Are You Writing This Down?

While you were sleeping, redux. The world keeps getting smaller.

2011-05-10T16:15:00.008-04:00

The rapid march of BigLaw globalization continues. Most of the activity is, understandably, focused on China, the "fastest growing legal market in the world." Baker & McKenzie opens in Qatar (just ten months after opening in Luxembourg) Blank Rome opens an office in Shanghai Chadbourne & Parke announces plans to set up shop in Istanbul DLA Piper merges with its 700-lawyer Australian affiliate,

Go West, young man. And East. And North. And South.

2011-03-21T15:29:00.002-04:00

What's BigLaw doing in this "down" economy? Getting bigger. Looking for opportunities to add greater value. Opening offices, merging, forming alliances. Gobalizing: SNR Denton barely lets the ink dry on its own merger before forming alliances with 10 firms across Africa Norton Rose ties up with Ogilvy Renault in Canada and Deneys Reitz in South Africa, then opens in Hamburg and links up in

Are you talking the talk? Walking the walk?

2011-02-08T11:44:00.001-05:00

Or just sitting at home, watching the world go by from the comfort of your office? When was the last time you traveled outside the country? What languages do you speak? Can you carry on a conversation in a foreign tongue? Have you ever tried? Can you find your way through a crowded Japanese city, negotiate a contract in Columbia, interview a client in Paris? In Japanese, Spanish or French? On a

Have you made your resolutions for the New Year?

2011-01-10T13:05:00.000-05:00

I was interviewed Friday by Chelsey Lambert at Total Attorneys for their Total Expert Radio broadcasts. I'm not used to sitting on the interviewee side of the table, and it was a lot of fun. Chelsey did a great job keeping me on topic. Thanks too to Kevin Chern and Kate Battle, who made the interview possible. Chelsey and I talk about new year's resolutions for lawyers in three areas: growing

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

Best wishes to all for a healthy and happy 2011!

2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100

2010-11-30T21:59:00.000-05:00

The nominees for the 2010 ABA Journal Blawg 100 have been released, and for the second year in a row, my lawyer interview blog 22 Tweets was included on the list of the best legal blogs as selected by the editors of the ABA Journal. It's a great honor for me to have 22 Tweets listed alongside so many law blogs that inspire, educate, inform and amuse me every day, but the real credit goes to each

Is it time for a marketing tune-up?

2010-09-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

The market appears to be picking up. Clients are getting back to work. New opportunities can’t be far behind. What are you doing to find them? To make sure they show up on your radar? To put yourself in a position to see those opportunities that do present themselves, and to land the work when you pitch for it? Maybe it’s time for a marketing tune-up. Just like you regularly perform maintenance

Blawg Review #257

2010-03-29T02:31:00.008-04:00

Welcome to Blawg Review. To celebrate the first anniversary of 22 Tweets, our Twitter interviews of practicing lawyers, we’ve put together a special version of Blawg Review. What does that mean? First and foremost, it means that we’ve selected 22 posts from this week’s legal blogs: 22 authors, 22 blawgs, 22 posts. More importantly, it means that this week there’s no free ride on Blawg Review.

What I’ve learned from a year of 22 Tweets

2010-03-14T22:30:00.006-04:00

This week marks the one-year anniversary of 22 Tweets. It’s been a great first year. I’ve learned a lot from the interviews, about the lawyers I’ve interviewed, about the practice of law, about how what I hope is a representative slice of the Web 2.0 legal crowd markets themselves and their practices. And I’ve also learned a great deal about communication and communicating, about messages and

Legal Services and Chinese Outbound Investment

2010-03-02T13:55:00.015-05:00

Steptoe & Johnson opened its first China office in Beijing on March 1 with the stated objective of providing services to "multinational companies operating in China as well as Chinese companies expanding beyond the People’s Republic of China." The opening was covered in an ABA Journal online piece here, and you can read Steptoe's press release here.How realistic is this objective? On the one

Why are we still debating (redux)?

2010-01-13T10:52:00.005-05:00

Are you really not yet convinced that you need to develop a more active social networking and social media profile? That you need to understand and use and master social media tools for communicating? Maybe the CEO of Sun Microsystems can convince you:“As CEO, I need to engage the market, inside and outside Sun, with whatever technology affords me the greatest possible reach. Through blogs,

What lessons have you learned?

2010-01-12T12:40:00.004-05:00

I read an interesting post today on the Commute by Bike blog: “5 Things I wish I knew when I first started Bike Commuting.” I would add a sixth, but all the same I was struck by how easily these bicycle commuting lessons apply for lawyers: Route. Plan your route. Know where you want to go and how to get there and what you need to do to move in the right direction. There’s plenty of strategy

Are you exploring Social Media?

2009-10-16T12:58:00.005-04:00

What are you doing to market your practice with social media? How are you telling your story? What are your objectives? Are you meeting them?There's no doubt that social media is revolutionizing PR, marketing, and internal communications across industries, and that the legal profession finds itself directly in the mix. Are you keeping up with the changes or getting left behind? Blogs, Twitter,

What are your extraordinary measures?

2009-08-20T13:18:00.002-04:00

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. No one would dispute that these are extraordinary times for the legal profession. Or that the landscape in 12 months will look radically different than it does today. So what are your extraordinary measures? Are you thinking about your business model? How it meets your clients’ needs (and not just your own)? How it could give you a competitive

What do you say to new clients?

2009-07-29T17:57:00.005-04:00

What do you tell every new client before you start working for them? Here's how your peers are answering that question in their 22 Tweets interviewsJeena R. Belil (@jeenabelil): That no outcome is guaranteed and that settling a matter is not the same as losing the case. Kelly Phillips Erb (@taxgirl): Not to be scared of tax. While it’s important to try to get it right the 1st time, there’s

Are you helping others prepare for the future?

2009-06-22T10:26:00.006-04:00

My last question on every 22 Tweets interview is always the same: "What advice do you have for people going to law school today?" Here's some of the valuable advice the lawyers I've interviewed are giving: Venkat Balasubramani (@vbalasubramani): tech-internet lawyer put in 110% percent, but realize there’s much more to life than law..also, don’t listen to the crowd/echo chamber Nicole Black

What's wrong with this picture?

2009-06-16T10:21:00.006-04:00

"What is the most significant issue currently facing the legal profession?" Here's what your peers are saying when 22 Tweets put the question to them. David Barrett (@barrettdavid): "The LinkedIn Lawyer"I think the most significant issue facing the legal profession is transparency …As consumers get more sophisticated, we need new ways across the understanding gap between lawyers and non-lawyers …

Why are we still debating?

2009-06-03T14:36:00.006-04:00

Are we really still debating whether Twitter is an effective business development tool for lawyers? I can think of at least five reasons why we should move on:Twitter is not a volume equation. It’s about engaging in a few conversations that lead to meaningful relationships.Twitter is not just for fun. It’s about exchanging information that helps us get better at what we do.Twitter is not

Are you listening to your peers?

2009-05-26T17:54:00.009-04:00

To better understand how lawyers can use Twitter and other social networking tools to grow their practices, I began talking to practicing lawyers who were active on Twitter. Not really "talking” to them, in the traditional sense at least. More like interviewing them. Live. On Twitter. And it's been great: the interviewees have been interesting and engaging, the interviews fun and insightful, and

Are you telling the right story?

2009-04-05T23:04:00.011-04:00

What do you say to potential clients? Do you tell them what you do? The type of law you practice, the clients you've represented, the deals you've done or the cases you've won? Or do you tell them what you can do for them? It's easy, after all, to focus on what you've done. You know it well, it's impressive information, it summarizes your strengths and experience in a concise package. But is it

Have you written your recovery plan yet?

2009-03-11T22:06:00.005-04:00

The economic crisis isn't improving, and the legal profession seems to be getting hit particularly hard. Firms of all sizes are cutting associates, staff, and even some partners as they hunker down for what promises to be a "cruel, cruel summer." What's your plan for the recovery? Are you lying low and waiting it out, cutting out unnecessary expenses, finally reading up on tax law and taking

Aren't you on Twitter yet?

2009-02-23T23:59:00.015-05:00

Carolyn Elefant, on Nolo’s Legal Marketing Blog, just posted another piece on why lawyers should be on Twitter: “To Twitter or Not To Twitter? That is the Question for Lawyers” (you know where I stand on this from this post and this one). Elefant gives a very useful overview of what Twitter is and how you can use it to market yourself and your practice. Get on Twitter, position yourself as an

What do your clients need?

2009-02-18T16:30:00.002-05:00

Do you know what your clients need? Which services? The problems -- business critical problems, not legal ones -- they are trying to solve? That which keeps them awake at night? How can you find out? What do you need to know? How does knowing what they need translate into more work for you?It isn't as easy as it might seem to obtain actionable intelligence about your client from that client

Why aren't you excited about 2009?

2009-02-15T15:42:00.003-05:00

Do you think that 2009 is going to be a banner year, that you'll end it doing the work you want to do for the clients you dream about having? Why not? Do those dream clients no longer need legal advice? Has the work you love disappeared as a legal discipline? Isn't it possible that this year could be good for you in some respects? That the slowdown might give you an opportunity to analyze your

How are your clients handling the economic crisis?

2009-02-13T21:59:00.007-05:00

February 12, 2009. Black Thursday. The day 800 legal jobs were cut. It's easy to wince and wonder what is happening to the profession, what it will look like when the crisis is over, how firms will be structured, who will be left standing. It's easy to point fingers at that which led us to this point: hourly biling, rates, salaries, profits, arrogance, greed. But the easiest of all is to forget