The Focus Challenge – Part 2: Your Clients
1. The Legal Matter Here are some of the essential lessons I have learned after several decades of listening closely to clients, conducting my own research, and reading a myriad of surveys and research studies by others: a) Clients do not have legal problems. They have personal or business problems that may require them to […]
The Focus Challenge – Part I: Your Practice
1. Substantive Practice Gone are the days when some level of specialization in an area could sustain a practice over a lawyer’s lifetime. Things are changing too fast and new competitors will emerge – some of them not even law firms. In the meantime, what you can do is think about the future of both […]
QNBT: Extracting Real Value from Non-Billable Time
“Your billable time is your income; your non-billable time is your future.” David Maister Non-billable time gets little respect Many perceive non-billable time as something that can be conjured at will. Taking someone to dinner who may or may not be a qualified client prospect can be recorded as business development. Furthermore, that two-hour dinner […]
The Power of “How”
I propose that you join the most effective law firm leaders in the world and start asking “how,“ rather than “whether.” Let us start with an illustration. Here are two questions that a managing partner might ask a practice group leader. Which do you think will lead to better results? How do you think you […]
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 […]
Edge International Welcomes Yarman J. Vachha
On behalf of all the principals of Edge International, I am delighted to welcome Yarman J. Vachha to our firm. Based in Singapore, Yarman extends Edge International’s legal-services consulting reach in Asia across Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. Yarman Vachha brings Edge International the benefit of his 38-year professional accounting and management career, including […]
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Privacy Protection for EU Citizens
We currently retain your email address for the purpose of sending you our Edge International Communiqué (EIC) as well as occasional insights and reports. Whether you are in the European Union or outside it, we respect your right to privacy and believe you are entitled to all of the protections offered by the GDPR. Therefore, if either now or upon […]
Slicing and Dicing Survey Results with Demographics
In the course of our work with law firms, we have occasion to do many kinds of surveys. Here are two simple examples: In the context of strategy assignments, we may survey partners as to their aspirations and their views about their marketplace(s). In the context of conducting a cultural assessment, we may survey all […]
Gerry Riskin’s Immutable Laws of Law Firm Success
When Edge International was formed, I was optimistic that by this century, we could all make the following statement – and it would be true: Dateline 21st Century: Most professional firms today and their practice groups are led by individuals who have not only mastered practice skills but are equally adept in organizational behaviour. They understand […]