We moved one of our offices last week, and it was really weird.

Let me give you the background first. This particular office, which is located in Raleigh, is our largest office. It’s the place where we handle all incoming and outgoing mail. It’s our document production center. It’s where we make copies, deal with faxes, etc. All paper flows through this location and gets processed, scanned, organized, and filed digitally.

How Servers Make Relocation Complicated

Had you walked into the back area of this space just a few years ago, you would have heard the roar of our server area. We had eight servers creating heat and using electricity. In fact, we had to install special air handling equipment to keep the machines and their backup power supplies cool. The servers took up two big racks bolted to the floor and ceiling. There were cables running every which way.

When we’ve had to move the servers in the past, it was a major production. We had to schedule downtime and line up vendors to support the move. We’d line up the Internet providers, IT support people, and separate phone personnel. It was a major production.

How the Cloud Makes Relocation Simple

Last week’s move was totally different.

Now, because we’ve relocated our information to the cloud, we have no more servers. There is literally a big, empty space where the servers used to be.

Workstations: This time, moving involved simply picking up our workstations and moving them to the new location. There were no servers to disconnect and reconnect. There were no people to call and schedule. It was very much a matter of unplugging, moving, and plugging back in. Wow.

Wi-Fi: We managed to have the Internet turned on in the new location the day before we moved in. The Wi-Fi was up and running after we plugged the router into the box on the wall, and the computers quickly picked up their Internet connections after they booted back up. It was that simple.

But what about the other disruptions of the move? What about the phone lines and the disruption to the attorney schedules?

Phones: The phones were easy. Our auto-attendant, also in the cloud, kept answering and routing the calls as usual. Vocalocity, our phone provider, had no idea we moved. Our move didn’t matter to the company, and service continued as usual. When someone bailed out of our auto-attendant by pressing zero, the call was routed to Ruby Receptionist as usual. That vendor also didn’t know we moved since there was no reason to share that information.

Schedules: Where did the attorneys work while the furniture was being moved? Again, not a problem. We booked the conference rooms as “busy” for the day on our firm-wide calendar and the attorneys worked from home as usual. Had someone needed a conference room on moving day, we would have rented a conference room at a local facility. The attorneys weren’t disrupted at all since their technology continued to function as usual with no downtime from the move.

I can’t tell you that everything about moving your data and phone system to the cloud is easy. I can’t tell that you that everything about moving from attorneys having offices to attorneys working from home is easy either. There are issues to be resolved when making any change, and these moves are no exception. However, I can tell you that relocating your office after making these changes sure is a lot easier than making the move back in the old days. For us, moving is now a breeze.

Moving Day Is Just Another Day in the Cloud is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Moving Day Is Just Another Day in the Cloud first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We needed some new videos for use on our website. They’re not on the public part of the site. We’re using them as part of an educational course we provide to our clients and prospective clients.

Our objective was to film and post five videos, each running about three minutes. Each video is designed to answer a specific family law question. We wanted it done quickly, and we wanted it to look nice and professional. We’ve done a bunch of video ourselves using a camcorder. The goal here was to create something a little slicker.

We called around to some video production companies in our area and requested quotes. Each quote was higher than the last. We heard numbers ranging from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. We wanted something professional, but we didn’t want it THAT professional.

Crowdsourcing Helped Us Find the Right Videographer for Our Project

That’s when we came across SmartShoot. I’d heard about the company on a podcast I follow and took a look at the site.

SmartShoot encourages users to post projects when they need videos shot or photos taken. There is no charge for getting a quote. I posted our project and explained what we needed. I quickly received several questions from video production people asking for clarification. They each asked me for more details, and I responded immediately.

Before the end of the next day, I had two quotes from video producers. One offered to do the project for $1,200, and the other bid $750. I was surprised not to get any additional bids, but I reviewed the portfolios and reviews of the two bidders and both did good work. I selected the $750 guy.

Our Process and Results

SmartShoot takes care of the payment, so I submitted my credit card and immediately got an e-mail from the bidder. We arranged a time and shot the videos. The video guy did a great job of making me comfortable, and the process was smooth. He had obviously done this many times before.

After the shoot, the videographer edited the videos, added lower thirds and bullet points, and did some tweaking to give us an excellent finished product. He added some background music and coordinated with our website people to be sure we had exactly what we needed for our site.

Working with SmartShoot was a quick and easy way to find someone who does good work at a reasonable price. If you’re looking for video production, now you’ve got another place to turn.

Quick and Easy Path to Video for Your Website is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Quick and Easy Path to Video for Your Website first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

When presented with an ethical quandary, it’s sometimes best to simply ask yourself whether the situation smells bad. If it stinks, then walk away. Sometimes you don’t need to consult the Rules of Professional Conduct because it smells so bad. The sniff test works for most folks regardless of whether they call it that or refer to it as a “gut check.”

We develop a finely honed sense of smell sharing the air in our culture of lawyers. We all come together over time and conform to the same set of ethical rules. Things start to smell the same to all of us. It’s part of our culture of conformity. We mostly dress alike, act alike, and start to smell alike as well.

Conformity helps us with ethical dilemmas. It’s not helpful when it comes to marketing.

The Problem With Following the Herd

When we consider marketing ideas, especially those that might be a little edgy or different, we get nervous. We start to wonder whether they pass the sniff test. We quickly get nervous about ideas that push the marketing envelope. The ideas, while perfectly ethical, might put us outside of our conformity culture. They might make us stand out. They might make us feel different.

When we feel different, alarm bells start to ring in our brains. We get anxious.

When we get anxious, we pull back on our good ideas. We get reserved in our approach. We abandon our creative, interesting ideas, and we revert to doing the same old marketing that everyone else is doing. That’s a disaster with marketing. Marketing is about standing out from the crowd, getting noticed, and getting talked about.

The sniff test that keeps us safe on ethical issues puts us in danger when it comes to marketing.

Conformity is your friend when it comes to professional ethics. It’s your enemy when it comes to marketing.

The Sniff Test Doesn’t Work for Marketing is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article The Sniff Test Doesn’t Work for Marketing first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

So last week I trashed SEO firms. I got a shocking number of e-mails from lawyers agreeing with me. Keep your e-mails and comments coming—I love the feedback (even when you don’t agree with me).

Today, ironically, I’m promoting something done by a SEO firm. Maybe these firms actually do some good in the world? They can’t be all bad. I actually do believe some of them make the world a better place when they encourage professionals to create helpful content. Making information available to laypeople is a good thing.

While clicking around randomly, I stumbled across whitespark. The company builds websites and provides SEO services. It’s based in Canada, so its employees must be nice, right?

Anyway, whitespark has a tool on its site, Review Handout Generator, that generates a custom PDF for you to e-mail or hand out to your clients so they can easily review your firm on Google. Some clients are happy to review your performance online but simply can’t work their way through the process. Of course (here comes the usual disclaimer), be sure that asking your clients to complete an online review is permissible under the ethics rules in your jurisdiction.

With Review Handout Generator, you’ll select from among several nice designs and then enter your firm’s information. You can even upload your firm’s logo. The site then creates a professional-looking PDF that will walk clients through the review process. You can either print the PDF and give it to clients or e-mail them the file.

The Review Handout is perfect and resulted in me actually smiling about something done by a SEO firm. Amazing.

Helping Your Happy Clients Review You Online is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Helping Your Happy Clients Review You Online first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We talked about the essential hardware and software in Part One of “Essential Technology for Lawyers.” In Part Two, we figure out what’s essential in the cloud and, maybe more importantly, what technology really isn’t essential.

Essential Cloud Services

E-mail account: Most of us now do the majority of our communicating via e-mail. It’s the best and worst thing to ever happen to us. Obviously, you need a reliable e-mail provider. We use Google Apps. You should establish e-mail on your own domain so that your e-mail address is YourName@YourDomainName.com. You don’t want to be like those silly lawyers who use Yahoo.com or AOL.com as their e-mail domain name. Most e-mail providers will also hook you up with calendar and contact management applications.

Legal research: You’ve got to have access to cases, statutes, treatises, and all the other documentation of our profession, and thankfully, it’s more accessible than ever. You’re certainly getting calls from the big names, but plenty of less expensive vendors provide similar services. Fastcase does a great job of providing much of what we require at a fraction of the cost of some of the legacy providers. Of course, the big names constantly seek and find ways to distinguish themselves and provide additional value, so they’re worthy of consideration. You’ve got to have access to the research material to function: it’s essential.

Practice manager: There was a time where installing a practice management software product meant spending buckets full of money. That’s not the case today. Products like Clio and RocketMatter get you up and running in 10 minutes for $50 per month or less per user. You don’t have to install any software or buy any servers. They roll out new features monthly and can move a practice from ancient to leading-edge systems in the blink of an eye. These products are a no-brainer, and you can assume your competition has that figured out already.

Document assembler: Are you still cutting and pasting and using old forms for examples? Document assembly allows you to fill in the blanks automatically. TheFormTool and Pathagoras  integrate tightly with Microsoft Word and allow you to build templates on the fly. The next time you create a document will be the last time you have to create it manually if you have one of these tools installed. Document assembly technology makes you more efficient every single time you create a new document. Some of the practice management software offers rudimentary document assembly, but a stand-alone product will provide greater flexibility.

Fax: Yes, we still use fax. I think everyone else in the world has abandoned this technology, but not us. What’s that about? If we still have to use it, we can at least use a service like eFax to bring it right into our e-mail.

Task manager: You need a good to-do list. Of course, a pen and pad will do, but a program like Wunderlist is so important to my workflow that I’ve included it among the essential technology. This very mature space has so many offerings that it’s senseless to go into detail. Find one you like, incorporate it into your life, and stick with it. It makes a difference.

Storage: Even with a practice management system, you’ll end up with some files in need of storage space. Dropbox and Box do a great job of providing remote hard disk space in the cloud. Of course, Google Drive is even less expensive and makes a great deal of sense for those using Google Apps for their e-mail and calendar.

Remote support: In a world without servers and phone systems in our offices, it’s easier than ever to ditch the expensive computer support people. There’s no need for them to be lurking around most offices. You can hire a provider to maintain your laptops and phones and do it all remotely. They log in when you need assistance and fix your problem. They’ll also handle routine maintenance, upgrades, and system security issues for a small fee. We pay $25 per user, per month, for our provider, who maintains a 24/7 help-desk for our users.

Non-Essential Technologies

iPads and Amazon Kindles: Many practitioners tote around a range of devices on top of their laptops and phones. I see iPads everywhere I turn, and they are terrific devices. The same goes for Amazon Kindles. Are they essential? No. Are they nice to have? Yes and no.

Adding an extra device to your arsenal is worth doing if it meets some need in your practice. Every device requires a certain amount of energy to maintain. You’ll find yourself installing and uninstalling applications. You’ll need to upgrade the operating system and applications to stay current and secure, and you’ll need to remember to load, unload, and charge the device as necessary. If the iPad or Kindle makes a difference in your practice, then buy one. If you can’t justify the device in your practice, then don’t feel pressured to acquire one simply because everyone else has one.

Antivirus software: Security software is more important and simultaneously less important than ever. How is that possible? It’s more important because the efforts to breach your systems are at an all-time high. It’s less important because it mostly doesn’t work against sophisticated attacks. The security providers are trying alternative approaches to securing our data and keep coming up with new ideas. Thankfully, many practitioners store most of their data in the cloud, and security is the responsibility of engineers with specific training and expertise.

The most important effort we can make is learning about our use of the Internet and avoiding the temptation to click on something dangerous that makes us vulnerable. Education is the key to security. Of course, much of the security software is now available for free, so better safe than sorry. Listen to your support team.

The essential technology of 2013 is easier than ever to select, implement, and enjoy. You no longer need to be a computer scientist to make these tools work in your practice. We live in an age where nearly all of our technology smoothly accomplishes the designated task and enables us to serve our clients efficiently and effectively as well as at a reasonable cost.

Essential Technology for Lawyers—Part Two is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Essential Technology for Lawyers—Part Two first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Choosing the right tools for our job is much easier today than it ever has been before.

I’ve been writing about technology for a long time. For many years, it was marked by constant change. Computers got faster and faster with ever-greater capacity. The same thing happened to mobile phones and tablets. Suddenly, over a very short period of time, storage and processing moved to the cloud, and the speed and capacity of our devices mattered less. We could rely on the experts employed by our hosting providers.

Amazingly, the cost of technology has dropped dramatically while the power and performance is exponentially higher. Life is good.

In 2013, we require certain essential technologies to power our practices. To have less than the bare minimums described below is foolish given the cost and effort required to obtain and service what is mentioned. These key pieces of technology allow us to serve our clients effectively and efficiently as well as at a minimal cost. It’s tough to compete without adopting these tools.

Essential Hardware

Laptop: A laptop is the core technology in the family law practitioner’s toolbox. It matters little whether it’s a Mac or a PC. For example, $250 Chromebooks perform as well as $1,500 MacBook Pros at many tasks. The machines are less important than the cloud-based software. The web browser has become the most important application. The machines are, for all intents and purposes, so inexpensive as to have become disposable.

Mobile phone: Again, in this very mature environment, a multitude of devices suits the needs of family law practitioners. It makes little sense, given the subsidized prices, to purchase anything less than a top-of-the-line iPhone or Android device. Either platform meets the needs of our practices, but the iPhone beats the Android for ease of use and availability of advanced applications. It’s tough to argue that any other phone is “essential.” A mobile phone is sufficient to meet all of your needs. VoIP phones are easy and cheap to obtain, but who really needs something more than a cell phone today?

Great Internet: All of our technology investment becomes useless if we lose access to the Internet. It’s essential that we have good quality, high-speed Internet everywhere we work. Thankfully, high-speed Internet is available most everywhere via mobile carriers, cable companies, and phone companies. You need sufficient bandwidth and reliability to conduct business anywhere you choose. Given the essential nature of our connections, it makes sense to have redundancy here, and a second connection can save you the loss associated with downtime.

Scanner: The paperless office is no longer a dream; it’s a reality for most progressive businesses. It’s no longer tricky or complicated to eliminate the paper, and most practice management systems now provide storage for the data. The Fujitsu scanners continue to stand out for their reliability for small practices. The Fujitsu Scansnap S1500 is the workhorse for many small offices. If portability is important to you, try the Fujitsu Scansnap S1100: it’s what I have on my desk.

Earbuds or headphones: These seem trivial but really matter when you’re using your laptop for making phone calls, holding a videoconference, viewing webinars, attending seminars, listening to music, and watching videos. You need a good pair of earbuds or headphones. I’d recommend a particular pair if I could, but ultimately things on or in your ears are very personal and depend on your taste. The primary requirement for these accessories is that they feel good on your ears. For headphones, you’ll have to choose between over the ear and on the ear. For earbuds, you’ll have to choose in ear vs. outer ear. Everyone has a different opinion about what feels good and what hurts.

Essential Software

Microsoft Office: This is a program I love to hate. It’s essential simply because everyone uses it. Personally, I prefer to use a different word processor for my work, but I’ve still got to have a copy of Office. The bottom line is that, regardless of how the alternatives promise you that they can create a document compatible with Microsoft Word, the alternative programs can’t accurately convert documents. The same is true of spreadsheets. You’ll want to look at your documents in Word before you send them along to others if they were created in anything other than the official Microsoft software.

Browser: In today’s environment, you’re spending most of your time on your browser. Most web browsers are fine. Some offer more varied extensions than others that make particular activities more efficient. I’m a fan of Chrome from Google, but all of the mainstream browsers are excellent. There’s little downside to having multiple browsers installed on your laptop and switching back and forth.

Password manager: Unfortunately, every password can be cracked, given enough time and energy. However, that doesn’t mean that you should make it easy for the thieves. Use a unique password for every service you use and make it complicated with a series of letters, numbers, and symbols. The only way you’ll remember those complex passwords is with a service like LastPass. This service helps you generate and use passwords so you’ll avoid data breaches.

Abbreviation expander: I type “vty” and my MacBook abbreviation expander, TextExpander, turns it into “Very truly yours,” saving me a bunch of keystrokes. When I type “jobreject,” it expands into eight paragraphs of text explaining why we won’t be hiring the applicant. You’ll save an incredible amount of time over the course of the year using a product like ActiveWords for the PC. These programs, available for both the Mac and the PC, are inexpensive and powerful. They are essential.

Come back tomorrow for Part Two of this article, where we’ll cover the essential technology of the cloud along with some technology that many of us own even though it isn’t truly essential.

Essential Technology for Lawyers—Part One is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Essential Technology for Lawyers—Part One first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

I’m off. We’re on the road for the summer. We’ll be back to Raleigh in about 9 weeks.

The good news is we’ll be seeing some interesting and fun places. The bad news is I’ll also be working. I can’t afford to take 9 weeks off. I still live in the real world with kids asking for money and bills to pay. In fact, I’ll be seeing some of you at our sold-out workshops in San Francisco and Asheville.

How will I get things done while I’m on the road? I’ve got a range of strategies and tactics I employ for getting things done. Here are my top ten.

1. Mobile phone. I’ll turn on the international voice and data plan provided by Verizon. Even with its special plan, it’s still expensive, and I’ll avoid using the phone for calls. I’ll use it mostly for data (at $20 per 100 MB) and use that sparingly. I’ve tried to do the SIM card routine, and it’s not worth the trouble for this kind of trip with numerous destinations. It’s easier to just avoid using the phone unless I’m on Wi-Fi.

2. Vacation days. I’ll designate certain days for vacation and certain days for work. On vacation days, I’ll just go with the family agenda and see what we’re supposed to see. I’ll tell folks at the office that I’m gone and not to expect much communication. Ideally, the vacation days will coincide with bad Internet days (like when we’re on the ship). Of course, the weekends are reserved for doing the tourist thing.

3. Minimize gear. I’m taking my MacBook and my Galaxy Note 2. I’ll bring the power cord for the Mac and power the phone off the USB port on the computer. That’s it. I won’t be toting around a bunch of other stuff. I like to keep it simple and keep it light.

4. Huge headphones. I really do like to keep it light, except that I’ll bring my giant David Clark headphones. These are the headphones you see small airplane pilots wearing. They weigh about a pound, and they’re exceedingly ugly. They are amazing in noisy environments. When it’s noisy, I can still hear quite well, but that’s not extraordinary. What’s special about these is the microphone. Other people can hear me perfectly. That’s where they excel, and that’s how I justify the $300+ price tag. They save the day in a crowded Internet cafe. However, I can’t even begin to tell you how stupid they look.

5. Remote office. I’ll work from somewhere different each day. It might be a coffee shop or a cafe. It might be a Regus location. Just being out and about will give me a feel for the city when I’m not able to be a tourist.

6. Check ins. I’ll check in with my key people at the start and end of each day. We’ll chat and keep up with what’s happening. Even though I’m gone, I want them to know I’m working and around and available. I’ll also check in over our internal discussion system, Chatter, a few times a day and update folks as to what I’m doing.

7. Lunch. I’ll plan a lunch out each day. I’ll use the lunch as a way to see more of the city. I’ll meet either my wife or a business connection and use the walk/ride to lunch as a way to see more of the place. Each meal will be planned, and I won’t waste a lunch on something random. It might be a food truck day or time for a special restaurant, but it will be calculated to allow me to sneak in something special about the city without having to devote the afternoon to touring.

8. Routine habits. I’ll keep my usual system of planning my day and doing the things on my list. I plan the week using my task list (Wunderlist) and calendar (Google Apps). I review the list at night before I go to bed, and I get up in the morning and start finishing things and checking them off the list. That system will stay in place while I’m on the road, and I’ll just keep my routine.

9. Schedule calls. When I’m at home and certain of having good cell coverage and Internet, I’ll often tell others to call me anytime. I don’t bother with locking down an exact time. If I know I’m free Tuesday morning, I’ll just tell them to call whenever they’re ready. I can’t do that on the road. I’ll specify times for calls and arrange them via e-mail so I’m sure to be set up in front of my laptop with good Internet when they call.

10. Focus. I actually get lots done on the road. I can’t even count the number of these articles that have been written on airplanes. When I’m away from the office, without the constant interruptions, I’m able to keep my head down and crank out more work in less time. When I’m successful at moving through my list quickly, I’ll take some extra time for wandering around. I’m big on wandering without any particular destination.

It’s tough for attorneys to be away from the office and the demands of clients. However, it’s easier in this age of always-on connectivity. Many attorneys do the vast majority of their work via phone and computer. In many practice areas, in-person meetings are the exception and not the rule. It’s possible to manage your work life so that you have the opportunity to travel while still meeting client needs. When you combine travel with work, it’s even easier to be away.

Don’t worry about missing out on Divorce Discourse. It’ll keep coming each day. It may just have a more European tone for the next few months.

10 Tips for Working on the Road is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article 10 Tips for Working on the Road first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

People have certain ideas about lawyers. They think we’re stiff, stuffy, and formal. They assume we’re going to be serious and that we don’t have much of a sense of humor.

It’s tough to build a relationship when people make these assumptions about us. We’ve got to overcome their mistaken beliefs and show them that we’re human.

Being human is relatively easy (for some of us) in one-on-one situations. We can sit down at lunch and show them we’re interesting, enjoyable, entertaining people to know. We can turn on the personality and destroy those preconceived notions about us.

How the Perception Dampens Creativity

What I’ve found challenging is when marketing people have those “stiff, stuffy, formal” ideas about us. We need marketing help, and we need to be presented as interesting, helpful, creative problem solvers. They think we’re boring.

Here’s what I mean:

I hired a guy recently to do some PowerPoint slides for us for a presentation (it could just as easily have been a website, brochure, business cards, etc.). I gave him a feel for what we wanted, and he went to work.

I asked him to do something fun, interesting, and light. The first draft came back and it was “stiff, stuffy, and formal.” He had ideas about lawyers, and he got bound up in his attorney stereotype.

I went back to him and asked him, again, for “fun, interesting, and light.” After a few more iterations we got there, but it wasn’t easy. It was interesting to see the stereotype effect in action because I’d picked him based on his portfolio. His presentations are terrific, and he does a great job. It’s only when he goes to work for a lawyer that everything changes.

It reminds me of the way I talk into a microphone. Normally I just talk, but put a microphone in front of me and I go all disc jockey. I can’t help it. I stop talking the way I normally talk. The designer stopped designing in his normal way.

Suddenly, instead of being the talented, creative designer I’d selected, he became the law firm designer. He went from fun and interesting to boring and conservative when presented with a lawyer assignment.

Breaking Free of the Lawyer Stereotype

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can have interesting graphic design and presentations if we try. Unfortunately, we’ve got to try harder than those in other industries. We have to convince the designers to loosen up and let their creativity run wild even though we’re lawyers.

Don’t accept boring lawyer design. Push for more. Get the designers to use their creativity to show that you’re human. Design matters. It’s often the source of the first impression we make. Don’t let the stereotypes lock you into being something you’re not. Help your marketing people let the real you out so your clients can understand what you’re all about.

Avoid Being Stereotyped by Your Marketing People is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Avoid Being Stereotyped by Your Marketing People first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We moved our phone system to Vocalocity back in 2011. I’ve said positive things about its VoIP product a number of times. I’m a fan. That’s what almost got me into trouble with one reader.

The Reader’s Dilemma

A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a lawyer complimenting me on my excellent advice but telling me that I’d really blown it on Vocalocity. He signed on with the company at my recommendation and had nothing kind to say about his phone service. He had experienced dropped calls and bad connections. He was not a happy camper.

His plan was to give up on a VoIP system and switch back to a traditional phone system. He’d lose all the flexibility and some of the features provided by a VoIP system like Vocalocity, but he needed to actually speak to his clients, so he was ready to do whatever he had to do in order to talk on the phone.

The Solution

I mentioned that the problem might not be with Vocalocity and might be with his Internet connection. He decided to investigate before making the switch. He really didn’t want to lose the features and cost savings he was getting with Vocalocity if he could make it work.

He switched Internet service providers. He moved over from his existing provider to Verizon FIOS. We don’t have FIOS where I live and work, but I’ve heard great things about its service from some lawyers.

What happened to his phone connection after moving to FIOS?

Suddenly, he was a happy camper. Once he got hooked up with the Verizon service, his phone line started to work. The quality of the Internet connection makes a big difference. You can’t assume that a VoIP phone problem is the fault of the phone provider. It may relate to the quality of your Internet connection.

Finding the Root Cause of Poor Service Quality

I’m no expert on Internet connections. The topic is complex. However, I did find an explanation of what they call QoS, or “Quality of Service.” Bad QoS is often the culprit when VoIP systems aren’t working well.

Tech support folks are sometimes able to compensate for QoS issues with special hardware installed at a fixed location (like your office). The issue of poor QoS is much harder to resolve when you’re using your phone system from a remote location (like this chocolate/coffee shop where I’m currently sitting).

With technology, it’s pretty normal for one vendor to point the finger at the other. The hardware people blame the software people. With VoIP providers, we’ve got the phone people blaming the Internet provider and vice versa. We get caught in the middle and frequently end up paying a third vendor to sort out the problem.

With each technical advance, we run into new problems. Thankfully, the improvements in the technology and the declining prices warrant dealing with the glitches. When it comes to your phones, as with other technologies, be aware that the problem may be more involved than it initially appears. Be patient and do some testing. Hopefully, you’ll get things fixed just like my reader who switched to FIOS.

Why Isn’t Your Internet Phone Working? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Why Isn’t Your Internet Phone Working? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

I read lots of articles about start-up businesses. I’m fascinated by the topic and intrigued by how the arena has changed in terms of the need for capital. We all know stories about businesses started in dorm rooms selling out for a billion dollars. It’s amazing.

The one thing all of those stories have in common is that the founders work like crazy. They do nothing but work. They hustle like it’s life and death. An easy week might involve 80 hours of work.

The Typical Lawyer’s Dream Come True

When I’m not reading about start-ups, I’m having lots of conversations with lawyers about their futures. A recurring theme is their plan to start a new business and leave the law. They want to build a successful business doing something—anything—other than practice law.

• Most of the lawyers I talk to have a plan to keep their practice humming along (maybe with them supervising), providing an income while they build their start-up business. They want a smooth transition from the law to something new.
• Most of these lawyers are also intrigued by the limited need for capital in today’s environment, as they usually have limited access to capital.
• Most of these lawyers are 40+ years old.
• Most of these lawyers have a spouse and kids.
• Most of these lawyers have significant monthly expenses.
• Most of these lawyers haven’t worked a 100-hour week in a long time.

Is Your Work Fantasy a Pipe Dream?

I have my doubts about the success of their ventures. In fact, I have my doubts about whether they’ll ever take the first step.

I’m not saying it can’t be done. I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m not saying you should find a different dream.

However, I am saying that it’s important to be realistic. It’s important to acknowledge your present circumstances and responsibilities. It’s important to come up with a plan that is achievable. If you’re not ready to give up much of what you have now, it’s going to be difficult to have something new. Those 100-hour start-up people have very little. That means they have very little to lose. Figure out what’s realistic in your current circumstances and build your dream around that reality.

Dreams are Good. Achievable Dreams are Great. is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Dreams are Good. Achievable Dreams are Great. first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

The search engine optimizers are in your e-mail box, they’re on your voicemail, and they’re showing up in your lobby asking for a “quick meeting.”

These are the people who explain that your site can easily start showing up at the top of the search rankings on Google and Bing.

Some of them must be decent, honest people who know what they’re talking about. I just haven’t met one of the good ones yet.

The SEOs, as they are called, I’ve met have all been full of crap. They talk a great game, and they make big promises. They don’t deliver in the long haul.

SEO Results Are Usually Temporary

Some of what they do works. Your site goes up in rank and starts appearing at the top of the search engine results pages.

Eventually, invariably, Google and the other search engines catch up with the techniques used by the SEOs and your rank drops. In fact, you usually end up ranking worse than you did before paying the SEOs.

Historically, the SEOs have done things like built spammy links on other sites, paid for links, and attempted to make a site seem popular and highly regarded when it is neither popular nor highly regarded.

Don’t Wind Up in Google Purgatory

Google updates its algorithms constantly in an effort to give its searches excellent results. The search engine has recently rolled out some big updates, and it’ll keep improving its system week after week. With each improvement, Google pushes the good sites up in the rankings and drops the low-quality sites using spammy SEO techniques further down.

Sometimes, and this happens more often now than ever before, Google does more than lower the rankings of the poor quality sites. Google will actually penalize and punish the sites attempting to manipulate the rankings. Those sites will be condemned to Google purgatory. They’ll have to do some apologizing and take corrective action before they’ll be allowed to rejoin the rest of us on Google.

Every law firm I know that has been punished by Google has been put in that position by an aggressive search engine optimizer. In every case, the SEO promised to improve the rank of the law firm. Things haven’t always worked out as promised.

What Should You Do When the SEOs Call?

1. Hang up. Don’t hire one. There may be some great SEOs out there, but you’ll have a tough time finding a good one, and you won’t know whom you can trust. My policy is to stay away from them entirely. Plenty of them are still selling the exact services that have resulted in penalties.
2. Build a website that’s helpful to your visitors. Give them what they need. Build a site that’s popular and highly regarded because it’s worthy of being visited. Provide information, tools, and helpful material for your visitors. Google is good at what it does, and it’ll figure out that you belong at the top of the rankings.

Without an SEO and with a useful site, you’ll rank well. Visitors will come to your site. You’ll end up with more clients and, having saved the dollars you would have paid to the SEO, more money.

Search Engine Optimization for Your Website is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Search Engine Optimization for Your Website first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We’ve had an auto-attendant answer our phone nearly forever. I can’t recall when we switched from a human to a computer, but it was more than 15 years ago. Let me give you a quick overview of our system, and then we’ll talk about the impact it has on clients.

Our Law Firm’s Answering System

Our system is simple:

We give all of our people direct dial numbers. These numbers are on their business cards (yes, we still have business cards—don’t ask me why) and in their e-mail signature blocks. Most of our clients and opposing counsel call on the direct numbers. Those numbers go right through to each team member and are backed up by voicemail when not answered.

Also, in our voicemail messages, we provide callers with the option to press a key to be transferred to a live person if they choose (more on that later).

If someone calls our main number (we have a separate number for each of our four locations), it is automatically answered by the auto-attendant (we are happy customers of Vocalocity). The callers hear a message giving them several options, including (1) the receptionist, (2) a directory, (3) prospective client scheduling, and (4) snail mail information. Mostly, the callers route themselves through the system and don’t jump to the receptionist option.

Does Your Firm Need a Designated Receptionist?

In the event that callers select the receptionist option, they are routed to someone who can help them. For many years, they were routed to a designated staff member who focused on handling those calls. That worked well. However, we have been on an outsourcing binge and started analyzing this particular process.

We had been using Ruby Receptionist for some time as backup for our receptionist. When the receptionist was unable to put a caller on hold to pick up a second call, we auto-forwarded those calls to Ruby Receptionist. We did the same thing for after-hours calls. We had GREAT results with Ruby.

Quick Ruby Story: From time to time, we get client feedback about the person answering the phone. It’s almost always positive. When we started using Ruby, we got even more of that feedback, and we started digging around and figured out that the Ruby operators were doing so well that clients continually felt compelled to mention them to us. Of course, the clients assume the receptionist is someone in our office. The Ruby Receptionist employees are over-the-top enthusiastic. It’s actually slightly annoying to some of us: we don’t like perky people. But that perky crap leaves a great impression on clients.

Recently, having had great success with Ruby as a backup, we shifted primary responsibility for the receptionist duty to Ruby. Now we route all calls straight to this service. It’s working great, and we’ve been doing it for about three months without issue.

Client Reactions to Our Firm’s Answering System

So how do clients react to our system? I got that question from an attorney last week (and I do love questions because it gives me something write about—so keep them coming).

Our clients have never objected to the auto-attendant. They have never objected to voicemail. They are happy with the technology, and most of them have similar systems where they or their spouses work. I actually think people are surprised today when a receptionist answers the phone and has to manually route the call. I know it annoys me when I have to leave a message with a person rather than voicemail.

However, our clients have complained about one matter related to our system. They go crazy when they leave a voicemail for someone and the call isn’t quickly returned. They leave their message and wait for a callback. When the call doesn’t come for a few hours, they start to get cranky. Some clients, having waited all day without a callback, go ballistic. The failure-to-return-calls problem has absolutely nothing to do with the automated nature of the system. It’s a totally human problem.

Overall, I can’t say enough good things about our phone system and the way it handles incoming calls and messages. It’s all good. It works for us, and it works for our clients. If we had it to do over again, we’d do it in exactly the same way.

Do Automated Phone Answering Systems Annoy Clients? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Do Automated Phone Answering Systems Annoy Clients? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We’re all pretty well versed in the idea of having an emergency fund for our family. Experts preach different levels of funding, but a consensus seems to form around the idea of having at least six months of expenses saved and easily accessible. That seems like a prudent thing to do.

Having an emergency fund for a business is less commonly discussed, but it’s no less important. Disasters happen. We get reminded of that fact every day on the TV news. It’s hard to imagine that there wasn’t a law firm in the path of that tornado in Oklahoma.

Taking Care of (Your) Business

Establishing a business emergency fund can be challenging. For most of us, our biggest expense is payroll. Payroll can be a big number, and a month or two of payroll without revenue would wipe many law firms right off the map. The emergency fund for the business may need to be much larger than what’s required to cover our personal expenses.

An emergency fund isn’t the only way to deal with disasters. Insurance is another option. In fact, the landlord or mortgage holder usually requires tenants to obtain fire and other types of property damage insurance. However, compensation for loss of revenue isn’t always covered, and you should look carefully at your policy. Talk to your broker about business continuation coverage.

Think through all the potential problems that might give rise to the need for the use of the emergency fund. Fire and natural disasters come to mind immediately: they happen all the time. Other scenarios can cut off your revenue as well. Think about it for long, and you’ll find yourself curled up in a fetal position under the desk.

Planning for Personal Emergencies

Imagine what would happen if a key attorney fell ill. If you’re in a two-attorney practice and one of the attorneys becomes temporarily disabled, you can rapidly fall into financial difficulty. When that attorney stops billing, the revenue stream quickly stops. Sure, disability and health insurance may cover the attorney’s personal expenses, but how will you pay the team that had been supporting the attorney?

Some firms purchase key person insurance for these situations. Think of it as life or disability insurance for the benefit of the firm when a key person is unable to work. It can be expensive to purchase these policies, and rates will likely depend on the age and health of the key person. It costs you nothing to talk to an insurance company about your options.

Some firms arrange a line of credit with their bank to handle these challenging situations. Today, however, you can expect your bank to slash your credit line if it senses that you might have difficulty recovering from the problem. Don’t count on the bank to leave the line alone if it discovers that a key revenue producer is out of production or that you’ve experienced a disaster that’s not covered by your insurance. The bank will cut and run as fast as it can.

Get Your House in Order

Ultimately, you’ll want a savings account for the business. If you presently have nothing set aside, it can be overwhelming to think about how much you’ll need and doubly overwhelming when you process how challenging it will be to save the money. It’s tough.

However, there is no time like the present to get started. Set up an account. Put aside some small amount. Do the same each week or month. Slowly, over a long period, you’ll accumulate the funds you need to deal with an emergency.

Then, once you’ve saved what you need, when the wind kicks up, you won’t worry about your business. You’ll feel secure in the knowledge that you set aside the funds required to weather any storm.

Can You Survive a Financial Emergency? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Can You Survive a Financial Emergency? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

There was some discussion last week over at myShingle.com about networking. Carolyn Elefant asked Is In-Person Networking the Right Approach for Every Person?

Carolyn concluded that there are sound ways to build a successful practice even when limiting networking activity. She’s right. You can build a successful practice without doing much networking. You can build it with all sorts of online approaches (websites, blogs, social media, etc.) coupled with excellent work for clients who then refer new clients to your practice.

However, these non-networking approaches (1) are less efficient, (2) are slower, and (3) result in lower fees per unit of work. If you can accept a slower path to a lower income, then a non-networking approach is workable. In some situations, this may be the only alternative. But don’t fool yourself into believing that a non-networking approach will do for you what good old-fashioned networking will do.

It’s a Matter of Choice

It’s essential that you make educated choices when it comes to marketing. You need to be realistic. Don’t rationalize your way out of networking because of your fear of building relationships with people you haven’t yet met. It’s not about a lack of time or family priorities. If you’ve got time to do the work, then you’ve got time to do the networking. Make smart choices and do less legal work and more marketing work. You’ll earn more when you strike the right balance. The marketing is not a low priority activity in a successful business. If you’re going to skip networking and market with alternative approaches, then be honest with yourself about what that choice is going to cost you and why you’ve made that decision.

Here’s the deal: meeting people face to face, one on one, is the fastest way to build trust and connections. When marketing, your objective  is to get others to know you, like you, and trust you. Building trust is most easily managed when you look into others’ eyes and they look back at you. Trust is built quickly when people see you, touch you, and size you up in person. You can certainly build trust at a distance, but it’s harder, it takes longer, and the relationships are rarely as strong.

Weigh the Consequences of Your Choice

If you choose to build your practice via means other than networking—advertising, social networking, websites, etc.—be prepared to take lower fees, get hired less often, and spend more money on marketing than you’d spend networking. Every kind of marketing works. I’ve never tried anything that was a complete failure. Just remember that some kinds of marketing, networking with prospective clients and referral sources in particular, work better.

Is In-Person Networking the Right Approach for Every Lawyer? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Is In-Person Networking the Right Approach for Every Lawyer? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Most of us like winning. In fact, we’re drawn to competition, and it’s a lot more fun if we come out on top.

We Like to Compete

It’s not an accident that law schools rank law students. We like it. It’s appealing to us to be in the game, and we prefer ranking high to ranking low. I never bumped into anyone who said, “I’m aiming for last in my class.” I can tell you that the students in my wife’s Ph.D. program in literature didn’t walk around talking about class rank. That wasn’t anywhere on their radar screens. We’re a uniquely competitive group.

We took the SAT and the LSAT. Then we took the MPRE and the bar exam. Eavesdrop on some law students out drinking, and you’ll likely hear a discussion of their performance on one or all of these tests. It defines them.

It’s not an accident that many of us love to litigate. We like going to court and competing with one another. Again, we really enjoy walking away with a victory for our clients.

Lawyers love to compete in other settings as well. I did triathlons and ran races for a few years. I couldn’t believe the number of lawyers I’d bump into (literally) at these races. I’d meet four lawyers for every engineer or computer programmer. We’re a competitive group, and we have a hard time letting it go.

We Prefer to Win

It’s annoying to us when we can’t tell how we’re doing. We love the scoreboard. We like to know whether we’re ahead, and it’s motivating to us when we’re behind. It’s frustrating when we’re operating in an information vacuum. We don’t like the feeling of not knowing.

Any activity that doesn’t have a scoreboard is less appealing to many of us. For instance, throwing pottery isn’t a competitive sport. I don’t bump into many lawyer/potters. That’s not a coincidence. You’ll find plenty of philosophy majors who enjoy some time in front of the pottery wheel with their hands covered in wet clay.

There’s No Scoreboard in This Game

Unfortunately, there’s no scoreboard for our practices when it comes to money. In some businesses, the financial info is public. That’s obviously true for public companies, but it’s also true for lots of other companies as well. It’s even true among large law firms. The AmLaw 200 list gives us some data on those 200 firms, and you can compare yourself to them.

Unfortunately, however, comparing yourself to a big law firm handling corporate matters isn’t particularly helpful. It’s a bit like me comparing my basketball performance to Michael Jordan’s. We’re playing in different leagues.

I wish there were a scoreboard for small firms practicing my kind of law. I wish I could figure out whether I’m winning or losing. I’d really like to know how we compare, regardless of whether that would be good for me.

In our desperation for information, we grab the data we can find. The most obvious number we can use is the number of attorneys in a firm. We count our lawyers, and we compare it to their lawyers and we decide whether we’re winning or losing.

More Lawyers ≠ a Win

Sadly, that’s a dumb metric. Having lots of lawyers might be a good thing. It might also be a terrible thing. It doesn’t indicate the law firm’s profitability in any way. I’ve seen firms with dozens of lawyers borrowing money to meet payroll. I’ve seen firms with one lawyer spinning off more cash than I could ever imagine. Profits aren’t related to headcount.

The lawyer headcount metric is good for one thing: counting the number of lawyers. That’s all it’s good for. It has no relationship to profits, compensation, or anything else that matters in the real world. Sure, it’s a fun game to play, but it’s not rational. Lawyer headcount is a random measurement. You might as well count the number of volumes in the firm library.

Why, then, do we persist in comparing firms based on their number of lawyers? Because we’re incredibly competitive, and we desperately want a scoreboard. We’ll take a bad scoreboard over nothing.

I truly wish we had better metrics for comparison. I’d be a happier person (or an unhappy person) if I had more information. My consulting work has given me a better sense of what’s possible, but even that data isn’t totally satisfying as it’s from different markets and different situations.

I’ve always hoped that bar associations would gather and disseminate data we could put to use. Most of what I’ve seen from most bar associations isn’t especially useful. Either the data is poorly presented, or the firms fail to contribute to the study. It would be great if bar associations actually did some work in this arena.

It’s doubtful that we’ll get good data for comparison anytime soon. We’ll have to live in this information vacuum for a bit longer. In the meantime, it’s important that we recognize the uselessness of the attorney headcount metric and not use it to score ourselves in the game. It’s not a metric connected with anything that matters in the real world, and it’s a metric better left ignored.

Are You Winning? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Are You Winning? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

They say “history repeats itself,” and I think that’s especially true when it comes to hiring.

When you’re looking at hiring an associate or other employee for your firm, be mindful of that person’s history.

Look analytically at the resume sitting in front of you and study the personal history of the applicant. The history you see on the resume is an excellent predictor of the performance you can expect in your office.

• Work history. When a resume reveals a series of short-term jobs, you can assume the applicant will be a short-term employee for you as well. One year here, one year there predicts one year with you. I’d reject that one.
• Track record. When a resume reveals mediocre achievements—regardless of whether it’s a poor GPA or a lack of accomplishment in the workplace—you can assume the applicant will have mediocre achievements in your office as well.
• Appearances matter. When a resume reveals a lack of attention to detail—typos, spacing errors, poor formatting—you can assume you’ll suffer from that same issue when the employee shows up on your payroll.

Ask some questions during the interview to flesh out the history. Ask for examples of exercising initiative. Ask for examples of dealing with an upset customer. Ask for examples of collaborating with co-workers. Listen carefully to the stories and assume that whatever happened before will likely happen again.

Be careful not to fall in love with the applicant without a careful examination of the history. Some applicants talk a good game. They’ve got an explanation for every issue you raise and an excuse for every problem. They present themselves well regardless of their history. Slow down, be careful, and listen critically. Don’t get sucked in by the smooth talk. Assume that history will repeat itself.

Rely On History When Hiring is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Rely On History When Hiring first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Winning at this game requires you to do three things:

1. Manage your fear,

2. Cope with uncertainty, and

3. Handle the stress.

For me, it’s like Whac-a-Mole. I get one under control, and one of the others pops up. It’s a constant struggle.

The better you are at handling the fear, uncertainty, and stress, the higher your score. Game on.

The Key to Winning the Lawyer Game is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article The Key to Winning the Lawyer Game first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We’re oddly driven to hire people. If the President wants to fix the unemployment problem, he should put family law attorneys in charge. Every time I meet one, the conversation heads straight to the desire to hire somebody. He or she always wants an associate, a paralegal, or a virtual assistant. We rarely talk about getting rid of people. It’s always hire, hire, hire.

What’s that about? I have no idea. I start digging around as we talk, and I nearly always find the revenue doesn’t support the need for another employee. There’s something psychological going on with the interest in hiring. It’s definitely not a desire driven by the financial situation. It’s almost always something else.

When Should You Hire Someone?

The pertinent metric is revenue per employee. You want that number to be as high as possible. When that number goes up, you’ll find profits going up. You’ll also be able to hire better employees because you can afford to pay them more and can provide better benefits. Hiring prematurely lowers the revenue per employee number.

At this point, the question you should be asking is this: How does an increase in revenue per employee affect the bottom line? In other words, does an increase in revenue per employee result in an increase in profits? The answer, according to study after study, is that it does. There’s a strong correlation, and you’ll see the impact on profits as you bring up this key metric.

What’s a Healthy Revenue Per Employee Number?

I’m a big advocate of avoiding hiring until you’re running along with $300,000 in annual revenue ($25,000 per month). When you hit $300,000 per year, you have revenue per employee of $300,000. That’s the revenue divided by the number of employees (you). If you decide to add a paralegal at that moment, then your revenue per employee drops to $150,000.

How’s $150,000 of revenue per employee? It’s okay. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. I’ve spent time with lawyers grossing $100,000 per year who are paying a staff person. They’ve got revenue per employee of $50,000, and that’s pretty awful.

Of course, each area of the law is a bit different. Personal injury lawyers might have very different ideas about what constitutes a good vs. bad number. You’ll have to ask around in your practice area. Most of the numbers I see are in family law practices.

My judgment is that $100,000 in revenue per employee is a problem that needs fixing. That’s not a particularly healthy number, and you can do better. $200,000 isn’t bad. $300,000 and above is very good.

In a practice grossing $6 million and running on 15 employees, you’re at $400,000 in revenue per employee. That’s outstanding in this area of the law.

Trust the Facts and Figures, Not Your Emotions

Before you hire someone, stop and think about revenue per employee. Don’t jump to hire before the business needs the help. Determine whether you need help based on the metrics, not based on your emotional needs or because you’re feeling overwhelmed. You’re running a business, and emotion isn’t a reliable indicator.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the work, but the revenue doesn’t justify adding to the team, then the problem isn’t what you think it is. It’s not about having too much work, and it’s rarely about poor time management. When the revenue per employee number is low and it feels like you’ve got more work than you can manage, the issue usually revolves around price. You’re likely not charging enough, or you’re failing to collect what you’re owed. These issues are exacerbated by hiring. Hiring makes it worse, not better, because expenses increase and profit goes down.

Look carefully at your revenue per employee. There’s gold in that number. Drive it up. Pay attention to it monthly, and use it to decide when to hire and when to fire. Take the energy you’re currently using dreaming about hiring more people and apply it to driving up your revenue per employee. It’s revenue per employee and not the number of employees that will help you achieve your business goals.

The Number That Tells You When to Hire Help is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article The Number That Tells You When to Hire Help first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

This is part two of this article. Be sure to read part one of How a Solo Lawyer (or You) Can Take Vacation.

Vacations are important. If you skip them, you’ll suffer the consequences. This work is tough. It’s exhausting, and it’ll burn you out if you don’t get some time away from the stress and pressure. In part one of this article, we addressed using a backup attorney, booking the trip, and keeping everyone informed of the plan. Here’s part two with the final five tips.

6. Use technology to appear present. Some lawyers, myself included, try to look present, regardless of whether we’re working or on vacation. My voicemail message always says I’m working unless I’m somewhere without Internet. I don’t send “out of office” e-mails when I’m away. I’m “working” 365 days a year as far as my clients are concerned. Is that a good idea? Maybe not. You’ve got to figure that out for yourself and decide how you want to deal with access to you. The bottom line is that I want prospective clients to leave me a voicemail or send me an e-mail when they need help, and I don’t want them thinking that I’m away. I forward the message to someone for handling regardless of whether I’m working, and I don’t want to decrease the likelihood of that message being left for me.

7. Check out the Internet before you go. If you’re going to work some from your destination, then it’s important to be sure that you’re able to connect. Many hotels and other vacation rentals claim to offer Internet access. Reality doesn’t always match up with what’s advertised. My system, especially if I’m renting a house or an apartment, is to ask the owner or manager to run a speed test and record it for me with Jing. The owner can then send me the video of the speed test. I know that sounds anal and overly paranoid, but I’ve had issues with Internet in lots of these rentals. I also travel with a BearExtender, which sometimes makes a big difference in difficult Wi-Fi situations.

8. Get the staff on board. Explain to your staff that you really need to take vacations just like they do. Get their commitment to do everything possible to keep the clients happy and under control. Make sure they all understand the backup attorney’s role. Do the same with your virtual assistants and paralegals as well as your answering service. My experience is that my staff rises to the occasion, and I’m consistently amazed by the capability of my team. I often think they’d be better off if I’d stay out of their way more often.

9. Enjoy the trip. It’s easy to let thinking about work get in the way of really enjoying your time away. I struggle with letting work thoughts creep into my mind. That’s especially true if I’m checking my e-mail and voicemail on a regular schedule. You’re going to have to find your way through getting the most out of your trip while avoiding disaster back at the office. There’s no way around the fact that it’s a tricky balance that you’ve got to strike, and it takes years of practice to get it exactly right. For me, I’ve found that longer trips really help me disconnect from the office-related anxiety. However, I’ve found that each of us needs to figure out what works best for our particular psychology.

10. Catch up. Anticipate some chaos upon getting back to work: it’s normal and predictable. Build a couple of long days into your calendar before you leave so you’ll be back on track before long. Avoid scheduling hearings for the first day back. Avoid booking the first day with lots of client meetings. Visualize your return before you leave, and allow yourself some time and space for re-entry by blocking off some of your calendar for calls and document review.

These tips apply to many of us, solo or not. Hopefully, you’ve already planned some time away for the coming months. If not, there’s still time. Take the time away and recharge, rejuvenate, and come back ready to do an even better job for your clients.

How a Solo Lawyer (or You) Can Take Vacation: Part Two is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article How a Solo Lawyer (or You) Can Take Vacation: Part Two first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

One of the reasons I’m not a solo practitioner is that I like taking vacations. I don’t want to feel like I can’t go away without worrying. Of course, even with a team of people, I still worry when I’m on vacation.

You can go on vacation. In fact, you must go on vacation if you’re going to survive this work. Vacations are an essential element of maintaining your health and happiness. You’ve got to get away.

Vacation has become a murky concept for me. I’m working remotely most of the time now, and I can do it from anywhere with a good Internet connection. Unrestricted access to my work is great in lots of ways. However, it does allow work to intrude even when I’m trying not to work. It’s a mental game, and it’s trickier now than it has ever been.

What I’ve Learned About Vacation

I was briefly a solo back when I started my firm, and I got married five months after opening my office. I learned some quick lessons about vacation when we left my brand-new practice for a week and headed off on our honeymoon to the British Virgin Islands. We were on tiny Mosquito Island right off Virgin Gorda and had no Internet. We had no Internet because no one had Internet in 1990. Going online back then meant using CompuServe with a dial-up modem. We didn’t worry about the cell phone either. I had my very first cell phone, and I can promise you it had no service on Mosquito Island. The only phone on the island was in the kitchen area of the restaurant.

The lessons I learned back then apply pretty well today. I’ve learned a few things since, and I’ll include those as well.

1. Get a backup. There will be emergencies, and you’ll need someone to handle them. Work out an arrangement with another lawyer. He or she covers you, and vice versa. Work out a financial plan in advance for the coverage. Ideally, you’ll just swap time and roll with it not being exactly equal. Keeping up with time and worrying about the money takes some of the fun out of the trip. Think of it as a long-term arrangement: know that some trips will require more help than others, but it will work out over time. Ideally, you’ll have taken prophylactic measures to minimize the work required by your backup.

2. Book really early. There are a couple of approaches to planning the vacation, and this is the approach most lawyers take. Advance booking is pretty much essential if you’ve got kids and need to schedule around your calendar, your partner’s calendar, and the school calendar. You can often arrange a trip a year ahead of time and put it on the calendar. When you plan the trip way in advance, you can avoid conflicts more easily. In fact, my experience is that waiting until a few months out to book a trip makes it nearly impossible to find a totally free week or two.

3. Reserve really late and sneak out of town. An alternative to booking really early is to simply spot a free week coming up and shoot for a last-minute deal at a good price. Personally, I find this approach much more challenging. If I don’t block my schedule in advance, then my week almost always gets filled up with one thing or another. But different lawyers work differently and sometimes end up with a totally blank calendar for the week. If that sometimes happens to you, then try this approach and sneak off without much notice.

4. Give everyone notice. Tell everyone that you’re leaving. Tell them again. Then tell them you’re gone. Then tell them you’re back. It’s easy to send an e-mail to your clients and opposing counsel alerting them to your status, and it keeps them from being surprised and upset if they discover you’re gone during their “crisis.” Be sure to preserve client confidentiality when sending the e-mails. Don’t put everyone in the “To” field and expose all of your clients’ e-mail addresses. Explain what you’re doing and explain how the coverage will work if they need assistance.

5. Use your local rules to your advantage. Some jurisdictions build vacations into the rules. Our state has a provision allowing us to send a notice to the court designating time for a vacation, and then no one can schedule anything during the designated period. Know your local rules and use them to minimize the need for coverage.

In part two of this article, you’ll find five more tips that’ll make it easier for you to talk time away. We’ll talk technology, discuss how to get the staff and virtual assistants involved, and develop a plan for catching up on the backed-up work.

How a Solo Lawyer (or You) Can Take Vacation: Part One is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article How a Solo Lawyer (or You) Can Take Vacation: Part One first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

A lawyer called the other day and told me his story. I’ll give you the abbreviated version here today.

He spoke to a Rotary Club luncheon about three months ago on the eastern side of Georgia. That’s where he practices family law in a solo practice. He was asked to speak at the Rotary Club by a friend of his who is a member. His friend was responsible for arranging speakers for a bunch of upcoming meetings. His topic was “What Happens to Your Business in a Divorce.” He spoke for about 15 minutes right after the banana pudding was served.

The speech was good—not great. He got a few questions and walked out alone. His friend e-mailed him later in the day and thanked him.

The Law of Accelerating Marketing Returns

The next day, a Rotary Club member who heard the speech called and arranged a consultation.

Two days later, in a different consultation, he came to understand that the woman he was meeting was dating a guy in the Rotary Club, and that’s how she came to him.

One speech, two consultations. One of them hired him. The other one is still thinking about what to do.

A psychologist in the club e-mailed the lawyer about 10 days after the meeting and asked the lawyer to lunch. She took him to a place near his office, and they chatted for 90 minutes. During the lunch, she asked him to talk to her group of office sharers at an upcoming gathering. She suggested that he talk about how a psychologist should deal with a subpoena. He happily agreed.

He’s now had three referrals from members of the six-person group at the mental health practice. Two of them have retained him. He also had lunch with another psychologist from the group and has scheduled lunch with two social workers who missed his lunchtime talk. The psychologist asked him whether he would write an article for the newsletter she edits for a local mental health association. She said she’d put the article on the association’s website and link back to his site once it’s finished.

One speech at a Rotary Club, and he already has three new clients, with more likely to retain down the road. This stuff works.

The Marketing Chain of Events is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article The Marketing Chain of Events first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

“Clients just don’t want to pay what they used to pay.”

“The judge is an idiot.”

“The client screwed up the case, and there’s nothing I can do.”

“The paralegal dropped the ball, and it didn’t get filed.”

“The witness was terrible.”

You can blame others when things go wrong. That makes you feel better.

Or you can take the blame. You can say “I dropped the ball; I should have done a better job of [fill in the blank].”

You Can Feel Better, Or You Can Make Things Better

The only way you can make things better is to take the blame. It’s when you take the blame that you take responsibility for the problem. That’s when the improvement starts to happen.

• “I should have made more of an effort on marketing.”
• “I should have vetted the delivery service.”
• “I should have been better prepared.”

You get the idea.

Once you acknowledge your role, you’ll start making progress. As long as you keep blaming something outside of yourself, you’ll be stuck.

Go ahead, take the blame. Things will start to change once you do.

Take the Blame is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Take the Blame first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Take a look at any lawyers at any time, and you’re likely to see them talking to a client on the phone.

We’re all used to sticking our heads in the office of other lawyers, and the first thing we do is check to see whether they’re on the phone. It’s like the phone handset is appended to the lawyer’s ear.

Talking to clients is an essential activity for most of us. It’s what makes clients happy. They like the attention, it calms their nerves, and it usually results in progress toward resolving the problem.

However, while it all looks the same externally, talking to a client can be qualitatively very different from call to call.

The Two Types of Client Phone Calls

Some client phone calls are reactive: they’re about fixing the upset of the moment. These clients are distressed about a document they just received, a settlement proposal they didn’t expect, or some other event that just took place. You feel like you’re fixing things and trying to get the client back on track and moving forward.

Some client calls are proactive. These calls are about alerting the client as to the status of the case or a recent development both you and the client discussed earlier as a possibility. These calls are about planning, monitoring, and checking in. They weren’t triggered by an upset or a change: they’re part of the normal flow of the relationship and representation.

Reactive calls are draining. They’re exhausting. Proactive calls are upbeat and energizing. They leave you feeling good about the work with the client.

Are You Making Deposits to Your Emotional Bank Account?

Of course, both types of phone calls look the same to the untrained eye—there’s a lawyer on the phone—but experienced lawyers can listen to other lawyers and immediately understand when they’re in reactive mode and when they’re in proactive mode.

The proactive calls are like deposits to the emotional bank account. The reactive calls are withdrawals.

I really like the emotional bank account analogy for attorney-client relationships. Sometimes we’re building the balance in the account (with positive, pleasant conversations), and sometimes we’re depleting the balance (with difficult conversations). The balance goes up and down over the course of the representation, and we use up some of it when we ask clients to trust us and do something uncomfortable. If the representation ends with a surplus, then we get referrals from the client. If it ends with a deficit, then we get trashed all over town.

The reactive calls require lots of energy. They wear us out. They’re a drain on us. A day full of reactive calls is a day that leaves us feeling miserable. A day filled with proactive calls has the opposite effect.

If you’ve been negligent about making proactive calls to clients to build that account balance, you’re likely dealing with lots of upset people. You’re putting out one fire after another. You can’t get ahead.

If you’re making the proactive calls, then your clients are largely calm and cool. Certainly, that’s not the case with every single client at every single moment, but it’s more often the case than not.

Once you’re in reactive mode—with lots of upset clients—it’s difficult to turn things around. It’s challenging to get things under control. Some lawyers spend their entire career in reactive mode. They never get on top of the relationships.

Advice You Can Take to the Bank

How can you turn it around? How can you build the balance in the emotional bank account? What can you do?

Temporarily, you’ve got to double down on the calls. You’ve got to talk to everyone more often. Of course, you’ll have to stay on top of the upsets and keep those clients under control. Simultaneously, you’ll need to start with proactive calls. You’ll need to connect with each of those clients twice a week. You’ll need to check in with them, update them, and listen to them. You’ll need to make deposits in the bank account.

For a few weeks, you’ll talk on the phone constantly. You’ll be calling clients from the office, from the car, and from home. Very quickly, you’ll notice the change. You’ll feel the tide turn. Instead of upset, angry words, you’ll hear expressions of gratitude. You’ll hear clients laughing and being positive. You’ll find impossible clients behaving more tolerably. The change comes quickly if you do the hard work of building the account balances.

I have a system for calling clients. It’s simple. It involves lots of phone calls.

If you follow my advice, soon you’ll be fighting fewer fires, and you’ll have clients who feel included, respected, and understood. Soon you’ll find yourself finishing up your calls early because your clients have less to say when they know you’ll call again soon. You’ll find yourself with time to do other things when you’re not in reactive mode all the time.

Saving Time on the Phone is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Saving Time on the Phone first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

It’s morbid, but I’d suggest you assume your assistant is going to be hit by a truck sometime today.

She survived, but she won’t be coming back to work. For purposes of my story, let’s assume that she’s in a coma for a few months. Don’t worry, she’ll be fine.

You can’t talk to her. You can’t e-mail her. You can’t communicate with her in any way at all.

Are You Ready?

• What’s the password for her computer?
• What’s her e-mail password?
• What’s her voicemail password?
• What’s on her calendar for tomorrow?
• What’s the status of your various deadlines?
• What’s her husband’s phone number?
• How does she bill the clients?
• What’s the password for the bank account?
• What’s the name of your contact at the bank?
• Who is your contact at the clerk’s office?
• How does she download forms from the court website?
• Where are the client documents saved on the computer?

What if you get the call right now? Are you ready?

This is a test. This is only a test. But it might not always be a test.

How Badly Will You Be Hurt by the Emergency? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article How Badly Will You Be Hurt by the Emergency? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

There are times when you’re really going to need a client. Those are dangerous times.

It’s in those moments that we make the biggest mistakes. It’s in those moments when we make decisions setting off events that nearly always result in trouble. Sometimes the trouble lasts long after the client is gone.

You’re worried about paying the rent, the payroll, or the student loan payment. Financial pressures make you feel alone and helpless. You’re sitting at your desk wondering how you’re going to pay the bills as you watch the clock tick and the deadline get closer and closer.

You’re willing the phone to ring, yet it sits quietly.

You keep wishing for a client and hoping for a fee. Then, finally, after what feels like an eternity, something happens, and a client shows up at your door.

The client tells you the story, and you’re thinking, “Coffee is for closers.” You’re sending all of your juju in the client’s direction and hoping to collect a fee. You’re amped up to get this client. In fact, there’s no way this client is leaving your office without signing a client agreement and running that credit card through the swiper. You’re taking no prisoners.

Don’t Let Financial Pressures Cloud Your Judgment

That’s the way the nightmare begins.

• You ignore the warning signs.
• You realize you’re about to be lawyer number three.
• You realize your prospective client has an anger disorder.
• You realize he has unrealistic expectations.
• You realize he can pay the initial deposit to your trust account but can’t possibly afford to continue to pay.
• You realize that he wants revenge rather than the solution to his problem.

All you see is the solution to your financial problem. You ignore the rest. You’re unable to slow yourself down and back away.

And then it starts. Now he owns you.

• He’s calling at all hours.
• He’s screaming and out of control.
• He’s demanding more and more of you and paying you less and less.
• He’s out of control and blaming you for everything that’s going wrong.
• He’s embarrassing you with the court.
• He’s threatening you with malpractice complaints.

The court won’t let you out. Thoughts of him are keeping you up at night.

Yep, you really needed a client. Those are dangerous times.

Self-promotional P.S. It’s not his fault: he’s an asshole. He’s doing what he does. Don’t blame him. The fault—and there is fault—falls squarely on you. I’m not fond of blaming the victim, but you should have been marketing your practice. You should have been making the phone ring. Taking the bad client was predictable. You should never have put yourself in that spot. Had you been marketing yourself, you never would have felt the overwhelming pressure that led you to make the bad call.

There are about four spots left at my Asheville, North Carolina Workshop. Put yourself in one of those seats, and you’ll never feel the pressure to take this guy as a client.

The Risky Game of Needing a Client is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article The Risky Game of Needing a Client first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

I keep running into the same scenario that holds lawyers back from achieving the big goals they set for growing their practices.

I’m talking to lawyers about their practices constantly. These conversations have become a big part of the work I’m doing on a daily basis and, except for one thing, it’s a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I’m constantly bumping into an obstacle that sometimes results in failure.

We talk round and round about marketing, technology, management, and finance. I’m talking to lots of family law practitioners, but I’m also talking to lawyers doing other things who are taking my family law examples and applying them in their practices.

We’re talking about the big picture: revenues, new clients, profits, innovation, and the future. It’s shockingly stimulating for me and—I hope—for the lawyers I’m helping.

The Roadblock to Progress

So what’s the one thing that is holding us back?

It’s the distractions, the setbacks, and the obstacles.

We build a great plan, and we’re headed off into the sunset with a spreadsheet of ever-increasing numbers. We’ve set out actions that will make the plan happen. We’re building accountability systems, and we’re planning how to manage the growth. We’re optimistic and on our way.

And then something happens. There’s a setback.

• It can be something simple like a server crashing and discovering that the backup doesn’t work.
• It can be something more complicated, such as an unexpected resignation.
• It can be something devastating like a family member getting sick.

Whatever the issue, it slows us down and turns our nice, neat plan upside down. Suddenly, it’s the end of the month, and we’ve made no progress toward the goal. In fact, we’ve moved backward because we’ve spent all of our time dealing with the unexpected while trying to juggle the cases and clients.

It’s depressing when it happens. For some of us, it’s overwhelming and can result in our putting aside the plan, focusing on the immediate issue, and failing to get back to the plan.

Expect the Unexpected

How can you keep things on track even when the unexpected happens?

The key is expecting the unexpected.

I’ve yet to be involved in a practice that didn’t have the unexpected happen. I’m never sure what’s going to happen, but I’m certain that something is going to go off the rails. Why? Part of it is just the nature of life: things happen. The other part of it is that we cause it by changing things. We’re working together to improve the business, and we’re changing things as we go. When things change, there’s fallout: it’s expected.

Delegation: The Secret to Success

I’m watching carefully to determine which lawyers are able to stay on top of the plan when things change and which ones aren’t able to keep things moving. I’m noticing a difference between the two groups.

The group that keeps moving is dominated by delegators. These lawyers are effective at creating a vision of the outcome they desire for a particular project and then handing it off to someone to help.

They may be getting help with the total project, or they may have broken it into the component parts and delegated one piece at a time. Many are using virtual assistants or contractors from services like Elance. Either way, when they get distracted, the project keeps moving while the lawyer deals with the crisis.

These lawyers aren’t necessarily in firms with lots of staff. I’m not seeing a distinction between the big firm and small firm lawyers. In small firms, I’m seeing excellent use of virtual assistants and others hired from online marketplaces. I’m seeing progress being made even on very small budgets where help is found in low wage economies. The key is the delegation, not the practice setting or the money.

The lawyers getting stuck are holding on to their projects. They’re staying in control of everything, and when one thing breaks down, everything breaks down. Delegation is the answer. Let go. Let someone help. That’s the ticket. Take a look at Ten Tips to Help You Delegate Work and my advice on how to outsource some of your work and let something go today.

Overcoming Setbacks in Your Business Plan is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Overcoming Setbacks in Your Business Plan first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Today, we’re announcing an additional Divorce Discourse Workshop in Asheville, North Carolina on June 14, 2013. This program is in addition to the San Francisco Workshop (July 12, 2013) announced a few days ago.

When we went live with the San Francisco program, we had some overload on the registration system. We’re all good now, and we think everyone is situated. If you thought you were registered but you don’t get an e-mail early next week, please let us know, and we’ll address the situation.

By doing some geographic shuffling, we again have a few spots available in San Francisco.

To accommodate everyone who’s interested in the Workshop, we’ve added this Workshop in Asheville, North Carolina.

Please register now so you’re not disappointed. Space is very, very limited. This is a small group program with a great deal of interaction and feedback.

What You’ll Learn in This Workshop

This Workshop will teach you how to do the following:

1. Make the phone ring more often,
2. Turn your calls into profitable clients, and
3. Build a practice that allows you to take care of yourself and your family.

I’ve done it, and I can teach you how to do it. I’ll save you years of reinventing the wheel, and I’ll do it in one day. I promise my approach will work for you, and I’ll give you back your Workshop fee if you aren’t completely satisfied.

If your practice isn’t producing the results you’d like and you’ve decided not to come to this Workshop, then I challenge you to tell me why. Seriously—if you’re not coming, then why not? Send me an e-mail at rosen@rosen.com. I want to know.

Bottom line: I’m invested in your success, and I’m ready to help. How invested are you? I’ll give you the information and knowledge you need. I’ll jump-start you on the action required. Let’s do this together.

About Asheville

Asheville (airport code AVL) is a beautiful small city in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It’s a great place for you to fly in for the weekend or to come and spend a week (definitely bring the kids). We’ll have an action-packed day on Friday, June 14 starting at 8 AM. We’re meeting in a dank, dark, dreary downtown conference room where we can focus. Once we’re finished, you can get out and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

If you’re contemplating staying in Asheville, there are great places to stay (e.g., Grove Park Inn, The Biltmore Estate), great places to eat (e.g., Curate, The Admiral), and amazing things to do and see outside (e.g., Blue Ridge Parkway, Navitat Zipline, rafting, hiking, etc.). I’d be happy to give you my ideas for your time in the area, having spent the past 35 summers hanging out up there.

If you’d like to register for Asheville, click on this Asheville Workshop Information link.

If you’d like to register for San Francisco, click on this San Francisco Workshop Information link. The San Francisco program is now sold out. Please come to Asheville where we still have a few spaces.

One More Thing

We’re doing this program close to home where we practice law. We’re going to teach you some good stuff and we don’t especially want to train our competition. We reserve the right to exclude attorneys competing for business with us in our markets. Sorry.

Workshops in Asheville, NC Plus San Francisco is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Workshops in Asheville, NC Plus San Francisco first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

It’s shockingly ironic for me to give you advice on how to make an assistant happy. I’ve burned through some assistants—big time. I’ve left more than a few of these relationships as smoldering piles of scorched earth. I have not always been good to the people who work for me.

Irony aside, I’ve learned a few things from my misbehavior.

One lesson I’ve learned is to work with a virtual assistant instead of a live person working in the same office space with me. My assistant is in Israel, and we communicate mostly via e-mail. That works for her, and we get along pretty well. You, on the other hand, can probably handle an assistant working on the same continent.

The Path to Assistant Nirvana

Here are 13 easy ways to make your assistant happy:

1. Let your assistant pick a job title. Some folks want to be called administrative assistant, some like secretary, and some like paralegal or legal assistant. Who cares what the title is as long as he or she helps you stay productive? Let your assistant decide what to be called. It costs you nothing, and it makes your assistant happy.

2. Provide a business card. Have a business card made for your assistant. Everyone likes having a card, and they’re inexpensive. Don’t make your assistant feel like a second-class citizen when everyone else has a card and your assistant doesn’t.

3. Communicate daily. Set a time for a daily check in and communicate about what you’re trying to accomplish that day. I’d suggest that you check in first thing in the morning and do it by phone if you’re going to be away from the office. Get a routine going and stick to it.

4. Communicate weekly. Have a weekly meeting with your assistant for between 30 and 60 minutes. Create a format and use it consistently. Attempt to hold the meeting at the same time each week. Use the meeting to discuss larger issues with a focus on your assistant’s long-term goals and how the current work fits into those goals. Gain familiarity with your assistant’s larger objectives and use these meetings to advance the cause. Ask about issues outside of work and be willing to listen to problems and concerns arising in the workplace or at home.

5. Provide clear instructions on how to communicate with you. Set out the rules for how to reach you when issues arise. Don’t allow your assistant to feel awkward about interrupting you or calling you at odd times. Be very specific about what’s okay and what isn’t. The president has rules for when it’s okay to wake him up with an emergency. You should have similar rules for you and your assistant. It prevents discomfort and makes everyone feel more at ease.

6. Prioritize your assistant’s communications. When your assistant e-mails, texts, or calls, make it your top priority. The free flow of information between you is critical to an effective relationship, and it makes your assistant feel respected and valued when you respond immediately.

7. Be polite and courteous. This should go without saying, but it needs to be said. Say “good morning” and “good night.” Make eye contact. Introduce your assistant to visitors and guests. Treat your assistant the way you would want to be treated. Be respectful. Why do I have to point this out? You know why.

8. Be aware of family issues. Know your assistant’s family situation and ask about it. Kid is sick: “How’s Billy feeling?” Husband is out of work: “How’s Bob’s job hunt coming?” Know enough about what’s going on that you can check in and express concern.

9. Don’t wait for the ask. Go ahead and offer an increase in salary before your assistant asks for it. Get ahead of the curve and do what you were going to do anyway, but do it before your assistant feels forced to take action.

10. Buy a gift. You should know enough about your assistant to know what he or she likes as a gift. She collects porcelain pigs? Buy one for her when you spot one in the gift shop on vacation. Buy the flowers on assistant’s day. Take her to lunch. Bring her a cup of Starbucks. Just do it.

11. Ask for input. You’ve got an argument to make in court tomorrow. You’re outlining the key points. Ask your assistant to talk it through with you and ask for input. You’ll get valuable advice, and you’ll demonstrate your respect for your assistant’s opinion.

12. Provide feedback. Tell your assistant when things go right. Do the same when things go wrong. Your assistant will appreciate the feedback each time. People can only improve if they know what’s working and what’s not. The worst feeling is doing your work and having no idea whether it’s making any difference. Feedback doesn’t need to be formal or elaborate. Just a few words can give your assistant the guidance required to keep heading in the right direction.

13. Be a coach. You’ve been successful and accomplished many of your goals. Don’t hesitate to give your assistant the advice you have to offer that might help your assistant achieve his or her goals. Don’t sit back and watch your assistant fail. Be willing to step up, pitch in, and give the benefit of your experience.

This is more a “do it all” than a “pick and choose” list. You’re probably already doing many of these things. I’d suggest you add the rest—immediately. You’ll make your assistant happy, and you’ll be happier for your effort. Hopefully, you’ll do these things, and you and your assistant can have a long and productive relationship. That’s something I can only imagine, but I still dream.

13 Easy Ways to Make Your Assistant Happy is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article 13 Easy Ways to Make Your Assistant Happy first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

In my state, North Carolina, we have an ethics opinion prohibiting a lawyer from bidding for pay-per-click advertising using another lawyer’s name. For example, I can’t buy Google AdWords ads that pop up when someone searches on my competitor’s name.

Specifically, the 2010 Formal Ethics Opinion 14 (dated April 27, 2012) “rules that it is a violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct for a lawyer to select another lawyer’s name as a keyword for use in an Internet search engine company’s search-based advertising program.” 

Clearly, one lawyer can’t advertise by using another lawyer’s name in my state. A few other states have addressed this issue, and it’s worth checking to see the status of the situation in your state.

Google’s Advertising Rules

Interestingly, our State Bar’s policy is more restrictive than the policy that Google imposes on other advertisers. Google prohibits advertisers from using certain terms, specifically trademarked terms, in their ads except in very specific circumstances. For instance, LegalZoom can’t say “LegalZoom Is Better Than Rosen Law Firm,” assuming the phrase “Rosen Law Firm” is trademarked. If LegalZoom did that, we could complain to Google, and it would likely stop running the ad.

LegalZoom can, however, run ads on the keyword “Rosen Law Firm” or on my name, Lee Rosen, if it chooses. The company can’t use my name in the ads, but it can target my business by using my name as a keyword. It can run an ad about LegalZoom when someone types “Lee Rosen” into the search bar.

Striking Back at the Competition

You can do the same thing to LegalZoom and other document preparation services if you like (unless you find some pertinent ethics opinion in your state). You can run ads that say things like “We Fix Computer-Generated Legal Docs or Will Do Them Right the First Time” or whatever other ads you think may be helpful. Maybe “10 Reasons Why a Lawyer Is Better Than a $299 Form.” You just can’t use their trademarked terms in your ads. Of course, Google has other restrictions that might catch you in one way or another and require a rewrite of your ads, but it would certainly be an interesting experiment, and it would mostly succeed.

Just for your information, the term “LegalZoom” gets searched on nearly half a million times a month, according to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

That’s what I’ve got: that’s your food for thought for today. Let’s see what you do with it.

P.S. I’ll probably regret this post when LegalZoom starts using my name as a target keyword for its ads.

Can You Ride on LegalZoom’s Coattails? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Can You Ride on LegalZoom’s Coattails? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Get ready, because here comes another Divorce Discourse Practice Building Workshop. Let me tell you about it.

I’m heading to San Francisco for the next Workshop.

I’ll be conducting a Workshop on Friday, July 12, 2013 in San Francisco. It’s an all-day event, and I promise that it will help you grow your practice. In fact, if you attend and don’t get the value you expect, I’ll refund your fee.

Click here for more information.

I hate to sound like an egomaniac, but I’m pretty proud of the value I’ve added to practices around the world.

I’ve spent time with excellent lawyers in four countries, and each time I’ve made a big difference. We take my experience and their energy to advance the business faster than it ever would have happened without our collaboration. What we’re doing works: it brings in more business, improves the quality of the work being done, and sends the lawyers home with more money.

While I’m in San Francisco, I’m also doing some one-on-one consulting. If that’s of interest to you, please contact me via e-mail.

If you’re working in the Bay area and would like to come, I’d love to have you. If you’re looking for somewhere to spend the weekend or longer, then you can’t beat the area. I’ll be hanging out for a few weeks and have never had less than a spectacular time in that beautiful city.

Are You Coming to the San Francisco Practice Building Workshop? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Are You Coming to the San Francisco Practice Building Workshop? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Whether you make money practicing law depends on the answers to a few simple questions.

First, can you bring in revenues? That requires you to attract clients and close the deal at reasonable rates. If you can make that happen, you’re headed in the right direction.

Second, can you attract those clients at a reasonable cost? If you’re spending $500,000 a year on advertising to generate $1,000,000 a year in revenues, then you’re on the wrong track. Spending 50% of revenues on marketing isn’t likely to leave any money for you. However, if you can generate those revenues for somewhere between 2% and 18% of revenues, then you’re likely leaving a profit for yourself to take home. Of course, I’d rather see you at 2% and spending most of it on lunches.

Finally, can you manage the payroll? If payroll exceeds 50% of your revenues, then you’re likely to have a pretty thin bottom line. You can let payroll creep up toward that limit, but you’re not leaving much for yourself. You’d have to be doing a healthy volume to make those numbers work.

Let’s spend some time on payroll.

The Payroll Dilemma

To grow, you’ve got to hire good people. You’ve got to give them the authority and autonomy to do their jobs and help you achieve your goals. You’re going to end up depending on these folks, and you’re going to worry about whether they’ll stay.

Keeping people can get especially difficult as you grow. Growth is painful, and people experience stress. They sometimes imagine that the grass is greener elsewhere as your firm evolves and changes. One way to keep them is to give them more money.

Also, as you grow, your employees start making assumptions about how much money you’re earning. They see the cases flowing in, and they assume the money is flowing out—to you. They want their share. It’s tempting to give it to them now that you’re doing better than you were.

You’re likely making more than you ever have before. You’re feeling like Ms. or Mr. Big. You assume you’ve got the golden touch and things will keep going the way they’re going. You’re optimistic, you’re worried about losing your people, and you’re feeling affluent. It’s a dangerous cocktail.

The First Rule of Payroll Management

There is a basic rule of payroll that I’ve learned in the school of hard knocks. You can pay your employees in one of two ways: you can pay them (1) more or (2) nothing.

Here’s what I mean. Your associate is earning $65,000. Things are going well, and she’s doing a good job. She’s going to want more. You’re going to want to keep her. You’re likely to pay her more.

Then, if you do what most of us do, you’re going to pay other employees more as well. They’re coming to you one at a time, and payroll starts to creep up. The next thing you know, it’s hovering well above 50 percent of revenues. Now it’s too high, and you’re not getting paid what you were getting paid before. Ugh. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. Only moments ago, you were feeling optimistic and affluent.

What to do? Now that payroll is out of hand, you’ve got to reduce payroll. You’ve got to bring down that percentage. How will you do it? It won’t happen by going back to that associate and offering to cut her salary. She’s not going to accept that option. In fact, as usual, she’s going to want more. Now you’re faced with picking between option (1) more and option (2) nothing. She’s important to your practice. You don’t want to let her go. Unfortunately, you’ll soon find yourself having the same thought process and analysis with all of your employees. No one’s going to want a pay cut, and you’re not going to want to let anyone go. It’s a mess.

The Solution

Start monitoring payroll now. Keep the percentages in check. Don’t create a situation where you’re going to be forced to make a difficult call. Pay attention before you create the payroll problem. The ratios you establish now are likely to stay pretty constant as you travel through the increasing revenues from $1 million to $4 million. Once you reach that level, you’ll find the formulas change a bit, but not dramatically.

You’ve got to stay on top of the payroll early in the game. It’s really ugly if you have to fix it after you’ve grown, and fixing it can set you back by several years. Don’t rationalize letting the payroll drift up. Don’t talk yourself into thinking you can fix it later. Don’t believe your overly optimistic spreadsheet and projections. You’ve got an opportunity to get it right on the way up. Don’t let it become an issue that puts you on track to head down.

How Your Payroll Becomes the Key to Profitable Growth is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article How Your Payroll Becomes the Key to Profitable Growth first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

I’ve been spending a lot of time away from home lately. Early on, one of the challenges I had to overcome was figuring out the easiest way to make phone calls home. There are lots of options, and today we’ll review them.

Most of my travels have involved working in the destination while also managing issues back in the office. Our work always involves talking on the phone: it’s pretty essential to what we do. The ability to make good quality international calls is critical to my being on the road.

Here are the options:

1. Your cell phone. If your cell phone has international capabilities, then you can make calls from other countries back to your home country. Many phones, like the iPhone 5, have the hardware required for use around the world. Some phones, however, don’t have the required radios. They can’t be used outside of your home country. If your phone is capable, you’ll still need to check the international roaming rates and calling plans: they tend to be expensive. You may want to purchase a plan that provides a discount. Figure it out before you go.

My phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, is serviced by Verizon. Verizon provides 100 MB of international data in many countries for about $20 (if you enroll in its special plan). Some countries (like Tunisia, where I went recently) cost 100 times that amount even with the special plan. Voice is also usually available, but calls back to the United States typically run about $1.50 per minute. Some folks work around the cost by purchasing a prepaid SIM card at their destination. Verizon allows me to insert a SIM card from another carrier and use it for voice and text. Unfortunately, Verizon locks the phone down to its data plan. Using data on a purchased SIM card requires jailbreaking the phone.

You can easily spend a bunch of money using your phone internationally. The key is to figure it out before you go. I’d suggest calling and talking to a representative and then having the rep e-mail you the details of any plan you choose.

2. Phone rental. This phone rental company has a pretty good system. It rents phones and provides SIM cards. It’s not cheap, but you’ll be able to make calls and, if you get the right phone, check your e-mail. I haven’t used this company, but it appears to make the process pretty straightforward.

3. Skype. This is the easiest solution for calling home. Let’s assume you don’t have a phone with international capabilities or you’ve decided not to spend the exorbitant fees for international roaming. You can install Skype on your laptop and smartphone and, when you have Wi-Fi, you’re good to go. Skype has a plan allowing calls to landlines and mobile phones in most countries. You can purchase minutes, or you can buy an unlimited monthly plan. You can even set your caller identification on Skype so that it shows your cell phone number. If you’re traveling without a laptop, you can install Skype on your phone and use it instead of mobile data when you’re on a Wi-Fi connection. Skype, at about $3 a month, is my primary way of calling home. I use Skype from my laptop and my phone when I’m traveling. Be aware that using Skype over your phone’s data connection isn’t dramatically less expensive than paying for minutes; that’s why I use it on Wi-Fi. Skype uses a pretty significant amount of bandwidth when you’re making a voice call.

4. VoIP softphones. Many office phone systems now offer softphones (phones basedt on software) that you can install on your laptop or mobile phone. They work much like Skype except that you’re usually sending your office caller ID, and any fees are billed to your firm. We use one of these products, but I always have a better connection with Skype, so I stick with that most of the time.

5. Other messaging systems. If the people you need to communicate with are often logged into a particular system, like Facebook Messenger or Google, then you can use one of those systems instead of Skype. Most of them now offer voice in addition to video and messaging. More and more of the messaging systems let you place calls to landlines and mobile phones. I’ve had pretty good luck with a number of them but keep gravitating back to Skype. Many of these plans aren’t yet as fully featured as Skype and don’t permit calls to as many countries.

For me, at the end of the day, the solution is to avoid making calls when I’m away from Wi-Fi. I keep my phone with me and use data if I need to check e-mail or consult a map. I pop into a Wi-Fi-equipped coffee shop or restaurant and use Skype on my phone if I need to make a call.

Be sure to jump in on the comments below if you’ve found a better way to manage your international calling.

What’s the Best Way to Make Calls From Around the World? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article What’s the Best Way to Make Calls From Around the World? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

When we’re trying to sell a service, it’s only natural that we start off by describing the service. That’s what most law firm websites do.

The Typical Service-Oriented Law Firm Description

Here’s the description of one firm. It’s the first big block of text on the page (following the name of the firm in large type and a logo, of course).

“We provide value by combining professional skill, technology, and a thorough understanding of our clients’ needs to deliver high quality, cost-effective, and responsive services.” It goes on to describe the specific practice areas the firm services.

So the firm is selling:

• Professional skill
• Technology
• Thorough understanding of client needs
• High quality
• Cost effective
• Responsiveness

It sounds great. In fact, it sounds like mostly the same stuff I read about every other firm. Unfortunately, it’s also mostly meaningless. How does it benefit me if I’m the prospective client?

A More Effective Law Firm Description Focuses on Results

Let’s shift gears. Let’s come up with some benefits for the client. How about these benefits:

• Resolution: Getting questions answered by someone who has been there and done that (professional skill)
• Speed: Averting disaster faster than you thought possible (technology)
• Relief: Knowing it’s behind you (client needs)
• Victory: Winning the case (high quality)
• Under budget: Saving you money (cost effective)
• Anxiety averted: Responding when you communicate (responsiveness)

With some thought, I suspect you could do even better than my quick effort to come up with something that matters to the client. The point is to describe the benefits of the service rather than the features. We’re reminding prospective clients of the things they want, and we’re promising that we’re able to deliver.

Keep in mind that prospective clients don’t want your service. They want the results they get from using your service. It’s those benefits that they derive from employing you that matter to them. Keep your focus on the benefits.

Which firm will attract the client: the firm describing its features, or the firm describing the benefits obtained by hiring the firm? Personally, I’m hiring the benefits when I need a lawyer.

Your Website: Sell Benefits, Not Features is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Your Website: Sell Benefits, Not Features first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

A couple of years ago, we took the plunge and moved our team away from the office and toward working from home. The transition went shockingly smoothly, and we encountered very few bumps along the road.

We went from having three locations with about 20,000 square feet of real estate to four locations with dramatically less space. Our current space is mostly devoted to conference rooms, with one small facility for handling documents and mail.

Over the past two years, we’ve reduced the space even more as we’ve found less and less need for the space as more and more client meetings have moved to the phone and video conferencing. We had space going unused when attorneys realized they’d have to change out of their pajamas to come to a client meeting. Suddenly, the phone worked just as well for meeting in the office as for resolving cases. Of course, a suit is still required for court.

We’re now in the midst of moving one of our spaces to a new location in the same building. The move has given us the opportunity to redesign our space and has resulted in a thorough reanalysis of our space usage.

We’re making some changes.

Our Old Office Space

Let me give you a feel for the old space. The old space has a lobby, six conference rooms, a receptionist office (with a window to the lobby), an attorney workroom, and a kitchen. It’s about 2,600 square feet.

Most significantly, the old space has two administrative assistants working in the receptionist office. They are the only team members who work daily from the office. Interestingly, they are a significant expense. They cost us in excess of $100,000 per year when you consider salary and benefits. Their salary is nearly double the rent on the space. Why two admins? Realistically, we need an extra administrative assistant to cover the desk. Between vacations, sick leave, lunch breaks, etc., it’s really a two-person job if we want the desk covered full time. The payroll cost is the main expense of that office.

Leveraging the Executive Suite Option

Our other spaces are in executive suite facilities. Oddly, the rent per square foot is dramatically higher in those spaces. However, the overall cost is lower because we don’t have the associated payroll expense of covering the front desk. We can rent comparable space for a much lower rate in the executive suite space. Admittedly, we lease less space in these facilities, but we have the option—on a daily basis—to expand and contract as we need additional room. They all rent conference rooms on an as-needed basis. We can go from two rooms to four in the blink of an eye.

Now, as we redesign, we’re looking at ways to cut the payroll cost associated with this new space.

Why not move this location to an executive suite? We’re dealing with a few factors in that decision. First, we have an unexpired lease in the building. The landlord agreed to release us, and we looked at the available executive suite spaces. Incredibly, in this particular location, the executive suite business is booming. Most locations have no vacancies, and those that have space are charging a premium. Additionally, we use this space a bit differently than the other spaces because of the document processing we do in this location. It was, however, a close call.

We decided to move within the building and keep a traditional lease.

Moving to a Self-Service Model

So what are we doing in the new space?

Because our primary goal is to minimize the payroll expense associated with the new space, we’d like to move from two positions covering the front desk to one. Does that mean we’ll eliminate the second position? Nope, but we’ll have added flexibility in filling it as we can give that employee the flexibility to work from home, and we can outsource more of those duties.

We want the new space to be more self-service than the old space. Our design objective is to make the space work with less administrative support.

We’ve made a few changes:

• The new space will have seven conference rooms instead of six.
• We’ll still have a lobby and receptionist office, but no attorney workroom.
• We eliminated the kitchen and are adding a “cafe area” with self-service drinks.
• We’ll have one of those evil, earth-destroying coffee pod machines, and we’re installing a refrigerator with a glass display for drinks.
• We’re moving a Wi-Fi printer to the same common area so attorneys can send documents to print without having to retrieve them from the attorney workroom.
• We’re also putting a credit card and check processing machine in the same area (our attorneys in executive suites have had this equipment in the room all along). Basically, we’re shifting these simple functions from the admins to the attorneys. Thankfully, picking up a document, showing a client the drink offerings, and running a credit card aren’t particularly burdensome.

Streamlining the Administrative Function

We’re also looking at moving some other functions away from the front desk as well.

• First, we’ve eliminated the locking door between the lobby and the conference rooms. This seems trivial, but it required someone to “buzz people in” or greet them in the lobby. Now we’re connecting the entire space. Opening this up enables attorneys expecting a client’s arrival to be more available to assist in greeting the client.
• Second, we’re adding a video terminal to the front desk so that backup for bathroom and lunch breaks can be handled remotely. We’re exploring services offering this support, along with considering some of our existing team working remotely for the role.
• Finally, we’re setting up a system for clients picking up documents and delivery services dropping off packages. This is tricky, and we haven’t yet figured it out: it’s a work in progress.

Navigating these issues will enable us to move another employee home, which helps us with recruiting and retention costs. It also increases productivity and gives us more flexibility to make more of our costs variable. However, making this change, while seemingly trivial, may be the most challenging experience we’ve had with shifting our team to working remotely. These last two positions are involved in doing work that may require a human presence. We’ll soon be figuring out whether that’s the case.

Cutting Real Estate Expenses to the Bone is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Cutting Real Estate Expenses to the Bone first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

You want clients seeking a divorce. There are plenty of clients seeking a divorce. Unfortunately, many of them are not coming to you.

You want clients who’d like to sit down with an attorney offering full-service representation. You’d like clients who call on the phone and schedule an appointment. You’d like clients who write a check when presented with a bill. You’d like clients who judge you based on your reputation among your peers and the judiciary. You’d like clients who feel comfortable in an office with nice furniture. You’d like clients who admire your framed diplomas and license on the wall. You’d like clients who want exactly what it is that you’re offering.

There aren’t enough of those clients.

There are plenty of clients who want something different.

Here’s what they want:

• They want a lawyer who meets them when and where they want.
• They want a lawyer who can talk to them right now.
• They want a lawyer who responds to them in real-time via text, Facebook message, e-mail, etc.
• They want a lawyer who gives them his or her cell phone number.
• They want a lawyer who interacts with them online.
• They want a lawyer who accepts credit cards, PayPal, and other forms of online payment.
• They want a lawyer who helps them figure out how to afford the service.
• They want a lawyer who expands and contracts his or her virtual team based on the requirements of the case.
• They want a lawyer who will share their data and file online.
• They want a lawyer who drafts forms when that’s all they want.
• They want a lawyer who offers unbundled services, bundled services, kind of bundled, barely bundled, and never-before-bundled services.
• They want a lawyer who treats them as the boss instead of as the employee.
• They want a lawyer who jumps when they say jump.
• They want a lawyer who acts like they matter and like they’re the most important client the lawyer has ever represented.
• They want a lawyer who doesn’t call himself or herself a lawyer.
• They want a lawyer who listens when they call—really listens.
• They want a lawyer who remembers what they said.
• They want a lawyer who reads their e-mails.
• They want a lawyer who doesn’t wear a suit or one who wears a suit, depending on what works for them.
• They want a lawyer who friends them on Facebook and actually becomes their friend.
• They want a lawyer who gets personally involved.
• They want a lawyer they can brag about.
• They want a lawyer to ask them what they want and then deliver it.

They each want something different. Some want some of the above—others want it all.

You’d like a steady stream of clients. You’d like them to walk in the door and pay you what you’re worth. Ideally, they’d let you tell them what you know, and they’d follow your advice.

Is this about what you want, or is it about what they want? If you want more clients, then that’s a question worth considering.

Do You Want More Clients? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Do You Want More Clients? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Our firm stopped billing by the hour longer ago than I can remember. We shifted from hourly billing to a fixed fee system and never looked back. Our clients have appreciated the predictability and certainty of our fee structure.

However, most firms are still billing hourly. I’m glad that’s the way things are because we’ve gained a competitive advantage over firms unable to quote a specific fee to a client.

If you’re still billing hourly, then you’re likely contemplating a new billing system. I remember back when we had software for time and billing. We always hated the product we were using and were constantly on the lookout for something new and better. Unfortunately, we had a hard time finding accurate, objective reviews of the available products. We were constantly testing out demo versions of products and attempting to compare one to another. It was burdensome back then, and things aren’t much better today.

How to Find the Right Billing Software for Your Practice

Thankfully, TechnoLawyer just released the TL Research Buyer’s Guide to Legal Billing Software. It’s an information-packed e-book that includes pricing information for lawyers in need of a billing product. Their researchers dig in and break out the features, benefits, and limitations of each of 22 separate billing products. It’s the most comprehensive guide to billing products I’ve ever seen.

The best part of this buyer’s guide is that it’s free. You can get your free TechnoLawyer membership and download the guide immediately. If you bill by the hour, then downloading this guide is essential. TechnoLawyer does a range of things other than provide the free guide to billing software. It also has a bunch of free e-mail newsletters that contain valuable information for practitioners. I get a couple of e-mails from TechnoLawyer each week, and they provide the kind of information I can immediately put to use in my practice. Download the billing guide and get current on the latest in legal billing software.

TechnoLawyer Launches Buyer’s Guide to Legal Billing Software is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article TechnoLawyer Launches Buyer’s Guide to Legal Billing Software first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

When things aren’t going well, it’s usually you causing the problem.

• It’s not the economy.
• It’s not the competition.
• It’s not the employees.
• It’s not the clients.
• It’s not the court system.
• It’s not the other attorney.
• It’s not the environment.

Those external factors can be overcome. The reality is that it’s almost always you.

And when it’s going well, it’s also usually you.

Worry less about the external. Worry more about the internal. You are something you can change.

It’s You, and You Can Fix It is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article It’s You, and You Can Fix It first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

The fear that will really crush your success like a bug is the fear of rejection. It’s the fear of rejection that keeps you from calling someone for lunch in an effort to build your referral network. That fear will kill you dead, if you let it.

Fear can be managed, to an extent:

• You can manage your fear of heights by getting an office on the ground floor.
• You can manage your fear of dogs by barring dogs from the office (probably a good idea anyway).
• You can manage your fear of spiders by stomping on them with your shoe (or getting your administrative assistant to do it for you).

In each of these examples, you’re avoiding your fear. You’re coming up with a strategy to manage the fear without addressing the fear itself. Whether that’s a good plan from a mental health standpoint is between you and your doctor.

Fear of rejection—if it’s keeping you from networking—is a fear you won’t easily avoid. It’s going to require a more confrontational approach.

Where Lawyers Fear to Tread

The failure to build a solid referral network explains the poor performance of many practices. When the phone isn’t ringing, we usually find a lawyer afraid of rejection watching that phone and waiting for it to ring.

Most of us know the fear of rejection. When you think about calling people you don’t know and inviting them to lunch, your stomach fills with that deep sense of dread. It’s a combination of emptiness and fullness that rises up into your throat. The fear is such that you put down the phone. You find something else to do, and you move on with your day. The call never gets made.

You’ve got to address the fear. You’ve got to overcome it. It’s holding you back. It’s keeping you from achieving your dream.

How to Conquer Your Fear of Rejection

Here’s my action plan for overcoming fear:

1. Understand fear. First, let’s be clear: fear isn’t real. It’s an emotional state. Yes, there are things—bad things—that will happen. The list of painful life events is endless. We spend a huge portion of our time helping others through painful events. Those things are real. Fear isn’t real. When you’re feeling fearful, you’re suffering an imaginary pain. Some things will harm you, but fear is not one of those things. That feeling in your stomach is all in your head, and it’s not real.

2. Invite the fear in. Don’t ignore it; don’t deny it (okay, we’re in psychologist territory here). Don’t pretend you don’t have the fear. Feel it, see it, and talk about it. Don’t deny it. Acknowledging the feeling is part of getting beyond it. Instead of explaining why you don’t need to have lunch or why a particular person is a bad person to invite, just acknowledge the fear to yourself and to others involved in supporting you.

3. Determine the worst-case scenario. What’s the worst thing that can happen if your networking calls go badly? You don’t get a call back? They call you back and decline? They laugh at you? What are you worried about? What’s the most horrible thing that can happen if the calls or the lunches go horribly wrong?

4. Action is powerful. Sometimes you can get past a fear by moving quickly. Rushing down the hallway next to the atrium to the doorway gets you to safety and gets you past your fear of heights. Making the networking phone call quickly, before the dread takes over, can help get you over the hurdle. Just do it—fast.

5. Small wins lead to big wins. You need a victory. Take your assistant to lunch: small win. Ask someone you already know to lunch: small win. Ask someone you’ve met once or twice to lunch. Again, small win. These small wins dramatically reduce the fear when you’re doing something that previously gave you a sense of dread. You’ll need to repeat the small wins strategy any time the fear builds back up after a period of inactivity.

6. Get motivated. Come up with a list of reasons to generate more business for your practice. Are you saving for a vacation or retirement? Are you paying for your child’s college education? Is it important to you to build your reputation in the community? What matters to you? What motivates you?

7. Be confident in you. Most fear of rejection is about the need for the approval of others. Is your self-esteem based on the opinions of others or on your opinion of you? You’ve got to stay on top of your opinion of you as you overcome the fear of rejection. You’ll be shocked at the number of people who are actually interested in getting to know you.

8. Spend time with people who value you. A powerful antidote to the fear of rejection is spending time with people who think you’re worthy of their time. Be sure to have dinner with friends and family the night before you make some calls. Go out of your way to arrange time with the people who most enjoy being around you.

9. Have a plan for rejection. When rejection comes—and it will—be prepared for it. Will you stammer, stutter, and melt down? Or will you handle it calmly and coolly using language you’ve prepared for this very moment? “I totally understand. I really appreciate that you took the time to talk with me today. I’ll look forward to seeing you around town” will come out of your mouth smoothly as you hang up the phone. One down, and another number ready to dial as you move on to the next prospect. Rejection is just part of the game; it doesn’t end the game. It’s part of the progression toward achieving your goals.

Fear is powerful. The fear of rejection is deeply rooted in many of us. It’s a fear that keeps many from achieving their dreams. That doesn’t have to be the outcome. You can manage fear. You can overcome it. Pick up the phone, make a call, and have some lunch. Everything will be fine.

Is Fear Keeping You From Being Successful? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Is Fear Keeping You From Being Successful? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Some people make fun of me for leasing my office plants. We use a vendor who brings us fresh plants when ours start to fade. The vendor also waters and fertilizes the plants as necessary. The plants always look green and healthy.

Office plants are more than decorative. They keep the air fresh in the office, and they lift people up. They’re important. I’ve visited offices without plants, and they feel as if they’re missing something that matters.

Dead plants, however, are worse than no plants at all. If you can’t keep the plants alive, then you should give up and either buy some artificial plants or go entirely plant free.

Why You Should Go Green

Here are my top nine reasons not to let your office plants die:

1. Dead plants make you seem incompetent. Your clients are counting on you to take care of them. How can you be trusted if you can’t keep a plant alive? Can they really trust you to understand the law when you can’t understand how to keep a plant alive?

2. Dead plants are ugly. They make your office look unattractive. In fact, dead plants are more than ugly or unattractive. They actually look like you’ve left garbage piled in the corner or on top of your bookshelf. You may have adjusted to that dead plant in the corner. Your clients, however, will simply conclude that you’re a pig who can’t be bothered to clean up.

3. Dead plants mean you don’t pay attention to detail. How much work does it take to keep a plant alive? Not much. A few cups of water once a week is pretty much all that’s required. Your clients will assume that someone is unable to deal with all of the little things. They’ll think either you or your staff has dropped the ball.

4. Dead plants give an aura of sadness and death. Is there anything more depressing than a dead ficus tree in the corner of your office? A big, dead stick poking out of a pot just brings people down.

5. Dead plants stop producing oxygen, and there’s no reason to have them. People need oxygen. Lawyers need it more than most humans. We spend way too much time in situations that suck the air out of life. You need a thriving plant producing maximum oxygen if you’re going to recover from what you’re doing each day.

6. Dead plants say you neglect things. If you can’t keep the plant alive, can you really be relied upon to take care of your clients’ issues? Clients think not. Your clients are counting on you to stay on top of a matter that may drag on for months if not years. They worry about whether you’re going to stay on top of things. Your actions speak louder than your words.

7. Dead plants make a mess on the floor. The leaves fall off and pile up. It’s already pathetic when the plant is dead. The pile of dead leaves just makes it worse.

8. Dead plants attract bugs. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but dead plants seem to attract these little gnatty bugs that then have to be swatted away. It’s horrifying.

9. Dead plants say you don’t care. The plant is dying. Do you care? Most people see a parched plant and feel compelled to bring it some water. Your clients look at the plant, look at you, and wonder whether you have any compassion. Take care of the plant, because failing to do so reveals much about your personality. You may not be ready for people to know the truth about you, so water the plant.

Keeping an office up and running is complicated. It requires systems, energy, and attention to detail. Keep your plants alive. They matter.

Nine Reasons to Keep Your Office Plants Alive is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Nine Reasons to Keep Your Office Plants Alive first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

If you’ve been practicing law for more than 20 minutes, you get calls from vendors selling leads. They tell you they’ve got potential clients in your market who need your services. They explain that their leads will quickly turn into revenue for your practice.

Of course, these lead sellers want you to pay them for the leads. Each seller has its own scheme, but basically, they all want you to pay them to direct these potential clients to your door.

I’ve been getting these calls for many years. Some of them come from shady companies. Some of them come from the big names in the legal marketing arena.

I’ve purchased the services offered by some of these vendors over the years. On occasion, we’ve purchased one of the small, short-term, introductory packages.

Can Lead Sellers Deliver the Goods?

Each of these services has had one thing in common.

The leads are crap.

Unfortunately, the people these vendors send you rarely—very rarely—turn into decent cases.

The prospective clients usually suffer from at least one, if not several, of the following flaws:

1. They aren’t in our area.
2. They have no money.
3. They have a problem neither we, nor any other law firm, can solve.
4. They’re crazy (crazier than our typical clients).
5. They raise every red flag we’ve ever heard raised.

The leads are consistently useless. I’ve always wondered how the vendors stay in business. Some of them have been around for quite some time. I don’t really understand how these companies survive.

Maybe the leads work in other practice areas. Maybe they’re good for personal injury practices. All I know is that these folks aren’t worth the time it takes to return the calls. The leads are awful.

That’s my experience. Is it any different for you?

Does Buying Leads From Marketing Companies Get You Decent Clients? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Does Buying Leads From Marketing Companies Get You Decent Clients? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Talking about money needs to be like breathing. It just needs to happen without even thinking about it. It should be a part of every client interaction.

You’re talking to your client in 20 minutes. The call is on your calendar.

The discussion will center on the value of the business. Your expert valued it at $3.7 million. The wife’s expert says $4.5. Theoretically, you could split it down the middle at $4.1, but you’re pretty sure your expert is right. Her expert doesn’t really understand some of the liabilities, and your deposition of the expert revealed certain other weaknesses in the anticipated testimony.

So the dispute, and this is really all that’s left to argue about, is over $800,000 in value, and your client will likely get half of it. The total value of the claim is $400,000. Splitting the difference gets your client $200,000.

Should Your Client Cut a Check or Cut His Losses?

Today’s conversation is about how to proceed. Will you go for it and shoot for the whole $400K, or will you back away from the dispute and take $200K as a compromise?

The primary factors to evaluate are (1) the likelihood of success and (2) the attorneys’ fees involved in pursuing the claim.

We can’t talk about the case without talking about the attorneys’ fees. This endeavor with this client is about money. How much can we get, and how little can we spend to get it? Those are the key questions.

Failing to talk about the attorneys’ fees wouldn’t make sense. We’d be leaving out one of the two key factors. There’s no doubt that we’ll talk about the fees.

That’s not always the case, however. In many instances, we avoid the attorneys’ fees component of the conversation. Money is uncomfortable. It’s especially uncomfortable when it’s money “they” are going to have to pay to “us.” Many of us would rather not talk about our fees, so we avoid the conversation if it’s possible.

We’re especially likely to avoid the money conversation when we’re dealing with custody issues and sometimes spousal support. Talking about money doesn’t seem as essential when it’s less directly connected to the outcome. Many of us even find ways to avoid talking about attorneys’ fees in property division cases when the issues involve property with “sentimental” value or when it’s “the principle of the thing.”

It’s not fair to our clients for us to avoid the attorneys’ fees conversation. It needs to come up in every context and in nearly every conversation. We need to constantly put the fees on the table and help our clients factor the money into their decision. To do otherwise is to fail to advise our clients about an essential issue. Money matters, right?

Give Them Their Money’s Worth

Talking about money needs to be like talking about the weather. It needs to be like breathing. It needs to be a significant piece of each conversation we have with our clients. If fees are part of your routine decision-making process with your clients, it never feels awkward to ask about money. For every action or reaction, there’s a list of positives, negatives, and associated costs. Run through the list as you deal with everything that happens.

Talk about attorneys’ fees at the initial consultation. Explain to your clients that you’ll be talking about the fees and the impact they have on the resolution of the case at every opportunity. Explain that you want them to feel fully informed about what they’re spending and how they’re spending it.

Then, as the case progresses, fulfill your promise. Walk into every meeting prepared to talk about how much has been spent, how much this discussion will cost, and the financial impact of the decisions you’re discussing in today’s meeting. Be ready to project future expenses resulting from the actions you’re taking and planning to take. Again, talking about the money should be like breathing: it’s always happening, it’s normal, and it’s expected.

When it’s time to for clients to make a payment to your firm, they’ll know what’s coming. They’ll have made the decision to incur the expense and nothing will ever be a surprise. Payments become non-events when everyone is informed and working from the same information.

Money Talks

Conversations about money don’t need to be special. They don’t need to be reserved for when a bill goes unpaid. They don’t need to be delegated to a paralegal or to the accounting department.

Conversations about money need to be like breathing. Make them part of every interaction, and you’ll always get paid.

Talking About Attorneys’ Fees Is Like Breathing is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Talking About Attorneys’ Fees Is Like Breathing first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Let me preface this article by saying that I subscribe to the “he who dies with the most toys wins” philosophy of life. I’m all for more toys.

I get on a plane. I check my bag. The bag disappears down that conveyor belt. Then the wondering begins.

• What’s really happening to my bag?
• Who has it?
• Is it really down there in the belly of the plane?
• Where did it fly?
• Is it landing when I land?

These are the things I think about when “they” have my bag.

Enter Trakdot. This is a new gadget/service that starts shipping on June 24, 2013.

When the plane carrying the luggage lands, Trakdot sends a message, via text or e-mail, alerting me to the arrival of the bag. It’ll even let me know in which city the bag landed.

I land in Boston. Moments later, I get a text. The bag has landed in New York. Not good. Well, at least I know where the bag is waiting for me.

Trakdot also has a mobile app you can use to track the route of your luggage.

Who needs this thing? You do, of course. This is irresistible. You can order your Trakdot now so you’ll have it for your summer travels. It sells for $49.99 plus a $12.99 annual service plan.

Is the Trakdot worth the price? That’s for you to decide. I’m ordering two.

Where’s My Luggage? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Where’s My Luggage? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

When we develop our marketing plans, we position ourselves relative to our competition. We look at the websites of other firms. We pay attention to their office locations, reputations, printed material, and whatever else we can learn as we gather marketing intelligence.

Our marketing task is to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Why should someone hire us if they can hire them? What’s the difference?

That’s a great approach, except for one big problem.

Take Off Your Blinders…

When you take that approach, you’ve got to identify the competition. If you misidentify the competition, then all of your effort is wasted.

For most of us, the competition isn’t the other firms. For most of us, the competition is the force at work that results in increasing numbers of clients doing the work themselves.

The document preparation services aren’t the competition. Sure, some small percentage may hire a service to help them with the forms. But, for the most part, they’re doing the work themselves. They aren’t comparing you to another law firm. They’re comparing lawyers to doing it without a lawyer, and “without a lawyer” is winning.

That’s been true for a long time. Visit any courtroom, and you’ll find people representing themselves. It’s the majority of people, not some small minority, who have elected to do the work without any help.

And Lead These Horses (Prospects) to Water

If the majority of people going to court are doing it by themselves, then imagine how many are drafting their own wills, negotiating their own leases, or putting together contracts for their businesses. How many are negotiating discharge agreements with employees? How many are handling the formation of their businesses or even the acquisition of another business?

Let’s face it, for most of us, the competition isn’t another lawyer. The competition is the client’s desire to do this without the expense, hassle, or complexity of bringing in a lawyer.

You can develop your marketing and go head to head with someone with a small share of the market. That’s an option. The better choice, however, would be to head toward the bulk of the market: the people who are acting now without hiring a lawyer. If you can gain the trust and the business of even a small percentage of those folks, you’ll have the busiest practice in your market.

The Competition Isn’t the Law Firm Down the Block is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article The Competition Isn’t the Law Firm Down the Block first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Lawyers hang out their shingle for a variety of reasons:

• Some do it for autonomy.
• Some do it out of necessity.
• Some do it because it sounds like fun.

There are probably as many rationales for opening a practice as there are for having or not having children. No one can really judge what is and isn’t a good reason. It’s a personal thing.

Regardless of the rationale for making the decision, if you want to make smart business decisions, it’s critical that you establish certain limits BEFORE you open the practice.

Here’s what I mean.

Starting a practice requires that you contribute two primary things.

1. First, you’ve got to contribute your time (lots of it).
2. Second, you’ve got to contribute your money. The money covers your living costs as well as the costs of getting things going.

You need to determine how much time and how much money you’re going to contribute. You need to make those determinations now, before you’re immersed in the day-to-day emotion of the practice, so you’ll have bright-line limits you can adhere to if things don’t go as planned.

Here’s a hypothetical plan limiting time and money:

“My objective is to take home $4,000 per month. To do that, I’ll work at building my own practice for 24 months. I’m willing to spend the $35,000 I have saved (or was given to me by my family) plus the $15,000 I have in available credit. When either the time or the money runs out, if I’m not taking home $4,000 per month, then I’ll walk away.”

You should write yourself a note and put it somewhere safe. This is a promise you’re making to yourself, and you should keep it.

• If the money starts to run out, don’t be tempted to borrow some more, no matter how close it seems you are to achieving your goal.
• If the time runs out, then you should walk away, no matter how close it seems you are to achieving your goal. Your time is worth even more than your money. Don’t keep borrowing time to fulfill an objective that isn’t going to happen.

You’re laying out this plan now, in the calm period before you get started, because you can be rational now. When you’re working hard and struggling, it will be much more difficult to be objective. That’s why you’re developing the plan now. This only works if you’re willing to commit to your plan.

Of course, you need to make this plan jointly with anyone playing a major role in the creation of this new business. Most importantly, you should involve your spouse or significant other. Anyone who will be affected financially and emotionally by the decision should participate in the discussion.

If you’re successful with the practice, then you’re all set, and you can work on improving what you’ve already built. If, however, you’re unable to achieve your goal, what will you do? You’ll do something else, somewhere else. You’ll close your practice and start over. You’ll look for a job in the law or elsewhere. What you won’t do is keep doing something that isn’t working. You’ll cut your losses and you’ll move on.

Decisions to Make Before You Start Your Own Practice is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Decisions to Make Before You Start Your Own Practice first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

I know a lawyer who doesn’t pay attention to the news. He doesn’t read a paper, watch TV news, or keep up with what’s happening via the Internet. Pretty much the only thing he knows about what’s happening in the world sneaks into his brain accidentally via Facebook.

There’s a word for lawyers who are deliberately oblivious about what’s happening in the world.

They’re called “idiots.”

No News Is Not Good News

Look, I’m a big believer in the idea that the news damages your mood. The current state of the media isn’t particularly helpful to our mental state. The overemphasis on the negative and the constant “verge of disaster” presentation is stressful.

But not knowing what’s happening in the world just makes you look stupid.

It wouldn’t matter if you lived by yourself in a bubble. If, however, you’re building a practice and attempting to enhance your reputation, then you need to interact with others. You need to know people who can refer to your practice.

What happens when you go to lunch with another lawyer and reveal that you know absolutely nothing about what’s happening in the world? The other lawyer thinks you’re ignorant, lacking in curiosity, and disconnected from your role as an informed, influential member of the community. You’re not likely to get referrals.

Of course, some of your networking partners will be clueless as well. That’s great. You won’t have to worry about showing off your knowledge of civic affairs at those lunches. You can spend the meal discussing what color looks best on you. However, when your lunch date knows things, then you need to be prepared to engage. That’s only going to happen if you know things as well.

Don’t Let It Be News to You

You need working familiarity with the news. At a minimum, you should subscribe to and read The Week. It’s a fairly comprehensive summary of the weekly news. It’ll give you enough to have an intelligent conversation and look like you care about the world in which you live.

Personally, I read the online version of the local paper as well as The New York Times. You can cover the same ground in half a dozen ways. It doesn’t matter how you keep up with the news as long as you do keep up with the news.

You’ve Got to Know the News is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article You’ve Got to Know the News first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We all joke about the bad financial decisions we see doctors make. I have to agree that some of them do totally insane things with their money. It’s like they’re drawn to crazy investments.

One of the advantages of being a divorce lawyer is having a ringside seat for observing the investment decisions of others. It’s always interesting.

You’d think we’d learn from others’ mistakes. You’d think our unique position would give us an advantage when it comes to making our own investments.

Not so much.

When it comes to handling their personal money, I’ve watched lawyers make decisions just as bad as those doctors make.

Taking the Guesswork (and Emotion) Out of Investment Decisions

Recently, I’ve come across a smart, simple way to manage your money. I’m using it, and it’s working. I thought I’d share it with you.

As you know from being a regular reader, I’m a big believer in technology. I think Marc Andreessen is right when he says “Software is eating the world.” Jobs are disappearing as software advances (many of ours included), and investment decision making seems especially well suited to computers.

Along comes Wealthfront. It’s in the business of tweaking an algorithm designed to invest your money based on your preferences for risk. You answer some questions, and the software determines your risk tolerance. The formula then invests your money and keeps it invested in the right funds without any intervention from you.

How It Works

How does Wealthfront do it? Is the software magic? Does it leave you wondering what it’s doing with your money?

There’s no wondering involved. It’s totally transparent. You’ll see exactly how it works; it’s really simple. Once it determines your risk tolerance, it allocates your money among a group of exchange-traded funds. These funds carry much lower management fees than mutual funds. Wealthfront shows you exactly what it’s doing, and you can do it yourself if you prefer.

You don’t need to use Wealthfront to take advantage of its system. You can copy the investment plan yourself if you like. All of the funds are publicly available. However, Wealthfront will take over the hassle of balancing the funds according to the plan based on your risk tolerance. It charges a trivial amount (0.25% per year, or $250 on a $100,000 investment), so why not let the software do the work for you?

Wealthfront can handle your IRA as well as your after-tax investments. Your money is invested in funds run by the big names—Vanguard, Schwab, iShares—and it uses an insured clearing brokerage to deal with the cash. A special tax-advantaged strategy is built into the software, which helps when your account exceeds $100,000.

Wealthfront will accept a small initial investment and can grow right along with you. You can develop the risk profile without even registering with the site. The best thing is that Wealthfront takes you out of the equation and puts an end to the emotionally driven, irrational decisions.

Is Wealthfront Right for You?

Who is the ideal Wealthfront customer? It certainly makes sense for the small investor who doesn’t warrant personal attention from an experienced advisor. Is it right for the larger customer, say someone with more than a few million in investable assets? I suppose that depends on how much you believe in the value of the advisor when compared to the value of the algorithm. My guess is that many investors will come down on the side of the software.

Does Wealthfront replace stockbrokers and investment advisors? The advisors will argue that they can’t be replaced (just like we’ll make the same argument for our jobs), but sadly, Andreessen is right. Software is eating the world.

Is It Time to Get Serious About Your Money? is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Is It Time to Get Serious About Your Money? first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

We have conference rooms in four different office buildings. From time to time, the landlord requires us to relocate from one space to another. It’s happening now in our Raleigh office.

We’re used to doing it. It’s happened so many times over the past 25 years that it’s routine.

We work with an architect and map out the size of each room, wall coverings, light fixtures, etc.

One of the issues that always comes up is the number and placement of outlets in the conference rooms. I’m talking about the plug things in the wall for getting electricity, phone service, and Internet.

How We Used to Power Up

Our requirements have changed over time.

We used to ask for one power outlet. We’d position it behind the corner table that had a lamp and a phone sitting on top. That was usually enough. In a big conference room, we’d ask for a second outlet for use with a video monitor and visiting computer. Pretty simple.

On top of our power outlet, we’d ask for a block of Ethernet outlets (usually three). We used these RJ-45 connections to run any non-Wi-Fi computers plus our conference room phones.

In the new space, our configuration will be different.

A New Balance of Power

We need more power outlets. Nearly everyone coming into our conference rooms—both lawyers and clients—wants power. We end up with everybody plugged in. We’re putting outlets on every wall that isn’t a floor-to-ceiling window. In a perfect world, we’d have the outlets built into the conference room tables. Unfortunately, our world isn’t perfect, and this building isn’t well designed for outlets in the floors.

The bigger change is that we need fewer Ethernet outlets. In fact, we’re not putting any Ethernet outlets in our conference rooms. These outlets used to let us plug in laptops and phones. Now, the laptops all connect via our Wi-Fi network. That happened long ago. We haven’t connected to the Internet with Ethernet cables in quite some time.

The phones are a different story. We’ve known that our conference room phones were rarely used. Everybody used cell phones rather than the conference room phones. For some reason, however, our team resisted the idea of letting them go. A conference room without a phone feels like it’s missing something important. It feels a little empty.

Some lawyers will hang on to the idea of speakerphones for conference rooms. The good news is that there are plenty of high-end speakerphones running on Wi-Fi. Better than a speakerphone, however, is a Wi-Fi-enabled Skype video connection. We use a Logitech device.

Today, the phones are gone. They’ve been packed up and sold. No one was using them, and it seemed pointless to run cables for them at several hundred dollars per connection. They’re history.

As you create new space and redesign old space, be cognizant of the changes. In many respects, technology can be expensive. However, it can also represent a big savings.

There’s Something Missing From Our Conference Rooms is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article There’s Something Missing From Our Conference Rooms first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

There are times when you can bond with your client at no real cost to the forward progress of your case.

However, that’s not always the case. Here’s what I mean:

I view the relationship with my clients like I view a bank account. It’s a bank account filled with emotions instead of money.

You’re making deposits when you and your clients are connecting. That happens when you do things like agree with them or support them in some way.

You make withdrawals when you push clients to do something they don’t want to do (like being reasonable).

You can’t make a withdrawal unless you’ve previously made sufficient deposits. If you make a withdrawal and you have an insufficient balance, then something bad happens (usually, you get fired). You’ve got to build up that balance before you start making withdrawals.

Be Careful Not to Break the Bank

When I look at family law cases from 10,000 feet, I can see lawyers building the relationship with their clients during the initial stages of the case. There’s lots of talk and back and forth as documents are gathered, questions are answered, and settlement possibilities are outlined. The lawyers are making deposits and building up the balance.

Then, when things heat up, it’s time for the lawyers to use up the balance. The lawyers ask their clients to trust them and take steps that might feel uncomfortable. Clients who said “I’ll never pay a cent of alimony” agree to offer a small amount. That’s a withdrawal from the emotional bank account.

If you’ve failed to build that account balance, then you’re going to have to take time to build your relationship late in the process. That’s going to slow you down and impede your progress.

I’m always looking for chances to fill up the bank account so I can use it up when I need it.

Take This Advice to the Bank

I was on a flight the other day, and my seat positioned me near a conversation between a flight attendant and a passenger. The passenger was whining about the rule requiring us to turn off electronic devices when they close the door to the plane. It’s a stupid rule, but it’s a rule.

The flight attendant could have agreed that it was a stupid rule, but she explained that she was required to enforce it. She could have aligned herself with the passenger and built the balance of her emotional bank account with that guy. She didn’t. She defended the rule and left her account balance at zero. In fact, she may have overdrawn the account with that guy.

We do the same thing.

We defend stupid rules. We defend rules about where people have to sit in the courtroom, how long the process takes, how many words can be on a page for certain documents, how much evidence can be offered, etc. Let’s face it, some of our rules are stupid, and if they’re not stupid, they don’t make much sense to anyone other than us.

You’re not required to defend every element of the legal system. You didn’t design it. You don’t own it. You’re allowed to agree that some of it doesn’t make much sense.

We don’t have to defend the system at every opportunity. We can step over the line to our clients’ side of the discussion and agree with them. That’s an opportunity to make a deposit. You should connect with your clients when you’re given the opportunity. Don’t resist. Don’t be offended by their perspective. Look for opportunities to build your account balance.

When you start making withdrawals and move a case toward conclusion, you’re going to be pulling large amounts out of the account. Be ready for those occasions. Take advantage of every opportunity to increase your balance.

You Don’t Need to Defend the System is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article You Don’t Need to Defend the System first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

I’ve been in Mexico City for the past few weeks. The picture is me after nearly killing myself climbing the Pyramid of the Sun.

I don’t speak Spanish. In fact, I struggle with English.

I rarely bumped into anyone speaking English while I was in Mexico. It was challenging.

Just for the record, I can ask ¿Donde esta el banyo? which means “Where is the bathroom?” That question became increasingly important as I ate more and more street food and washed it down with tap water.

A Stranger in a Strange Land

Thankfully, I spent most of my time with my wife and our operations manager, both of whom speak enough Spanish to function.

We spent a great deal of time interacting with Spanish speakers in a variety of settings. We talked with dozens of waiters, store clerks, hotel personnel, museum guides, and a range of people on the street. It felt like I was observing constant conversation between others. Rarely did I have much of an idea of what was happening.

During these long periods of being clueless, I started thinking about our clients and the conversations they observe between us.

They watch us talking to one another (attorney to attorney), talking to judges, and interacting with experts. Generally, they are clueless as to what we’re saying. Well, they’re not entirely clueless because we’re all speaking English, but, by and large, they miss much of the point of many of our conversations.

In fact, they might be better off if we didn’t speak in English to one another. Unfortunately, they often take certain phrases and pieces of conversation and assign meaning (much of which is off the mark), which is sometimes detrimental to their emotional well-being. They hear something, assume certain meaning, and then get upset. This is why many attorneys prefer to have conversations outside of our clients’ presence.

Avoiding Language That Could Fry Bacon

I found myself getting anxious when the Spanish conversations between my wife and/or our operations guy and others went on for a while and I knew they involved something about me. The conversations usually related to my food, and I got especially agitated if I felt like I was headed toward getting something I didn’t really want. Suddenly, I’d find myself injecting myself in the conversation in English, trying to be sure I got the right thing. Sound like any of your clients?

The formula for increasing my agitation came to down to this:

Conversation about me + long period without translation = upset me.

They can talk all day about something other than me and I don’t get upset. They can talk for a short period about me and translate and I don’t get upset. It’s only when they talk about me for a long time and don’t translate that I get really rattled and then react.

Speak Their Language

Like me, our clients need translation—and they need it fast. They need to know, nearly in real time, what’s happening and what it means if you expect them to remain calm.

As a practical matter, that may mean having someone with you to translate in certain situations. I’ve always preferred to have an extra attorney or a paralegal with me in court to explain what’s happening as it happens. I’m usually busy doing the lawyer thing.

I stand up and say “objection.” The paralegal translates. The judge responds “sustained,” and the paralegal translates. You get the idea. The result? Client who is in the loop and not upset.

Obviously, you can’t bring a translator to every event. However, you can anticipate the particularly stressful situations and be sure you’ve talked it through with your clients in advance. You can let your clients determine the helpfulness of having someone there to translate so they can evaluate the efficacy of the expense.

You can also be keenly aware of your clients’ response to “legal mumbo-jumbo” conversations taking place in their presence. When you perceive your clients heading for the red zone, you can take a break, do some translating, and then resume the conversation.

The last thing you need during an important negotiation is to have your client yelling ¿Donde esta el banyo? Have your translation plan in place before the conversation, and you’ll never have to worry.

Translating Legalese Into Your Client’s Language is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article Translating Legalese Into Your Client’s Language first appeared on Divorce Discourse.

Maybe I’m busy and my brain is on overload. That’s my charitable assessment.

It could be that I’m just stupid (more likely).

Here’s the deal. About two months ago, I hired a law student to do some writing for our website. She did a good job and delivered her excellent work product after about four weeks (right on time).

One of my associates just gave me an idea for another article. I’d like to hire the law student again. I bet she’d like the work (and the money).

The problem?

For the life of me, I can’t remember her name. If I could remember, I’d type it into Gmail and be off and running. Instead, I’m stuck, and this project will go on my to-do list until I get a chance to dig her name out of my notes.

How to Avoid the Out of Sight, Out of Mind Syndrome

What could she have done to stay “top of mind?” What could she have done to embed her name in my memory?

Here are some ideas:

• She could connect with me on LinkedIn. Once we connected, she could have started recommending my articles on LinkedIn. As much as I hate to admit it, my ego gets fed when people do that. It pops up on my phone, and I get endorphins or something.
• She can do the same thing on Twitter. Retweeting me helps me remember people. I’ve got a bunch of folks who get referrals from me because they retweet my stuff. I’m easy.
• Same for Facebook if she wants.
• Google+ too.
• She could have e-mailed me an article of interest, and she could have commented when we put her article up on our site.
• She could e-mail me about having lunch or coffee. She knows where I hang out, and she could have popped in to one of the coffee shops I frequent.
• She could have sent me a thank you note when we paid her. She could have sent me a gift (we paid her $1,000—maybe some cookies?).

How Memorable Do You Think You Are?

Now, let’s turn this to you. You had lunch with your referral source once. You gave her a business card. You had a nice talk.

Does she remember your name?

Are you on crack? Seriously, I found my young law student. I met with her. We e-mailed back and forth. She did work for me. I paid her. And I still can’t remember her name.

Do you really think your prospective referral source remembers you?

What are you going to do—today—to get remembered?

I’m Sorry That You’re So Freaking Forgettable is a post from: Divorce Discourse

This article I’m Sorry That You’re So Freaking Forgettable first appeared on Divorce Discourse.