Staking out a narrow niche often takes either guts or a real focus on what's most important to you. Since my recent article on micro-practice, I've spoken to a number of law practice principals about how difficult risk-averse solicitors find it to narrow-niche: to differentiate, narrow...
Legal project management is being adopted more and more - but many still see it as just something for larger practices, or larger litigation practices. On the contrary, I would argue that all practices and solicitors can learn a lot from the principles of legal project...
Micropractice is booming! Who needs a big firm? Wo needs a plush office? Or staff? For lawyers with a few years of experience behind them, starting up your own micropractice, on a shoestring, is now not only very feasible, it is also increasingly lucrative. As a business model,...
Is your content marketing ‘too retail’? What are you trying to achieve with your content marketing and social media? What is your strategy? Are you targeting end consumers and trying to raise awareness of yourself, your practice, or of issues in the hope of generating immediate enquiries? Or...
Making the jump to value pricing ('proper' fixed fees) is a dramatic and important step for any practice. It can bring many benefits in terms of profitability, differentiation, client satisfaction and staff moraleBut are you doing it for the right reasons And is your practice ready Regrettably,...
Lawyers are often - and accurately - associated with the trait of pessimism. That makes sense: to be a good lawyer you need to focus on the potential negatives and problems so you can solve these problems for the benefit of clients. You need to anticipate...
What's your approach to scoping? do you prefer a detailed narrow scope, or something broader? do you consider how you communicate this scope to the client? . In my experience, the development of a scope - and how this is communicated to clients - is an important issue that...
In my last article I discussed why employed solicitors need to start building their own practice now. But understanding importance is the easy bit: making it happen is trickier Why? Well there are a number of reasons: lack of skills lack of principals time to develop and nurture such skills lack...
It used to be a 'nice to have', but now it's pretty much essential: employed solicitors need to market! Everything that is happening and has happened in legal practice over the last ten years emphasises the extent to which employed solicitors need to start building their...
Clients resent paying for a Lexus when a cheap Toyota would have done the job. They resent paying for unnecessary value. Sometimes we need Qantas quality, but sometimes Jetstar is just fine. For solicitors, it shouldn't just be about the legal outcome, but about the service outcome - and that...