Global Leader in Legal Marketing & Management
We continue to profile notable attorneys and their accomplishments, such as third amendment lawyer T. Scotch Reynolds, muppet lawyer Mr. Johnson, and citizen’s arrest law specialist Helen Calistero. Today we profile legal information technologist Carl Malmquist, a leader in helping law firms innovate and implement technology into legal practice. We recently sat down with him in a law firm’s computer server room. [Read more...]
Alternative billing and pricing is all the rage in the legal profession, and for good reason. After all, it’s tough to deliver the news that an admiralty contract review can set you back $8,500. Which is why many professionals are turning to alternative ways to inform clients of amounts due. Here are two alternative billing arrangements that we’ve tested and that the modern lawyer should consider. [Read more...]
We receive a lot of questions about how much it costs to start a solo law practice, particularly a successful practice with a web site, well-stocked bar, and good staplers. Estimates from so-called legal marketing experts range from $49.99 to $3,000. But as Scott Greenfield is quick to point out, most of these fly by night operations don’t budget for basic legal research, such as books, a set of Shepard’s, and a multi-disc tray to use for your dedicated Westlaw terminal. No worries, we’ve looked at the research, considered needed capitalization, and have come up with a solid bottom line. [Read more...]
Big Legal Brain, a global leader in cloud-based legal humor, has acquired the Latvian site of lielaslikumusmadzeņu.eu, adding to its brand one of the leading legal humor sites in the Baltic region.
The site is the thirteenth top trafficked Latvian-language legal humor site south of Estonia, excluding the Riga region. Smadzeņu, as it is more popularly known, represents a growing international demand for American-style legal humor. [Read more...]
First off, no. It’s not dead. I just want to get that out of the way. In fact, I’m writing this no-good-for-nothing blog coming off a FOUR martini lunch. No, Dewar’s. And I’m fine. EXCEPT THE COCKTAIL LADY CUT ME OFF. My God, man. I gotta take a whiz. Hold on. [Read more...]
High-powered attorneys like myself are notorious for letting off steam in completely inappropriate ways. Just yesterday I pissed my pants in front of an associate,* just to make sure he understood the commitment to stay at your desk to get a blog post out the door. It worked. He quit. I then knew that that he did not have what it took to be what I imagined him to be. For instance, I couldn’t afford to have him in trial, in the middle of critical cross-examination, suddenly asking the court to go wee-wee. At least that’s my theory. [Read more...]
Many attorneys have hair. And while hair upkeep is a day-to-day professional obligation, it can still present challenges. Whether it is using the appropriate hair products or brushing dandruff off your dark suit, focusing on hair can increase law practice success. Nevertheless, when head lice strike, your work to keep a positive hair focus could be ruined. Worse, when confronted with head lice infestation, law firms often cave to embarrassment and attempt to hide the problem, exacerbating any recovery. Relax. There is hope. Here is what you can do. [Read more...]
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e’ve talked about establishing a stapleless office, but if going stapleless proves too difficult or emotionally draining, don’t push yourself. Keeping a stapler in the office is often a good, if not essential, option. And with great staplers out there to help make stapling easier and more efficient, you may not need to get rid of your staplers entirely, at least not yet.
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Not every lawyer lives near a Starbucks. Worse, cofficing options for some lawyers are so limited that the only real option is a QuikTrip with spotty WiFi, bulk beef jerky, and International Delight creamers. If you find yourself in such a limited practice setting, accept that you may need to office initially from home from your mom’s basement.
If you find yourself sharing an office with kitty litter and a dehumidifier, here are a few tips to help get your practice off the ground, or at least above the ground.
People use a lot of gasoline. These same people are very familiar with the gasoline pricing structure, which they generally don’t care about or even notice. As a lawyer, use this to your advantage and associate the price of gasoline — a frequent necessity — to the price of legal services, a definite necessity. Here’s how.
First, set your fees in the same way gas stations set their gasoline prices, per gallon and to the tenth of the cent. In other words, the experts are right. Get away from a time-based billing system and use a gallon-based system instead. While it’s still associated with time, paying for legal services by the gallon just sounds a lot better than by the minute. Plus, it seems like you get a lot more.
C. Hank Peters is Big Legal Brain's SuperMayor and a world-renowned legal marketing guru. Raised in the era of IBM mainframes and staplers, he knows how to make your firm efficient and completely awesome. He does not speak or write Chinese.
From the Disgruntled