Ayelette Robinson, Director of Knowledge Technology at Littler Mendelson, did a guest post on the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog a couple days ago asking, “How would you transform the legal industry?” It got me thinking and I thought I’d carry her idea to my blog and pose it to […]
3 Geeks review our cross-selling mobile app, Velocity
In an ILTA hosted webinar yesterday about experience databases, Kathrine Cain (Winston & Strawn), Lisa Simon (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck) and I spoke about our own experiences implementing experience databases. As I mentioned in my introduction and observations, this is one of the hottest topics proliferating law firms today – […]
Experience databases: If you build it, will they come?
For many AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms, experience management is one of the most important stated initiatives for 2012. Knowing what your partners do and knowing how to easily sort, parse and leverage this data is a top priority for managing partners, law firm chairs and executive committees. If […]
The best description of “strategy” I’ve read in years
I am having lunch today with the “3 Geeks and a Law Blog” trio – Lisa Salazar, Toby Brown and Greg Lambert. To prep, I am climbing into their award-winning blog of the same name and came across this description in a post by Greg. He’s talking about another blogger […]
Advice to CMOs: Don’t relinquish control when searching for your critical team members.
(Guest post by Steve Nelson and Cassie Battle) One critical determinant in the success of CMOs in law firms is the ability to build a high-functioning team. Anyone who has read “Good to Great” knows that the key to success in any enterprise is to get the right people on […]
A Toast to Differentiation: What law firms can learn from Blue Hill at Stone Barns
(Guest post by Lise Anne Schwartz) Regular visitors to this blog know that Deborah is a connoisseur of fine food, wine and restaurants. So when she visited New York last week, the pressure was on to find a unique dining experience for us to share. I took her to Blue […]
“2012 CFO Outlook” – A survey by Merrill Lynch and Bank of America – What does this mean for law firms?
Now that the holidays are behind us, let’s get down to some serious business – and some prognosticating about what law firms’ business and financial lives might be like this year. The bottom line is that the CFO respondents (600 of them from corporate America) are concerned and have low confidence […]
Attorney at Work’s “Lawyer Marketing Collection 2011”
If you haven’t subscribed to Attorney at Work yet, take 5 minutes during this post-Christmas-gift-exchanging-sale-exploiting week and do it. To get a taste for the benefit you’ll receive, download this free “Lawyer Marketing Collection 2011” — the most popular/best read Attorney at Work posts during the last year. I am happy to […]
3 No cost ways to drive traffic to your website
It’s almost New Year’s Eve. I am a believer in making New Year’s resolutions – I make them every year. When Merrilyn Astin Tarlton and Joan Feldman asked me to write a year-end blog post for their popular blog Attorney at Work, I sought to write one that would inspire readers […]
The secret to becoming a rainmaker – Part 3 (Or, the “Triangle of Success”)
In Part 1 of “The secret to becoming a rainmaker,” I shared the one thing that I think makes the greatest difference in lawyers who are effective business developers. Here is an excerpt of that post: This post isn’t about telling you how to sell. It’s about me finally articulating […]
Get inspired: How working together makes World AIDS Day a true celebration
Most of us know someone who knows someone who loved someone who died of AIDS. Someone's father, brother, son or husband. Today is World AIDS Day, and, after nearly three decades of death and sadness, I think today is a day worth celebrating. World AIDS Day was first conceived by the World […]
How do you balance the yin-and-yang of leaders and managers in your firm?
I bet that everyone reading this is a fan of buying the latest bestsellers on leadership. And I bet that most of you actually read parts, if not all of these tomes. I am drawn to each new title and I am nearly always inspired by what I read about […]
Perfect Mashed Potatoes
I am thankful for everyone who reads my blog and all who care enough about it to pass it on to others. As I sit in the Philadelphia Admiral's Club waiting for my delayed flight to take off in this driving rain, I write this as a sincere thank you. […]
Have you heard about “Twitterology?” It’s the latest hot new science.
Ben Zimmer is a self-described all-around word nut. He is the former On Language columnist for The New York Times Magazine, the executive producer of VisualThesaurus.com (an entirely useful tool when you're looking to add color to your prose) and vocabulary.com. In a recent New York Times Sunday Review column […]
How does the “last mile” relate to lawyers’ website biographies?
The “last mile” is a supply chain management term (and a single released by hard rock/glam band, Cinderella, in 1989, and also a play and movie from the 1930s) that refers to a product’s last mile before it gets to market and on store shelves. Apparently, it’s the hardest and most […]
The Social Media conversation we should be having – Part 1.
There is still a lot of hand-wringing about social media by law firm partners. A surprising number of firms still don’t have approved policies – they are in permanent “draft” mode, perhaps because they don’t really want to commit to anything they don’t fully understand. I have given several presentations […]
Women stunt their careers – unintentionally. (Comments on a post from HBR Blog Network)
Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath and Mary Davis Holt start their HBR Blog post like this: “Having combed through more than a thousand 360-degree performance assessments conducted in recent years, we’ve found, by a wide margin, that the primary criticism men have about their female colleagues is that the women they […]
Considering a website redesign? Make sure it’s better than it was before.
Three major companies have recently redesigned their websites – American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Amazon. I frequently use all three, so I was intimately familiar with the previous sites' user interfaces and overall usability. The Amazon experience isn't functionally much different than it was before. But the design style is updated, it uses softer […]
Generation Generosity – A new way to look at the legal profession
My company, Content Pilot, is a founding partner of a bold new initiative called Generation Generosity. The initial exploration was done by Akina, and as soon as they broached the idea with me, we were enthusiastically on board. As you can read on the “Gen-Gen” blog, www.generationgenerosity.org, here is the idea: […]
Steve Jobs tribute – “The only way to do great work is to love what you do.”
I can’t imagine any world leader today who will have at his or her death more news coverage or outpouring of grief by the masses in the world as Steve Jobs. The ubiquitous, yet iconic nature of Apple products has infiltrated the world of more men, women and children than anyone in […]