« November 06, 2005 - November 12, 2005 | Main | November 27, 2005 - December 03, 2005 »
November 16, 2005
Another Great Blawg I've Been Missing
Here's another client-centric blawg I missed and now intend to check regularly: Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog. It's useful, well-written, funny--and it's got attitude. Calloway obviously thinks it's a privilege to practice law. I like his August 22 post on law firm management and time-management in "Basic Management Skills." In fact, I like everything about this blawg.
Posted by JD Hull at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
November 14, 2005
Good News For Corporate Law Boutiques
See "Law Firm National Reach Overated" by Tom Collins in morepartnerincome re: Martindale-Hubbell's annual survey of GCs. Query: To take it a step further, for the 29% of the GCs interviewed who do want a national firm, can't a boutique have a national reach, too?
Posted by JD Hull at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2005
"Bombarding Your Clients with Paper"...Or Falling Trees Need to Be Heard
Chapter K of Jay Foonberg's book, How To Get and Keep Good Clients says that you should do just that: bombard the client with everything in the client's file. While Foonberg talks about "bombarding with paper" in a number of respects, I agree especially on client files.
1. It's the client's file anyway, not yours. You don't own it. And I think that the client is entitled to a copy of it as you create it. I don't mean just letters, contracts and final pleadings. I mean everything. (The only exception is handwritten attorney's notes--and sometimes we send those.) So send everything else. Send copies of e-mails, memos to file, research memoranda, cases, anything typewritten, even if the client complains.
2. In brutally honest moods, I tell associate lawyers, "if the client doesn't see or hear it, you never did it, and it did not occur." Kind of like the tree falling in the woods. If you don't show and tell the client what you are doing, and do that as you are doing it, there's no reason for the client to appreciate you, your work or your firm, or pay your bill.
Posted by JD Hull at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)
Redux: Asking Clients For Work...Or Why Are Lawyers So Shy, Anyway?
People seemed to like the October 30 post on "asking for business"--here it is again:
Over the years this keeps happening. I take a general counsel or non-lawyer executive or CFO of a targeted client to lunch or dinner to ask for work. At some point I briefly say what my firm does and how we can help the client on particular legal issues it has. I ask a few questions. I do a short (very informal) pitch which ends with: "We like [the company] and we'd love to work with you. How can I win/earn your business?"
The client rep laughs and says something like, "That's refreshing--because I can't tell you how many times I have dined, gone to sporting events or played golf with lawyers and they never ask me for my business. Sometimes this goes on for years. I know that's why they are there--but they won't ever get to the point."
"So what's up with that?" he or she continues. "Are lawyers shy or something? Why would I want to hire a law firm not aggressive enough, direct enough or business-oriented enough to just ask for the work?"
Posted by JD Hull at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)