In this episode Scott and Oscar talk about making sure you are not getting bogged down by handling small matters that do not properly compensate you for your time. Getting properly paid for your time is the key to a successful law practice. Handling small cases or charging really low fees or agreeing to just “write a letter” for a client for $200.00 may bring some cash flow into your business but your time would be far better spent in working on your practice and on your higher paying clients ..read more

It’s important to have a sterling reputation in the legal community to develop your practice, and that will come if you consistently do good work. But it’s more important to be more concerned about your reputation and “brand” in the client community. Does your website and other marketing material speak to your target clients? Have you planned on how you will reach the type of clients you want? You need to step back and think about who you want as clients and how you will reach them. Then make a plan to put yourself in front of those clients and make sure you are geared towards connecting with ..read more

Planning and strategic thinking are important certainly. But at some point, you have to just pull the trigger. Scott and Oscar talk about how as 2018 gets going, this should be the year listeners Do Something! Whether its starting a blog, increase or decrease staffing, networking more, whatever it is. Let 2018 be the year that you take at least one concrete step to implement a change in your practice that will increase business. The hosts discuss some of the steps they are taking this year to improve their practices ..read more

In advance of a presentation they are making to the Nassau County Bar Association, the hosts talk about ways to get your name out in social media and the community. Publishing articles; making presentations; blogging; and yes, even doing a podcast are all ways to put yourself out in the universe and the marketplace. Scott and Oscar talk specifics and give do’s and don’ts about the right way to do this so that you provide value to those who receive it which will turn into business ..read more

Scott talks about his recent attendance at a conference sponsored by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System where the subject was the future of law schools and the legal system. While there were some positive moments where there were discussions about making law school more client-centered; using apps to increase access to justice; and teaching leadership in law school. However, there was a lot of talk about meeting the needs of the unrepresented without any solutions that would help lawyers make that financially worthwhile. Oscar brought up that President Obama’s Stude ..read more

Scott Limmer continues the discussion of the CLIO Cloud Conference. A large part of what was discussed involved time and data management. For ex.: at CLIO a speaker pointed out that out of an 8 hour workday only 1.9 of that time is collected upon. How can we increase the amount of time that actually puts money in the bank? What can the data we have on our clients tell us – where they are coming from, how much are they paying, how much are we collecting, etc. The bottom line is that solos and small firms need to expand their horizons and look beyond traditional sources for information to help d ..read more

Scott and Oscar continue their discussion about Scott’s presentation and attendance at Avvo’s annual Lawyernomics conference in Las Vegas. The talk focuses on SEO and recognizing where your practice is at - brand new practices don’t have the same needs and opportunities as mature growing practices. The focus must be on what can best improve your practice. Not everything will work for everybody. The hosts discuss the value of attending professional conferences to keep learning about what’s out there and new ways to develop a consistently successful practice ..read more

One of the nice things about having “Rebooted” our practices and having started this podcast is the opportunity to share what we have learned with other attorneys. Avvo was nice enough to invite us to speak at their Lawyernomics conference in Las Vegas. Scott discusses some of what he learned including how all marketing should be done purposefully, how PR work has been folded into social media and your web presence and how Avvo believes the future of successful practices will rely on data driven metrics ..read more

This week Scott and Oscar talk about their experiences with the networking site LinkedIn. While both of the podcast hosts agree that all solos and small firm practitioners should have a Linked In profile, Oscar is the bigger fan of the site. That stems from his practice being largely a commercial litigation practice and Linked In being a social networking tool mostly for business and professional people. The hosts talk about how to get the most out of it by being active on it, and using it to find potential referral partners. It’s just another tool to help get your practice and name out there ..read more

This week, we continued our interview with Michelle and Anthony DiPaolo, discussing their decision to hire an office manager. We’ve often talked on the podcast about how to determine when the right time is to take on that first employee. The DiPaolos explain how their practice was ready for the hire and how bringing on an office manager has helped them grow their practice. They offer great insight for listeners on what benefits they derive from having someone else deal with much of the administrative strain on the practice, including billing, client relations and scheduling. We conclude the ta ..read more