Storytelling Is an Effective Communication Strategy
“Storytelling” may seem an odd word choice for a profession like law, which focuses on very academic-oriented activities like drafting contracts, legislative provisions, proposing a regulation, writing a will, researching case laws, etc. However, the increasing competition faced at home and abroad demands that lawyers make efforts to guide their teams to surpass expectations and discover […]
Sell the “Whole” Legal Product
“We partner with our clients.” “We build relationships with our clients.” “We understand our clients’ businesses.” Blah, blah, blah. . . . What does all this really mean? Generally speaking, not very much! Clients don’t have time to tell you how to add value, but they are very open to working even more closely with […]
Ask Gerry Riskin: Should Corporate and Other Transactional Groups Spin Work off to Litigation Teams?
Question from a Client* While it seems to be a commonly held assumption that corporate and other transactional groups in firms spin work off to litigation teams (and that this is and should be the primary source of clients for litigators/trial attorneys), we aren’t finding any literature or research that supports this premise. Our numbers […]
World’s Wealthiest Man, Jeff Bezos, Says Customers Today Are “Divinely Discontent”
I read with great interest Jeff Bezos’s 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders. I believe we can learn a great deal from a man whose company annually ranks number one on several distinguished surveys of customer and employee satisfaction. Bezos’s theories and suggestions – which he confesses he has gained not only through Amazon’s successes, but […]
Playbooks Aren’t Just for Coaches!
For those of you who have had the patience (of Job!) to read my previous articles on law-firm differentiation and client-experience innovation, you have heard me extol the virtues of a “law-firm playbook.” Team sports coaches create playbooks to write down on paper the tools, strategies, and methods their players will use to defeat their […]
Individual Lawyers Attract New Clients, But So Can Law Firms
My client shared with me recently the “insight” that “clients hire lawyers, not law firms . . . ” If I had a bitcoin for the number of times I’ve been on the receiving end of that comment . . . well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be writing these articles. I don’t mean to […]
India Proposes To Open Arms to the Global Legal Profession
India is finally gearing up to permit foreign law firms to conduct business within its borders. As Edge International’s principal in India, I would be more than happy to assist firms that are interested in exploring possible future opportunities for entering into this exciting new market. A Decade of Working for Change The admission of […]
Law Firm Differentiation and Delivering A Signature Client Experience
“We insist on excellence”; “We staff matters leanly”; “We understand your business”; “We always put the client first”; etc. These are just a few of the yawning refrains of law firms trying to appear “different” in the marketplace – we all can agree that marketing pablum is not in short supply! The truth is that […]
Don’t Manage Expectations. Modify Expectations
The conventional wisdom about “managing expectations” is that you should determine what someone’s expectations are, and then surpass them. Theoretically this is supposed to please them. It’s an interesting approach but I believe it is misguided. Why? Because the client’s expectations are often flawed in the first place. If you contemplate the origin of expectations, […]
Build Conversational Momentum to Set the Table for the Pitch
To their credit, lawyers are results-oriented professionals. When we practice our craft, we think in terms of objectives, and the activities necessary along the way to achieve those goals. Clients pay for results and lawyers want to deliver on those expected results. Generally speaking, this is a great bias to have as a professional services […]