Articles by Debra L. Bruce Archives | Page 13 of 16

10 06, 2007

Get Remembered

2007-06-10T07:36:39+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|1 Comment

Years ago at an early morning meeting Jimmy Brill, a veteran estate planning lawyer and the founder of Solos Supporting Solos, asked each of 30 lawyers to introduce themselves and their practices. I didn’t know any of them, and they all faded into a blur, except for one tall gentleman in a straw hat and seersucker suit. He said, “I’m a proctologist in the courtroom.” He got some chuckles and my attention.

I often ask the attorneys I coach on business development to analyze their client list to determine how they obtained their previous clients. Most of them report that the majority of their new clients come as referrals. If your business depends on referrals, your success depends on the likelihood that others will remember you when someone has a problem you can solve.

A couple of months after that morning meeting, I asked someone in the group, “What’s the name of that guy who’s the proctologist in the courtroom?” “Ted Hirtz,” he responded immediately. Ted’s introduction stood out and triggered the memory of enough people for me to locate him again.

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1 06, 2007

Marketing: What Are You Already Doing Right?

2007-06-01T12:54:51+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Marketing: What Are You Already Doing Right?

On a panel for a webcast by the Law Practice Management Program about “Finding and Keeping Good Clients,” we discussed the efficacy of public speaking. Rick Albers, a real estate lawyer in Austin, recounted that another lawyer once told him that he had spoken many times at continuing legal education programs, and never got any business from it. Rick’s mouth dropped open. He himself had referred four matters to that lawyer over the last several years. Rick made those referrals because he knew from hearing the lawyer speak that he was knowledgeable in the relevant area of practice.

Many years ago, when I had my own law firm, my father asked me how I got my clients. I blinked, dumbfounded by the question, and finally responded, “I wish I knew, Dad, so I could get more of them.” That question spurred me to examine my list of current and former clients. I discovered that 75% of my business came from referrals from other lawyers. To my surprise, many of those referrals came from my competitors!

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25 05, 2007

Don’t Wait to Read This: Tips for Procrastinators

2007-05-25T13:11:03+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Don’t Wait to Read This: Tips for Procrastinators

I procrastinated in writing this column. Many wise people have said that we teach what we need to learn, so overcoming procrastination is the topic for this month. Let’s start with why we procrastinate. Here are some common reasons:

It involves an unpleasant task.
We don’t know or are unsure about how to do it.
The task involves a tough decision.
We don’t have all the materials or information we need.
The project is too big and overwhelming.
We underestimate the time required and have a lot to do.

What do we do to get past procrastination? In my coaching I find there are very few one-size-fits-all solutions. There are patterns and tendencies, however, so we experiment, and we understand that what worked yesterday may not work with a different project today. Here are some tips for your experimentation:

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15 05, 2007

Questions May Be the Answer for Performance Problems

2007-05-15T12:24:37+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Questions May Be the Answer for Performance Problems

Do you have an employee who just doesn’t seem to be performing up to snuff? Is there a way to rehabilitate that employee? Or do you have to choose between termination and tolerating inferior performance? Employee turnover is time consuming, disruptive, costly and often bad for office morale (including yours). Before jumping to the conclusion that the employee just isn’t working out, it’s worth making sure that the problem does not lie elsewhere. If you don’t eliminate that possibility, you may be doomed to experience the same song, second verse with the next employee.

Managers often think that employees don’t do what they are supposed to do because they don’t want to, don’t care or are incompetent. That would lead to the conclusion that the manager must terminate the employee or settle for poor performance. However, in his bestseller Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to Do and What to Do About It, Ferdinand Fournies points out that managers sometimes unwittingly create situations that cause the poor performance they complain about. What if getting better performance from your employee were as simple as changing your own behavior […]

3 05, 2007

The Unwritten Rules for Associates

2007-05-03T15:09:53+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on The Unwritten Rules for Associates

When I was a young associate in a big law firm, I began to fear that there were unwritten rules to the game that everyone knew except me. Sometimes I wanted to cry out, “What are the rules? Just tell me what they are! I’ll follow them!”

Gradually over the years I began to figure them out, one by one, often as the result of transgressing them. Sometimes I was fortunate enough to learn a rule by merely observing the consequences of a transgression by another associate. On rare occasions a more senior associate, or even a partner, would bless me by privately advising me about one of the rules.

Law firms really do want their associates to succeed, so why do they seem to hide the rules of the game? Here are my guesses at a few possible explanations:
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27 04, 2007

10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

2007-04-27T13:38:50+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on 10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

10 Tips for Developing Associates into Rainmakers

Today most law firms, large and small, expect partners to bring in business. In determining whether an associate makes partner, the firm usually considers whether the associate has the capability to bring in business.

Some firms don’t do a very good job of communicating this expectation to their young lawyers, however. In fact, some partners may actively discourage associates from spending time on business development activities, if that takes any time away from doing billable legal work. The firm then unrealistically expects a new partner to support himself with his own business like turning on a water faucet.

While firms that think longer-range may not begrudge the time an associate spends on client development, they don’t all have a policy for reimbursing associates for business development expenses. Young lawyers still trying to pay off student loans are expected to pay for any marketing lunches or other outside activities, bar association and section dues, and community association dues. Asking associates to lay out their cash to benefit the firm they are not yet members of can have a significant tempering effect on their efforts. Finally, some savvy law firms actively support mid-level and senior associate efforts to develop clients by providing time and financial resources, but very few provide real guidance to young lawyers about how to market themselves.

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22 02, 2007

Trimming Expenses to Fatten the Kitty

2007-02-22T12:37:43+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Trimming Expenses to Fatten the Kitty

Recently I have been getting a number of questions about reducing overhead in law firms, so this article will give you some tips. For a strong first step, get a clear picture of the existing expenses, and determine which of them are necessities, and which are luxuries.

Review and Investigate the Firm Financial Reports

Do you review your firm’s monthly financial reports? Do you really know what the specific numbers on your financial statement represent? Are there some categories that fluctuate pretty dramatically from month to month or year to year? If so, that might indicate some discretionary spending items, and it may be worthwhile to review the expenditures represented by those numbers. It may be appropriate to develop some approval procedures within those categories. Establish a budget and follow-up on over-expenditures to get a real handle on expenses.

By investigating the facts underlying financial reports, lawyers I know have discovered seriously overdue accounts receivable, employees using firm services and accounts for personal purposes, courier services used daily for routine non-urgent transmissions, unnecessary equipment service contracts for nonessential or infrequently used equipment, infrequently used season tickets, and downright embezzlement. (Lawyers are rather common victims of embezzlement.) Some of those expenditures sound deminimus, but with frequent repetition, they add up.

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19 02, 2007

A Year by Design, or by Default?

2019-02-10T23:15:55+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on A Year by Design, or by Default?

A bright and talented lawyer lamented: “Where did all the money go?” He was a charismatic guy and had attracted a few good cases. Because he was a skilled lawyer, he enjoyed some success. However, when profits began to dwindle, at first he didn’t notice. Then he didn’t know how to adjust his strategy, because he didn’t really have one.

In the business world, companies can’t get financing if they don’t have a business plan. That’s because bankers know that owners who run their businesses by the seat of the pants are more likely to fail. A business plan doesn’t guarantee success, but in the process of creating one, we establish goals. We consider ways to achieve those goals and how to address the obstacles to achieving them. We set a clear intention about how we want to spend our resources of time, money and talent. That clarity of intention helps us make better decisions when opportunities or obstacles arise. Sometimes during planning we have thought through the consequences of various options in advance. Other times we can ask ourselves, “Is this opportunity more likely to move me toward or away from my goal?”

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28 01, 2007

Are You Getting in Your Own Way at the Office?

2007-01-28T13:25:23+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Are You Getting in Your Own Way at the Office?

Have you ever considered what role you may play in the effective functioning of your office staff? I have worked with lawyers who were unhappy with the performance of their administrative assistants, and who wondered what to do to correct the situation. I have worked with dedicated firm administrators and support staff who were stressing to the breaking point from working with difficult attorneys. Even as a lawyer myself, I learned that at […]

10 01, 2007

What’s Holding You Back?

2007-01-10T16:45:28+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on What’s Holding You Back?

A couple of years ago I wrote about strategies for actually accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. It’s that time again, and you can read that article by going back to the January 2005 issue of The Practice Manager or you can view it on our website. If you implemented those ideas, I know you made a lot of progress. If you didn’t make progress or didn’t implement any strategy to achieve your goals, then some hidden factors may be influencing you. […]

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