Law Firm Transitions Blog

Lawyers — Just Do Something

With full credit to the authors of the  Intelligent Change blog, I was inspired to provide my two cents on the topic of, “Lawyers — Just do something.” Having recently returned from ILTA, I was struck this year by the inertia I felt from many of the attendees. This is not a criticism of the…

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Technology and the Law

The International Legal Technology Association annual conference is just two weeks away. I love the show because I always learn about new and innovate ways to leverage technology to improve the practice of law. It seems by now that discussions of technology and the law should be old news but it is amazing the number…

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12 Step Program for Law Firms

They say admitting you have a problem is the first sign of recovery. For most law firms, that means acknowledging that you don’t have a business plan for practicing law. How is your firm doing? If you can answer the following 12 questions with concrete answers, you are on the right track. If not, it…

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The value of a law degree: A response to scam bloggers

I’ve been following with interest the debate prompted by so-called “scam bloggers” over the value of a legal education and the obligation of law schools to provide accurate data to students about post-graduate job placements. I empathize with graduates entering the workforce in search of jobs that don’t exist. I appreciate the added stress on…

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Evolving from “lawyer’s lawyer” to “client’s lawyer”

Reflections on the impact of the emerging Global 25: Part 3 The first time I heard the term, ‘lawyer’s lawyer’ was during an interview with a senior partner about what made his firm different. His response was that they were “lawyer’s lawyers.” He was referring to the reputation the firm’s lawyers held within the legal…

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Maybe lawyers should sell widgets

Reflections on the emerging Global 25: Part 2 Legal is a profession, not an industry. Law firms are different; They don’t sell widgets. These are the theorems I was first introduced to when I started covering law practice management for the ABA Journal after graduating from law school in 1998. I challenged the first when…

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Outside looking in

Reflections on the impact of the emerging Global 25: Part 1 The American Lawyer’s “Second 200” issue provides more evidence of the widening gap between the country’s largest firms and everyone else:  A $1.1 million gap to be exact. That is the difference in average profits per partner for the top 23 firms compared to…

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Networking lessons from outside the legal profession

I recently started attending a networking group comprised largely of professional services executives. In talking with one of the founders of the organization, he noted that they’ve had a hard time keeping attorneys as active members. He personally invited about 25 different attorneys to participate. They attended a few events but slowly dropped even though the…

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Time to decide what you are NOT good at

I launched Law Firm Transitions a year ago this week. My goal for starting a blog was to join and help drive the conversation about changes law firms need to make to better serve clients. From my perspective, the business model needs to change. So it seems apropos that I chose this week to report on…

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My Twitter AHA Moment

I attended Legal Tech West in Los Angeles this week and tweeted for the first time during a CLE session. Shortly after I did, I got a direct message from Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog, Inc. He was attending the same session as me and suggested we meet. It was a great opportunity for me to…

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