Preview application. And, every application that I’ve worked in so far, has a print to pdf option built into it on the Print dialog box.
5. Sweet Design - Yes, this is form and not function, but Apple just gets design like no other computer hardware or software manufacturer. If you work on your computer a lot like I do, it’s nice to enjoy the design - and it does turn heads (not that I’m into that kind of thing).
6. .Mac synchronization - This is a cool feature that I didn’t know about when I purchased the Mac. But, it is nifty. When you set up a .mac account, you can synchronize your bookmarks, calendar, address book, mail accounts and more. Then you can access them from any computer (including those running windows) over any browser. You also receive free disk space to upload files there that you or others you allow can access over the web.
7. Photo booth - Ok, I haven’t used this in my law office yet, but my kids and I have hada lot of fun with the digital effects you can use on your photographs. Witness the photo above of me and one of my girls taken with the built in camera.
8. Keynote - iWork includes the Keynote presentation software which produces stunning slide shows that make Power Point presentations look like a grade school child’s show and tell presentation.
9. Expose’ - This is a handy feature. I often have a half dozen or more applications running at the same time. Even with my dual monitor setup, this can make it difficult to easily find the window I want at a particular time. Expose’ allows me to access any open window with a single keystroke. So, I can hit one key and it will shrink all of the open windows to allow me to find the one I’m looking for. I can hit another key and it will hide all of the open windows and give me access to a clear desktop.
10. Stability - No blue screen of death. Enough said.

That’s the ten that come to mind right of way. I will supplement with others at another time. I do not own stock in Apple (though that might change soon!). But, if you are going to be getting a new computer anytime soon, there has never been a better time to switch to a Mac. I, for one, am very glad I did.

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