With all of the reporting capabilities of sophisticated time and billing systems, it is easy to lose sight of the most basic rule of law firm economics: cash in must exceed cash out. To that end, one of the most valuable assets any business can have is a cash cow. Yet, we find that many [...]
A big problem in the pricing of legal services is “sticker shock.” This occurs when a client, particularly when the client is a non-lawyer, is confronted with the reality of what legal services cost. Lawyers often equate sticker shock to price sensitivity. In fact, they are entirely different issues. The difficulty is that most clients [...]
For law firms, one of the first signs of an economic down turn is a slow down in the volume of new engagements. When this occurs, the natural reaction of firms’ management is to crank up marketing activities and push partners to devote more effort to business development. Unfortunately, the skills and techniques that lawyers [...]
The natural reaction of most lawyers is to deal with an economic downturn in the same way they would handle a hurricane — hunker down, don’t take any unnecessary chances and try to survive until it is over. Given the risk adversity of most law firms, avoiding action may indeed be the best plan for [...]
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