Law Practice Management

How was your Fourth of July?  I hope you had a safe and happy holiday.  I hope you spent time with friends & family, ate some burgers, drank some beer, wine or adult beverage of your choice.  Relaxed, chilled, waved a flag or two – and celebrated our wonderful country.  Wednesday holidays are weird, though.  […]

“For most of us, the billable hour is the only thing we know, and so, even though we are sick of it, we don’t know what else to do. There is an alternative and it is called, ‘Value Pricing.’” – From Dumping the Billable Hour-One Lawyer’s Experience, by Mark A. Chinn That quote speaks volumes […]

Alternative Fee Agreements Can Boost Profits If you’re billing by the hour and have never considered value pricing or offering your clients alternative fee agreements (AFAs), here’s some research that might get you thinking.  Altman Weil’s study, “2011 Law Firms in Transition,” found that: “Firms that are proactive in their pursuit of non-hourly business were […]

If you’re billing by the hour and have never considered offering your clients alternative fee agreements (AFAs), here’s some research that might get you thinking. A recent study by Altman Weil found that: “Firms that are proactive in their pursuit of non-hourly business were more than twice as likely to report higher profitability on non-hourly […]

Would you use a cell phone built in the 1980s?  Of course not.  In fact, you probably couldn’t find a cell phone from the 1980s that would work on today’s networks.  So why in the world would you use an email address that’s been around since the 1980s? This week I’ve received emails from several […]

So I’m poking around in the App store on my iPad. (Should I get the new iPad? Oy. That’s a topic for another day.)  Anyhow, so I come across an app called Valorem Law.  It’s an app from the Valorem Law Group, a Chicago litigation firm.  Intrigued, I download it.  The first time you launch […]

For some time now, I’ve been a believer that the billable hour should be ditched as a means of pricing legal services.  And many of my clients feel the same way.   They tell me they’d love to move away from the billable hour.  The thing is – it’s not an easy.  True.  But how many […]

The answer to that question is an unsettling, “Yes.” A recent study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) found that increased financial pressures during the economic crisis have led to an overall increase in fraud. The survey also found that “employees pose the greatest fraud thread in the current economy.” And law […]

“It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.”- Henry Ward Beecher Whether or not you agree that the country is in a recession, there’s no denying that we’re experiencing a downturn in the economy. While the economy has some effect […]