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Raising The Bar2019-03-20T21:05:31+00:00

Arrival in Paris

The following article continues the saga of my Leap of Faith, which turned out to be my journey from lawyer to coach. This article was originally published in the Orlando Sentinel in 1999.

Arrival in Paris

A year in France sounded like a reasonable antidote for the forty-something mid-life crises of a couple from Houston. Because Jim and I had minimal travel experience in France and minimal French language skills, we made a trial move to Paris for one month. It started out well. When we landed at the airport, we breezed through customs and immigration so easily that we did not recognize the process had occurred until we found ourselves at the street exit.

Then, unlike in New York, our cab driver spoke a little English. He took us straight to the furnished apartment we had rented for about $1800 a month, despite the fact that we could hardly pronounce the name of the small street, and could only tell him that it was in the 17th Arrondissement. Already life was so different from home.
We found our small one-bedroom apartment nicely decorated, and it even resembled its picture on the Internet. The kitchen and the bathroom were so tiny that they were cute. (We knew from talking to seasoned travelers and researching floor plans on the Internet, that apartments in Paris were small.) In France most major kitchen appliances are in miniature. Our dishwasher barely accommodated breakfast and lunch dishes. We had to stoop to peer into the refrigerator. We had an understanding that he who cooks doesn’t clean up, because there really wasn’t room for two people in the kitchen at the same time. We just bumped into each other a lot.

The bathroom had barely enough room for both me […]

A Little Thanksgiving Montage

On the day after Thanksgiving and I realized that I had the capability to make a little video montage of a few photos from Thanksgiving, complete with music, using software that comes with Windows XP. It was wonderful to have time to do something just because it was creative and fun.

The legal field is so left brain intensive. It is important to engage in right brain activity to help keep the communication flowing between the hemispheres, and to strengthen the right brain neural pathways. We need those right brain pathways for a lot of purposes, including when it’s time to do some “out of the box” problem solving.

If you want to view my little 2 minute Thanksgiving montage, click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUlNHHf5O4Y.

Hoping you are enjoying the holiday!
-Debra

Business Development: Follow-up or Fall Down

 Recently I celebrated a business development victory with a lawyer. I asked him what he thought was the most important ingredient in his success. “Persistence,” he replied. “I just kept following up.”
That’s where many of us fall down. We attend networking events, give speeches, join organizations, and do other things to be at the right place to meet prospective clients. We succeed in meeting what appear to be some good business prospects or good potential referral sources. Hooray! Now what do we do?

[…]

Keep the Cash Flowing: Collection Tips

A reader’s question: Do you have any tips on how to get clients to pay their bills more promptly?

Response: Cash flow is important to the success of every business, yet many lawyers do not design their practice to assure that collections flow in smoothly and regularly. The measures appropriate for your firm may depend upon the size of your clients, the type of clients you serve, and the types of matters you handle for them.

As you read through the suggestions below, think about how you might experiment with some of them or adapt them to your needs. Some may be new ideas for you, and others may be familiar ones that you have just gotten out of the habit of doing.

1. Get a retainer in advance. Hold a retainer equal to one month’s fees in trust until application against the final invoice. Invoice the client each month for the current work. If the client has not paid the first invoice by the time you are sending out the second invoice, notify the client that work will be suspended until the account is brought up to date. Certain practice areas tend to attract a high level of clients with poor payment patterns. Practitioners may want to charge the entire fee up front for such services, or provide in the engagement agreement that the initial fee installment applies to the first stage of the engagement. Provide that the engagement will be put on hold or terminated until the fee for each next stage is paid in advance.
[…]

What Does Marketing Have to Do with Practicing Law?

The answer: Everything, if you are a small firm practitioner. How can you practice law without clients? Without marketing, how do you get clients? Most law schools don’t even mention the concept of marketing, much less teach aspiring lawyers how to sell their services. Selling and marketing, in fact, are dirty words among lawyers, being considered cousins of the unethical practice of soliciting.
The reality is, however, that you are probably engaging in marketing every week. The question is, how effective are you at it? Every time you respond to the question, “What do you do?” you are marketing. Every time you meet or greet someone who already knows what you do for a living, you are marketing. What are you advertising about yourself when you are not even talking about your business? Are you communicating by your demeanor and conversation that you are competent and knowledgeable, yet compassionate and trustworthy enough for someone to safely reveal a significant and troubling problem to you? Or do others feel inferior, judged and unimportant in your presence? Which professional would you choose to handle your important concerns?
Instead of marketing unconsciously, get on the road to becoming an effective marketer by following these three tips:

[…]

The Biggest Bang for Your Management Buck

She tried to maintain her composure, but one large tear betrayed her as it slipped over the brim and slid down her cheek. “Why don’t they ever tell me that?” she asked plaintively. She had just received a positive annual review with quotes read by the firm administrator of the complimentary assessments by the attorneys she worked for. Like that legal secretary, most of us hunger for feedback, yet we are terrified of receiving it.
We have heard a lot over the years about what we do wrong from parents, teachers, bosses, spouses and even strangers. How often do we hear what we do right?

[…]

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