Finding your voice isn't so tough
It's giving yourself the freedom to use that voice rather than some middle-of-the-road corporate drone-speak that's the killer.
You're a lawyer. So am I. But you're also a real, live human being (at least, I hope you are).
I'm a dad, a husband, and a guy who was a geek before it was cool to be a geek. I like to cook, spend time with my family, and play with technology.
You're frustrated about spending your money on marketing and technology only to see no results. I can relate.
Since 1995 I've been a consumer protection and bankruptcy lawyer in New York City. For the first six years of my practice I made a lot of money, and spent even more of it.
My marketing sucked. My practice management consisted of running around putting out fires.
It was after I almost went belly-up that I took stock of my life and my practice. I learned at the feet of the masters of marketing, people who ran and marketed the most profitable and successful companies on the planet.
I tested every theory and tweaked them to fit the legal world. I was my own guinea pig.
Now I can teach you how to actually make money in your practice. That would be cool, right?
Learn more at www.LegalPracticePro.com.
It's giving yourself the freedom to use that voice rather than some middle-of-the-road corporate drone-speak that's the killer.
Lawyers who rent offices under time-sharing arrangements may violate New Jersey ethics rules if they hold out these workplaces as their principal place of business, according to a recent ethics opinion.
Such “virtual offices” violate the state requirement for a bona fide office, according to a joint opinion by the New Jersey Advisory Committee on Professional Ethics and the Committee on Attorney Advertising.
Most states no longer have a bona fide office rule, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. The joint opinion is “likely to reinforce New Jersey's reputation among attorney regulators around the country as a state that bends its ethics rules slowly to the inchoate winds of social and economic change," the story says.
According to the opinion, a virtual office refers to a time-sharing arrangement in which lawyers visit the office by appointment only. A receptionist serves all of those who rent space in the shared office, directing clients to the proper room at the appointed time. Depending on the lease, the receptionist may also receive and forward mail and phone calls.
New Jersey requires lawyers to maintain a bona fide office where clients are met, files are kept, mail is received, and the lawyer or “a responsible person acting on the attorney's behalf” can be reached in person and by phone. The purpose, according to the opinion, is to make sure lawyers are available and can be found by clients.
A virtual office can’t be a bona fide office, the opinion says, since the lawyer is only present when he or she has reserved the space. And a receptionist at a virtual office doesn’t qualify as “a responsible person acting on the attorney's behalf"—indeed such a receptionist shouldn’t be entrusted with confidential information, the opinion adds.
A home office, however, can meet the requirement for a bona fide office, the opinion says. And solos who can’t afford a receptionist can still meet the requirement, as long as absences from the office are only occasional and the lawyer can be reached by phone, e-mail or the like.
Some women lawyers are criticizing the opinion, the New Jersey Law Journal reports in a separate story. One of them is Washington, D.C., lawyer Carolyn Elefant, who writes about solo practice at MyShingle.com. She told the publication that lawyers who work at home may be reluctant to list their home office as their principal place of business because of security and privacy concerns.
This parable is all over the Internet, yet I heard about it just yesterday. I think it's telling when you review your firm's successes and sit down to determine staff compensation.
As the late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
An economics professor at a local college told his class that socialism was destined to ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
That class had insisted that in a socialist economy, no one would be poor and no one would be rich --- a great equalizer. Everyone could be successful.
The professor said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism". All the grades on each test in the class would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset, and the students who goofed off were very happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less, and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D. No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average score was an F!
The scores never increased after that as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings, and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. As a result, everyone in the class got an F for the semester.
Thanks to Connecticut bankruptcy attorney Eugene Melchionne for sending this along to me.
For years I've been advocating that lawyers use risk reversal as part of their legal marketing efforts. One of my students, Ohio bankruptcy lawyer Rick West, has taken the bull by the horns. I take it a step beyond Rick, but it's an audacious effort.
You know you do good work, but is that what makes your clients happy?
They see the end result (a bankruptcy discharge, a divorce decree, a
green card ... whatever) but is that really what causes jubilation?
Henry Ford didn't listen to his customers. He famously said, “If I
had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster
horses.” Clearly, listening to his customers and prospective
customers would have given us the Model-T Horse (available in any
color we wanted, so long as it was black).
Mortgage insurer discloses it's being sued by Bank of America, shares plummet http://bit.ly/6K1xuT
Michigan personal bankruptcy rates continue to climb http://bit.ly/7BagHd
