Many may think that hiring quality law firm employees during the holiday season is impossible. Job seekers often give up looking toward the end of the year, assuming that no new postings or quality positions will become available. I used to believe the same; but, now I am finding that since the end of the year is a time business owners reflect upon the year’s progresses and failures, that many employers do decide to list new positions in November and December.
Well, you’ve done it. You’ve left your law firm and decided to open your own firm. And that idea that sounded so tantalizing while still a fantasy in your mind is now much more stressful when facing the real life decision making process that is staring you in the face.
As discussed in last week’s blog post “Components of Law Firm Business Development Success: Clients,” true biz dev starts with maintaining what you’ve already built. Lawyers and staff alike must make consistent and concerted efforts to maintain the law firm’s referral sources as well as its clients.
One of the components of my project-based work that I really enjoy is performing business audits for law firms. Some lawyers have called me thinking this means I am like a forensic accountant and will come in and scope out their books and give tax advice. Instead, what I mean by audit in this context is ripping off the Band-Aids, opening the curtains, and exposing everything that goes on in your law firm to a neutral third party for evaluation.
This week, on May 21, 2014, I had the pleasure of speaking to a packed house at the Kentucky Justice Association’s ‘Marketing Your Practice’ CLE. The event organizers asked me to come up with “something different” to talk about. I wanted to prepare an article, paper, or presentation on the utilization of the CRM process within a law firm, so I decided to begin my work toward that goal with this speech.
Successful law firms must employ both marketing and business development to grow their practices, but many firms frequently (and incorrectly) use the terms interchangeably. While both marketing and business development contribute to growing your law firm’s bottom line, each has different and distinct responsibilities.
In January of this year, I wrote a blog post describing what law firm document management software is, how it differs from case management software, and examples of document management software in the legal market today. Building upon that previous post, it is important to also discuss the advantages of having a document management system and what it can do for your law firm.
Stacey E. Burke