On February 28th, the Virginia Supreme Court held that a disclaimer was required under the state’s advertising rules when posting results on a website. This is the latest outcome in the seemingly never-ending battle between Horace Hunter and the Virginia State Bar. This has been a widely watched case among…
This month marks the first of our two annual “Young Lawyers Survival Guide” issues of Law Practice Today, developed in coordination with the ABA’s Young Lawyers Division. Thanks to issue editor Elizabeth Henslee for putting together an outstanding collection of articles designed with the young lawyer audience in mind–although almost…
My marketing column in the March/April issue of Law Practice focuses on the many ways that charitable involvement–be it time or money–can also pay significant dividends for a law firm’s marketing efforts. Too often it is not fully embraced (or simply ignored) as a tie-in to everything from image branding…
It is rare that I make a trip to Chicago or Toronto without spending an evening at Second City. There is nothing more entertaining (to me) than great improvisational comedy. Growing up, I was a Second City TV groupie of sorts, now possessing the entire DVD collection of SCTV. I…
The ABA Section of Family Law has dedicated its entire winter 2013 issue of the Family Advocate to the topic of marketing your practice in the digital age. The feature that the publication asked me to author, Finding the Magical Mix for Your Digital Marketing Plan, presents a wide range…
Last month, at the invitation of Joshua Peck and the Law Firm Media Professionals organization, I attended their monthly program in New York City, at the offices of Dechert. As always, the topic of “Surveys and Rankings” attracted significant interest (and conversation) from the many law firm communications and public…
Someone woke up yesterday and thought it might be a good idea to provide better professional development training for attorneys. Go figure. Last week, I had the privilege of spending some time with the leadership of the Professional Development Consortium (PDC) at their annual meeting in Washington, DC. For the…
In August, I wrote about the Consumer Reports evaluation of online do-it-yourself legal sites (Legal DIY sites no match for a pro). This week, Wall Street Journal reporter Jennifer Smith writes on “No-Frill Legal Services Grow,” addressing many of the same DIY websites. The impetus for the article is the…
This is the time of year where I’m working with law firms on developing strategic marketing and business development plans (and budgets!) for 2013. As I said to one marketing partner yesterday, while we need to be fluid and creative, you still need an outline and parameters to be as…
In the November/December issue of Law Practice, my marketing column is entitled “Auditing Your Efforts” and discusses the value and importance of a law firm objectively auditing its marketing and business development efforts. Read it to see how I compare myself favorably to Tom Cruise (although the editorial team deleted…